Grackle gets it..

[only1harry]

After 2+wks of having seen no g-hogs I again resorted to stalking some invasive birds.  Last week it was a Starling.  Now it was the Grackle's turn.  They only visit once every 1-2 weeks so I was very careful not to spook them.  4 of them landed 45yds away on my lawn so I went and grabbed the 850 .22 and got into position at the upstairs window.  I tried to stay very still waiting for them to get closer.  

They walked fast so it didn't take more than 10min. for them to get within 30dys.  1 of them seemed to have spotted me and flew 10-15ft away and landed again while they others got alarmed and were trying to figure out what's going on.  I immediately ducked beofre the rest spotted me.  I could hear them making noises so I knew they were still there.  A couple of minutes later I slowly take a look and 3 of them were all at least 30-32yds out where they were before, but 1 of them had strayed a little and was a few yds closer.  27yds according to my scope's A/O when it got pretty clear.  I left the zoom at 8X and concentrated on its head because I hadn't cut the grass and more than 1/2 its body was concealed.  He turned facing away from me and I figued if I miss the head I might get the neck so I squeezed the trigger.  Right after the recoiless report I hear a very loud THWAK that seemed to have echoed through the entire neighborhood and knew the 14.3gr CPHP had hit home.  The Grackles went down and stayed down.
 
Here 's a couple of pics.  The CPHP hit it in the back of the head and it was lights out (some brains were hanging out too but I won't show that in case some of you see this tonight after dinner, hehe).  I 'm glad the 850 worked fine because I had put in a fresh 88gr CO2 bottle in it and had not test fired it to make sure it was working well.

[gunsup0331]

Nice shot!  Ugly bird never stood a chance.

[shadow]

Fine shootin Harry and my favorite pic's of em are just like that, dead with a touch of red.:) Ed

[only1harry]

I always try to show a little "red" in all my pics if you 've noticed :-)

BTW, I took the pics in the back behind the pool because the neighborhood got busy all of a sudden 5min. later.  It was around 6pm and people must 've been going out to dinner or coming back for dinner..  The pool provides some cover in the summer time even though it's only 4ft tall.  It conceals the gun and whatever is on the ground so they can only see a nut taking pictures of something although they probably know and I 'm not fooling anyone :)

[gamo2hammerli]

Wow.....that's a very incredible shot!!!! 27 yards away at a quarter size target. Keep up the good work. I had a few shots at a few grackles today.....around 30 meters away....missed them all. I think I nicked two.....they were flapping their wings....but didn't stay down.

[only1harry]

Stanley:  I made another head shot at a Starling 34 or 35yds out about a month ago and posted it here.
 
The 850 is a CO2 gun (12fpe) so it's recoiless.  It is extremely accurate and has a pretty decent trigger which doesn't make you jerk the gun.  I get 0.32" CTC groups at 30yds and 0.25" groups on my 22yd targets.  It's easier to shoot accurately than a springer.  Point and shoot from a rest, and never worry about the hold, like I do with my springers which are hold sensitive.  I can get 5 out of 5 shots within a dime or cover them with a dime.  Usually I just get 1 "big" hole the size of a dime with 5 shots.  
I have missed a couple of times and posted that here too.  It happens to all of us.  The thing is birds are usually on the move and hardly stand still.  I have shot a couple through their neck or breast feathers and watched them fly away unscathed.  I see the feathers move through the scope as the pellet nicks them or goes through them.. which is the beauty of a CO2 or PCP gun as I 'm sure you now.  You can actually see your quarry go down through the scope, whereas with a springer I can't do that.  I usually look around the scope after I shoot a springer :)  

The thing with the 850 is that because you only get 610-620fps, the heavy .22's trajectory & POI changes about every 6yds so I have done a lot of shooting at 15, 22, & 30yds to get used to its "loopy" trajectory and learn the POI, holdover/under, etc.  Normally I wouldn't do that if I were shooting rabbits for ex., but with a bird, 0.5" can make the difference between a hit or a miss so I decided to study pellet trajectory more closely with the 850 since it is my primary bird gun.

[gamo2hammerli]

I know what you mean with those PCP guns. I've got two now....a BSA Scorpion T10 and an Air Arms 410S carbine....both in .22 and repeaters. I can't wait till I use them for hunting!!! Like you said...no recoil.....and those two air rifles have excellent triggers.....so I can actually see the pellet go through where I aim through the scope. If a .22 from one of those guns touches a bird....It's staying down!!!!! heh heh And yep....they're accurate....I can get 8 shots out of 10 in the same hole at 10 meters, shooting from a modified rest.