Crow Shooting by Bob Aronsohn

If you live in an area where the crows bunch up in good numbers throughout the fall and winter months you have an advantage over the run & gunner because the crows will come to you. Now they come to a run & gunner as well but the shooting does not last near as long as when you hunt them in the fall. A run & gunner has to make a lot of stands in order to kill anywhere from a few dozen on up to a hundred or more. During the fall & winter you can do this from just one shooting location if you are in the right spot.

When you have a good area staked out you have to figure out where the best place is to build you're blind. You want to keep in mind that when you build a blind you don't want to build it with "no rear background cover" or you're movements in the blind will be silhouetted against the clear blue sky in back of you! This is even with a blind that has a back side on it. It's best to have some kind of ground cover that is at the very least a few feet high in back of your blind. Now you don't have to have every square inch of the blind plugged with cover in order to hide. Keep the front and sides filled in with some gaps that are a couple of inches wide in order to look through as they make their approach. This way you can still keep your head down without flaring the birds. Just hold still and you will have enough cover from the blind to break up you're outline. Being able to see the birds in advance gives the shooter or shooters a distinct advantage because they can wait until that precise moment in which to kill the most crows on any given pass. This is also worth mentioning, in run & gun types of crow hunting you can hunt with as many as five guys spread out in the woods while there is still plenty of foliage on the trees. During the fall and winter you don't have that luxury, so for the best results it's best to keep the amount of shooters to just you and one hunting partner! It's just too hard to hide more than two shooters with scant cover.

The blind itself cannot be too large in size or the crows will pick out the blind way before they get into good shotgun range. This is why you only want to hunt with two guys max! Another thing to think about is the height of the blind? Do you want to shoot sitting down or standing up? I like to stand up whenever possible so my blinds are anywhere from 56 to 60 inches high because I'm 6 feet tall. Now a shorter guy would make his not quite that high. If you have good cover in front of you and you stand up in a blind 56 inches or higher and you are about my height the only thing being exposed is my head and muzzle of my shotgun. By that time it's too late for any birds that are well within range, they are simply toast! It's also hard for any other birds to spot you, even when you shoot, because you are so well hidden. If you like to shoot sitting down and I sometimes do when there is not much cover in front and in back of the blind. Then I only build them anywhere from 4 feet to 4 feet 2 inches tall and all they see is the muzzle of the shotgun when you shoot, the rest of the time the muzzle of the shotgun is kept below the top of the blind in a vertical position at the ready! This is why I favor either a pump or autoloader because they can be loaded in a vertical position and they hold more ammo than an over & under or side by side.

Before I close I want to say that you should try to find a 7 gallon bucket to sit on instead of a 5 gallon bucket, this is especially true for the gents like myself who are over 60 years old. It's much easier on the old body rising up off of a 7 gallon bucket. I still feel pretty frisky for my age and am as healthy as a horse, so I should be writing these articles for quite some time.

Good Hunting!