GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Hunting Gate => : longislandhunter August 12, 2006, 01:29:12 PM
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By the time I finished all my chores for the day it was 5pm, but wanting to get in some shootin I grabbed the .177 CFX, jumped in the truck and raced over to the duck farm. Went straight to the barn I shot from yesterday, grabbed some hay bales, made a blind, and waited for some birds to land in the pine tree outside the barn. Took 9 shots resulting in 9 dead starlings laying at the base of the tree. I love shooting at that location since I know the exact range to the tree and get to use the hay bales as a shooting rest. I tried a little experiment while I was shooting. I've been using RWS Superdomes in the CFX and have been having great success with them, but today I also brought some Crosman Premier Hollow Points (which also shoot well in the gun). I wanted to see if one pellet was better than the other as far as killing power and damage inflicted. Results were that I didn't notice any difference in either category. Both pellets did the job with one shot and both pellets appeared to me to inflict just about the same level of tissue damage. The superdomes group better for my rifle so I'll stick with them. The flies in the barn started to drive me crazy so I decided to walk around the farm and see what shots presented themselves. Took a couple of long offhand shots at a couple of birds that were approx. 50 yards out, but I was wobling to much and missed clean. I did have two woodchucks within range while I was walking around, but decided not shoot and to leave them to live another day, and perhaps breed a new batch of targets for next year. Didn't get to take any pics of todays kill, was to dark by the time I got home.
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Good shooting sounds like you have yourself a prime shooting location there, I aint been out shooting in quite a while due to work & the continuis heavy rain fall over the last few months damn it even raining as i type this if i was to go out to my shooting spots chances are i wouldn't be able to get back for a week or so due to land slips & flooding so its really good to be able to read other peoples hunting adventures shuch as yours it also stops me from loosing my marbles.
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Hey DAMAGE, it really is a great shooting location, I was lucky the owners gave me permission to hunt there. I spend alot of time shootin there for the fun and also to help me keep my sanity. It's like my "fortress of solitude" except with air guns. It's a commercial duck farm, about 75 acres, with numerous pens, each pen containing several thousand ducks at different stages of growth, a huge grain storage building, numerous large barns and processing buildings. There is a man made stream that runs through the center of each of the pens (to provide water for the ducks) as well as a natural stream and 2 large ponds at the base of the farm and that are surrounded by woods. In each duck pen are several large feeders, each one constantly filled to the brim with commercial pelletized duck feed. Needless to say all this free food, combined with natural cover and plenty of running water pull in wildlife of all kinds like a magnet. Huge flocks of starlings, sometimes in the thousands, are there all day every day, as well as pigeons, grackles, and any other kind of bird you can mention. Wild ducks and geese abound, especially with the stream and ponds in the woods. There are foxes and raccoons, which mainly eat the ducks, woodchucks, rabbits and squirrels galore. I often find the woodchucks inside the feeders gorging themselves on duck feed. I've watched them leave the woods and actually run 200 yards through open pens so they could crawl inside one of the feeders for dinner. It's really pretty cool. The owners are 2 of the nicest men I've ever met and are just thrilled when I show up to shoot pests. Apparently all these wild animals eat a very large portion of the duck feed and that winds up equating into lost revenue. There are guys that shoot there with powder burner shotguns, I've even done it myself on occassion, but the owners really like the fact that I use airguns as my weapon of choice. Shooting with a shotgun is legal, but the resulting noise usually results in some of the homeowners who live near the farm calling the owners, or the police, to complain about the shotgun blasts. With my airguns the owners are getting their pests removed and there is no noise, hence no complaints , which they absolutely love .
There is another duck farm right next to this one that is owned by another gentleman, perhaps a little larger in size, but with the same pest problem. The owners of "my" duck farm told me they will speak to the owner of the other duck farm and get me permission to shoot there as well. Can't wait. You must have some great shootin in New Zealand I'll bet.
Jeff
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I mainly shoot BrushTial Possums here because they are one of the top pests in NZ & the bonus is i get paid for their fur but also take lots of Peacocks & Turkeys i dont shoot many rabbits in fact i have only taken one with an air rifle but we do have those bloody Mynah's & Starlings shoot every one that i can.
At the moment i have 6 farms to shoot on & would take me a month to shoot them all properly but with work & other commitments & am to busy to get out for hunt which is depressing i use to spend about 20 hours a week hunting but cant at the moment thats life.