Crowing for what? I know this sounds corny, but hear me out. September is the start of early goose season in Maine, and it also coincides with the crow season. Being an avid hunter, I thoroughly enjoy hunting crows, but I have to admit that geese are a little better eating and equally as much fun to hunt, so why not combine the two?

If you’re going to hunt geese these days, it has to be done with non-toxic shot. That means steel, bismuth, or any of the other acceptable variants of tungsten or HEVI-Shot that you may choose to use. If you shoot geese with the “better” non-toxic loads, you are spending about $3 per shell. This may seem like a high price to pay, but a goose is a tough bird to knock down, and you probably want every advantage.

Crows, on the other hand, are not as difficult to put down and spending $3 per crow (provided you don’t miss) is a lot to pay in anybody’s book. So here’s a solution: shoot steel at the crows and steel and HEVI-Shot at the geese.

I usually handload my steel shot as I could not find a load that was fast enough to get the job done on geese unless I loaded it myself. The old saying “speed kills” is especially true for hunting with steel shot. You need the velocity for both the range and knockdown power, as steel is much lighter than lead or tungsten.

By handloading, I can get loads that hit 1600 fps, which is a screaming load­—that is, up until now. This past May, Remington introduced its “Hypersonic Steel” load that is advertised to hit 1700 fps. This should be ideal for a combination crow/goose-hunting foray.

To start, set up your decoy spread in the fields just like you would for a normal goose hunt. Then set a dozen crow decoys off to the edge of the set, as crows will often feed in the same fields as geese. When you see or hear geese, take out your goose call and get ready. When you see crows, then switch gears and get the crow call out.

Just remember though, you cannot be in possession of an electronic call when goose hunting, so leave the electronic crow caller at home and stick to the mouth calls. These calls work fine, and steel shot will “drop crows like rain” if you center them in the pattern as you should. I will often burn up my old shells on the crows and save the good shot for geese.

As far as retrieving goes, my dog Abby, will retrieve both, but be careful if using a dog to retrieve crows, especially a young dog, as crows will bite and peck, and it takes an experienced dog to handle them. I taught Abby at an early age to stay away from the “sharp end!”

Give it a try, you might just find yourself “crowing for geese.”