crowshooting CROWS

[Gas seal]

Hi I’m not saying plastic or frozen birds don’t work. Shooters using plastic decoys and electric machines will have to get them to the fields and back. Shooters using frozen decoys will use them and then leave them in the field. Most shooters will change their decoys for fresh shot birds or for fixing to their spinning machines, more so for corvids. Some shooters will use tipex or buy uv paint on there decoys. All I said about birds seeing different to us and dead birds ,more so with corvids , keeping birds away is true not part true. I also shoot large numbers of pigeons and corvids and I do it the easiest way I can both shooting them and keeping them of the crops. Fellside noticed that after a four hours that the dead crow decoys don’t work as well it’s because the uv has gone and it looks like any other type of decoy to the crows. If he scattered them on the field it would keep crows away for a few days. I think to many shooters try to bring birds to were they want them instead of shooting them were they want to be. When you can shoot pigeons or corvids on the ground with an air rifle you know you are in the right place.

[jall25]

10 hours ago, old'un said:

No worries mate, I did see it before you deleted it.

like I said, if you are finding that artificial decoys are working better than dead birds then good luck to you.

 

All the best the knob

Good man hahahah

 

All the best too you too Sir

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

On 14/09/2022 at 17:08, old'un said:

Using that logic, next time I have a go on the crows I will wear my Sunday best, white shirt and a nice bright tie, if it works I will bin my hide and camo clothes, thanks for the tip.

I think you missed the point, there are times when & where crows will ignore human activity or take advantage of of what humans are doing. As an example, tearing up golf course greens for grubs, they ignore golfers but if your out walking around at dawn after rabbits with a gun they fly off before you get anywhere near. The example of the steam train situation. Most w/ends I'd be in a hide not doing well, when there was a gala on I just stood out in the open not far away from the photographers with crows totaly ignoring everyone. Watch what activities they ignore & take advantage. Blue overalls around farm buildings after magpies is another example. Dog walkers along paths cutting through fields, on large open fields where you can see there's no walkers & therefore safe ? At the moment one permission has a small fishing pool, I often have a chat with the fishermen & one area has rats, winter is my shotgun period  summer is my air rifle ratting period. Turns out one of the trees is a sitty trees for pigeon & crows & yes they totaly ignore fishermen but when ever I'm walking past in camo they fly off, if I'm stood or sat chatting with my gun in the bag on the floor they land. Plan A, one of the days when the pigeon go elsewhere go sit by the pool with my gun on a rod rest & spend an hour or 2 "fishing" for crows. Look, watch, think. Another interesting thing about crows, they take fish from the shallows. A few fishermen were moaning about herons / cormorants takeing fish & one day I was shown 3 fish that had been found only partially eaten. A little bit strange so I googled & there was quite a few articles about crows eating fish in the shallows. Thought of the day, if you went on your favorite crow field, spread a picnic blanket out & munched some sarnies & had a flask of coffee while just watching the sky through binos, left after whatever time & chucked a load of crusts etc on the ground, how long would it take the local crow population to consider you as not a threat but a safe supply of food & either fly down as soon as you left or even fly down as you was packing up or even throwing crusts as you eat. The clever among you will read all posts on here, have a quiet think, maybe reach a little more & slightly tweak methods. That's what I do plus observe what's around me out in the field adapting / adjusting methods.

[old'un]

1 hour ago, THEINVISIBLESCARECROW said:

I think you missed the point, there are times when & where crows will ignore human activity or take advantage of of what humans are doing. As an example, tearing up golf course greens for grubs, they ignore golfers but if your out walking around at dawn after rabbits with a gun they fly off before you get anywhere near. The example of the steam train situation. Most w/ends I'd be in a hide not doing well, when there was a gala on I just stood out in the open not far away from the photographers with crows totaly ignoring everyone. Watch what activities they ignore & take advantage. Blue overalls around farm buildings after magpies is another example. Dog walkers along paths cutting through fields, on large open fields where you can see there's no walkers & therefore safe ? At the moment one permission has a small fishing pool, I often have a chat with the fishermen & one area has rats, winter is my shotgun period  summer is my air rifle ratting period. Turns out one of the trees is a sitty trees for pigeon & crows & yes they totaly ignore fishermen but when ever I'm walking past in camo they fly off, if I'm stood or sat chatting with my gun in the bag on the floor they land. Plan A, one of the days when the pigeon go elsewhere go sit by the pool with my gun on a rod rest & spend an hour or 2 "fishing" for crows. Look, watch, think. Another interesting thing about crows, they take fish from the shallows. A few fishermen were moaning about herons / cormorants takeing fish & one day I was shown 3 fish that had been found only partially eaten. A little bit strange so I googled & there was quite a few articles about crows eating fish in the shallows. Thought of the day, if you went on your favorite crow field, spread a picnic blanket out & munched some sarnies & had a flask of coffee while just watching the sky through binos, left after whatever time & chucked a load of crusts etc on the ground, how long would it take the local crow population to consider you as not a threat but a safe supply of food & either fly down as soon as you left or even fly down as you was packing up or even throwing crusts as you eat. The clever among you will read all posts on here, have a quiet think, maybe reach a little more & slightly tweak methods. That's what I do plus observe what's around me out in the field adapting / adjusting methods.

I am well aware of what corvids see as danger and where they know they are safe, I have been around a bit.

Most of this post reminds me of the story where you need two people on the field but one walks off and the crows think its safe because they cant count, the rest of this post is just utter rubbish.

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

26 minutes ago, old'un said:

I am well aware of what corvids see as danger and where they know they are safe, I have been around a bit.

Most of this post reminds me of the story where you need two people on the field but one walks off and the crows think its safe because they cant count, the rest of this post is just utter rubbish.

Might be rubbish to 99.9% on PW but just one person might think ah that gives me an idea. My knowledge of the farmer feeding goats give me an idea for a field with sheep in that I see a lot of crows in looking for bugs & for the muck heap that appears for about a month before being spread. Everyone's circumstancies are different & often hard to see the wood for the trees, observation is king. The  fishing pool is on land with foot paths & dog walkers & also has a large population of crows attracted to a waterworks, the crows totaly ignore all plain clothed people. I will use that to my advantage & on other farms I visit. It's also well known everything ignores golfers & their noisy antics. I'll stick to my rubbish ways & daft ideas while reading posts on here that just might give me more ideas & things new to me to try. Stupid isn't stupid if it works & genius doesn't allways work 100% of the time but when it does work it started out as a daft idea. I bet archers thought flintlock muskets was a crazy idea, noisy & smokey to give your presence away & slow to reload compared to another quick arrow out of the quiver (I think that's what they're called) 

[old'un]

37 minutes ago, THEINVISIBLESCARECROW said:

Might be rubbish to 99.9% on PW but just one person might think ah that gives me an idea. My knowledge of the farmer feeding goats give me an idea for a field with sheep in that I see a lot of crows in looking for bugs & for the muck heap that appears for about a month before being spread. Everyone's circumstancies are different & often hard to see the wood for the trees, observation is king. The  fishing pool is on land with foot paths & dog walkers & also has a large population of crows attracted to a waterworks, the crows totaly ignore all plain clothed people. I will use that to my advantage & on other farms I visit. It's also well known everything ignores golfers & their noisy antics. I'll stick to my rubbish ways & daft ideas while reading posts on here that just might give me more ideas & things new to me to try. Stupid isn't stupid if it works & genius doesn't allways work 100% of the time but when it does work it started out as a daft idea. I bet archers thought flintlock muskets was a crazy idea, noisy & smokey to give your presence away & slow to reload compared to another quick arrow out of the quiver (I think that's what they're called) 

You are over thinking things, sure most of the birds we shoot become accustomed to seeing people in places like parks, golf course, fishing pools, nature reserves, caravan parks etc. but birds across a stubble field in open country are a different bird and I dont think a picnic would make them any less wary.

We get Jackdaws, Magpies and Wood Pigeons feeding on our bird table which is about 15 yards from the patio, I have come back from shooting, got myself a cupa, sat there in my shooting gear and the birds still land on the bird table.

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

You are over thinking things, sure most of the birds we shoot become accustomed to seeing people in places like parks, golf course, fishing pools, nature reserves, caravan parks etc. but birds across a stubble field in open country are a different bird and I dont think a picnic would make them any less wary.

We get Jackdaws, Magpies and Wood Pigeons feeding on our bird table which is about 15 yards from the patio, I have come back from shooting, got myself a cupa, sat there in my shooting gear and the birds still land on the bird table.

Agree 100% with that & agree what I say is utter nonsense 100% to most if not all but somewhere in ALL comments someone will read experiences & thoughts & have a light bulb moment for their particular situation. Everyone agrees corvids are very observant & verry intelligent. The point is, collective experiences & ideas shared. It would be funny if sometime in the future there's a post saying a few months ago I read that someone was going to set up a picnic out in the open to shoot crows from, had a think & tried a slightly different version. Set up my hide & instead of decoys I put a picnic blanket out with old pot noodle / yohgurt pots with cheap peanut butter in & some cheap bread peanut / chicken scraps sarnies, best crow day I've ever had, selling my crow decoys if any one wants them. Yeah talking rubbish again but a slit open rabbit is or was a common bait for crows that worked so a picnic is just a variation of someone else's idea. Tunnel vision with a negative attitude or a creative madness adapting stupid ideas into something that might work when altered for a different situation. Crazy ideas may not work first time but when it becomes a normal long term situation nature adapts & if a situation in nature exists then the person adapts techniques to what surrounds them.

[old'un]

14 minutes ago, THEINVISIBLESCARECROW said:

Agree 100% with that & agree what I say is utter nonsense 100% to most if not all but somewhere in ALL comments someone will read experiences & thoughts & have a light bulb moment for their particular situation. Everyone agrees corvids are very observant & verry intelligent. The point is, collective experiences & ideas shared. It would be funny if sometime in the future there's a post saying a few months ago I read that someone was going to set up a picnic out in the open to shoot crows from, had a think & tried a slightly different version. Set up my hide & instead of decoys I put a picnic blanket out with old pot noodle / yohgurt pots with cheap peanut butter in & some cheap bread peanut / chicken scraps sarnies, best crow day I've ever had, selling my crow decoys if any one wants them. Yeah talking rubbish again but a slit open rabbit is or was a common bait for crows that worked so a picnic is just a variation of someone else's idea. Tunnel vision with a negative attitude or a creative madness adapting stupid ideas into something that might work when altered for a different situation. Crazy ideas may not work first time but when it becomes a normal long term situation nature adapts & if a situation in nature exists then the person adapts techniques to what surrounds them.

 

I have never said that sometimes you have to think outside of the box but honestly some of your ideas are stretching it a bit.

Here's one you could apply your ideas to and maybe convince me.

One of the farms I shoot is mainly sheep, everyday the farmer drives down the field and fills the feed troughs, any birds on the field left off and head to the woods, now before he’s halfway across the field the blacks are dropping into the field around the feeding sheep, this happens every day, I have tried everything I know, and I mean everything to shoot these birds, but drop a couple of the first birds to come back and the rest just sit it out in the woods some 300 hundred yards away.

like I said I have been around a bit and shot a fair few blacks in that time, I am also well aware that observation is a key part of what we do, but I have to admit these birds have me beat.

Over to you.

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

34 minutes ago, old'un said:

 

I have never said that sometimes you have to think outside of the box but honestly some of your ideas are stretching it a bit.

Here's one you could apply your ideas to and maybe convince me.

One of the farms I shoot is mainly sheep, everyday the farmer drives down the field and fills the feed troughs, any birds on the field left off and head to the woods, now before he’s halfway across the field the blacks are dropping into the field around the feeding sheep, this happens every day, I have tried everything I know, and I mean everything to shoot these birds, but drop a couple of the first birds to come back and the rest just sit it out in the woods some 300 hundred yards away.

like I said I have been around a bit and shot a fair few blacks in that time, I am also well aware that observation is a key part of what we do, but I have to admit these birds have me beat.

Over to you.

That is a nightmare,  shotgun or rifle ?

[old'un]

5 minutes ago, THEINVISIBLESCARECROW said:

That is a nightmare,  shotgun or rifle ?

Shotgun, I would not use a rifle with the amount of sheep around the feeding troughs

[oowee]

18 minutes ago, old'un said:

Shotgun, I would not use a rifle with the amount of sheep around the feeding troughs

I have similar at a farm for breakfast time. I can sit there and plug away say 20'/30 birds in a morning but its slow and hardly making a dent. My best tactic is to get three shooters out and we cover all the moveable base's. Then we might drop 100 /150 so a bit more impact. 

I also sometime get to the farm for first light and surprise them. As they arrive over an hour i get an hours shooting but have to drop them on the building roofs. Thats good for 30 or so. 

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

8 minutes ago, old'un said:

Shotgun, I would not use a rifle with the amount of sheep around the feeding troughs

A friend called me to help with magpies around sheep, same thing, we tried air rifles when they landed on the top of the troughs, had to admit defeat & shot them elsewhere. I assume no access to the woods. Big problem if a field full lift off en mass to sit it out. Obviously very different to trying to get closer to the odd few as they fly around the area.

[old'un]

Just to let you see I do think outside of the box.

Some of the things I have tried over the years on this farm.

Permanent hide so they get used to it.

Shooting from inside a tractor parked in the field.

Dragged an old chicken shed down the field (which was on wheels) and shot from that.

Got there and setup before daylight.

Used a shotgun with moderator.

Used two shooters, one by the troughs and the other in the woods that they always head for when disturbed, I do have access to the woods.

 

The only thing I have not tried is dressing up like a golfer or having a picnic.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Got to be worth a try!   

[old'un]

3 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Got to be worth a try!   

the farmer would think I had lost it.

[Ultrastu]

Had 50 crows this morning with my silenced  .410 , sat with my mate with his .

We take a low hide position with  roof .taking the birds around 15 - 35 yds .

The hide position is in an area that nobody ever walks and is on a very  well used fight line . The crows have been in this field every morning I drive past at 7 .30  and today was the day to surprise them .it certainly worked but we packed up at 12 as the birds had seemed to wise up despite there being a perfect pattern of 70 + birds out infront of us .

We will leave it for at least 2 weeks before we hit them again probably over another drilled field  .but for sure we will set up where they have been landing .

 

 

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

The only things I can think of would only relate to my situation or how I would do things on previous farms. If you have nothing to lose dress like a farmer, get a cheap tatty shoulder bag, fill with sheep food, walk around in with the sheep throwing small amounts of feed out onto the field, see how the crows react to you doing that, try without a gun then with but not reacting at first. I'd suggest start walking the field just before the farmer arrives & continue when he leaves. Probably won't get a shot but will give you a view of how they react. For a few weeks (about 2 months) in summer I visited a farm to try some different scopes & ammo brands in my HMR. I set a target up at 100yds shooting next to my parked car along a farm track between fields. After a few weeks I started to put a handful of maize & peanuts down about a yard to one side of the target to establish a squirrell feeding area before I put a feeder up in the autumn on a tree 30ish yds from a hide where I planned to decoy pigeon, decoys in the field in front, feeder across the track to the side. The last 2 weeks had first a crow then the following week a pheasant come to the bait, I ignored simply due to accuracy not there at the time, both birds totaly ignored the cracks from shooting & ignored the impact noise on the paper target. I ended up decoying else where buy come the spring when the hmr testing starts again (still without a scope) I'll tweak the baiting theory. The HMR is needed on another farm but that can wait. Walking around like a farmer chucking feed on the ground is not a picnic but a variation.of that idea. You have a large community watching you so will quickly learn everything you do next 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, old'un said:

the farmer would think I had lost it.

Tell yer what old'un , I am glad I no longer shoot Crows , far to educated for a simple ole country boi like me with a very low I Q, what with pick nicks and dressing up like an ole farmer whatever next , mind you that bit wont be hard as some of the farmers I know are better dressed than me . mine is designer gear but it was designed for the armed forces and blend in nicely with the surroundings  .

I take it the days are gone where you can pull the feathers out of a dead Pigeon and put two Crow decoys nearby and then wait concealed until one comes along and hover above the two decoys to see what is going on , then a quick shot in the right direction normally leave one that had just died through lead poisoning , this one would then be put out with kebab stick under it's chin and then the wait continue until the nest customer come along. keep it simple is my motto  .

[jall25]

29 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Tell yer what old'un , I am glad I no longer shoot Crows , far to educated for a simple ole country boi like me with a very low I Q, what with pick nicks and dressing up like an ole farmer whatever next , mind you that bit wont be hard as some of the farmers I know are better dressed than me . mine is designer gear but it was designed for the armed forces and blend in nicely with the surroundings  .

I take it the days are gone where you can pull the feathers out of a dead Pigeon and put two Crow decoys nearby and then wait concealed until one comes along and hover above the two decoys to see what is going on , then a quick shot in the right direction normally leave one that had just died through lead poisoning , this one would then be put out with kebab stick under it's chin and then the wait continue until the nest customer come along. keep it simple is my motto  .

I think all of us that shoot have a duty to shoot crows and magpies as we see the damage they do

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, jall25 said:

I think all of us that shoot have a duty to shoot crows and magpies as we see the damage they do

I spend all my free time shooting Pigeons and don't have much time for anything else , the Crows and Magpies are dealt with by using a Crow trap and Larsen traps for the Magpies , far more efficient that what have been wrote above 

[Centrepin]

15 hours ago, old'un said:

 drop a couple of the first birds to come back and the rest just sit it out in the woods some 300 hundred yards away.

like I said I have been around a bit and shot a fair few blacks in that time, I am also well aware that observation is a key part of what we do, but I have to admit these birds have me beat.

And stay there, if you enter the woods they move to the next farm.

13 hours ago, old'un said:

Just to let you see I do think outside of the box.

Some of the things I have tried over the years on this farm.

Permanent hide so they get used to it.

Shooting from inside a tractor parked in the field.

Dragged an old chicken shed down the field (which was on wheels) and shot from that.

Got there and setup before daylight.

Used a shotgun with moderator.

Used two shooters, one by the troughs and the other in the woods that they always head for when disturbed, I do have access to the woods.

 

The only thing I have not tried is dressing up like a golfer or having a picnic.

Never tried the chicken shed but I've used farm machinery as cover  had a few that way but again 4 or 5 down and there gone. 

I've also used rope bangers in various places to push them into me.

I've even tried bread around the decoys, so almost a picnic but again 4 or 5 down and that's it.

Best day so far was 10 pigeon half shells out, farmer muck speading and gulls by the hundreds. Pigeon came in, gulls came in and landed even as close as 2 or 3 yards from the hide. Crows came in and attacked the gulls, ignored the pigeon showed zero caution and the screeching was horrendous. I had a frantic half hour trying to shoot only crows and finished on 16 picked and a few lost in the woods. After about half hour saw no more pigeon or crow but the gulls carried on following the muck speader.

[Ultrastu]

I have tried a few ideas in the past . Dead rabbit left out .

Decoys round  bait , like corn cobs  or Catfood  .

Hiding in farm machinery  .hides made out of tyres in the farm yard etc .

These have all produced poor results .

1 or 2 birds usually .

To make an impact you have to get them at the right time of year (which is now ) and watch where they want to be and set up early morning  as stealthy as possibly and I find a silenced gun can work wonders  , more so  especially  on crows than pigeon. 

I dont bother with the other ideas above as they aren't worth the time and effort  .

[marsh man]

30 minutes ago, Ultrastu said:

 

 

I dont bother with the other ideas above as they aren't worth the time and effort  .

No doubt putting a Crow trap out goes against the grain if you are a shooting man , but I can assure you they can and do catch more Crows than most people will ever shoot .

I will tell you about one example , Several years ago two farms that I went on bought a fair bit of land about eight miles from where I used to live , I didn't bother with Pigeons out that way as it was cut off from the main road and the only access was a B road across the marshland , Anyhow I got a phone call once that these two farmers had trouble with Pigeons on some Brocolli fields and some nearby Pea fields .

I went out there and had some nice sport on the young Brocolli plants and when they got nearly ready to cut the Pigeons moved onto the Pea fields , this is the part where the Corvids came into play , when the Peas were about two weeks from being cut the Rooks and Crows came off the marshland where they had been sillarating the grass and started on the Peas , the numbers just kept building up and up till they got into the 100s if not 1000s , a gas gun didn't make the slightest bit of difference and I was going nearly every afternoon when I left off work , each day I was going out there they had stripped at least 10 / 15 feet of Peas around the margins , I had to admit defeat and ring the farmer up and told him there is no way I can keep them off with the limited time I had , he said don't worry they are coming to lift them the following day , which they did and the huge numbers fed on the stubble for a few days until they moved on elsewhere , the numbers got around by word of mouth and two local blokes I knew out that way thought they would do something about it .

One of them who only recently died in his late 80s was a carpenter and he set about making a large portable Crow trap that can be moved about from one place to the next , they got in touch with all the farmers and land owners in that area and offered there services for a minimum amount of money to cover fuel and expenses , these two blokes were in demand once word got about the numbers that were being taken with no noise and very few people knew what was going on , at times the trap was the other side of the hedge that were very close to houses and they were working everyday without any body  shooting or walking around with all the gear to try and decoy a few .

The trap was looked at everyday and moved to the next farm when the numbers dropped off from where it was , after the first year the numbers taken were into the four figures and from then on the numbers of Crows were brought down to a manageable level .

[old'un]

1 hour ago, Ultrastu said:

I have tried a few ideas in the past . Dead rabbit left out .

Decoys round  bait , like corn cobs  or Catfood  .

Hiding in farm machinery  .hides made out of tyres in the farm yard etc .

These have all produced poor results .

1 or 2 birds usually .

To make an impact you have to get them at the right time of year (which is now ) and watch where they want to be and set up early morning  as stealthy as possibly and I find a silenced gun can work wonders  , more so  especially  on crows than pigeon. 

I dont bother with the other ideas above as they aren't worth the time and effort  .

I have been there, done that and got the t-shirt, but that was when I was a lot younger and was happy if I managed to shoot half a dozen, I don't faff about now and just look at certain times of the year when I know I have a better chance of success, my favourite is maize stubble and its where I have shot some of my biggest bags of mixed blacks.

Dont get me wrong, I have shot a lot of blacks on this farm but its been mainly on laid barley.

Talking about shooting blacks, it amazes me the amount of people that say they have shot x amount of crows, when in most cases the birds they have shot are Jackdaws, which I find easier to decoy.

 

11 minutes ago, marsh man said:

No doubt putting a Crow trap out goes against the grain if you are a shooting man , but I can assure you they can and do catch more Crows than most people will ever shoot .

I will tell you about one example , Several years ago two farms that I went on bought a fair bit of land about eight miles from where I used to live , I didn't bother with Pigeons out that way as it was cut off from the main road and the only access was a B road across the marshland , Anyhow I got a phone call once that these two farmers had trouble with Pigeons on some Brocolli fields and some nearby Pea fields .

I went out there and had some nice sport on the young Brocolli plants and when they got nearly ready to cut the Pigeons moved onto the Pea fields , this is the part where the Corvids came into play , when the Peas were about two weeks from being cut the Rooks and Crows came off the marshland where they had been sillarating the grass and started on the Peas , the numbers just kept building up and up till they got into the 100s if not 1000s , a gas gun didn't make the slightest bit of difference and I was going nearly every afternoon when I left off work , each day I was going out there they had stripped at least 10 / 15 feet of Peas around the margins , I had to admit defeat and ring the farmer up and told him there is no way I can keep them off with the limited time I had , he said don't worry they are coming to lift them the following day , which they did and the huge numbers fed on the stubble for a few days until they moved on elsewhere , the numbers got around by word of mouth and two local blokes I knew out that way thought they would do something about it .

One of them who only recently died in his late 80s was a carpenter and he set about making a large portable Crow trap that can be moved about from one place to the next , they got in touch with all the farmers and land owners in that area and offered there services for a minimum amount of money to cover fuel and expenses , these two blokes were in demand once word got about the numbers that were being taken with no noise and very few people knew what was going on , at times the trap was the other side of the hedge that were very close to houses and they were working everyday without any body  shooting or walking around with all the gear to try and decoy a few .

The trap was looked at everyday and moved to the next farm when the numbers dropped off from where it was , after the first year the numbers taken were into the four figures and from then on the numbers of Crows were brought down to a manageable level .

Agreed, you will not match the killing power of a Larsen or Ladder trap by shooting, they are working 24/7, but there's not much fun it that, but traps do make a dent in their numbers.

[Ultrastu]

29 minutes ago, marsh man said:

No doubt putting a Crow trap out goes against the grain if you are a shooting man , but I can assure you they can and do catch more Crows than most people will ever shoot .

I will tell you about one example , Several years ago two farms that I went on bought a fair bit of land about eight miles from where I used to live , I didn't bother with Pigeons out that way as it was cut off from the main road and the only access was a B road across the marshland , Anyhow I got a phone call once that these two farmers had trouble with Pigeons on some Brocolli fields and some nearby Pea fields .

I went out there and had some nice sport on the young Brocolli plants and when they got nearly ready to cut the Pigeons moved onto the Pea fields , this is the part where the Corvids came into play , when the Peas were about two weeks from being cut the Rooks and Crows came off the marshland where they had been sillarating the grass and started on the Peas , the numbers just kept building up and up till they got into the 100s if not 1000s , a gas gun didn't make the slightest bit of difference and I was going nearly every afternoon when I left off work , each day I was going out there they had stripped at least 10 / 15 feet of Peas around the margins , I had to admit defeat and ring the farmer up and told him there is no way I can keep them off with the limited time I had , he said don't worry they are coming to lift them the following day , which they did and the huge numbers fed on the stubble for a few days until they moved on elsewhere , the numbers got around by word of mouth and two local blokes I knew out that way thought they would do something about it .

One of them who only recently died in his late 80s was a carpenter and he set about making a large portable Crow trap that can be moved about from one place to the next , they got in touch with all the farmers and land owners in that area and offered there services for a minimum amount of money to cover fuel and expenses , these two blokes were in demand once word got about the numbers that were being taken with no noise and very few people knew what was going on , at times the trap was the other side of the hedge that were very close to houses and they were working everyday without any body  shooting or walking around with all the gear to try and decoy a few .

The trap was looked at everyday and moved to the next farm when the numbers dropped off from where it was , after the first year the numbers taken were into the four figures and from then on the numbers of Crows were brought down to a manageable level .

That's a great story marsh man thanks for sharing .I've not tried a trap to be fair but that's because  I prefer shoot and wouldn't have the means to  build transport or check a trap .