I thought about this one for some time and I would have to say my choice of pesting would be …… the rat . This critter test your skills , not only because it is elusive, never stopping but because the time that you typically have to shoot them and shooting in the dark takes more skill to shoot at night, in my humble opinion.
If you could only do pesting on 1 animal which would you choose and why ?
- Thread starter zerox69
- Start date
Well, I'd have to say ground squirrels in scarcely-populated, desert-ish areas... They are VERY skittish, especially the older, larger ones. I know that east of San Diego in places like Descanso, you are lucky to get within 50 yards, and most shots are between 60 and 90 yards. Plus, once they see you, they're gone, so you need to be quick once you spot one. Head shots at 90 yards are a challenge, especially because its almost always windy. So in addition to the distance, you have to correct for the swirling wind... But the squirrel twitch and flop death dance with a perfect head shot makes it worthwhile, and the horse farmers appreciate the reduction of the squirrels for obvious reasons.
Upvote 0
Dairy birds are my favorite. After shooting as many as I can in the past six years I think there more now than when I started. I don't shoot all I can during a days shoot at a dairy either. I just wish I could shoot more often. I know the dairy farmers appreciate when I show up.
Upvote 0
rats cause there freakn nasty ground dwellas for the winged suckers crows evil little bastards
Upvote 0
I've never seen a place with rats. I think they would be terrific to hunt. If there were big spiders I'd go after them because I hate em.
Upvote 0
Right now, Tree Rats / Nutters / Squirrels. It’s how I ended up getting addicted to Airguns. They are very plentiful in my suburban home. They destroy my plants, dig my yard, ate the cowling in my Tacoma, and are tasty to boot.
Upvote 0
Vegetable farm pest rabbits-not that challenging though they do wise up after a while, but good eating!
Upvote 0
G
Guest
Guest
Red Squirrels. They do so much damage and seem to think that my house was only put here for them to habitate. They are a real challenge to get a clean shot at to boot.
Mitch
Mitch
Upvote 0
I'd have to say that depends on the time of day... 
I guess if I had to choose, I'd split my efforts. I'd let the dogs take care of "grinners" / country rats, tree rats, raccoons, fox, skunk and other such varmints.
_
Then, I'd choose the noxious house sparrows (male & female) for their impact on local and native songbirds, specifically eastern blue birds. European Starlings are bad too but I don't see many where I usually do pesting.
_
Of note, identifying the female house sparrows can get a bit tricky. Here's an excerpt from my Sibley guide (written by David Sibley) which I and my family reference frequently:
I guess if I had to choose, I'd split my efforts. I'd let the dogs take care of "grinners" / country rats, tree rats, raccoons, fox, skunk and other such varmints.
_
Then, I'd choose the noxious house sparrows (male & female) for their impact on local and native songbirds, specifically eastern blue birds. European Starlings are bad too but I don't see many where I usually do pesting.
_
Of note, identifying the female house sparrows can get a bit tricky. Here's an excerpt from my Sibley guide (written by David Sibley) which I and my family reference frequently:
Upvote 0
Squirrels. Because I hate them with a passion. I'm like Hitler when it comes to squirrels, ALL SQUIRRELS MUST DIE!!!!!
They did thousands of dollars of damage to my house between 2013-2015, years I was extremely busy at work in the oil refineries, and hardly ever home to snipe them out of my backyard. They literally chewed the siding of my house all over, in their attempts to get inside. I was lucky they didn't, and that they didn't get in the attic. Otherwise, I've read many accounts online of how they could've ended up chewing through wires, and burning the house down.
I'm not a carpenter or handyman, and don't have construction skills beyond small garage arts and crafts, like making birdfeeders and stuff. So it was over $4,500 to replace all that siding. That's money that could've been left in savings, or spent on a weekend vacation somewhere nice, or spent on AIR GUNS? Thousands gone because of tree rats.
They've also destroyed my yard, which went from perfect and flat and level up until about 2009 when squirrels began invading my neighborhood, to a lumpy, bumpy, swiss cheese moonscape mess with hills and troughs and holes everywhere. They steal 95-100% of the fruit from a few fruit trees I have in my backyard, every year like clockwork, before they're ripe and my family can eat them. My Dad planted those trees before he died in '04, back when the worst thing around was the occasional mole making a few molehills in the yard once a year. No squirrels back then.
There's so many squirrels in my neighborhood, they've also decimated the bird population. There used to be songbirds and robyns tweeting and chirping happily all day every day in the spring and summer in years past. The last few years, it's been deathly silent. I learned just a couple years ago that squirrels will raid the nests of birds, and eat baby birds, and steal the eggs out of the nests and eat those too.
Last year, I lost track exactly, but I killed between 30-50 squirrels out of my backyard. A lot of that was trapping them in the live trap cage, then executing them with a bb pistol, but I also have a couple other air rifles, including my newest break barrel .22...already have 4 squirrel kills with that.
This year I'm going to buy my first pcp, within the next 2-3 months, and also a few more break barrels and bb pistols and revolvers.
No doubt there's going to be a fresh wave of the fat, nasty "yard gargoyles" as I like to call them.
My squirrel warfare arsenal is going to be growing by leaps and bounds this year, and I'll be ready for them...
So yeah, I really really really hate squirrels.
They did thousands of dollars of damage to my house between 2013-2015, years I was extremely busy at work in the oil refineries, and hardly ever home to snipe them out of my backyard. They literally chewed the siding of my house all over, in their attempts to get inside. I was lucky they didn't, and that they didn't get in the attic. Otherwise, I've read many accounts online of how they could've ended up chewing through wires, and burning the house down.
I'm not a carpenter or handyman, and don't have construction skills beyond small garage arts and crafts, like making birdfeeders and stuff. So it was over $4,500 to replace all that siding. That's money that could've been left in savings, or spent on a weekend vacation somewhere nice, or spent on AIR GUNS?
Thousands gone because of tree rats.They've also destroyed my yard, which went from perfect and flat and level up until about 2009 when squirrels began invading my neighborhood, to a lumpy, bumpy, swiss cheese moonscape mess with hills and troughs and holes everywhere. They steal 95-100% of the fruit from a few fruit trees I have in my backyard, every year like clockwork, before they're ripe and my family can eat them. My Dad planted those trees before he died in '04, back when the worst thing around was the occasional mole making a few molehills in the yard once a year. No squirrels back then.
There's so many squirrels in my neighborhood, they've also decimated the bird population. There used to be songbirds and robyns tweeting and chirping happily all day every day in the spring and summer in years past. The last few years, it's been deathly silent. I learned just a couple years ago that squirrels will raid the nests of birds, and eat baby birds, and steal the eggs out of the nests and eat those too.
Last year, I lost track exactly, but I killed between 30-50 squirrels out of my backyard. A lot of that was trapping them in the live trap cage, then executing them with a bb pistol, but I also have a couple other air rifles, including my newest break barrel .22...already have 4 squirrel kills with that.
This year I'm going to buy my first pcp, within the next 2-3 months, and also a few more break barrels and bb pistols and revolvers.
No doubt there's going to be a fresh wave of the fat, nasty "yard gargoyles" as I like to call them.
My squirrel warfare arsenal is going to be growing by leaps and bounds this year, and I'll be ready for them...
So yeah, I really really really hate squirrels.
Upvote 0
Did not know they ate the birds too, although I did know they were opportunistic carnivores, so it makes sense. I have been hitting them hard here and I do see more and more Cardinals and such around.
Upvote 0
That's a really good point and too seldom made.
_
Many times [some] people think they're being more kind or compassionate by dumping stray cats off in the woods or in a neighborhood but in reality that's a terrible thing to do to an animal and the environment. The flawed logic being "at least the cat will have a chance where as if I bring it to a shelter it will certainly be euthanized if it's not adopted." Of course what really happens is that the animal either starves to death, or is killed by a predator, or ends up feeding off the native species (rabbits, birds, etc.) and thus upsetting the entire ecosystem as does any invasive species.
_
I've always been of the mind that it's your animal and irrefutably YOUR responsibility. If you don't want it give it away, put it down, or have a friend put it down. I've got top clearance from all the ladies in our family to use whatever force necessary to prevent stray cats from making a home on our property. And what's funny is that I really like cats - but not strays.
_
A bit more info: "Cats in particular have earned a nasty reputation for themselves as blood thirsty killers of wildlife. They have been named among the top 100 worst invasive species (PDF) in the world. Cats have also earned credit for countless island extinctions. Arriving onto the virgin specks of land alongside sailors, the naive native fauna didn’t stand a chance against these clever, efficient killers. All said, cats claim 14 percent of modern bird, amphibian and mammal island extinctions."
_
Source: www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/feral-cats-kill-billions-of-small-critters-each-year-7814590/
Upvote 0
Pigs for me. We have more then we need here in Texas. I have already harvested a bunch with dogs, knife, bow, and regular firearms. Working on getting the right Airgun set up and it will be on again.
Coyotes are next. Was raised on a cow/calf ranch and shot every coyote seen.
Coyotes are next. Was raised on a cow/calf ranch and shot every coyote seen.
Upvote 0
Coyotes, I know they are part of the system, but I cannot stand them. They kill livestock, family pets and every fawn they can. I shoot everyone is see. Had a large male follow my wife one night as she was walking for exercise around our neighborhood in florida. That was my reason for my first pcp, an a2a equipped marauder .25. Most wont believe it, but they don't just kill for food, ask any farmer.
Upvote 0
If I only had to do it on one animal it'd have to be raccoons. The young and the dumb go down fast, but they also learn fast which means you have to make those first few chances count to get them. After that it'd be starlings and grackles(allowed as pests here) because nothing is quite so angering as seeing a giant black squawking nuisance hang onto a tiny feeder and run off all the cardinals and other songbirds I like to see frequent my property.
Upvote 0
This is very interesting to see the difference in everyone's choices and the reasons why . I wonder if it has anything to do with what state we are in or the size of land we are living on and if there's any livestock or agriculture? Some of us have more of a necessity then a love of pesting . Some of you guys choices I would have never thought of as pesting . Like crows , we are not the agricultural juggernaut that we use to be nor are we like our friends the Brits with all the farms so I didn't expect crows to be one . Also I never really thought of coyotes as on the pesting list . I always thought of them as predator hunting . Also I think that a lot of these pest have different times that you find them sneaking about .
Upvote 0
If the question had been "what is my favorite for hunting with air rifle" my answer would be 100% tree squirrels. Squirrel hunting is the only reason I own air rifles. I love squirrels and love hunting and eating them.
These guys have kept me company on hundreds of whitetail bow hunts over nearly 50 years. They are also the first thing my dad taught me to hunt. When I go squirrel hunting I am always reminded of Dad.
These guys have kept me company on hundreds of whitetail bow hunts over nearly 50 years. They are also the first thing my dad taught me to hunt. When I go squirrel hunting I am always reminded of Dad.
Upvote 0