I may have secured my coolest pest permission yet!

[Doug-T]

The nearest city to where I live has one of the 5 largest rodeos in the nation. Very popular and important for the city and community.

I just happen to work with a guy who's the president of the rodeo boardt and we were talking on Monday about how many pest birds, mostly pigeons, roost in the enormous roof of the rodeo grounds and how much of a mess they create. He knows I'm a shooter so I asked him to ask the board for permission for Wade and I to eliminate some of their pigeon problem. We talked details like air rifle power, damage to their facilities, errant pellets, when, etc. He happened to have a board meeting that night and today he told me we're approved to shoot pigeons in the rodeo grounds at night!

I called one of my city police officer buddies and explained the situation. Since shooting air rifles inside of city limits is a crime I'd like to run this by the police department, explain in detail our plans and get their blessing. I don't want someone reporting that there are two guys with flashlights and guns in the rodeo grounds and have the SWAT team show up. I'm hoping that us doing this as a service for the rodeo will be allowed. I stopped by the police department today after work but the chief was out, will try back on Friday. 

If this works out I'll dust off my Bird Buster, which I specially built for close range shooting like this. It's a Crosman Night Stalker with a paintball backbottle running 1200psi, five 12 round mags attached to the side by the loading area, red laser pointer, flashlight, etc. CPHP at about 500fps with 60 rounds in under a minute. With the light backlighting the pellets they look like silver tracers. I need to get a low power scope (3x or 4x) and a more powerful pencil beam flashlight just for this task. Some extremely high angle target practice will be in order.

Bird Buster v1.1 - I've made some mods since these two pics were taken years ago.

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Mag holder

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[Wilber]

Sounds like a blast!! Call me if you need any assistance.

 

[AirgunBill]

Sounds like a great opportunity for some great pesting. Have you shot pigeons or other birds at night with your flashlights. I was wondering if they will stay still for you. It would be nice if you could talk them into buying you an ATN x-sight or similar to go very stealthy for the birds and people that would be around the area. Bill

 

[uglymike]

good luck trying to circumvent a law

 

[russinbaja]

Most Health Depts. hate pigeons and may be able to over ride the local ordinances on shooting them. Just a thought....

 

[survivor45]

If you’ll have to spend money a low power optic for this job. Maybe try a different route. 

You can get a Sight Mark Ghost Hunter night vision monocular in 2x for under $200.00. It should work fine with your laser pointer and a lot more stealthy than using flashlights.

I only have one air rifle so in order to use the gun during the day. I just attached the monocular to the scope tube. I modified a 45* offset picatinny rail mount. Which allows mounting to a scope ring on the scope tube. I mounted another section of rail to the scope rings for the Viperwolf IR laser. I have not had many targets of opportunity. I’ve taken two rats with this setup. One at 6 yards and one at 10. Using a laser as a sighting device has some drawbacks on small targets. .

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[Doug-T]

I just spoke with the police chief and he will allow us to shoot pigeons as long as we notify the P.D. when, who, how long, etc.

I think I'll look for a night vision scope.