Was doing a little clean up on the back porch today. Saw a black bird land in the top of one of the willows in back. Grabbed the binocs, sure enough, starling! Grabbed the HW 77, the only pellets I had in the house were JSB Exact Express. Spent a few minutes between rain showers yesterday, got the thing sort of sighted in at 30 yards, but with different pellets! Oh well, figured shoot and miss is better than no shot, but was not feeling confident. Bird was up in the very top branches, wind was blowing, plus sighting and pellet issues, not a high percentage shot. Loaded an Express in the 77, put the cross hairs on the starling, and pulled the shot somewhere into next week! Popped back inside, took the pellet tin out with me this time, loaded up another Express, checked and the bird was gone. Took a second look, it was still there, just farther down the tree. This was even worse, at least the first shot had no branches in the way. Now I had to shoot almost all the way through the tree! Even less confident than before, but no shot, no kill. Lined her up, eased into the trigger this time (note to self: increase pull just a bit!), and heard the pellet hit home. Hit home in the tree branches, that is, I'm sure I heard it clip at least three on the way through. The bird took off, and I figured it was another clean miss. But wait, not taking off, it's in a crash dive. Watched it hit the ground, slapped another Express in the 77, and trotted out to see what happened, fully expecting to need a final kill shot. No worries, the bird was quite dead. Don't know where I hit it, no blood, and no entrance or exit wounds. Maybe I scared it to death? Measured it out, 37 yard shot from my porch to the base of the tree. One of the pix is the "view to the kill zone", the other explains itself. Later.
Dave
