silhouette from being exposed. It also has brush loops to further blend your blind into its surroundings. If you in- tend to leave your blind up for some time, as I did, its eight tie-down points, eight stakes, and four ropes proved in- valuable in securing the blind in place. The blind was carried in a scent-safe storage bag and comes with a 24-ounce bottle of Scent-A-Way Plus Fresh Earth Advanced Formula as well as two Fresh Earth Scent Wafers. Although I didn’t need these cover-up scents for hunting crows, they certainly will come in handy when hunting deer or varmints. Having the use of two blinds was
a huge asset when it came to hunting crows. If the crows were not coming in to one location, I simply packed up my caller, Bog-Pod, and rifle and went off to the other location. Although crows are extremely intelligent, they may not quite realize what is going on when hunted with suppressed rifles. But their sixth sense tells them when it is time to move on. When they do move on, I also pack up and try a different location. Fortunately, it takes the crows much longer to “wise up” when you are using
a suppressed .22 rimfire. The first challenge of crow snip-
ing was to find a tree that offered dead or open branches for the curious crows to land in. I then created a setup that will lure in the crows. First, I look for a fence post, small tree, or shrub (or any elevated place) to place my owl decoy. I have been extremely impressed with the FoxPro Owl decoy that I bought for my FoxPro Jack in the Box. It worked perfectly in conjunction with my cus- tom FoxPro digital caller and can be operated from the remote control. What made this superior to a standard owl decoy is that it slowly rotates back and forth. Believe me, that movement really holds the attention of incoming crows. On the ground I placed crow decoys and an Advanced Decoy’s Cripple Crow. Its life-like erratic motion fools crows into believing it is an injured crow. Although I don’t always go to this trouble, setting up decoys definitely will pay off. Since it’s not always easy to find
an elevated place to perch the Jack in the Box decoy, I decided to build a portable one. First, I took a cheap tripod that I had found at a garage sale for a few
bucks (eBay is another great place to shop) and painted it gray. I painted it this color simply because that was what I had on hand. Next, I took off the cheap tripod head, which left a 1¼" diameter hollow space. I JB Welded a 3/8" coupling nut in it (again, I used this because that is what I had available). The decoy box measured roughly 7" square and I found a scrap piece of red cedar and cut it to this dimension. I stapled scrap lumber, via an air stapler, to all four sides to help hold the decoy box more securely in place. In the center of the board I drilled a 3/8" hole and countersunk (5/8" bit) it so that the bolt head of the 3/8" bolt would not protrude above the surface of the board. Now, I simply screwed the board via the 3/8" bolt on to the coupling nut that was affixed to the tripod. Crows are inquisitive creatures
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Discriminating Shooters
by nature and will come to crow calls out of curiosity. At first I used a crow gathering call in hopes of bringing in some crows. This Sunday come-to- meeting call wasn’t bringing in a single bird, so I switched to my favorite death cry. This mournful call seems to bring them in when all else fails. Within mo- ments the still air was brought to life by the sounds of a band of excited crows. Several crows landed, trying to locate their fallen brethren. A silent thud silenced one of the crows. As his life- less body started its downward spiral to earth, the others were startled and took off. It was obvious that they were not alarmed as they continued to land back in the tree. They would land and I would shoot them. I don’t know how many times this scenario was repeated because I lost count as their black lifeless bodies littered the ground. I was almost relieved when they did not return … almost. I waited a few moments to al- low the crows to regroup and for me to calm down. A kid at Christmas could not have been more excited than I. Since the stressed-out death cry was so effec- tive I thought that switching the FoxPro caller to an adult crow distress call also would yield results. The mournful cries of a crow filled the cool and crisp air of a beautiful fall morning. Within a few tense moments, the sky was blackened with a group of excited crows frantically searching for their friend in need. My first shot resulted in an outstretched crow caught in the fork of a limb. The light blowing wind resulted in a con-
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