Beginner Help...

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Beginner Help...

Splash One · Elusive Crow

Hey glad to see you joined up... The site is fairly new but I think you will find that the guys posting here all have experience and extensive knowledge in the outdoors.

Gary is our Crow Master, and I'm sure he will be able to fill in and add too anything I miss.

Like anything you do, you have to crawl before you walk. Don't get discouraged if your calling isn't great. If you are getting crows to come to you...you're on the right track.. the best way to learn how to talk crow is to listen to real birds and study what actually happens while a crow is calling... or what a crow does if he hears another crow call.... take the time to watch a hawk that is being harassed by crows...

As a beginner hand caller, I wouldn't worry about recreating a fighting crow sound... you're better off practicing death/wounded cries, single "relaxed" caws, and single "raspy" caws... once you can hit the call with the proper air pressure to create realistic sounding "caws" then I would have you move into combinations, or other vocalizations..... Crows are as curious as they are smart and you can pull in crows with some very simple "caw" sounds...

As for decoys a general (very basic) rule.. during first light, up to mid morning decoys work best in a feeding pattern spread across the ground. Mid day is tough as I call this the lazy hour.... crows will hang out and be social .... after having filled their gut with god knows what.... they can be very hard to call too you... but I would say your decoys need to be in the trees... and evening hunts I wouldn't use decoys at all, as this is when crows are going back to roost and will most likely only give you a passing shot.. But even with all that said, there are many hunters, ((including myself at times)) that don't use decoys at all.

As for crows being too smart to figure out if you are a single hunter and not a whole group.... yes they are, but they are also very curious birds... so you should get a couple of circles out of them before they bail on you...

-- Edited by Splash One on Saturday 4th of February 2012 08:00:56 PM

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Thanks for the info! I have been around calls for around 4 years now because I hunt coyotes and the past couple years I've been tagging along on duck and goose hunts. (Expensive equipment!) I own probably around 10 or 12 calls (rabbit distress, duck, howlers fawn distress, etc) that i feel im comfortable with now. I gotta say though, these crow calls are different...instead of just worrying about air pressure, pitches, and tone boards, you gotta worry about "growling" to create a more realistic crow sounds. Ive been practicing for a few months but with no other crow hunters in the area I guess my judges will be the crows haha.

I can do the feeding chuckles for ducks and then i recently found out that crows have a feeding chuckle thing as well. I just dont know what its supposed to sound like. (like i said different guys say different things...ill have to sneak up on some feeding crows to ultimately find out!) If I go with the feeding setup, it would probably be a good thing to know. That and the comeback call since I've heard it does turn crows around for another circle more times than not. Im really interested in this call because I know its very important in duck hunting so i figure its just as important in crow hunting.

Now you said simple relaxed caws and then raspy caws..what would be the difference? Male/female crows? Different type of call?

Thanks again for the info I appreciate it on such short notice haha.

Splash One · Elusive Crow

A "caw" with no rasp to it is what I call a "relaxed caw", if you watch crows interact with each other, a lot of the social caws are done without a raspy sound to them. If a crow is pissed, excited, or really trying to make itself heard it uses a loud raspy caw.

This isn't specific to male or female crows.

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Never thought about that. Thanks again! Ill be practicing my brains out till the season starts

Gary · Dances With Crows

Welcome VelCrow:

Sorry for trailing behind here but have had a terrible cold last week. Felt better on Thursday and hunted all day Friday and Saturday. The two day event wore me down to a nub. With the sore throat and extensive mouth calling I can hardly talk today, but trust me it was worth it. Post to follow:

I am going to go out on a limb here and assume you have read my post on Hand Calling. It fits you to a T. First I want to say that there is no wrong when you are learning. You are just fine tuning what the end result will be. My buddies on the site have all hit excellent points on getting started. Splash listens to crows a lot and he has some great advice from doing so. Take all of our tips and try to weed through what works for you. You have asked some good questions. Here is my take on each: You said you had two mouth calls, a Mallardtone and a Sucker Punch. I can advise you on one of them and the other Splash has not sent me one of his yet to field test. The Mallardtone was made for turkey hunters to locate birds on the roost or to make them shock gobble. Keep it for that and if you are not a turkey hunter throw it in the trash. There are two calls out there that every serious crow hunter should have. They are the Turpin call and a Gibson call. The Turpin is a hard call to blow because of the mouth piece configuration but it is tried and a true call. Get it and in about three to four years of experience you will master it. On the other hand the Gibson calls are very easy to master and are a thing of beauty. Mr. Gibson makes his calls out of every kind of exotic wood there is with fine detail to making sure they sound just right. He also has one of the best reed designs for non-stick out there today. You mentioned a feeding chuckle. Not sure about this one? Never heard a “feeding chuckle” just a soft “caw” from one talking to another. I do not think you will get many crows to respond trying to imitate this type of call. Stick with the ones I described in Hand Calling. Splash answered your relaxed caw and raspy caw question correctly. You keep asking VelCrow, and we will keep answering.

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Haha only after I got the mallardtone is when I heard that it is junk. I just blew a bunch of money on reloading equipment so I'm kinda tied with money along with having to pay for college. I might be able to order a Gibson in a couple weeks or so. Seems like the best way to go.

The feeding chuckle thing is from a video on youtube where these "professionals" were hunting crows. I think what he meant to say was that it was a comeback call but oh well. I have read your post in hand calling and it really helped me out a lot. It verified many questions I had and was very helpful.

Thanks for all the help guys it helps a lot. Ill probably be going out tomorrow morning (first day of the season) just to call here and there...I havent gotten my decoys in the mail yet or figured out what I'm going to do for a blind. Hopefully I can get a couple

Splash One · Elusive Crow

Hey I forgot to mention the "link dump" forum further down the main list of forums... there are lots of links to sound files relating to crows, you can listen to them and get an idea of pitch and tone... there are many REAL crow sounds in the links provided..

I want a hunting report too... even if its just one crow I want to know how things go.

VelCrow · Baby Crow

I came across those and practiced with those the other day actually. Very helpful, I noticed that when I call in my house it sounds a lot better than when I'm outside. Its been around negative 10 degrees every morning ever since the first day of crow season. From hunting coyotes I know that nothing is worth hunting in that temperature range if the wind is blowing at all..its alright if theres no wind because it lets you almost create a little orb of heat when sitting there calling but otherwise forget it. Right on the 7th when it was opening day is when the news started saying we are going to experience the coldest temperatures of the year, which are supposed to be in january haha. Not to mention I cant go anywhere with my truck I have to take my sled which means all my gear has to be packed up nicely and there won't be any warm place to hide if all of a sudden the temperature drops unbearably low. I'm going to wait until it warms up in the next couple weeks and see what happens. Crow season goes until april 15th anyway...it should be pleenty warm by early march with 20 degree weather in the mornings.

The most calling I did was an hour or so before dark when my friend and I went rabbit hunting just for the hell of it and I decided to see if there were any crows around. I noticed it sounded a lot worse than when I was in my living room or even in my backyard ....since it was an open area it sounded too high pitched. It was a lot harder to get it to sound raspy. One crow made a single caw probably 200 yards in the woods or so...then did it again 5 minutes later and thats all I heard. My calling probably scared it away haha. I had called in 3 crows and got them to circle right on top of me before but I was actually in the woods where the raspy cawing resonated off of many objects and sounded much better. They came right in with no problem and all I did was the 4 long caaaawws like something big is going on....did that 2 or 3 times over a period of 5 minutes and there they were.

Hopefully the morning will warm up pretty soon here so I can go out without worrying about coming back with working fingers....the actual temperatures have been around negative 10 but with the windy and gusty days we've been having..the averages with wind chill were around negative 22 to negative 28. Ouch.

Splash One · Elusive Crow

I hear ya, Im no good at being cold either. you will have better luck in the coming months as the crows start to migrate north again... I do believe they are still flying south so no hurry.

I know exactly what you are saying about calls sounding better in the house "closed in area" rather than outside... that's because the sound isn't bouncing back at you... if someone was to take the call and blow it at you it would sound very much like it does in the house.. Also while outside, if you are doubting how you sound...you can cup your hand over the end of the call in a manner that the sound is bounced back at your face...

VelCrow · Baby Crow

I noticed that too. Things like rabbit distress calls and that don't sound much different because they are all so high pitched. When I was trying to get some crows to come in I cupped my hand like that for a couple blows and it did sound better..so I went back to regular calling hoping that something would come in.

Our second season is in august and I will most likely be out every day then.at least in between work. Within the next couple weeks ill try to pick a time to start going out in the morning and hopefully it'll be worth it!

Gary · Dances With Crows

Glad to see you are staying with it VelCrow. Your -22 F doesn't sound like much fun tring to sit and wait for crows to come by. Hang in there, it will turn in to lots of fun.

One method you may want to try when it is so cold is what we call "Run and Gun". If your local laws will allow, you drive around and locate birds with good cover with land owner permission, you simply locate your birds, try to get down wind and hide and call and kill, in that order. Stay long enough to give the birds a chance to come in for let's say 20 minutes and then pack up and move to the next location. This way you may not freeze to death while trying to have fun. Remember, your concealment is your most important tool, no hide, no kill!

watch em fall · Baby Crow

That is the best desciption of "run and gun" I've ever heard biggrin .

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Haha yea I've been figuring out a plan for when this cold spell ends. My only problem is packing up all my gear to ride out on snowmobile. Especially with a blind. I made a blind out of garden fencing and weaved branches and things through it and the nice thing is it rolls up. Still sucky to take out on sled. I'm looking into making a ghillie suit. It would be perfect for both crow hunting and coyote hunting

Splash One · Elusive Crow

If you are zipping around on a snowmobile the only thing you need for a blind is a white sheet and some clips to hang it up... or take a trip to home depot's paint department and get a tyvec painters jump suit ... then on the way out throw a giant sharpie marker in your basket... when you get home draw a few branch shapes across the suit and bingo bango... snow camo... a white ski mask would be a great addition to the outfit.

then take a white sheet or pillow case and shred it into strips to wrap your gun..

-- Edited by Splash One on Sunday 19th of February 2012 05:39:07 AM

VelCrow · Baby Crow

Wow never thought of that. I was thinking of a ghillie suit type of thing but that'd work great. Unfortunately all I have for a mask is a hunting face mask but I can always order a white one. I think i'll be going with this idea seeing how simple it is. Thanks!