I am sure we have all turned a fly into a grease spot on our target boards but from spring through to autumn one of my favourite hunting challenges is the drone fly. these common bee mimics are highly territorial hovering about 24” off the ground where the protect their area by chasing off other insects. This behaviour is both predictable and erratic making them a challenging and frustrating target. Predictable because you know the appropriate area they will be, erratic because they are never still for more than a few seconds.
I set up my shooting bench and shooting bag on an area of short grass where drone flies tend to be most easily found. It normally doesn’t take long to spot several of these drone flies hovering about, I tend select a victim in the 20-30 yard range and try to shoot them out of the sky before they dart off, usually only moving a few inches.
The difficulty is three fold, firstly these are not a big target, secondly they only remain still for a second or two and lastly, it is very difficult to exactly range the distance. The sense of frustration is more than made up for when you see an explosion of parts when you hit
Does anyone else hunt these ?
I set up my shooting bench and shooting bag on an area of short grass where drone flies tend to be most easily found. It normally doesn’t take long to spot several of these drone flies hovering about, I tend select a victim in the 20-30 yard range and try to shoot them out of the sky before they dart off, usually only moving a few inches.
The difficulty is three fold, firstly these are not a big target, secondly they only remain still for a second or two and lastly, it is very difficult to exactly range the distance. The sense of frustration is more than made up for when you see an explosion of parts when you hit
Does anyone else hunt these ?
Last edited:
