3 more Yellow Beaks and major screwup!

[only1harry]

The entire flock came this morning and wiped out all the cat food in the bowl in under 45secs!  Another feeding frenzy involving about 20 Starlings.

As they were finished with it I had just gotten the gun's barrel through the camo net and looing for a target.  Slowly one by one started flying away as there was no more cat food left, but 2 birds stayed in the bowl pecking at a few pieces of hot-dog I had put out last night to make it more enticing for the fox..  So I just picked one bird that was in the center of the bowl that was determined to eat the piece of hotdog, and squeezed the trigger before they were all gone.  Its body was pretty much stationary with only its head going up & down so it wasn't a hard shot.  The rest took off.  This guy was a big bleeder..  Distance was 21yds as I had moved the bowl a little farther out last night waiting for the fox to return..  

3-4 birds returned about 30min. later after I had removed the dead Starling which by the way was frozen stiff within minutes and a pool of blood that had solidified in the bowl and couldn't wipe it off.  They went to work on the hot dog pieces so I picked one out and fired.  Nothing.  Must have missed.  I thought the shot sounded a little different so I thought the RWS 850 .22 was too cold and shooting too low maybe.  I put the 850 back by the heater and 20min. later 2 more Starlings came.  Same thing. I take the shot and nothing. But this time it sounded very different again.  It then dawned on me! I checked the magazine and it was empty!!  I was shooting BLANKS!!  

I was going to load a new magazine because I knew it only had 1 pellet left but then the flock came early in the morning and I forgot!  So it would 've been 3 dead Starlings today!  Dang!  I seem to be messing up a lot lately.. first the Fox and now 2 Starlings..  Oh well, must be part of being middle-aged I guess

EDIT:
Got 2 more after changing sniping position to downstairs.  1 with the Condor .25.  Story 3-4 posts down.  Got 3 of them afterall but could have been 6 if I kept the gun loaded (doh!)    

[airiscool]

Nice shot !  
Not surprising about the quick freeze, it was 8 below here just after Sun rise. I'm surprised the critters even come out with it that cold.

Hurry up Spring !!!!!

That stinks about the mag being empty, but yeah, it comes with age. I've gotten to the point were I keep fogetting how bad my memory is getting ! The good news is that last years jokes are funny all over again.  

A while back, the girl Friend and I were at the tape store looking to rent a movie. I saw one that the box cover looked interesting. Since she's younger, her memory is better. I showed it to her and asked if we'd seen it already. She just cracked up laughing as she pointed out the title to me ......... it was the movie Deja Vu.

Paul.

[Mebits]

D'OH!!!

LOL!

I can't do that, but I understand it, that's for sure!

[dk1677]

Nice shot Harry! LOL on the memory, I did that last fall I missed a gray and had a chance for a second shot and thought the 850 sounded funny when I missed again and realized that the clip was empty. Now after  a few shots  I change the clip. Amen Paul! 5 below this morning and it only got up to 14 but the birds were busy, there were a few sparrows around so I took the RS3 and put a crow mag in , there was one about 25 yards on the bottom of my chain link fence Pulled the trigger on him and the feathers few. Then I was checking to make sure he was not moving and I see about 2 feet behind him a line in the snow about 6 long , at first I thought it was mouse trail then it hit me that it was the crow mag , it passed though and went about 8 ft further till the angle brought in down into the ground.

[only1harry]

I hear you Paul, that was funny.  I can't remember jokes people tell me after a few days.  I find myself forgetting the shot count on my 850 (must change CO2 after about 150 shots) or how many magazines I have gone through.  If it weren't for the pellet holder on my Condors I 'd be losing count with those 2.  I usually recharge them after I have gone the ones in the pellet holder x 2 or 36 shots.  Pretty soon I 'll forget whether I 'm on the 1st or 2nd pellet holder

Nice shooting on that sparrow Dave!  They are not easy targets @ 25yds..

Speaking of Condors...  I got a new sniping position downstairs now in the family room now.  I made a small gap in the blinds and with the window open they have no idea I 'm deep in the room about 10ft in.  It's too dark for them to see me.  So I figure let me practice with the Condor a little.  Well within 2-3min. after I had taken all 16 shots at a target near the bait station and had an empty pellet holder, here comes the flock attacking the cat food again which I had replenished.  I quickly ran and loaded a Kodiak and came back.  I picked one out and let the Kodiak find it and dessimate it  The Starling fell straight back off the rim of the bowl it was sitting on.  
I went and chronied the Condor .25 and it was still shooting 1,029fps (or ~73fpe).  Wings, feathers, legs seemed to be all over the place on this bird with chunks of meat coming out its back and blood in different directions..  

Then about 20-25min. later the flock returned.  This time I had the 850 and was ready and took 1 out with a single shot again.  It flew - more like walked/ran about 6ft from the bowl and died.  First pics of the one shot with the TT Condor .25, then 850, and then all 3 including the one from this morning which was still back there near a tree where I had thrown it.  I 'm glad I chased a cat away earlier.  She was coming to eat it.  If I had let her do that I wouldn't have been able to have a great photo shoot of all 3  :-)

[dk1677]

Nice job Harry! I almost wish I had some around. What I do with my 850 is every time I take a cartridge out I fill it and keep a paper with the number of pellets so I have a running total

[Mebits]

LOL!

OK, I wasn't going to share this, but I recently did a rehab and in fact, I'm still shooting a bit of trim. The finishing nail gun really makes short work of it. On the other hand, you've got a lot of caulk and putty work to do if you frustratedly keep shooting the trim without any nails in the gun!

M

[only1harry]

That's funny Mark.  I think we 've all done something similar but luckily it was just pellets with me and no major job

Dave:  I used to write down the # of mags after I put a new CO2 in the 850, but stopped that a while back.  Getting lazy I guess, but it's actually easy for me to figure out when I need to change it.  All I have to do is put it through the chrony when I suspect it's low or not shooting strong enough.  The Chrony tells me what I need to know.  
I usually put a new one 88gr cartridge in when velocity is down to the low 500's (from 600's) and that's after around 175-200 shots.  The first 100 shots are very close to full power, after that the velocity declines gradually, but I have used it down to the mid-high 400's in the Spring & summer of '08 when there were Starlings & Grackles all over my yard every day.  The Grackles would land on the spruce which is only about 11yds from my bdrm window and try and hide in there thinking I can't see them.  They male Grackles do this every Spring during mating season.  They make screeching sounds to attract females.  Very annoying sounds..  For some reason they all like my spruce tree during the Spring and early summer.  They do a pretty good job hiding in this tree most of the time, but often they would inch out from behind the pine needles to take a look around or see if I 'm still at the window, and I 'd be there waiting for them with the 850.  Sometimes I would just pick them out from a tiny opening (because they keep making noises) and shoot them.  Since the distance was so short, I just kept shooting well below 500fps.  One time I didn't replace the cartridge almost all summer and got almost 300 shots out of a single one!  I could have kept shooting but it was in the low 400's so if I figured it's time for a new one.  400-450fps is still plenty of power to take them out with a 14.3gr .22 pellet.  I even got some 20+yds out with that power level.  Funny thing though if I pushed my luck and went for a Starling or Grackle 25yds out, the bird had time to fly away or move before the pellet reached it!  hehehe.

[jake]

nice shooting harry!

[shadow]

Great shooting and pic's brother. did you get bird fever shooting air at em instead of lead.   Ed

[1377x]

too bad about the empty magazine
nice shooting on the rest of them

[gamo2hammerli]

Excellent shooting at those starlings.  At least you were shooting your 850 and not a springer....that would really do abit of damage with the dry-fire.  I had that happen to me when I was shooting my FX Cyclone....the mag doesn't have any indicator (# or red dot) to let the shooter know that you're out of pellets.  I thought I still had one or two pellets in there and pulled the trigger on a starling last fall....poof went the PCP....but no shot.  duh

[Mebits]

I hit a sparrow with a crow mag a few months ago, and he flew..he got about 3' off the ground and literally, the bottom part of his body fell off. He got a couple feet higher and then fell to the ground dead. I kinda had one of those, "Doood!" moments...

M