Yesterdays attempt at a duck farm hunt with my new flying Dragon tuned QB78-D .177 was called on account of rain, but today was a nice clear day so I gave it another try. Arrived at the farm around 3:30 and it was as hot as a furnace. I didn't know if the critters would be out and about in this heat, but I was determined to let the QB taste it's first kill so I headed off onto the farm.
5 minutes into my walk I ran into the 2 brothers who own the farm and got to spend some time visiting and talking with them. I don't get to see them all that much so it was a nice surprise. One of the owners, Paul, wanted to look at my rifle so I handed it to him. He looked it over real good, put it up to his shoulder and sighted in on something out in one of the fields. You could tell he really liked it and when he handed it back to me he told me that that was a beautiful rifle. I told him I had just gotten it and I agreed with his assessment of the rifle . They had to get back to work, and I had to hunt, so we said goodbye and we were each on our way.
To say it was slim pickings would be an understatement. There were some starlings flying around and a couple of pigeons buzzing the farm, but that was it. I headed straight for the big mullberry tree at the north end of the farm since the last few hunts at the farm found all the mullberries on that tree pulling in critters from all over. Well, except for a small flock of English Sparrows there was nothing in the tree. Matter of fact, I noticed that almost all the berries are gone, having been eaten by the flocks of starlings, so I guess my hotspot is no longer a hotspot. Oh well, was good while it lasted.
I roamed the farm slowly, looking for any targets of opportunity, but there wasn't a critter to be found anywhere. I finally saw a couple of starlings land in a big dead pine tree near a large barn so I decided to make a hay bale blind just inside the barn door and wait it out.
Was hotter than an oven in that barn, but I sat there for 30 minutes waiting for a starling to land. My patience was finally rewarded when at exactly 5:07 pm a starling landed in the top of the tree. I put the crosshairs on his chest, pulled the trigger and heard the "SMACK" as the CPH slammed home. The bird clung to the branch hanging upside down for about 5 seconds then plummeted straight to the ground, hitting with a nice sounding "thump". The QB had it's first kill, distance was 30 yards. I left my dead starling on the ground to act as decoy and got comfortable to wait for the next target.
Well, there was no next target, not there anyway. I waited another 20 minutes but not a bird in sight so I put the hay bales back where I got them and headed off to look for another starling. 25 minutes later, while I was sitting on my back pack stool under some pine trees, I had a small flock of starlings land in a dead pine tree 20 yards in front of me. Picked out a bird through the branches, flipped off the safety, crosshairs went to his chest, trigger was pulled and the gun fired. Immediately heard that "SMACK" again and bird #2 was on the ground.
I told the wife I'd be home to Bar-B-Q dinner so I made a slow walk back to the truck hoping to get another shot at something, but it was not to be. I wish I would've had more shots but I can't complain. The QB proved itself a deadly starling killer, I got some much needed exercise and I wound up with a couple of nice pics of the QB and her trophies to share with my GTA family. Can't ask for a better day than that.
Jeff
