Crow hunting is a blast. Not that I would know first-hand because I have never been. But I’ve heard it is a helluva time.
Several years ago when I was working at a Gander Mountain store in Utica, Michigan, one of the managers told a story about hunting crows that has stuck with me ever since.
Apparently, he and others headed out into a field, put a camo tarp over their truck and set up shop for crows. When one came in close the manager described how he pummeled the crow so hard in midair that the bird actually went backwards. If I recall correctly, he was using the original Benelli Super Black Eagle loaded with 3 or 3-1/2 inch shotshell meant for geese.
He laughed retelling the story and ever since hearing it I’ve wanted to go crow hunting. I just never made the jump – or bought the gear.
But that’s all about to change. Today Fiocchi has announced new shotgun ammo specifically designed for hunting crows.
Their new Caw Caw Cawtridge is part of Fiocchi’s Field Dynamics line, and is offered in 12-, 20-, and 28-gauge, and in .410 bore loaded with #6, #7.5, or #8 lead shot.
Dedicated crow hunting ammo? Count me in, for at least a flat of 12 gauge and maybe a flat of 20 gauge, too.
But wait, there’s more.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the announcement is the revelation that Fiocchi developed very specific packaging for the new Caw Caw Cawtridge that incorporates a built-in App-based crow call in every box.
With Feeding Crow, Fighting Crows, or Dying Crow calls available to hunters in each shotshell box, hunters can significantly increase their chances for success. And for someone like me, with zero crow-specific gear, it’s a godsend, putting me one step closer to hunting crows.
As the press release notes, those who were part of the beta testing program took the Caw Caw ammo box “one step further by painting the boxes matte black and mixing them into their decoy spreads.”
I wasn’t expecting Crow Hunting 101, but there you go. The fine folks at Fiocchi dropping a new product with a new crow call feature, and releasing the news with a killer pro tip to boot.
One YouTuber, Tim Joe the Crow Hunter, who was among Fiocchi’s beta testers, and has been hunting crows for most of his life, and eating crow almost every day, said, “This new Caw Caw shotshell puts more crow in our kettle and on the grill than anything else I’ve tried.”
That’s one helluva endorsement.
There are a number of reasons to get into crow hunting. As Josh Dahlke wrote for Game & Fish, “Crows provide an excellent way to improve your wingshooting skills, test new gear and double down on hunting opportunities while scouting for other game.“
All solid reasons to convince anyone to get into it. However, I’m here for the sheer fun of it. To surprise a close in crow and wallop it with some hard-hitting Fiocchi Caw Caw 12ga. #6, because it really is the little things in life that make the difference.
Paul Erhardt is the managing editor of the Outdoor Wire Digital Network.
9 Responses
Overkill. There isn’t much to them under all those feathers. I plug them off my balcony with a scoped .22 cal Benjamin air rifle.
Crows are among the smartest of birds. They remember individual humans and if they were nice or mean to them the next time they see them.
Hunters might want to remember that when hunting them, even years later…
“Never cross a crow – it will remember your face”
https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121
“Do Crows recognize humans & habits?”
https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/16teg18/do_crows_recognize_humans_habits/
I’ve heard of crows protecting the humans that were nice to them and driving off animals trying to attack them…
Sorry, everyone, but crow hunting isn’t for me. The Corvid family (crows, ravens, magpies, etc) are recognized as among the most intelligent of all birds, right up there at the top with Grey Parrots. I’ve personally witnessed ravens in my area displaying remarkably smart behavior all my life. I can’t speak of what crows might do in other areas to cause damage (think Midwestern crop fields or such?), but in CA ravens are part of our world here.
Don’t get me wrong…we have our pests like anyone else, and I have no problem dispatching ground squirrels, rabbits, and wayward raccoons due to the heavy destruction they cause, but ravens aren’t part of that problem. If anything, they help with cleanup of roadkills nobody wants to touch.
Bird hunting for meat is one thing. Hearing someone say they like to blast wildlife to bits “for the sheer fun of it” puts them on the other side of the line I won’t cross, and I don’t respect.
Haz,
In an unusual turn of events, I must respectfully disagree with you. Crows, ravens, and magpies are pests. Forgetting their scat (which they kindly leave EVERYWHERE, including on recently-washed cars), they (i) harass pets (they don’t mess with my GSD, but they have chased my daughter’s little dog out of the yard more than once), (ii) drive songbirds away, (iii) harass and abuse most raptors (ganging up on hawks and eagles seems to be their favorite sport). And, YES, crows and ravens are smart, and vindictive as hell. Simply trying to get them away from your yard immediately gets you on their sh*t list, and they have LONG memories. If you chase ‘yotes away, they learn to stay away from your yard. If you try to chase ravens or crows away, they leave long enough to collect a couple dozen of their friends, and come back to torment you.
Neither crows nor ravens are IN ANY SENSE endangered species. They disrupt other, native, bird and wildlife populations. Try being on a Zoom call with a flock of ravens or crows in your back yard, sometime. I don’t automatically wish them ill, but I sure as hell wish them to go away – but they don’t. I would prefer not to kill them, but they don’t leave you much choice. I don’t give a damn how “smart” they are; they are a pestilence.
As Mark Twain said, a crow is “a gambler, a low comedian, a dissolute priest, a fussy woman, a liar, a thief, a spy, a professional hypocrite, a conspirator, a rebel, a meddler, an infidel, and a wallower in sin for the mere love of it.” I save my sympathy for animals that deserve it. I’d rather have groundhogs than crows.
TEHO. I have coyotes, ravens, hawks, songbirds, Zoom/Teams calls, and all the rest in my yard & home as well. None of what you said applies in my situation, so maybe you somehow have a bad reputation with your local crow gang. They don’t bother us here to the extent you’ve outlined above. Plenty of hawks, mourning doves, and songbirds in my yard and local skies, even though there are more ravens than all the rest put together. Maybe the ones here just get along with everybody better. Dunno.
But I stand by what I said, and I think your own stance might actually line up closer with mine than with the author’s, in that I’m not against dealing with pests, but blowing away wildlife “for the sheer fun of it”. That’s the adult equivalent of pulling legs off of lizards for the glee of killing something. Not my thing.
Hunt for meat? Yes. Dispatch pests to prevent continued destruction of property or sanity? Sure. But just killing things for the sake of a thrill?
No, that’s not why I own guns. But again, TEHO.
I do crow hunt, sad this isnt a real thing
But do you eat crow?
“Tim Joe the Crow Hunter” tested new “Caw Caw” shotshells? Wait, what?
-April 1, 2024
Yeah, if i shoot it its cause i want to eat it
I haven’t hunted crows for years. The last one I shot was tormenting my daughter’s kitten, and I knocked him out of the tree with the air rifle. The first one I shot was dripping with corn juice as he worked the corn patch. I was maybe 12, and I snuck up on him and plugged him with the single shot 22. He died with a surprised look on his face, and I kept low in the corn and managed to plug another out of a neighboring tree before they realized the jig was up. Not a lot of others between those two, maybe a bushel of them over the years.
If you want practice wingshooting live birds, I can heartily recommend locating yourself in something of a blind near a fruiting mulberry tree that has a wide open field of fire around it, and shoot the starlings that will come in from miles around to make purple poop. THAT is some fun shooting action.
As for fancy crow shells? Good try.