A good start to the off-season

[only1harry]

Today I noticed 4 Starlings on my front lawn and the 2 resident robins circling around them looking nervous, and keeping a close eye on them.  I decided to watch for a little longer to see if anything develops and give them a chance to get a little closer.  What I noticed in the next hour or so was that the Starlings seemed to have taken residence on my spruce tree where a pair of robins and mocking birds have their nests!  It looked like they may be trying to take them over or had kicked the resident song birds out to take over their nests which is one of the destructive things the pesty Starlings do.  30min. into my observing them periodically while I was working, I saw the Mocking birds appear out of nowhere on a nearby tree watching the Starlings.  That's it I had enough.  I grabbed the RWS 850 .22, opened 2 different windows in the front and side of the house.  This scared the Starlings away even though they were 25+yds out.   They flew straight into the spruce and the robins followed them inside this large tree followed by the Mocking birds a few secs later.  There was definitely a take-over going on and I wanted to help my old robins and mocking birds that have been around my home for several years.  

10-15min. later the 4 Starlings got comfortable again and landed on the lawn starting approaching the house and slowly getting closer.  I was ready for them and had frozen because in the past any slight movement from me at an open window resulting in them disappearing.   I put my sights on the biggest one and kept following it around with my scope since they don't stop much at all but are constantly on the move checking the ground for something to eat.  As soon as he paused and put his head down into the grass right after his previous movement or step, I took the shot off-hand since I was inside 3-4ft back from the window.  The Starling expired instantly.  Distance was about 18-19yds, just under 20 according to my A/O setting on the Golden Antler 3-9x scope.  Even though the spruce is only about 15ft away from the house it's on the side/corner of the house but I could not shoot from that side window - they see me right away due to the proximity, plus it's harder to shoot down on them, I 'd have to be right up against the window.  So I took the shot from one of the front living room windows at the other end of the house at an extreme angle pointing the muzzle almost parallel to the window and just clearing the window frame.

I waited another 10-15min. or so and out they come again hanging out just 8-10feet away from their unfortunate comrade.  Distance right at 20yds.  I picked the one closest but this one wouldn't stop moving.  I followed him around for a couple of min. trying to keep the crosshairs on him and finally when he seemed to have paused for a small fraction of a second I squeezed the trigger.  He just fell to the side and did not move a muscle.  Waited another 15-20min. and none of them appeared.  The robins seemed much more relaxed and all of a sudden a chickadee and other (house) wrens started appearing out of nowhere like they were celebrating the absense of the Starlings.  The air was filled with bird songs and I convinced that I had helped I went back to my business, BUT not after taking a couple of pics for my GTA friends.  
You might think .22cal was overkill for these birds.. not really.  The 88gr CO2 had more than 200shots through it so performance was starting to drop.  I had chronied it a couple of days ago and it was only shooting in the 540's, ~70fps less than usual which is normall once you are past 220 shots with the 88gr cylinder.  I was actually aiming slightly higher to compensate for the power loss since it was a 14% power drop.
Check out those 1+inch beaks!

[longislandhunter]

Excellent shooting Harry,,,, nothin prettier than a beautiful rifle laying next to 2 dead yellow beaks. Sounds like that .22 really packs a whallop.... Enjoyed the post and pics very much....... lookin forward to the next batch of pics :)

Jeff

[only1harry]

Thanks Jeff,

Yeah hopefully the next story and pics will include some much bigger pesty critters, the same ones you 're after ;)
But until then, the yellow beaks will more than suffice.

BTW, the 350 will be getting an Advanced power-smoothness tune with the "works".  Stronger custom fabricated guides, tophat, heavy-duty piston seal, piston weights/washers,and spacing for more power but at the same time using a JM Arctic spring.  Every milimeter inside the gun will be honed & polished, including the air-transfer port, lubed, etc. These mods should produce OEM power but with the smoothness of the JM spring.  Typically the JM springs rob 2-3fpe of power from the 350 but with the spacing and the right parts OEM power should be achieved as per my tuner who has tuned a few 350's so far.  I 'm told the 350 shoots with a much better firing cycle which basically is a more efficient cycle from getting everything to work in harmony with the least amount of stress.  I 'm also getting trigger work done - down to 2-2.2lbs!  I can get the same tune with the OEM spring for 25fps more, but I 'd rather have the smoothness and maintain OEM power.  I will post the results of the tune and gun behavior in a couple of weeks on the Airgun gate.