Where to aim when shooting pigeons?

Having hot well over 2000 pigeons at our numerous dairies here in sd, I believe I have found the perfect spot to consistently and reliably bring them down almost every single time.

I wait until the pigeon faces me and hit them just above the breast and below the neck, this almost always severs their spine, and it is instant lights out, if the pellet goes a little high it will hit the head or the neck, if it goes a little low it will find the lungs or heart.

I would never, never, recommend a head shot! 
1-their head bobs around too much, the chance for a miss is incredibly high,
2 it is faar too small a target to gaurentee a kill shot, even a little breath of wind will push or lift or "press" your pellet down, up, or sideways and you have a miss.

right into the lower part of the neck is almost gaurenteed a dead pigeon every time.(With pigeon facing you)

one thing I would also give caution to is not to shoot a pigeon from the side, that main wing bone is insanely strong! I have seen my .25 caliber cricket at 48 foot pounds hit that wing bone, glance off and "Bam" you have a wounded bird on your hands that needs to be tracked down, and humanely dispached.

Front side spine shots are by far the most consistent kill shots for me. Hope this helps........

Been following this thread......lots of sound advice here. I have never been pigeon hunting. Been doing some research and hopefully will have a few dairy farms to try out this week. I also have a dozen full body and a dozen shell soarnomore pigeon decoys being delivered wednesday. All the vids I see of pigeon hunting dairys and feedlots just looks like too much fun. I cant wait. I will be using a wolverine B .22 at 32.6 ft. lbs. I hope its as much fun as it looks.

I have had few very good shots on them, and after my one disappearing pigeon last year, I decided no more under 18 gr pellets and I want at least 20 fpe at POI ! I want to hit them HARD and bring them down. Yes I can use a lighter gun and hit them in the head at 50-60 yards and mostly miss at that range or wound them ,,,, or I can go for center mass and knock them out !

In reality all my serious hunting guns are very powerful (Condors, Careers, a Sumatra, and a Hatsan 44 QE Long), all in either 22 or 25 and all shooting 935-985 fps shooting heavy for caliber pellets. If they are facing me it is high body shot, if they are on the side, I try for just under wing junction, if facing away it is center high spine shot. Almost all shots are 50-70 yards.

They are a very tough bird, and most of the time if I have my 22 cal gun I will be very careful of where I shoot them and many times I pass on the shot (even a good body shot that goes through them, they can fly off a bit)... by the same token when shooting my .25 cal guns and JSB KH's at ~950 fps I take the shot, and it is as if they get hit with a sledge hammer !

wll2506

 White wing target

What a great thread I just stumbled upon!



I'm appalled at the amount of damage pigeons do to humans.

I'm sorry if you happen to be one of the paying parties.



I find consolation I am not the only one who hits pigeons with a loud smack — only to have to watch the pigeon fly off as if nothing happened.



Ethical shot placement — one of the posters hinted that "ethical" might need to be defined together with the context....

The statement "Shooting a man is not ethical" — really depends on the context: Is the man your neighbor who parked in front of your garage door? Or is he a gun wielding perp out to kill your family? Or an enemy soldier in wartime?

For airgunning the context could be — "shooting pigeons for sport" —vs.— "shooting pigeons who hit a farmer every single day with $50 worth of damages."

Just wondering....


Great thread! Thanks!


Matthias