Crow hunting question

swift one

swift one

New member
I have a question concerning owl placement when setting up a Crow distress scenario. I have a ditsress crow decoy on a decoy heart, spring and stake. The thing moves pretty well. I of course will stake this in the ground. Now, where is the best place to put the owl decoy? On the ground next to it? Position it above the crow dec in a tree or on a fence post? If so, ho high up or does it matter?

Also, I have more Crow decoys (5), but when I am hunting by myself, I hate to carry all that stuff with me. Will I be OK with just setting up the distressed crow and the owl dec? I use the Jonny Stewart Owl with distressed Crow sound on Crow card #3 for the Prey master. The sound works darn well for bringing the birds in but I have not used decs yet with it and the crows circle pretty high in the air and It is hard to get a shot.
 
I always put my owl right beside or directly on top of the wounded crow decoy. Sometimes I'll even just take a regular crow decoy and drop it at the owls feet if I'm using the fight tape. I keep the owl lower in the setup than other decoys, usually 2-5 feet off the ground.

I like using as many decoys as possible but I've found the terrain you setup in often determines how high the crows fly. If you are in open areas they will circle high.. if you are in dense cover of about 10-15' in height they will close down to get a better look at the situation. I've killed most of my crows in situations where the tree line is 60-80' tall but I've found a small area where it drops to 10-25 feet. Sometimes this is a clearcut area in a woodlot, sometimes an old homestead, whatever it takes... the taller trees around help break the sight plane of incoming crows and the lower cover makes them want to dive down into the setup.

Hope this helps, you keep working on it because we've got a lot of work to do in February.... practice your wing shooting one way or another. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Yeah, I know. The 100 count goal is in sight!! Would 1 moving crow decoy next or just below a stationary owl decoy look natural enough to get their attention fixed? I know that when I come down in Feb we are going to have crow decoys spread across two counties /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif , but in this situation I just want to use 1 only.
 
I don't have a lot of experience with that small of a setup. If it catches their eye and keeps them curious it will probably work. You should know after a stand or two. I'm wondering if they will fly over and say "Damn that's an owl kill a crow" then come in closer... you shoot a couple times and they say "Damn no wonder no other crows are helping him out" and fly away. I always think my crow decoys spread about give it a more comfortable feel... you know, "If they're doing it, it must be safe" kinda thing.

Decoying crows is kinda like what your mom used to tell you about jumping off a bridge, they ain't gonna do it unless ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Go try it out and report back, if it works that would beat the heck outta carrying two duffle bags full of decoys into the woods.
 
I near pee'd myself laughing at that hate mail list... if stupidity hurt it wouldn't be near as long... but a lot of good info on that site...
 
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