Innundated with Crows---What to do?

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dfaugh

New member
OK, I swear to God, that there are more crows per square mile around my house, than any other place on earth. They *&^%$%#%(* things woke me up AGAIN at 0 dark thirty this morning.

Now, they used to occasionally land in the back of my lawn, and I zapped a couple with my .22 (@almost 100 yards, kinda proud of those shots-DRT---yes, I have a BIG lawn. So smart F-ers that they are, they now will not land in my lawn any more. BUT, they keep to the trees surrounding me (the ones this morning were over in my neighbors trees across the street, which are only about 75 ft. from my bedroom window.

Now, I cannot safely shoot them outa the trees (with the .22) as there are roads/buildings/houses within a 1/4 mile or so, and I'd be shooting upward at between a 30 and 45 degree angle. Shotgun is no good as they'll never let me get anywhere near close enough.

My local Gander Mountain has crow "decoys", and I'm wondering if anyone has ever used these. I'd put 'em out in the back yard, and once the crows land, they get zapped (safe backstop there). Again, anyone ever tried this? Will they bring the crows outa the trees, to see what their "buddy" is doing?

TIA
 
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Pointer

New member
Decoys work a little...

The best decoy is a wounded crow...

Tie his feet to a spike and let him flap around... soon you will have more wounded crows to stake out...

An owl decoy will attract them too because they will buzz an owl and try to run him off if they see one...

Down on the farm the crows came in great numbers to eat the peanuts...
They would fly in every morning and go back to their rookery (A stand of trees) every evening...again in great numbers...

You could see them flying several abreast, in a straight line ("As the crow flies").

You could position yourself under their flight path with a shotgun and shoot crows all day long...

They would deviate their course around you for a short time and then, very soon, they would be flying straight over head again...

Many years ago farmers would hang dynamite from the trees in the rookery, and when the crows "came home to roost" they would touch off the charge and kill thousands of crows at once...

The Enviro-Nazis, and Bleeding-Hearts, have put and end to that... :(

Have fun! :D
 
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Art Eatman

Staff in Memoriam
Yeah, an owl decoy makes for a lot of entertainment. Set it out in shotgun range. Leave the dead crows on the ground. Lotsa times, other crows come for the funeral and eulogies.

:), Art
 
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rem33

Moderator
Leave the dead one laying in the yard or better I have heard, hanging by a foot. We have a crow problem here this time of year. I began leaving a dead one laying in the yard wings spread out and the others will avoid my trees and ones close by. Doesn't completely eliminate the noise but stops the droppings all over everything on the patio etc. for a few days.
 
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springmom

New member
Or you could try the solution used by ...oh, shoot, what's his name, he played one of the originals in M*A*S*H and was the dad in "Steel Magnolias"...

At any rate, in order to rid his home of grackles prior to his daughter's wedding, Dad takes a cross bow and ties about a zillion firecrackers to it, lights the firecrackers, and then shoots the cross bow into an upper branch of the tree.

The birds took off when all those firecrackers went off at once all around them. :D

Seriously though...shotshells? That's safer than a .22 because they won't travel a mile....

Springmom
 
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rem33

Moderator
Ok,yes, firecrackers work.
Once it is dark and crows are in the tree by the dozens we tape a small firecracker to a little rock or walnut and toss em up into the tree. Works great they can't fly away fast enough. One tiny firecracker is all you need.
 
C

Capt. Charlie

Moderator Emeritus
Ok,yes, firecrackers work.
Click to expand...
Yes they do, but they work a little better if you can place 'em right in the middle of the flock, and bird bombs do that pretty well. I've used them, and while they're a little expensive, they work great! Ever see a crow have a heart attack? :D
 
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HARDCORE

New member
If you have a field out back the house, put a 4x4 post in the ground so about 3-4 feet stays above the ground. crows love to sit on these posts. Range them before you put them in so you know where your shot will be dead on.

HARDCORE
 
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swampdog

New member
Possibly this link might help.

http://www.crowbusters.com/begtechn_dc.htm

He describes using an owl decoy and even includes a sample calling sequence.
He also mentions staking out a tomcat as a decoy. I've seen crows dive-bombing cats, so I bet this would work. You better have a pretty understanding cat, though. I don't think either of mine would appreciate it too much.
 
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DonR101395

New member
Growing up my friends dad would buy two cases of shotgun shells in August and in Sept he would have 3-4 of us over for a couple of weekends of fun. We got practice shooting pigeons at his expense and he got rid of the pigeons from around his grain cylos. It was win/win and alot of fun. Do you have kids with friends? Cheap, fun and problem solved.
 
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Dreadnought

New member
Since it seems the OP lives at least in a slightly residential area, I think the shotgun idea is not a good idea. Thought about baiting some cheap meats with a ton of industrial rat poison? The silent killer...

Not too good when you've got a shytload of dead birds all over everyone's yards... Air rifles and some friends, maybe?

I interned at an outdoor chemical plant, we used recorded juvenile osprey distress calls and we didn't have a problem with birds nesting in the tank farms or the plant. But that noise can be just as annoying as the blackbirds...
 
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UniversalFrost

New member
bbguns when near houses with a crow decoy work wonders. For the long distance shots a .222 or .223 works wonders. (plus you know when you hit em by all the flying feathers "puff"!):)
 
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dfaugh

New member
I would start feeding them shelled corn on the ground.
Click to expand...

Actually, I put out some corn (mostly to keep the deer in the area for later (hunting season)...and they ignored it completely(??????)

Again, I'm looking for:

A) a way to get them on the ground in the back yard (my woods start almost exactly 100 yards from my back porch.

B) get them into shotgun range, for safeties sake. I can safely shoot birdshot in almost any direction (although TECHNICALLY I have to be 500 ft. from an occupied dwelling) except directly in line with my house (which, besides peppering my house, might also land in the across-the-street neighbors.

I can safely zap 'em 10 times out of 10, from my back porch, with my .22, IF I can get em on the ground. But my property backs up to the NYS Thruway, about 1/4 of a mile away. So, a .223 or something similar is out of the question.

If I could attract them enough, I'd go sit in the woods (at the edge of my lawn, or 50-100 yards into the woods) and blast 'em with a shotgun (although TECHNICALLY still illegal as I'd be a little too close to the house(s). But I have an informal shooting range, about 250 fts into the woods from my houssse, and I've not had a problem with the neighbors. May try the crow call.

P..S. As I'm typing this, I can HEAR the SOBs out in back. I don''t know why they annoy me so much, but they DO.
 
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ZeroJunk

New member
Some of the electronic callers Cabelas and others sell have crow calls available.They work very well with decoys and you will have every crow in the neighborhood there.Normally you only get one good chance a day at them before they figure it out.
 
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FirstFreedom

Moderator
Thanks for the crow hunting link - that site is gonna help me get some of those nuisances. Though they're not as thick here as it sounds like they are up in NY! I've heard that if you get them good and worked up with a crow/owl fight or similar, and take them out one by one with a .22 CB cap or SSS ammo, being relatively quiet, the others will stick around - as Art & others have mentioned. I can tell you this - you have to have yourself completely hidden and still or they won't even land - they will just fly around. And once they figure out that it's a trap, no amount of calling will bring them back that same day. Can't wait to try to hunt them again with Bush/Ceiner .22 with Aguila SSS - that's the perfect quiet crow load out to about 65 or 70 yards.
 
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