Starlings

[XTR]

Mt best shotgun shot ever.

Back when I was a teen we had a flock swarming around my parents yard in GA (10 acres in the country). I had grabbed a shotgun on a number of occasions and gotten one or four shooting it to the flocks. One afternoon I caught them on the ground slipped out from the corner of an out building and took a knee, bent over and sluiced a modified choke, 2 3/4 high brass load of #4 through the flock from about 10 yards.

Huge flock lifted off and at first I thought I must have somehow missed... I thought for a moment I'd rolled up leaves, nope.

Nineteen (19) birds on the ground and one wounded that landed about 20 feet up in a pecan tree. (wasted a shell on him, but hey my per shot average was still pretty darned good. ;D

 

[timeout]

Mt best shotgun shot ever.

Back when I was a teen we had a flock swarming around my parents yard in GA (10 acres in the country). I had grabbed a shotgun on a number of occasions and gotten one or four shooting it to the flocks. One afternoon I caught them on the ground slipped out from the corner of an out building and took a knee, bent over and sluiced a modified choke, 2 3/4 high brass load of #4 through the flock from about 10 yards.

Huge flock lifted off and at first I thought I must have somehow missed... I thought for a moment I'd rolled up leaves, nope.

Nineteen (19) birds on the ground and one wounded that landed about 20 feet up in a pecan tree. (wasted a shell on him, but hey my per shot average was still pretty darned good. ;D

Great Story. I, also hate to waste ammo. Never shot that much in a single blast ever though. You win the prize! The downside though is the guys at the ammo factory aren't happy with you. Their kids have to eat too! ;D

 

[snert]

Most times when I flock shoot ( and I try all the time) I get a pile of air!

Today i drove past the farm and the silo was covered with pigeons, and a flock flying by...

I told my son it was a funeral with a fly-over missing man formation! he laughed and said he wanted to go back again.

Snert

 

[langenc]

They love to go into and ruin a patch of sweet corn.

 

[Syncrowave]

They go into the small openings in my barn and try to make nests. In one year, in one area of my barn, they typically make a pile of straw roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Major fire hazard! So I shoot them with a shotgun, lots of fun (they may fly like wet dishrags, but they are surprisingly smart!) and you can kill them without limit in my state.

 

[2506]

From the age of about 8 years old I became a starlings worst nightmare with my Red Rider style Daisy BB gun. I about lived under the cherry trees at my Grandfather's and Great Aunts property. I became a dead shot. I found that if I placed some of the dead birds on the ground as decoys I got a lot more of them. ;D Years latter when I lived in NC in peanut growing areas that when they would clean out some of the old peanut trailers or pickers there would be a pile of stuff that attracted many starlings. I would hide close with my shot gun and see just how many I could kill with one shot. I also used to shoot crows at long range with a 220 Swift and would also take the opportune Starling. A 52 gr Speer HP right at 4000 fps at muzzle just made a POOF of feathers even on crows. I have been trying to knock off some starlings around our church building. They have torn the eve vents apart and got into the attic and have torn up the soffit around the roof and have built nest in the gutter of the front porch awning and it makes a mess when it rains and the stuff overflows all over the porch. I have been using my pellet rifle but have not gotten too many of them because there are house too close and the starlings seem to always land where I can't get a safe shot on them.

 

[Petros284]

When I was a kid I would build a "blind" in some hedges in the backyard. I made cut out cardboard silhouette decoys that actually worked and placed them around the crumbs .I would throw out bread crumbs and wait for the starlings to come in. I would shoot them with my Daisy Powerline 880. Was a lot of fun and was a good "training" session for hunting later in life. Today I have a Benjamin Nitro Piston 22 Air Rifle that is a tack driver. When the pests over run the bird feeder I pick them off one by one. I even cut a hole in a screen in a back window to do this. the wife wonders where the hole came from 30 years later and it is still a blast. I have no problem taking the starlings out as they are invasive and are a true problem.

 

[snert]

The bread crumbs and decoys remind me of a time...

I was about 8. My grandpa gave me a wood crow call. I saw a grackle in the back yard. I grabbed my 760 crossman, "hid" in the cellar window well, set out a fur hat in the yard and blew a bunch on the call. Imagine my surprise when four crows flew in and started swooping about. I tossed one bb up and they flew away. My heart stopped pounding out of my chest about two hours later! One of the best "hunts" ever.

Thanks for reminding me of a good memory

 

[markT]

I used to live in my grandparents former house for 13 years until I recently relocated. There were two huge fig trees that my grandfather planted and they produced some of the best figs ever. Around late July or early August the starlings would go crazy eating the figs. I would sit for 30 to 45 mins at sunrise and shoot starlings with my pellet rifle ( Air Arms S200 / 177 cal) the trees were only ~18 yrds from the opened window I shot thu. I would go pick up 15 or 20 after each session.. so much fun,,I wish I could figure out how to post pics..

 

[Syncrowave]

Anyone try turning them into a cloud of feathers with something in 30ca?

I sometimes use 6.5/284 100gr HPs when they're gathering straw from picked fields. You have to shoot fast, but it generally ruins their day.

Most of the time I use #8 or #9 shot at about 12 yards.

 

[mr45man]

Posted for Mark T

Air Arms S200 / 177 cal) the trees were only ~18 yrds from the opened window I shot thu. I would go pick up 15 or 20 after each session.. so much fun,,I wish I could figure out how to post pics..

 

[Changeling]

Alf, that is a beautiful rifle/setup you have, exactly what is it if you don't mind saying?

 

[alf]

Alf, that is a beautiful rifle/setup you have, exactly what is it if you don't mind saying?

Stiller single shot, right bolt, left port, Rock #2 contour cut to 22", McMillan Classic stock, Jewell trigger, and Talley lightweights rings/bases. I've since switched the scope out to a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40 AO with M1 knobs.

 

[signut]

English sparrows ( the male is the aggressive little bastard ) and cowbirds. English sparrows will enter a bluebird nesting box and peck the eggs, kill any young nestlings, and build a nest on top. I take out every male that shows up.
Cowbirds ( brown headed Cowbird ) are just as bad. Parasitic nesters, the female lays eggs in another birds nest , that bird ends up raising the cowbird young. Have seen many cardinals in back yard feeding a very young cowbird.
So they are on my hit list also ;D

 

[Grimstod]

Cow birds are protected in my State. I have no idea why :-[

Wow I had no idea that E sparrows pecked the eggs of other birds. I will have to shoot more of them. They are such pests. Need to get a good pellet gun for close range.

 

[snert]

Marauder...can I say it again? I got the 25 caliber with the synthetic stock, put a Weaver 4-14 grandslam on it and 50 yard starlings are the norm. Check out video on youtube of the capabilities of the Marauder.

snert

 

[timeout]

Cow birds are protected in my State. I have no idea why :-[

Wow I had no idea that E sparrows pecked the eggs of other birds. I will have to shoot more of them. They are such pests. Need to get a good pellet gun for close range.

Hard to figure the protected status with the cowbirds. I have been told that the Audobon Society provides funding to U.S. Wildlife Services in the State of MI. to kill them. The story is that the cowbirds destroy the Kirtland Warblers eggs and then lay their own in the Warbler nest for them to hatch and take care of. I always thought nature was survival of the fittest. I wonder what PETA would think about the AS funding such killing? Well, actually I don't care what PETA thinks about anything!

 

[Tommie]

At my previous house the starlings were thick in my back yard. Being inside the city limits (as well as having a seriously nosey neighbor) I tolerated the bird infestation for a while. But when I witnessed a starling exiting a bluebird box with a baby bluebird in it's beak, all bets were off. Kept my old Benjamin 22 cal air rifle by the back sliding doors. I found that 3 or 4 pumps was sufficient to dispatch the nasty birds without freaking out the neighborhood. But honestly it's like trying to beat back the tide. The most effective starling control turned out to be a hawk that learned of the endless food supply and set up housekeeping there. Twice I witnessed the hawk making a dive bomb kill. Really cool to see.

 

[Grimstod]

Cow birds are protected in my State. I have no idea why :-[

Wow I had no idea that E sparrows pecked the eggs of other birds. I will have to shoot more of them. They are such pests. Need to get a good pellet gun for close range.

Hard to figure the protected status with the cowbirds. I have been told that the Audobon Society provides funding to U.S. Wildlife Services in the State of MI. to kill them. The story is that the cowbirds destroy the Kirtland Warblers eggs and then lay their own in the Warbler nest for them to hatch and take care of. I always thought nature was survival of the fittest. I wonder what PETA would think about the AS funding such killing? Well, actually I don't care what PETA thinks about anything!

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