Why Crow hunt?

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

I'm considering doing some Crow hunting. I'm looking to get some input on reasons why they are sought after. The area I will be hunting in 4h don't seem to have an over abundance of them so before I take any. I would like to learn a little about their effects on other wildlife especially small game such as grouse, etc.

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

Also why only certain days?

[SteveNY]

I hunt them for coyote bait. I also heard they eat the eggs of other birds, including grouse and turkey.

[Doc]

Great carriers of bird flu when populations get too large. But anyway you really don't have to justify it. We shoot woodchucks, rats at the dump, and various predators and don't seem to feel that we have to justify it. I will say that I have never seen more crows flying around everywhere in my life and if anything looks like it needs a bit more control, they are it.

[growalot]

Because they can drive you freaking crazy with all the racket they make...they harass other birds...They are a great alarm system for deer and they eat crops...other than that they can be a challenge ...but...they do eat grubs...a good thing

I would like to know why those days as well...

[Groundpatrol]

The days allowed to hunt crows Fri. - Mon. if I remember correctly has something to do with Mexico ie; the crow being it's national bird or something or another. Google anyone? Anyway crows are great fun to hunt and a worthy adversary.

[Dinsdale]

Crows fall under Federal regs.....

One of which is hunting for a certain number of days (124 IIRC for crow). Bunch of states restrict days to stretch season over several months and those need to be outside breeding season.

[Pygmy]

Why crow hunt ?

#1 They are a plentiful and legal game bird.

#2 They are notorious nest predators on upland game birds, waterfowl and songbirds.

#3 They are intelligent, wary adversaries and challenging wingshooting targets.

#4 What other wingshooting is available here where you can sometimes shoot 50 or 75 shots per day at live gamebirds?

#5 It's a heck of a lot of FUN. About as much fun as a wingshooter can have with his clothes on.

Go shoot a bunch of them and quit worrying about having to justify it.

[k burke]

You can also eat them. Never had one personally, but seem to recall someone saying they tasted good.

[Pygmy]

You can also eat them. Never had one personally, but seem to recall someone saying they tasted good.

I have eaten crow FIGURATIVELY several times, but never LITERALLY..

Kinda like possum...I have seen the rotten stuff they eat..I suppose they are no worse than a pig or a chicken, though..Both will eat most anything.

If you want to try them, I have seen recipes on the net in crow hunting forums and other sources.

[mxsmitz201]

mexicos national bird huh?.... fitting.

[Elmo]

mexicos national bird huh?.... fitting.

You mean there's a ton of them and you'll find them all over our agricultural crop fields? I know, that's just wrong but I had to go there.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Elmo

[growalot]

You mean there's a ton of them and you'll find them all over our agricultural crop fields? I know, that's just wrong but I had to go there.

Here let me make you feel better Elmo..ya know equal time and all

All us Irish are brawling drunks....eeekks I'm Native American too...I'm Rlaeli I n Dubole...............hic....

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

Thanks for all the information. Crows will be added to my list of sought after game.

[martin]

I hunt them for fun. You'll either curse at them or laugh when you miss a lot of them. The challenge is their as well. I like to mouth call and use electronic call. I am 2 for 3 this year. Still slow with all the heat. When roosting starts,look out. They will be flying in the thousands when leaving the roost..Yippi!!!!!

[covert]

Why crow hunt ?

#5 It's a heck of a lot of FUN. About as much fun as a wingshooter can have with his clothes on.

Go shoot a bunch of them and quit worrying about having to justify it.

Sometimes you don't even need clothes if it's warm enough and you're on private property!

[greybeard]

As stated above they are predators of small birds and eat their eggs. I saw one grab and eat a small bird one morning .

The first one I ever shot was in 1966 while rat hunting in a dump and was hooked.. I bought 2 crow calls that year and now have approx. 25 hand calls.

Crows have their own language,..greeting.. warning.. fighting.. mourning. and .dying (injured) calls. When you learn them it's even more fun.

( I always carry predator calls with me in the woods and have had crows come into distress calls numerous times, but when crow hunting I wouldn't depend on a predator call unless they didn't respond to the crow calls.)

I had read a lot about them thru the years and hunted and called as I thought I should, and did well. Then a few years ago I found a crow hunter online who had a calling instruction tape which explained their language , I bought it and learned the calls he demonstrated and my numbers called in went substantially higher and could get them crazy at times and knew why..

The ecalls can be really good, but I like hand calls. I have bought tapes into the field a few times and called them in by mouth and when I was ready to shoot turned on the tape to keep them there a little longer,

I use a few crow decoys and sometimes an owl deke, I've also called in many without dekes, but if you can use decoys you'll do much better....I saw a hawk decoy in a hardware catalog a while ago for around $15, which I would " THINK " would work well, but just never got around to ordering it

.( I think it was ACE hardware, but don't remember).. I'll check it out one of these days.

I'm a believer in camo especially a face mask.

Good luck

[BaldguyLee]

Good times...

Goooooood times.

Also, one of the fewer options during late winter.

[oneidacountyhunter]

Last fall I had about 6-8 crows in the field behind my house. I went to my turkey vest and grabbed a crow call. Within a matter of minutes there were around 500 sworming and squaking!!!! They came out of everywhere. The tops of pine trees were black instead of green. It looked like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" Funniest thing I ever saw

[Buckstopshere]

A couple years ago while we were spring gobbler hunting we watched a couple crows literally follow a hen turkey along a hedgerow between two fields. The crows hopped along from tree to tree, almost above the turkey.

The hen visited her nest and the moment she left, two crows dropped down into the nest for the egg. We checked the nest out and saw that there were only two eggs in the nest, under leaves. And there were some broken egg shells.

At first we thought the crows missed a couple eggs...but when we thought about it...

I wonder if the crows were smart enough to leave some eggs in the nest to keep the hen turkey from abandoning the nest, that way they could have turkey eggs for breakfast every morning?

I also have seen crows in my backyard chased by robins. Crows hunt bird nests...who has not seen them chased by robins or red-winged black birds?

The crow population has exploded at the expense of other birds. Shoot a crow, save 100 song birds.

[Elmo]

Oh, them crows are going down!

What hand calls do you recommend. I use electronic call and it worked for me but I want to learn how to call them in by hand. I bought the Haydel's Triple Tone Crow Call (Model TC-87) and it sounds nothing like a crow....until I went down to Florida and heard the crows down there. I guess the crows down south have a southern accent. The Haydel's sort of sounds like a southern crow.

[Buckstopshere]

Southern crow call: "Cawww! Cawww! Cawww!...ya alll!"

[NY Region 3 Trapper]

I guess they are a smart destructive bird. Can't wait to go. Thanks for all the info.

[mike rossi]

Couple of comments:

This topic has the same tone of rationalizing why shoot this species... Yes crows are predators, crop pests, urban and suburban nusiances because of noise & droppings, can be a carrier for a variety of diseases. However sport hunting cannot reduce their numbers because of their behavior. Hunting will remove problem crows because due to their intellegence they will leave an area permenantly or otherwise modify their behavior. They somehow communicate with other crows and are able to inform them of dangerous locations thereby preventing other birds from becoming a nuisance in the same area. This works because in the winter they roost in huge flocks so every bird gets the info. Use the population control argument on an informed anti-hunter and they will have a field day with it....

The management of migratory birds is under the jurisdiction in lack of better terms of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Congress entered a treaty in 1918 with Canada and Mexico (the migratory bird treaty act of 1918) under which the three countries work together which makes perfect sense for species which migrate through all three nations. Mexico determined that crows need some protection.

All seasons for migratory gamebirds are actually set by the individual states and can be more restrictive than federal guidelines but not less restrictive. The federal guidelines restrict the months which seasons can be open, the maximum bag limits, and also the number of days hunting can be allowed. Only hunting crows on certain days is an effort to extend the season to take advantage of migration and may more effectively pressure nuisance birds. By choosing friday through monday it allows more hunters to hunt weekends.

Reference was made to protecting "song birds". You should know that crows ARE a song bird. This is determined by the structure of a species vocal apparatus which gives it the ability to sing complex songs and even mimic other birds. Interestingly doves are called song birds but they are NOT song birds. Crows which sound "nasily" are fish crows which are a little smaller but the best way to tell them apart is by their sound.

Crows are edible and likely contain less toxins in their tissues than tuna fish... Most of the toxins are avoided by trimming fat and skin before cooking... I would be more concerned with swallowing a lead pellet, if you are concerned about injesting toxins use non lead ammunition....

Probably more info than bargained for, but anti-hunters are getting more and more informed. Hunters need to keep pace, especially you people in your twenties and thirties because you are going to be the next spokespeople for hunting...

[Elmo]

Thanks for the great insight, Mike.