It is true, WadeS and I went back to "The Farm" the morning of Superbowl Sunday. This time we took one of my best friends, Jeff. He has wanted to go with us for a few months but is air-rifleless. His Sheridan .20 is getting "steroided" at Mac1. Should be done in a couple months. I let Jeff shoot my TF-89 all day and I think he had a good time. This gun broke it's main spring on the last starling shoot but I had a new spring put in and a lube-tune by Darrell's Airguns in PDX. I think it picked up some power as well!!!!! It was shooting about 780fps a month ago in the cold. We chrono'd it saturday in the cold and it was averaging about 825fps. If this keeps up, I expect about 870-880 fps in the summer. Wade was shooting his trusty Mendoza .22. I got a new AR this past week, a .22 Hammerli 850 Airmagnum. I also picked up a Leapers 3x9 Bugbuster scope and Accushot short 1-piece mount. This gun is on co2 so I put a couple hand warmers in the frontstock, up against the 88g cartridge.
This trip was kind of depressing. We had a nice linear growth to our shooting numbers. Our goal was 1000 birds for the day. When we got there, things weren't as busy as usual. There were plenty of birds but the weather was clear and they were flying more freely. The past two trips were foggy and they didn't like to fly much. We first went to the barns and closed the doors, locking ourselves in. There were only about 200 starlings or so in there and they were finding a way out somewhere. After shooting about 30-40 the barn was empty. :0 :0
We drove nextdoor to the reject food piles and shot for a couple hours. Jeff wasn't having good luck as my TF is very hold-sensitive and he wasn't used to shooting it. My 850 was "blooping" out pellets at about 500-600 fps and I didn't have time to sight it very well or practice with it. Wade hit a few but things weren't as usual. The birds were more wary and were intersted in other places. We weren't able to locate any hay bales until close to leaving and just kind of wandered around shooting. We went back to the barn two more times and finally broke the 100 barrier. After a couple hours of shooting, I could see the pellets drop horribly through my scope and realized I was out of air so I quit shooting and spotted for Jeff and Wade.
Jeff did make a great shot on a starling at 64 yards while standing. Wade tagged one at 56 yards. When we were picking up the dead birds, we noticed quite a few were missing from where they wer before. A couple spots there were just feathers and some bloody pieces left. A few hawks had stopped by for a free meal!!! We did manage to see a hawk swoop down and take a starling out of mid-air and fly off with it in it's talons.
Total body count for the day was 134 starlings and 5 pigeons. There were dozens more that were winged or dead where we couldn't retrieve them. See picture. Jeff is on the left, I'm in the middle and WadeS is on the right.
I can't wait to get my 850 on HPA and dialed in!!!!!! It kinda SUCKS to go from 800+fps and confidence to 500-600 fps and no confidence.
WadeS and I are planning on building a portable shooting blind made from a 4'x8' sheet of OSB, some hinges, some paint and tent rods. Should work well.
