If you are shooting rooks corws or magpies you are best off going for head shot as their heads are quite big. Espesially with an air rifle, if you go for a body the chances of you kill it and very slim and if you not sure if you will deffinitly kill it dont shoot. if you are having an air shot with a shot gun, it doesn't really matter about aiming for the head as even if you hit it the corvid it will still come down and you can either neck it, shoot it again, smack it on the head and it should kill it.
Rooks are a member of the corvid family and every one of them is remarked as pests. Some of the corvid family are crows, rooks, jack daws and magpies. Magpies are easy to tell from the other three as the have a long tail at the back and black and white markings. Jack daws are easy to tell from crows and rooks as they are a lot smallerand have a rally square head. Crows and rooks look really alike, the only few ways to tell are, rooks are a tiny bit bigger, have a squarer head, beat their wings alot quicker but the most easy way to tell is that you can see a yellow like colour bald patch near the eyes and on the top part of their beak.
You can kill Rooks with any sort of gun, Air rifle for fairly close range still shots, Rifle for further range still shot and shot gun for medium range still and air shot, but they are much better for air shots.
If you are shooting with an air rifle their are 3 basic ways of shooting rooks, 1 of them is to make a high close to a tree where you know that close like to go and take a packed lunch and just wait for rooks to land, take your time and don't rush the shot as it will probably be the only chance you will get at it, one you are certain of the shot, pop it off.
The second way, probably the most common way is to build a hide either where the rooks like to land and search for food or where rooks like to fly over and see your bait. We find the best bait is a dead rabbit, and a rook will be attracted to that like a magnet! You might have to rush this shot a bit more as the rook will be moving about while they are tearing at the bait, but if you are close range it doesn't really matter. You can also use crow decoy instead of bait, decoys are a plastic or rubber model of a bird and it will attract the rooks to them (which will also atract rooks, magpies and jack daws). decoys cost £3.40 from Deben but you can get the about £2 from smaller firms.
The third way, i think it works best, is to do abit of the 2 baits in idea 2. If you get a dead rabbit and put decoys around it and make it look like 1 or 2 are pecking at the carcas and the rook will fly in like a baby and candy.
Other good times to shoot crows if you work, live, or know someone that lives on a farm is when muck spreading, mowing, ploughing, seed sowing and feeding your livestock corn etc. |
