New to me fx wildcat for starling control

.177 is perfect for starlings and you could back the hammer spring off a little for less penetration and damage to the equipment and buildings.

Matt

Yeah, .177 is perfect. The only advantage .22 would give you is more stability in wind and the ability to reach out a bit further; maybe 80 yards instead of 60.

As you suspected, .177 is less likely to break glass in case of a ricochet. It will save you a ton of money on pellets and use less air too.

I shoot starlings with my .177 Compatto, and I really like the H&N Baracuda Hunters. They fly almost as well as Baracudas, but they hit hard, like hollow points, and don't penetrate as much. A chest shot on a starling will drop it on the spot. Ditto for any other pest bird, up to crow size. You will hear the difference in the meat slap too. When you shoot at paper, you can see they cut clean holes, almost like a wadcutter.

I don't know what row cropping is or how it relates to having expensive glass around. One tip though: use lead pellets, not alloy. Alloy are much, much harder than lead. They hardly deform at all when they hit something. If you're really going to stretch your range out, consider pure lead, by JSB. It is the softest, but of course still plenty hard for starlings at over 800 fps. I'm told the FX's SmoothTwist barrels prefer JSB pellets anyway...

I remove starlings on the same equipment you mentioned on a 2000 acre grain farm. I shoot a .25 with 33gr pellets. Those birds will let all kind of equipment pass but I show in the blue pickup and the disappearing act happens. Any way I have to bust them from 60 to 80 yards. Most fun ever! Good luck with your new gun.