Sorry for the long post, I thought this experience was worth sharing. Yesterday I decided to head out to my local permission with my eldest son who is home for the holidays. The wife was going to be out running errands for a few hours and with my son along I figured a kitchen pass wouldn't be hard to come by. The wife granted the pass with a strict instructions to be home when the younger siblings returned from school, no problem we were heading out early.
The action was slow but we were having fun. We decided it was time to wrap things up and go home to grab some lunch. Heck the wife probably wouldn't even be home yet.
I've been meaning to stop by the adjacent property to see about getting permission to shoot there as well. It's a large active property with lots of collared dove and Starlings. To my good fortune I ran into the owner and permission was granted. We had to check out the new property and now things were getting good. We shot several collared dove and the occasional starling. I received a phone call from the wife reminding me that my kitchen pass was quickly expiring. I reminded her that I was spending quality bonding time with our eldest and got the pass extended.
Our stomachs were telling us that lunch was long past due and that we should wrap things up. On the way out we noticed a flock of starlings descend upon a wire fence rail near a calf pen. I stopped the Suburban about 35 yards away. The boy grabs the Royale and using the now open passenger door as a rest waited until several starlings were lined up. He squeezed the trigger and we were rewarded with the satisfying smack while three starlings dropped dead, a good end to a good day.
Now here is were things got interesting. Bob_O showed a video of starlings kind of hovering and coming right back down after one got shot and that's exactly what they did. The boy shot again and more starlings went down. The flock flew off and to our surprise came back again. Now I joined in on the action with the Wildcat. The Royale was spitting out pellets and destruction on my right while I worked the Wildcat to great affect. Minute after minute the starlings dropped while the boy and I giggled. The cell phone rang, the picture on the phone indicated that I was in trouble, it was the wife. Damn, time had stopped again and I hadn't noticed. I pleaded that the boy and I were in the middle of something beautiful, great work for the environment and native bird species was being accomplished and couldn't be interrupted for round trips to karate and swim practice. She didn't know it but I was like the dog who grabs a pork chop off the counter. The dog knows is going to get a whooping but that pork chop is totally worth it, and I wasn't leaving.
Eventually it had to end there were no more starlings left to shoot. We put the deadly accurate Royale and Wildcat back in their cases and took stock of the carnage. Of the starlings that we recovered there were 58. In the picture there are cows right by the dead starlings but they followed us over as we gathered them up. The starlings were piled up on both sides of the fence.
The action was slow but we were having fun. We decided it was time to wrap things up and go home to grab some lunch. Heck the wife probably wouldn't even be home yet.
I've been meaning to stop by the adjacent property to see about getting permission to shoot there as well. It's a large active property with lots of collared dove and Starlings. To my good fortune I ran into the owner and permission was granted. We had to check out the new property and now things were getting good. We shot several collared dove and the occasional starling. I received a phone call from the wife reminding me that my kitchen pass was quickly expiring. I reminded her that I was spending quality bonding time with our eldest and got the pass extended.
Our stomachs were telling us that lunch was long past due and that we should wrap things up. On the way out we noticed a flock of starlings descend upon a wire fence rail near a calf pen. I stopped the Suburban about 35 yards away. The boy grabs the Royale and using the now open passenger door as a rest waited until several starlings were lined up. He squeezed the trigger and we were rewarded with the satisfying smack while three starlings dropped dead, a good end to a good day.
Now here is were things got interesting. Bob_O showed a video of starlings kind of hovering and coming right back down after one got shot and that's exactly what they did. The boy shot again and more starlings went down. The flock flew off and to our surprise came back again. Now I joined in on the action with the Wildcat. The Royale was spitting out pellets and destruction on my right while I worked the Wildcat to great affect. Minute after minute the starlings dropped while the boy and I giggled. The cell phone rang, the picture on the phone indicated that I was in trouble, it was the wife. Damn, time had stopped again and I hadn't noticed. I pleaded that the boy and I were in the middle of something beautiful, great work for the environment and native bird species was being accomplished and couldn't be interrupted for round trips to karate and swim practice. She didn't know it but I was like the dog who grabs a pork chop off the counter. The dog knows is going to get a whooping but that pork chop is totally worth it, and I wasn't leaving.
Eventually it had to end there were no more starlings left to shoot. We put the deadly accurate Royale and Wildcat back in their cases and took stock of the carnage. Of the starlings that we recovered there were 58. In the picture there are cows right by the dead starlings but they followed us over as we gathered them up. The starlings were piled up on both sides of the fence.
Very nice job! Hope the beating wasn’t too severe!
