The other day I hung up some fresh suet cakes on a couple of trees at the far end of my property. I picked these trees because they are directly in line with the basement bilco doors so if I partially open one of the doors, just enough for the muzzle of the rifle, I can sight in on the starlings hanging on the suet cake cage and yet still be almost completely hidden.
Well, just a few minutes ago I looked outside and there was a whole bunch of starlings hanging on the metal suet cake cages and feasting away. I ran down to the basement, grabbed the .177 XS-B3-1 and loaded a Beeman Silver Bear into the barrel. Quietly snuck over to the bilco doors, unlatched the locking mechanism as quietly as I could, and opened one of the doors just enough to insert a small length of 2x4 I had cut to hold the door open enough for the rifle to stick out of the opening and give me a good sight picture. So far so good, the birds were still there unaware.
I picked out a large bull starling, put the crosshairs of the little GAMO 4x scope on his chest as he clung to the suet cage and pulled the trigger. The gun fired and the starling went limp, swung upside down and just hung from the suet cake cage for 2 or 3 seconds before losing his grip and falling to the ground, coming to rest in the pure white snow... All the other starlings took off and I am sad to report that they never returned so that was the end of my starling sniping for today. But the good news is I got a new camera memory card and can proudly post a picture of the XS-B3-1 .177 and the massive bull starling that she culled from the herd/flock :)
Jeff
