johnnyjitsu Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 My local shooting permission quarry list has grown on from Rabbits to Crows and Magpies on account of the damage they are causing his business. My prefered shooting has been Rabbits, but I'm happy to help out on the land owners instruction and was happy to take aim on a Crow whilst hidden in the bushes yesterday evening. I watched him unawares fly over and land the top of an old 30ft tree and spent no time in taking aim, exhailing, then despatching him with a HW100 177. to the cranium. With a bit of a flap and an initial 'caw' he flopped down to the ground disturbing the other crows i could not see on the way. Then all hell broke loose... Like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock within about 10 minutes about 50 crows were going mental. I could hear their calls from the other side of the permission (approx a mile?) and the next thing they were circling overhead! To be Fair- I stayed hidden and couldnt retreive the kill through fear of being attacked! Having never shot Crows before I was really supprised to see this sort of behaviour. What was improtant to note was the fact that none of them would land anywhere near the kill zone. It was like the rabbits decided to ****** off on account of all the comotion- so I went home with no supper! Can any one give me more info on Crow behaiviour Cheers peeps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FalconFN Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Corvids tend to be intelligent, social birds and do cause a commotion when one of their number mysteriously falls dead from a tree. They circle, calling for and looking at the dead bird for a few minutes - rooks and Jackdaws seem to do it the most but I've never really noticed them scaring away rabbits too much but I don't shoot them often as I don't eat them and it does freak me out a bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruno22rf Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Unlikely to be crows if there was a number of them as crows are pretty solitary birds and only tend to flock in extreme weather-most likely Rooks if a flock was involved.Not to say that you did,nt shoot a crow by any means-Rooks respond in the same manner regardless.Rooks also trend to do little damage to crops as they dont dig for seeds like crows will-they will normally clean up any seeds on the surface of the field -these would not normally have germinated anyway.Over the last few years it has been suggested that Rooks do a good job of removing grubs from the fields (leatherjackets i think) and are usefull in most cases.Not a lecture my friend-just a harmless observation from a local fellow shooter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peoown Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 Nah, crows go mad when you knock one off and there's a few tuning in. Just go looking for the source and get stuck in....can be hard with an airgun though. Break out a 12g and get jiggy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deputy dog Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 I agree with peeown. Get the big bore out and set about them with vigor. Knock one off with the slug gun and blast them with the shotgun when they start mobbing the downed bird. Not sure about rabbits running scared by a few crows going off on one. Thats a new one to me in all honesty. ATB DD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_b_wales Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 This is why I've found that if you place a dead crow/jackdaw on a motorised flapper, the others will go mad, as they think the bird is injured. Also, by using a Primos Power Crow call, as well, it helps to bring in even more birds. My best ever result was 128 in under 3 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ91 Posted September 30, 2010 Report Share Posted September 30, 2010 (edited) My local shooting permission quarry list has grown on from Rabbits to Crows and Magpies on account of the damage they are causing his business. My prefered shooting has been Rabbits, but I'm happy to help out on the land owners instruction and was happy to take aim on a Crow whilst hidden in the bushes yesterday evening. I watched him unawares fly over and land the top of an old 30ft tree and spent no time in taking aim, exhailing, then despatching him with a HW100 177. to the cranium. With a bit of a flap and an initial 'caw' he flopped down to the ground disturbing the other crows i could not see on the way. Then all hell broke loose... Like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock within about 10 minutes about 50 crows were going mental. I could hear their calls from the other side of the permission (approx a mile?) and the next thing they were circling overhead! To be Fair- I stayed hidden and couldnt retreive the kill through fear of being attacked! Having never shot Crows before I was really supprised to see this sort of behaviour. What was improtant to note was the fact that none of them would land anywhere near the kill zone. It was like the rabbits decided to ****** off on account of all the comotion- so I went home with no supper! Can any one give me more info on Crow behaiviour Cheers peeps on the pig unit i shoot over, you can knock a rook down and within a matter of seconds there will be 1000+ black birds circling above, they dont hang about for long after a few more bangs of the gun Edited September 30, 2010 by TJ91 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THEINVISIBLESCARECROW Posted October 3, 2010 Report Share Posted October 3, 2010 As said, time for a shotty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.