Author Topic: Back to business at The Farm!  (Read 7643 times)

Offline DougT

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Back to business at The Farm!
« on: June 16, 2010, 07:34:10 PM »
While GTA has been irregular over the past week or two, WadeS and I have been doing some more critter control.

Last tuesday, WadeS calls me at work and says he has wednesday off and wondered if I could also get wednesday off to go hunting at The Farm.  My boss said after I take care of my existing morning customer committments that that would work so I then called the farm manager and got permission.  I ended up leaving work around 10.00 am and we left town around 11.00 am.  About an hour later we arrived at this 93,000 acre farm/dairy/feedlot/bird shooting paradise.  We started at a large stack of corn-hay bales and shot two pigeons as we were getting our mud boots on.  We then drove over to the abandoned pumphouse that is home to the hundreds of pigeons.  We parked broadside about 40 yards away with the windows half down, using them as rests.  The wind was blowing about 10 mph and had gusts to about 15-20 mph.  We got a couple there and missed a few more but ended up leaving because the scalehouse office was right behind us and there were numerous vehicles driving around.  Even though we had permission, we still felt like we were doing something wrong.

We then went to the reject food piles.  There were lots of birds there but we had to be selective on which ones to shoot.....  After spending 1/2 hour or so there we had only bagged 2.  We ended up getting 2 more there over the rest of the day.  

We then drove over to the dairy sewage pump sites.  These three pumps move the liquified cow manure "black water" from 63,000 cattle out of the dairy stock barns to settling ponds, eventually to be used as irrigation water on the crop circles to feed the cattle.  There were lots of pigeons there.  Some were on concrete walls, railings and the ground at ranges of 20 yards to 70+ yards.  With the windows 1/2 down we would just sit there and shoot one, they would fly off and re-land in nearly the same place.  Shoot another, another, etc. and then pull ahead 100' or so and start over.  Not the smartest birds.  Some of them fell onto the ground where they could be retrieved but about 1/2 of them fell "in the drink" (liquid sewage flumes) never to be seen again.  When we first pulled in here we noticed a couple dozen pigeons on the ground at the end of a runoff pond.  Since they were in a "hole" so-to-speak, we didn't bother them for a while.  When all the other bird shooting opportunities ran out we inched over to get a shot at these pigeons.  WadeS ended parking the Megacab 68 yards (lasered) from them.  The wind was still about 8-10 mph right-to-left.  I know my 850 shoots 2 mildots low at 70 yards so I aimed 2 mildots high and 1 mildot to the right to compensate for wind drift.  Thwack!!!  DRT with a pigeon rolling down to the pond's edge.

We then drove over to the sewer lagoons, the settling ponds mentioned before.  These are about 5-6 acres each and is where the solids in the liquified maneur settle out and the effluent is sent to the booster pumps to be fed to the crop circles.  When the solids fill up the pond they stop the input and let it dry out and add other organic matter to make compost.  They bag and sell it for gardening.  There are numerous pump stations here and the pigeons love them.  Lots of places to land and roost.  We shot a couple here at 58 yards but it wasn't as good as usual.  We got a few more on the way out.

We then headed over to the dairy stock barns.  Before we got there, WadeS spotted a crow sitting on a power pole about 45 yards away.  I handed him the 850 and he gave it a lead injection quickly.  WHOP and it was DRT, before it hit the ground.  We then continued on to the barns.  There are 10 barns arranged in 2 columns and 5 rows with the longest ones 1/2 mile long.  Yes, 1/2 mile.  You can't see from one end to the other.  The cows are electronically tagged and records on milk production and cow stats are kept.  Twice a day a computer unlocks their stalls and they voluntarily walk to the 100 position milking turntable for their round-about milking session.  When done they are unhooked and gates automatically open so they can freely walk back to their stalls.  You ought to see the udders on these animals.  Beach ball size!  Some of them look like they would pop if you touched them with anything sharp.  Anyway, these barns have semi-open sides and a 4' wide opening down the center of the roof and each end has 5 roll-up doors, allowing birds to freely enter and leave.  Perfect pigeon and starling habitat.  You can see pigeons sitting in the openings when you drive up to the barns.  If you go slowly you can walk in the end door(s) and get a shot, shooting from the inside out of the barn.  We ended using WadeS's blooper because it isn't too powerful and it shouldn't over penetrate.  We were very careful about our shots.  Most were 10-20 yards and we greased lots of birds in these barns.  At the end of each barn is a large trench covered by a grate made of metal pipes that starts the maneur collecting process.  When you whacked a pigeon it would sometimes fall into these maneur collecting trenches.  In the last barn I spotted some pigeons sitting on the roof and slowly walked to about 50 yards away.  Using a fence post I greased one that I could only see the top of it's chest.  WHOP and it slid down the backside of the roof.  As I was going to collect it, I spotted a starling on one of the openings about 20 yards away.  WHOP!  It fluttered for about 15 yards then did a header into the gravel road.  It's mate landed beside it and raised hell, again about 20 yards away.  WHOP! and it just keeled over.  After collecting all 3 birds I went back into the barn and shot 2 more pigeons sitting on the roll-up doors.  Both of them fell into the sewer trenches....  We both want to install tactical lights and laser pointers on a low/medium powered air rifle and go back at night to see what's there.  That would be great shooting.

On the way out WadeS spotted a group of crows sitting on the ground in a road between feedlots.  I rolled down the window and took a quick shot at the one that hadn't taken off yet.  It shed some feathers and we watched it for a minute until it crash landed in a field that we didn't want to walk into to retrieve.

We had to leave at 2.30 pm and we took this pic before we left of what we could retrieve without going sewer diving.  18 pigeons, 3 starlings and 1 crow.  There were many others  that we didn't/couldn't collect.  In all we had 28 pigeons, 2 crows and 4 other birds as confirmed kills.

Not a bad way to spend 3 hours.
Hammerli 850 HPA .22 & Leapers 3-9x32  --  TF-89 .22 & Leapers 4x32
---------------------
2010 air rifle kills
288 starlings
235 pigeons
6 crows
25 other birds
56 ground squirrels
3 tree squirrels

---------------------
2009 air rifle kills
181 various birds
57 various squirrels

Offline ezman604

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RE: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2010, 01:48:40 AM »


Wow....you are very lucky to have a 'honey hole" like The Farm. Looks and sounds like you guys have a great time stalking and honing your shooting skills. I definately envy you guys for having such a place to enjoy. Thanks for sharing and hope WadeS finds a new and BETTER job soon.



Happy Shooting!!!!



Dave



Crosman/Revelation 760 PumpMaster (Vintage 1967)
Powerline 1000S .177 (semi-tuned by me)
Benjamin Super Streak .177/.22 (semi-tuned by me)
Benjamin Trail NP XL1500 (bone stock)
Benjamin Trail NP XL1100 (project gun)
TF89 .22 (tuned by Gene)
Winchester 1000WS .177 (semi-tuned by muwah)
QB57 (l

Offline TheKnot

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2010, 02:13:20 AM »
Thats a fun day of shooting you boys had thanks for the story

Offline arbantelope

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2010, 02:49:24 AM »
Another batch of flying rats grounded for good.  Great shootin' & pics.
Alan - NorCal

Offline dk1677

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2010, 03:10:00 AM »
Great shooting as always guys! Love the hunts!
Hammerli 850, Beeman RS3 ,Gamo viper express,Crosman 180

Offline shadow

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2010, 03:59:06 AM »
You guys have a conveyor belt of feathered pest running on that farm. Great story shooting and pic's fellas. Ed
I airgun hunt therefore I am... };)  {SHADOWS Tunes & Camo}  airguncamo@yahoo.com

Offline Wingman115

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2010, 07:10:34 AM »
You boys are tearing in to the bird population up Oregon way!
2010 Critter Count
Squirrels-37
Rabbits-18
Crows-5

Mac1 Tuned Crosman 2240, Crosman AS2250XT, Hammerli/RWS 850 Air Magnum, Gamo BigCat 1200, Dasiy 990,Crosman 1377

Offline only1harry

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2010, 07:53:13 AM »
Dang!  You guys are doing a great job wacking those pesty brids.  

Nice long range shooting with the wind blowing!
Springers:
Diana 36 .177
Diana 350 .22 (donated by Timmy!)
Diana 350 .177
PCP\'s:
Air Force Condor .22 (Airhog)
Air Force Condor .25 (Talon Tunes)
Air Force Condor .25 (Lemak)  
CO2/Pump:
RWS Hammerli 850 .22
Crosman 2240 Custom .22
A few Crosman pumpers .177

Offline gamo2hammerli

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Re: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2010, 09:48:02 AM »
Good shooting...wow, that`s alot of pidgeons, starlings and a crow.  Looks like a productive day for you guys.
Gamo: Expotec .177 + Big Cat .177 + Viper .177 + Whisper .177, Hammerli Titan .177, Diana model 24 .177, RWS-Diana P5 Magnum pistol .177, Crosman: G1 Extreme .177 + Storm XT .177 + Sierra Pro .177 + 1377 pistol .177, Air Arms S410SL .22, BSA Scorpion T10 .22, FX Cyclone .177, Remington Air Master 77 .177 + BB\'s,

Offline DougT

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Here's a Google map of The Farm.
« Reply #9 on: June 17, 2010, 04:21:23 PM »
Notice the scale on the lower-left corner.  This place is huge!!!  All of the hundreds of green crop circles in this group are the same farm we have access to.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=103140785363069660486.000489438d77229f7ecf7&ll=45.716068,-119.897661&spn=0.026488,0.054846&t=h&z=14

Next time we go I'll get more pics of the actual site and link them to this map.
Hammerli 850 HPA .22 & Leapers 3-9x32  --  TF-89 .22 & Leapers 4x32
---------------------
2010 air rifle kills
288 starlings
235 pigeons
6 crows
25 other birds
56 ground squirrels
3 tree squirrels

---------------------
2009 air rifle kills
181 various birds
57 various squirrels

Offline jake

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RE: Back to business at The Farm!
« Reply #10 on: June 21, 2010, 01:09:26 PM »
great shooting, that sure is alot of pigeons!
if at first you dont succeed, re-load, kill count 2010.
(6)squirrel
()opposum
()skunk
()chipmunks
()squirrel
()raccoon
(1)starling
()grackle
()sparrows