Some more backyard pest hunting

[only1harry]

Got one Grackle yesterday at 17yds and another Starling today at 21-22yds with the 850 .22 using CP's.  The 850 is almost out of CO2 and the gun was only shooting in the high 400's.  It was now a 7-8fpe gun.  Shot it a few times at my indoor 14yd targets and noticed the POI had dropped about 0.3".  So I adjusted the POA slightly for both birds.  Both succumbed almost immediately.  The Starling just leaned forward after being hit in the middle of the back and the pic is the way it fell.  I love this 850.  Even with almost 300 shots through it, it has plenty of power to bring birds down.  It's my go-to bird gun.  

I just shot another Starling as I was typing this!  I heard them chirping again and looked out the window.  There were 3 of them.  Shot the one closest about 17-18yds out from a window again.  I held over almost 1" and the gun sounds pretty weak.  I 'm too tired to go back out and take more pics.  Here are the pics from earlier today and yesterday's Grackle.  

[longislandhunter]

Nothin better than a pic of a yellow beak lying on it's back with it's feet up in the air.... :)

Good shooting.......

Jeff

[Gene_SC]

And I always thought the yellow beak black birds were protected.... LOL  I have had swarms of those guys in my back yard lately. They spook easily though. Great shooting Harry.

Gene

[tat2dman]

Kill`em all Gene...

Nicely done...

Don't see any starlings in my neck of the woods...  Just sparrows....  Well, less now..

J

[longislandhunter]

I agree,,, whack em all Gene :)

Starlings are ALWAYS IN SEASON :)

Jeff

[tat2dman]

Sparrows almost as high on ma list...

[PeakChick]

Gene, I don't think Starlings are protected anywhere. They are a non-native, European introduced pest bird, pretty equally loathed everywhere. Probably worth checking local and state regs. I would imagine if you called your local DNR office they would tell you to "whack those avian scum."

[only1harry]

Here 's 1 more pic from today's backyard pest hunt.  Both were out at about 19-20yds.  
I came back in and chronied the 850 because it definitely sounded pretty weak after ~300shots on the same CO2 bottle.  It 's only shooting in the low 430's!  <6fpe but it still managed to take out those yellow beaks very fast.  They both flapped around for 2secs after beign hit, not like before where they just dropped without movement when the gun was shooting ~500fps.  Time to change over to a new 88gr CO2 cylinder and get full power back (>605-610fps at room temp).  This CO2 cartridge took out a lot of game including 3 squirrels in February.  Got my money's worth out of it  :-)