This past week I coordinated for a bird hunt at one of our local feedlots. Terry, a coworker and avid air rifler, brought his howitzer (.22 RWS 54) and I had my just modified .22 Hammerli 850. Last night I had changed the regulator pressure and custom built a 2-speed power adjuster and reassembled it right before dark. I pumped it to about 2500# and it suffered hammer lock. Apparently the regulator wasn't working correctly. It was only shooting about 700-750fps. I got up this morning at 05:30 and ran down to the shop, disassembled the whole gun and took out some regulator shims. I also added about 1/8" preload spacer to the hammer spring. I then gassedit back up with the shop compressor feeding 30# into the Benji pump. That works great. About 150 pumps from 0# to 2500#. Much faster than pumping from atmospheric pressure.
Since the velocity wasn't very stable, I hadn't practiced much with this setup and it was breezy/windy my confidence wasn't soaring. I kept overshooting birds by either overestimating the range or assuming the pellet drop was more than it is. Once the bugs are worked out of this setup, I'll shoot the daylights out of it and be proficient to 75 yards or so.
We got out to the cattle yards about 09:00 and I quickly zeroed my gun at 25 yards. Terry and I were camo'd up and started the day by hiding behind some 4'x4'x8' hay bales about 20-30 yards away from some tall grain silos. We shot a few pigeons and starlings off the bins, ladders, wires, cables and walkways. At that range you could easily hear the WHOP sound. Terry's 54 is very accurate, has good power and Terry is a great shot. Very deadly combo.
We then walked across the gravel county road, about 100 yards away to the cattle yards. There were hundreds of pigeons and just about as many starlings walking around in the pens. The fences are made out of RR ties with 2"x12" planks. People are around there a lot, sometimes on horses so the pigeons weren't scared of people. We had on camo and walked hunched over and slowly. That would allow you to sneak up behind these solid fences, sometimes 15 yards away. We always tried to pick one backed by an manure pile or one away from the livestock incase you missed and the pellet would just ricochet into the distant fields. We did that for a couple hours and smoked dozens of pigeons. About 1/2 would fall DRT and the other 1/2 would puff feathers and either fall in the distant corrals or glide to the nearby fields to die.
Terry left early so I stayed for another hour and got about 8-9 more. One lone pigeon was 2 pens over. I guessed at the range, held 3 mil-dots high and the pellet still landed short. 4 mil dots was the right height but the wind drifted it about 3"-4" to the left. The pigeon stayed there. 4 mil-dots high and 1/2 mil-dot right and WHOP. It fluttered a few times before it quit moving. I went to retrieve it and it was right at 70 yards.
Today is the only shooting day I forgot my camera. I collected my quarry and brought them home for a pic. 21 pigeons, 1 starling and 3 other birds. There were at least 10-12 pigeons that got hit hard but limped off, which I'm not counting. We're thinking of heading back before dark for another shooting session. I'll get some more pics then and add them.
