"Decoy Placement & Use"
by Kenny King (Crow Busters Crow Staff)

I have had a lot of calls regarding the use and how to use decoys in calling down hard to get crows. Very good question. I'd like to know the answer to that myself! But here are a few things that might help you out. Gentlemen, I have been doing this for 21 years and I am still at a loss when it comes to what brings down gun and call shy crows. My best advise, is to try anything and everything. Something has to work.

I know from experience what don't...

Crow decoys placed in a field, as to show that they are feeding is hard to do for the simple reason; where do you know that they are going to feed unless you have followed and watched them constantly, and that my fellow hunters is almost impossible to do unless you are totally RETIRED!!! Besides, it doesn't work that well. After you shoot a few that do come to you, you have to get up and remove them from your decoys. If you don't, the next ones in will spook and fly off knowing that something is wrong.

Some states allow baiting, Iowa does not. If you are where it is allowed, you should remove all dead crows from the area as soon as possible, because dead crows do not look natural in a flock of crows on the ground feeding. They will actually scare them away if not removed. Remember, you must keep everything as natural as possible, crows are very leery and smart and anything that doesn't look or appear natural will definitely spook them. They are smarter than you think, and yet they can appear dumber than HELL..

Case in point: For 3 days last week, in temperatures of 10 degrees above zero and with wind chills far below that, we hunted crows only to get eleven. The next week, the first night out we had 36 in about an hours time. What did we do different? Well, first we did away with everything we were using before. No electronic callers, no crow or owl decoys, no blinds, no nothing!!! We stood in a tall weedy ditch with hard woods around us and used a simple old MOUTH CALL. Why did it work so well? Because they were not used to being called that way!!

Here are a few things to keep in mind on your next hunt that just might make a whole lot of difference:

1. If you are going to use an owl, never face him into the sun. If you are going to place him on the ground, turn his back to the sun. If he is going to be placed in a tree, use the shady side of the tree and use black electrical tape to hold him in place. You may want to tie a dead crow at his feet, using the "Death Cry" tape. Tie a piece of decoy line to the end of the branch and take it back to your blind. Yank and it will give it movement and the shooting will be great.
2. If the owl is to be used with crow decoys, be sure to have the crow decoys ten feet above the owl. Never place your crow decoys even or below the owl.
3. When using crow decoys by themselves, be sure to have at least at the very top or as close to the top as possible. These will act as lookouts for the rest below them. Six to eight decoys will work just fine.
4. Place the speaker of your caller up in the tree 12 or 14 feet is possible. This will make your decoys sound and appear more life like. If the day happens to be windy, then put the wind at your back and let the sound carry as far as possible. You'll cover a much larger area and attract more crows.

There are many more tricks I have tried over the years. One involves the use of a cat and the other uses a remote control car.