I was using a squirrel carcass to attract flys to shoot. I got the first one I shot at and went up to get the meat but found this ant dragging off MY kill. I was furious, as anyone would have been. 
First fly hunting of the season
- Thread starter davelarson
- Start date
It’s at 25 yards using a FX Royal in .177, I chose the 10.34 grain pellet because I wanted to anchor the fly and not have any tracking to do. The squirrel carcass brings in plenty of targets lol. Here’s the view from the bench. Soon it will be Yellowjacket season! I’ll switch to the .25 of course lol! 
Upvote 0
qball, you must have heard of the giant Asian hornets that are appearing around the west coast. They are definitely scary bugs! A few stings melts your face. They hunt and eat honey bee larvae and feed their young with them as well. Here’s another solid hit on a fly, looks like it was full of eggs! And this cool carrion beetle showed up, it got a pass.
Upvote 0
I told my boys about fly hunting a few weeks back and they didn't believe me, totally thought I was messing with them. Now after seeing your pictures, they're both totally pumped to go fly hunting tomorrow. We're hoping some tuna smeared on our 50yd target stand will bring them in. Are they spooky, should we wear camo?
Stoti
Stoti
Upvote 0
@qball Dang! You took the words right out of my mouth 
It’s very satisfying to get them with a .177, well done! Here’s my entry, need to go back and get the data, can’t recall.
It’s very satisfying to get them with a .177, well done! Here’s my entry, need to go back and get the data, can’t recall.
Upvote 0
For close range indoors, a Bug-a-Salt is The preferred weapon. Morton is the brand of ammo. My friend uses Himalayan Pink. Anybody have one?
Upvote 0
Think I might have to setup my own bait/feed station for the hunt! Fantastic idea guys! Unfortunately no squirrel in the yard lately and the rat I got in my trap got eaten by either the damn skunk or neighbor's cat, maybe I can put out some old fish.
Upvote 0
For close quarter combat the bugasalt is the best tool but hard to beat the satisfaction of on shot one kill.
Upvote 0
stoti, I don’t use camouflage because they aren’t spooky. But it’s very dangerous so definitely use enough gun! It’s a lot like hunting Cape buffalo! Your hair stands up and and you have to fight off buck fever. Sometimes it gets really sketchy and it boils down to just you and the fly. It’s an awesome feeling to be right on the edge. I’ll never give up hunting dangerous game.
Upvote 0
Nearly every week of the year, usually on Wednesday's, a bunch of friends and I meet at our buds property/shooting range for our - bring whatever gun you want "shootfest", as I call it. About a month ago we were shooting our guns and noticed there were flies landing all around us. Then we noticed that they were landing on a steel sign that was laid flat on a barrel at our 10Y line. so we blasted a few with 22rf's which we were shooting at the moment. I went and got my 6fpe Steyr LGB1 PCP out of the truck then shot a few flies, then my buds grabbed their PCP's and shot some flies. We started to brainstorm what bait we might use and my bud decided, what the heck, I'll pour some beer on the sign and see what happens....
It's kind of arid here in AZ, so long story short, we discovered Flies like beer, LOL!!! I'm totally serious too. Turns out them buggers must be really thirsty because Flies of all sizes came to drink! We also had some paper target boxes at that 10Y makeshift table and poured beer on them too. We discovered that the live flies really love to suck on the dead flies so the more flies we splattered the more flies that came to dine!!!! Man oh Man, I'm not exaggerating, over the next month we shot maybe 4 tins of pellets with an estimated 85% hit ratio and those boxes were majorly shot up and super nasty, lol! As well as the sign having hundreds of pellet streaks on it.
We started to develop games like, head shots only, wing shots, butt shots, doubles, triples, and had some super funny and odd fly bloopers happen. It was almost always a race to see who could get the next fly. It's funny seeing a fly splat on 24 power through the scope but we soon figured out it was faster to have our scopes on 6-8X so we could have a large FOV!
It's one of those "you would have to have been there" things, to really appreciate how much fun we had!!!
Upvote 0
Oh my gosh Dave, you crack me up! We'll take the .25's to make sure we're not under gunned. Here in Potter Valley we do have a fly that's the Murder Hornets equivalent...they aren't venomous but they're so large the bite of one of these prehistoric monsters can cause massive hemorrhaging and even death if the bleeding isn't stopped quickly! The boys are both very afraid but I'm hoping we get our shot at a few. The danger is what makes it so exciting! If we get a good one, I might even get it mounted!
Steve --- Secret baits like beer are exactly why I responded to this post in the first place. When we're hunting something as crafty as the Common House Fly we need all the help we can get. Beer sounds like it might be exactly what we need to bring them in close! So far we've got tuna fish, beer and dead flies for our buffet! Thanks bud!
STOTI
Upvote 0
@steve123 That story had me rolling on the floor.
@davelarson I didn’t realize that feeling I had was Bug Fever till I read your post! I may have to up my game and start hunting for Gnats instead!
@davelarson I didn’t realize that feeling I had was Bug Fever till I read your post! I may have to up my game and start hunting for Gnats instead!
Upvote 0
I use beer as well when hunting flys. Up to three of them, any more and I can’t make a clean kill. Here’s some more pictures of this afternoon’s skirmish. Today I used the Theoben .20 cal. and it was just enough gun! 
Upvote 0