Crow Decoy plan

More goofing off with airgun stuff in Architectural Desktop. I haven’t had any luck finding crow decoys locally and I don’t want to order them online, so today I was thinking that I could make my own from flat craft foam (like the goose decoys I have seen). I started playing in Autocad and ended up with this after dinner. Went to the local craft store and bought some heavy craft foam and springs from ACE hardware.

I am almost finished with my third decoy. I will post some pics when I get a chance. Looks like they should do the trick, should even bob around in the wind a bit for a little more realism. Now I need to see if our local Home Depot has one of those plastic owls and I should be set for some crow hunting this weekend.

Note: If anyone finds this usefull and wants to make one, download and print out all four PDF’s, the jpg is low-res and worthless except to show what it looks like in this post.

Overall view (don’t print-low resolution jpg.)

Sheet 1

Sheet 2

Sheet 3

Sheet 4

the-machinist

Participant

November 20, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Nice!! I have actually been in full camo in a permanent deer stand, not moving a muscle and had crows flying straight towards me and then suddenly veer off to my left and right and not fly over me..even with the green leaves on the trees..I sometime wonder if a squirrel had placed a neon sign above my head with out my knowledge.. 😕

black-sabot

November 20, 2008 at 4:12 pm

I agree machinist, their difficulty is exactly what makes them appealing to me.

I spent about 80 hours last winter dying, stripping and tying burlap to make my own Ghillie suit to aid in my obsession of getting within bow range of the biggest mule deer I have ever seen. He lives in a series of steep desert canyons that are just brutal. I have been within 100 yards of him over 10 times and even watched him sleep for over an hour under a tree with his head on his front legs like a dog, but never managed to get an arrow off at him.

It seems to work pretty well, several times while sitting motionless with my bow in my lap waiting him out at a small spring I have had cactus wrens and a red cardinal actually land near enough to me to touch. One cactus wren even hopped up on and sat on my bow! He was looking at me like he knew something wasn’t right, but still didn’t seem to be able to figure out what I was. I hope it works as well with crows, they seem to have sharper eyesight than other birds or maybe they are just more weary of humans.

my ghillie (pic only shows the hood, made pants and shirt too)

November 20, 2008 at 3:54 pm

quote ASMALLVOICE:

Very Nice work on the decoys. I am going to give it a shot as well, East Texas is just full of em, just ripe for the pickin’.

Peace,

ASMALLVOICE

Thanks asmallvoice. I lived in OKlahoma for 3 years when I was in the USAF and I have never seen so many crows in my life. I used to go just a few miles west of OKC on the Canadian river with my old Sheridan and shoot em by the dozen on a good afternoon. I have seen trees literally blacked out with crows, probably several hundred in a tree. Around here, they seem to travel in pairs………………..

………….like mormon missionaries, tennis shoes and boobs 😀

Let me know how it works out for you and good luck.

November 20, 2008 at 3:53 pm

I have hunted them for years..Hands down the smartest bird with feathers..IMO they make hunting turkeys look like shooting fish in a barrel..I went through the whole decoy deal for a while, Bought 6-8 full sized ones that stuck in the ground..After lugging them to the spot, setting them up and turning on the tape player.( yes we used to use a 8 track then up graded to a cassette) we would get 5-6 shots at the first wave that flew in, then they would land 100 yards out in a tree and signal danger to all the rest.. Time to move another half mile and set up again. Finally I figured out we would get the same number of shots with the tape alone, an pretty much dumped the decoys.I did once have a hawk swoop down and knock over a owl decoy I had set up. you will need full camo gloves and face net if you plan on letting the air out of any..good luck!!

asmallvoice

November 20, 2008 at 3:29 pm

November 20, 2008 at 2:59 pm

Thanks JFK that was my next step, trying to get some kind of motion out of the decoys. I will order one today.

jfk

November 20, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Cabelas had something like what you’re planning but it had a small motion device called a decoy heart that made it act like crippled crow. I had one set up in my yard (to see how it worked) and a hawk swooped in and took the foam crow cut out away.
Check out: http://www.decoyheart.com/page2.htm
they’re about $15.00
John

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