My best HOSP shot!

[Martintown33]

Man , I have to share how pleased and proud I am, of a shot I made on a brazen male HOSP this morning . I heard a raucous going on at my site so went out to have a look. A male HOSP had apparently taken possession of an unoccupied gourd, that an ASY male had been holding onto as a second residence. The HOSP was in the gourd tunnel with just his head sticking out the hole. The ASY was fighting with the HOSP, trying to pull him out. But Even with the help of other martins the HOSP wouldn’t give up the gourd. I got in my blind, but couldn’t get a shot on him, because of the angle. So I got out, expecting him to fly off, but he just ducked in a bit, with only half of his head , now sticking out the hole. I went and got a lawn chair to use as a barrel rest. Got down on a knee, and put my crosshairs on his left eye, with still just half his head sticking out. My martins flying around , sqwaking at him. I pulled the trigger… got the little sucker! Pellet through the left eye… so pleased and proud of this shot.. and happy that my martins babies are safe..
Rob

[defed]

feels good to make a shot like that. i once got a starling w/ his head (profile) poking out of the hole. I'm not that great of a shot so i don't often take those especially w/ my plastic gourds. the one i made was a wooden house, so i wasn't too worried about hitting it.

[C.C.Martins]

No stinking way!!!!!! Oh what a shot!!!!! In the eye! Only shot you had and wow what a hit.
Man thats wonderful. Little jerk wasn't worried about you, he knew if he left he'd start his fight over.
Great shot Rob, spectacular.

[Martintown33]

Thanks guys,, Really very pleased with the shot… re-zeroing the scope using the zoom magnifying, in the off-season, has really paid dividends… needless to say, when I pulled the dead HOSP out, wasn’t much left of his head!
Rob

[savagedo]

That shot would make Clint Eastwood mighty proud

A couple of weeks ago I drilled a starling sitting on the ridge of my roof…. At 50+ yards with my Diana pellet gun… used my John Deere Gator door as a rest. Those suckers are so wary…. I guess it figured I couldn’t make that shot LOL.

[C.C.Martins]

Pays to practice and shoot doesn't it? Took the new pellet gun to the range during lunch last week for some tweeking; just so happened I needed it to zap one that afternoon.
What is really nice is its a fantastic shot and a "must hit."
This is a good audience for that, doesn't translate well with some. My wife says "poor things" and everyone at work thinks I'm just off a bit.

[Martintown33]

Yep Tom, fine tuning your gun and scope, and target practice definitely pays off.. and agree, Martin landlords are really the only ones who understand that eliminating HOSPS is a must..as we all know, they are an invasive species and endanger the well being of many cavity dwelling indigenous birds, not just martins… on top of that, they are capable of intense evil acts, and are extremely smart and sneaky in achieving them… That’s the way it is.. it’s either them or the martins, so they gotta go!
Rob

[flyin-lowe]

I'm sure you have said before, but I missed it. What gun are you using? A couple weeks ago I bought a Umarex Notos and love it. I had most of the HOSP in my area taken care of but had a few very skittish stragglers I could get. I measured from inside my house to the PM housing and sited the gun in at that distance. I am slowly but surely getting any of them that land on my housing. I hadn't got one for several days but had one land in the shrub about 5 yards behind my T 14 this morning and took him down.

[Martintown33]

Hi flyin.. your numerex notos is a great gun for sure! To your question, I use a gamo whisper 1300 fps, 1 pump, with a konus scope set on 3.5 magnification, and gamo red fire, 7.8 gr pellets, and a stabilizer shooting bag..
Glad you have your HOSPS under control.. same here, except for the occasional unfortunate HOSP who tries to intrude..those dont last long..
Rob

[flyin-lowe]

I need to get my older Gammo out and tinker with it. I can't remember the exact model but I bought it at one of the big box outdoor retailers and never could get it to group. I tried several different type pellets and at 20 yards it was only grouping like 2 inches, no where near what I need to hit a HOSP at 35 yards. At the time I paid around 130.00 or so for the gun, probably 10 or so years ago. I tried varies types of holds, rests, etc. and just not accurate at all. I probably need to clean the barrel real well, get a better scope, and see if I can dial it in....

[Martintown33]

Yep, flyin.. pellet rifles can sometimes be fickle! I really love my gamo.. . I bought it 4 years ago… Im getting consistent nickel sized groups at 20 yards , using stabilizer bag.. it’s accurate and I like the , one pump, 1300 fps.. I almost bought a beeman last year, but decided to stay with the gamo…. beemans are great, but I’m having very good success with the gamo so didn’t want to change things up..
Rob

[Dave Duit]

Great shot buddy. It is always a good feeling to pick off a pesty obnoxious sparrow.

[Jones4381]

You tell a great story and explain it so well, one can feel and see the moment exactly as it occurred and at that exhilarating moment, thank you for that. Congrats on your success.

[DeeCee]

Awesome shot Martintown 33!! Congrats to you. Shooting one of those pesking sparrows always brightens my day. Thanks for sharing such a well written writen story. I felt like I was right there.

[dcronwell]

I am nowhere that good of a shot and to prove it I have the pellet dent a quarter inch above the round entrance in a SuperGourd that had a male HOSP peeking out of earlier this year...

[C.C.Martins]

Haha! Funny, yeah some dings and dents that should have been cushioned by sparrow bone and feathers!

[firefighterdave]

I am a new member to this forum and need a little help with the lingo. What does HOSP and ASY mean?

[Phil01]

Welcome to the forum!

HOSP=House Sparrow
ASY=After Second Year

ASY are adult martins that have made more than one trip to Brazil and back. They have their full adult plumage.

You will also see folks mention SY martins. These are last years fledglings making their first return to nest. They do not have their adult plumage yet. All will have a light colored chest and look similar to the ASY (adult) females.

Phil

[firefighterdave]

Thanks for the info. The pair I have attempting to use the house, the male is very dark purple/blue. The female dark purple on the upper body and wings and lighter on the under side. Growing up my Grandfather had Martins, as a kid we sat for hours watching them fly and feed the young. We lived in the city in the middle of Illinois, so HOSP were a big problem. Here in AR I live very close to Lake Norfork, 13 miles to Mountain Home and I rarely see a HOSP at any of my feeders. So far none around the Martin house.