Thanks guys! It's still on for tonight. Weather took a slight down turn but still survivable.
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My War on Starlings
- Thread starter Bob_O
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Well, bad news......there were only about 10 Starlings in the barn. I was shocked at such a low number of them this morning. I went in at 4:30 a.m. so there was no way they departed before I got there as sunrise was over 3 hours out.
But I still had a good time and managed to make a video for you guys. The flashlight turned out to be bright enough to see well and enough light for the camera without needing to use exposure compensation.
I will have another 100+ day, and I will share it with you guys. To get a sense of what it's like, when you see the starlings bunched up in the video, it's just like that but the whole length of the barn!!
I hope you enjoy!!
But I still had a good time and managed to make a video for you guys. The flashlight turned out to be bright enough to see well and enough light for the camera without needing to use exposure compensation.
I will have another 100+ day, and I will share it with you guys. To get a sense of what it's like, when you see the starlings bunched up in the video, it's just like that but the whole length of the barn!!
I hope you enjoy!!
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Bob, loved the video. You’ve inspired me, and now I’m hunting pigeons and starlings at a local farm. Unfortunately, I don’t shoot anywhere near as well as you. What really surprised me about this video is how the starlings and house sparrows stuck around even after you shown a light on them or shot the one next to it. I went to my farmer’s barn just around sunrise as soon as I turned on the flashlight all the birds bolted. Do you think if I’d gone to the barn around 4:30 AM, they’d be less likely to bolt? Is that just a regular flashlight?
oh and I think the reason there weren’t as many starlings this time, someone is shooting them;^). And must be a great shot. Again thanks for taking the time to make these videos and keep up the great work. Making the world better one dead starling, feral pigeon and house sparrow at a time.
oh and I think the reason there weren’t as many starlings this time, someone is shooting them;^). And must be a great shot. Again thanks for taking the time to make these videos and keep up the great work. Making the world better one dead starling, feral pigeon and house sparrow at a time.
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Thanks Boog!!!
Yeah, if there is any light in the sky, even just before dawn those birds will be gone. It has be to dark out for them to not fly away.
There are a few large cracks in the walls of this barn in my video where these birds go in and out through. I shot three Starlings standing in the cracks with their heads actually outdoors, all they had to do was fly away, but they just sat there presumably because they couldn't see to fly.
What I had mounted to a rail section on my rifle during the last video is a Streamlight Protac Railmount HL-X.....it's 1,000 lumens of focused light....super bright on High. Run time is only 60 minutes though and it uses CR123 lithium batteries....can be pricey if you use it a lot.
I think the birds just sitting there as I picked them off might have been due to them being blinded. That and them knowing they wouldn't get out due to darkness.
As far as your level of shooting, don't worry about it. I was a complete noob to air rifles three months ago, when I thought a 25 yard shot was a long one. After lots of practice, 25 yards is right at the start of my comfort zone.
I've watched about every one of Matt's and Ted's videos, especially the instructional ones, multiple times. Learned a lot and still learning about wind and incline levels, etc. as it all adds up and makes a difference.
Three videos of mine ago, you can see how even at 25 yards a 15 mph wind can move POI an inch. And I forgot to account for angle of incline in some 70 yard shots at pigeons on a silo. I got lucky though and the shots went high and hit the heads instead of the base of the neck where i was aiming.
I try to improve my shots each time I go out. I don't like missing. And making the more difficult shots is very satisfying to me.
Keep it up. I'm glad you got onto a farm. It really can be an airgunner's dream!
Yeah, if there is any light in the sky, even just before dawn those birds will be gone. It has be to dark out for them to not fly away.
There are a few large cracks in the walls of this barn in my video where these birds go in and out through. I shot three Starlings standing in the cracks with their heads actually outdoors, all they had to do was fly away, but they just sat there presumably because they couldn't see to fly.
What I had mounted to a rail section on my rifle during the last video is a Streamlight Protac Railmount HL-X.....it's 1,000 lumens of focused light....super bright on High. Run time is only 60 minutes though and it uses CR123 lithium batteries....can be pricey if you use it a lot.
I think the birds just sitting there as I picked them off might have been due to them being blinded. That and them knowing they wouldn't get out due to darkness.
As far as your level of shooting, don't worry about it. I was a complete noob to air rifles three months ago, when I thought a 25 yard shot was a long one. After lots of practice, 25 yards is right at the start of my comfort zone.
I've watched about every one of Matt's and Ted's videos, especially the instructional ones, multiple times. Learned a lot and still learning about wind and incline levels, etc. as it all adds up and makes a difference.
Three videos of mine ago, you can see how even at 25 yards a 15 mph wind can move POI an inch. And I forgot to account for angle of incline in some 70 yard shots at pigeons on a silo. I got lucky though and the shots went high and hit the heads instead of the base of the neck where i was aiming.
I try to improve my shots each time I go out. I don't like missing. And making the more difficult shots is very satisfying to me.
Keep it up. I'm glad you got onto a farm. It really can be an airgunner's dream!
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Oh, any hour of complete darkness should be good. I happen to do it between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m. because I have to drive two hours to get there and I wait until everything is all quiet at the house before I go.
Otherwise I would love to do it at 9 p.m. and be home a few hours later for some sleep. Right now, I end up staying up most of the night, catching a nap in the car before sunrise and spend another few hours shooting in daylight.
Otherwise I would love to do it at 9 p.m. and be home a few hours later for some sleep. Right now, I end up staying up most of the night, catching a nap in the car before sunrise and spend another few hours shooting in daylight.
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At the start of this video when I said it was disappointing, I was reacting to the fact that the barn wasn't chuck full of Starlings like last time. There are thousands in that area and I'm sure that they have multiple choices and locations of where to sleep at night.
I'll give it a week and see if it fills back up. That first night I shot 167, three guys could have had loads of fun for a solid 30 minutes in there, it was crazy.....the sound that many birds made alone almost drove me nuts!!
I'll give it a week and see if it fills back up. That first night I shot 167, three guys could have had loads of fun for a solid 30 minutes in there, it was crazy.....the sound that many birds made alone almost drove me nuts!!
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Bob, thanks for the detailed answers and tips. It’s amazing you improved so much in just three months! There’s hope for me yet. I do have a flashlight similar to yours with two batteries that I could switch out when one dies. I’ll ask my farmer friend if I can go out there after dark, but first I’ll practice mounting my flashlight on my gun.
And that sound of that many starlings is maddening for sure,for that matter I hate the constant chirp of the house sparrow as well. I don’t know if you have Eurasian ring necked doves yet up there, but they’re coo cooing is ugly. For some reason pigeons cooing doesn’t bother me.
Drive carefully on those long drives!
And that sound of that many starlings is maddening for sure,for that matter I hate the constant chirp of the house sparrow as well. I don’t know if you have Eurasian ring necked doves yet up there, but they’re coo cooing is ugly. For some reason pigeons cooing doesn’t bother me.
Drive carefully on those long drives!
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Fantastic video footage. I especially enjoy the starlings sitting on the horizontal piece of wood and the rapid shooting required..
and the shots that cut some feathers on the closer birds while hitting the longer bird producing " starling snow" when they fly off. Superb!
and the shots that cut some feathers on the closer birds while hitting the longer bird producing " starling snow" when they fly off. Superb!
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Thanks!!
Boog,
We don't have the collared doves up here yet....not that I've ever seen. Lots of feral pigeons everywhere though. I'm trying to get a small town near me to let me shoot them but so far no luck.
I'll be approaching owners of large abandoned buildings next to see if I can get in there for some shooting.
Boog,
We don't have the collared doves up here yet....not that I've ever seen. Lots of feral pigeons everywhere though. I'm trying to get a small town near me to let me shoot them but so far no luck.
I'll be approaching owners of large abandoned buildings next to see if I can get in there for some shooting.
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Awesome vid Bob. Are you using a side shot camera set up ? Looks great and the slow motion shows the pellet really well. If it is the side shot, which phone are you using ? Thanks for the help. Tom
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Yes, Side-Shot....and I love it!!
I have a Motorola Z2 Force Droid and using an App called Open Camera. My phone camera doesn't focus on the reticle so I had to find an App that would, and this one does.
I tried FilMic Pro first but had all kinds of issues with it....crashing all the time, etc. Open Camera has never crashed. It let's me record 1080p at 120fps. My phone camera will do 720p at 240fps but the App doesn't support that frame rate.
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For sure!! He has given me absolute run of his entire property, anytime I want and as often as I want. For hunting or pesting, you name it.
So when he asks me to do or not do something, I listen. Like one day last month he asked me if the next time I came out I could shoot some crows for him. I said for sure....too bad for me it was 5*F and windy, but I did it and he was happy!
When I leave for the day I always let him know the results. He ALWAYS tells me to come back whenever I want.
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Bob your threads on Starlings have been really interesting & helpful, it was an eye-opener to see your great results shooting them at night. It looks like everyone only gets a few shooting them in daylight because they are quick to scatter & not come back
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Absolutely Bob, inspired me and now I have the ability to attach a flashlight to my gun. I can’t wait to try it out. Luckily, I have a farmer who has been patient with my modest results, but i think my light and shooting at night will be a game changer.
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Oh yeah, the farmer was very excited when I told him I got 167 and them brought him the two buckets full of dead ones!!
When I first met the farmer, it was just shooting crows that were damaging his corn fields. He has hundreds of acres of corn he grows for cow feed. After they cut the corn and the crow shooting came to an end, he asked me if I could do anything about the pigeons in the barn. So I proceeded to kill all of the ones living there, about 60.
After that I just shot pigeons with the shotgun as they would transit and stop to visit. He was thrilled when winter came and there wasn't a single pigeon living there. So then I jusy started shooting sparrows.
Shortly after that I got a call from him asking if I could do anything about the Starlings that showed up. And that's what started it all with the new rifle. The best I could do was basically one per minute with the Benjamin Maximus I had. I knew I needed a repeater if I was going to be even halfway effective at it. Being on a budget, I chose the Streamline.
That's when I really started to produce some numbers! Then he steered me to this other property of his that is overrun with Starlings, and so began my War on them. He is thrilled to death, as am I, and so appreciative of my efforts to control the pest birds there.
Initially he would always say "I hope you had fun" because he knows I like to shoot. The last few times he said "I really appreciate what you're doing". That meant a lot to me! And it also tells me he recognizes the better results.
When I first met the farmer, it was just shooting crows that were damaging his corn fields. He has hundreds of acres of corn he grows for cow feed. After they cut the corn and the crow shooting came to an end, he asked me if I could do anything about the pigeons in the barn. So I proceeded to kill all of the ones living there, about 60.
After that I just shot pigeons with the shotgun as they would transit and stop to visit. He was thrilled when winter came and there wasn't a single pigeon living there. So then I jusy started shooting sparrows.
Shortly after that I got a call from him asking if I could do anything about the Starlings that showed up. And that's what started it all with the new rifle. The best I could do was basically one per minute with the Benjamin Maximus I had. I knew I needed a repeater if I was going to be even halfway effective at it. Being on a budget, I chose the Streamline.
That's when I really started to produce some numbers! Then he steered me to this other property of his that is overrun with Starlings, and so began my War on them. He is thrilled to death, as am I, and so appreciative of my efforts to control the pest birds there.
Initially he would always say "I hope you had fun" because he knows I like to shoot. The last few times he said "I really appreciate what you're doing". That meant a lot to me! And it also tells me he recognizes the better results.
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Bob, that’s great how that’s evolved. And amazingly enough my farmer appreciates my modest efforts even when I’ve come up empty. That alone makes me want to clean out his pigeons. But I originally stopped at thr farm because I saw a ton of starlings. I asked if I could shoot them and he said yeah, but how about the pigeons? I’m hoping to go there this weekend at night and take care of them. It’s cool that it’s apperciated.
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Pigeons drop pretty easily if you hit them in the right spot . I don't go for head shots, rather I go for the sure solid hit in the vitals.
From the front, I try to hit them in the base of the neck, immediately above the breast muscles...this usually results in a shot directly into the vitals.. A quartering shot from the front is the same POA but shifted just slightly toward the back. Be careful to not aim for the front part of the wing, that is where the largest bone is and will usually just wing them.
A quartering shot from the rear I will aim an inch or two below the back right behind where the wing attaches to the body. This will go right through the inboard wing feathers and straight into the vitals.
From the back, a good shot right in the upper middle back will either result in a spine shot or a vitals shot, or both. From the rear (like all you can see is the tail and the rear end/ lower body) right under the tail will usually travel straight through to the vitals.
I learned this from my early shooting at pigeons when my shot placement wasn't very good. Hitting them in the wrong spots of the body didn't make for a quick kill. :-(
Any neck shot will normally be a good hit.
From the front, I try to hit them in the base of the neck, immediately above the breast muscles...this usually results in a shot directly into the vitals.. A quartering shot from the front is the same POA but shifted just slightly toward the back. Be careful to not aim for the front part of the wing, that is where the largest bone is and will usually just wing them.
A quartering shot from the rear I will aim an inch or two below the back right behind where the wing attaches to the body. This will go right through the inboard wing feathers and straight into the vitals.
From the back, a good shot right in the upper middle back will either result in a spine shot or a vitals shot, or both. From the rear (like all you can see is the tail and the rear end/ lower body) right under the tail will usually travel straight through to the vitals.
I learned this from my early shooting at pigeons when my shot placement wasn't very good. Hitting them in the wrong spots of the body didn't make for a quick kill. :-(
Any neck shot will normally be a good hit.
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