Crow hunting with a rifle (in NY)?!

[mazzgolf]

How come no one told me about this?!

Reading the NY regs and my eyes got wide when I read this. I am SO going to do this one day. 😁

Maybe even do a little squirrelin' in the morning, can then break out the caller and bring in the crows later on.

[Lunatic]

Hunting flying birds with a rifle does not sound like a  good idea. 

[tuny]

I checked with the LT I know up there and yes you can hunt crows with a rifle in NY.

[mazzgolf]

1 hour ago, Lunatic said:

Hunting flying birds with a rifle does not sound like a  good idea. 

You wouldn't take them out of the sky as they are flying.

For those that never hunted crows around here, let me explain what happens.

You turn on the caller. Crows come circling in. They immediately pick you out because the bastids have such good eyesight. Then, because they are also very smart, they fly over to a tree just out of shotgun range, perch there, and watch you as they know they are just far enough away that you can't get them with a shotgun.

It is at that point, if you have a semi-auto .22, you can pick them out of the tree  

[Lunatic]

3 minutes ago, mazzgolf said:

You wouldn't take them out of the sky as they are flying.

For those that never hunted crows around here, let me explain what happens.

You turn on the caller. Crows come circling in. They immediately pick you out because the bastids have such good eyesight. Then, because they are also very smart, they fly over to a tree just out of shotgun range, perch there, and watch you as they know they are just far enough away that you can't get them with a shotgun.

It is at that point, if you have a semi-auto .22, you can pick them out of the tree  

When I predator hunt I  use my electronic caller. If I hear crows I turn on crow fight or distress call and I end up with many flying over my head, close enough for SG kill. I don’t find them all that eye-sharp, they usually don’t see me

[mazzgolf]

Just now, Lunatic said:

When I predator hunt I  use my electronic caller. If I hear crows I turn on crow fight or distress call and I end up with many flying over my head, close enough for SG kill. I don’t find them all that eye-sharp, they usually don’t see me

Crow Fight and Dying Crow - one of the two gets them almost every time for me.

Yeah, I was being overly-factitious in my last post. Yes, they normally will fly overhead, sometimes for easy kills. But here's what will happen - as soon as you shoot a volley or two, then they wise up.  They realize something's up and they hang back. They will either fly away entirely, or they will do what I mentioned, they will perch off in the distance and watch. I've also had them do what I described earlier - they will fly in and perch just off in the distance to watch and find out what is going on.

Either way, I know there have been plenty of times when I wished I had a rifle to pick them out of a tree.

[Nomad]

Can you shoot both crows and ravens or are ravens off-limits?

[Lunatic]

10 minutes ago, Nomad said:

Can you shoot both crows and ravens or are ravens off-limits?

I’m sure off limits. 

[Nomad]

41 minutes ago, Lunatic said:

I’m sure off limits. 

I wasn’t sure never really hunted crow, I know ravens are twice the size of a crow but I think a lot of guys would shoot anything big and black that came by.

[roy381]

If a 22 bullet can travel approximately 1 mile. I'm not sure that is a good regulation shooting upwards into trees for obvious safety reasons.  But that's just my opinion

Maybe there's more to the regs?

[Nomad]

I only shoot them on the wing with 22s, more sporting. Good practice for shooting fast running deer.

Edited February 21 by Nomad

[mazzgolf]

21 minutes ago, roy381 said:

If a 22 bullet can travel approximately 1 mile. I'm not sure that is a good regulation shooting upwards into trees for obvious safety reasons.  But that's just my opinion

 

That's how people hunt squirrels with .22s , no? Same thing.

[deerstalker420]

You can shoot Muskies in Vermont on Lake Champlain March 25th to May 25th

[ithaca10]

12 hours ago, mazzgolf said:

How come no one told me about this?!

Reading the NY regs and my eyes got wide when I read this. I am SO going to do this one day. 😁

Maybe even do a little squirrelin' in the morning, can then break out the caller and bring in the crows later on.

You have a problem killing them with a shotgun according to your previous reports now you wan to use a rifle. LOL

[mazzgolf]

Ravens are off-limits. Crow hunting is really dictated by the feds (they are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, even though you don't need a HIP or waterfowl stamp to hunt them). And though states can determine what days of the week you can hunt, the feds tell the states how many days a season can be.  I've never seen a season for ravens listed in our hunting digest (not in NY digest either) - and ravens are also protected by the MBTA - so if you shoot one, I assume that's a federal offense (literally). Here's the list of migratory birds protected by the MBTA: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-15551/p-amd-2

I have never seen a raven down here in south Jersey.  But a few times when I've been up in NY, I saw what looked like crows from a distance, but they made a different calling sound. Listen carefully and you can tell the difference between the two just by their calls. But also, crows are constantly flapping their wings in flight when ravens sometimes soar.

Good article here: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-tell-raven-crow