This weekend I was on my riding mower and noticed a pair of sparrows fighting with an ASY male martin on my house. The two sparrows would take the martin to the ground and then fly back up to the house. I would drive the mower over to scare them away and it didn't even bother the sparrows. This gave me the idea to go into the house for my pellet gun. I jumped on the mower with my pellet gun and drove right under the house and two shots later...no more sparrows. I left the mower running while pumping and loading the pellet gun so the sparrows didn't even hear the "pop of death".
Just thought it might be another tactic in our war against these pests.
New sparrow elimination tactjc!
Congrats and great story! -
Bob Flam
good idea, I've had one I missed before and getting another shot was tough! Parked my truck out back and shot out of the window...problem solved.
Someone else did that once and shot the window out of their truck
The barrel is lower than the scope doen-cha-kno 
When I was a teen years back...Come fall when the sparrows roost in mass...we took a flashlight and BB gun into some small trees/shrubs and literally filled 2 large brown paper bags completely full. Didn't have martins...but when I grew up some people knew about scumbeaks and sparrows anyway.
bob
Someone else did that once and shot the window out of their truck
The barrel is lower than the scope doen-cha-kno When I was a teen years back...Come fall when the sparrows roost in mass...we took a flashlight and BB gun into some small trees/shrubs and literally filled 2 large brown paper bags completely full. Didn't have martins...but when I grew up some people knew about scumbeaks and sparrows anyway.
bob
-
roblrich
That sentence reminded me of the time I was a dumb teenager (decades ago) and on one Halloween, me and a buddy were drinking and driving around tossing cherry bombs and M-80's out our car window into neighbor's yards or wherever. We weren't trying to hurt anyone, was just trying to startle them with the boom.Bob Flam wrote: Someone else did that once and shot the window out of their truck
bob
Guess we got to the point where we had too much beer. I was driving and we were approaching one of my neighbor's yards, and they were outside paying no attention to us. We slowed down and my buddy in the passenger seat lit the M-80 I was holding and once the fuse was lit, I threw it out my driver's side window as we had done many times that night. But this time, it was getting late and had become quite a bit cooler and I had forgotten I had rolled my window up. The M-80 and my poor hand hit my car window, and the M-80 fell right between my legs and was lying there on the car seat between my legs about to take away my manhood.
I screamed, hollered, squealed I'm sure. But I made like a mail man, got as far as I could to the passenger side of the car, pinning my friend against the door. While I was screaming and hollering like a little girl, my friend had stuck his fingers in his ears and closed his eyes, then the thing exploded.
I was driving an old early 60'ish Galaxy 500 with cloth covered seats. The explosion tore up my seat and all the dirt and dust from thousands of miles of driving on graveled Kentucky roads was now floating around my car cabin along with the M-80 smoke and gun powder, and we couldn't breath. We in a panic rolled down our windows and hung out our heads as far as we could gasping for air.
Instead of startling and scaring my neighbors, they were then laughing and pointing at us while we tried to catch our breaths and the car slowly rolled into a ditch.
-
Guest
Bob,
If we are going to try claiming bragging rights for dumb stunts I'm reminded of something I did about eight years ago just after my wife and I moved to our place in Southwestern Michigan. We bought a place on forty acres with a fixer-up house. I was busy remodeling the bathroom and had removed the shower glass that surrounded the tub. I had leaned it against our tool shed about a hundred feet from our back deck on the gravel road leading to our barn.
We had started feeding the birds from multiple feeders on and around our deck and were experiencing problems with a racoon that visited the deck nightly tearing up the feeders. To combat the raccoon I had purchased a CO2 pellet gun. I started getting up in the middle of the night when I would hear the coon and race to the sliding glass door to the deck. By time I could get the door open to shoot the coon would already be in full retreat and I could never get a good shot off - just scared him away for an hour or so. Then he would be back. My wife got a kick out of this nightly ritual.
Very late on one evening I heard the coon at the feeders again and tip-toed to the door. I opened the door as quietly as possible, but the coon had already left the deck and was climbing a nearby tree. This particular evening happened to be a full moon and the coon was silhouetted as it climbed the trunk of the tree. I didn't have time or a good target picture so instead of squeezing off a well placed shot I pointed in the general direction of the coon and let loose several quick ones. The coon continued up the tree unfazed, but it was what took place in the distant background that caught my attention.
From the area of the shed I witness a large square area turn momentarily opaque in the moonlight and then melt to the ground, accompanied by a pop and the sound of crumbling glass. Yup, I shot the shower glass! The tempered glass completely disintegrated into a million tiny chunks of glass that fell from the frame to the ground. Tired and mad I mumbled a few choice words and returned to bed. In the morning the incident was all but forgotten.
Several days later on the weekend my wife and I mowed the lawn - I drove the tractor and she did trim work with the push mower. At dinner she mentioned to me that something or someone had broken the shower glass out by the shed. Not wanting to admit my poor mid-night marksmanship, I feigned surprise - "what?" "Yes", she replied, "the glass is all crumbled on the ground".
Thinking fast I replied "you must have thrown a stone when you go dragging the push mower down the gravel driveway with it running". My wife (who once cut off half the toes on one foot with a push mower) quietly replied "oh" and went back to eating. She was aware of her reputation with a push mower and obviously accepted credit for the broken glass. I had difficulty finishing dinner while trying not to laugh out loud.
Unfortunately, my wife reads this forum. If (or when) she reads this I think I know what she will do with the remaining half of the toes on her foot
! Think maybe I'll just start running now.....
Jeff
If we are going to try claiming bragging rights for dumb stunts I'm reminded of something I did about eight years ago just after my wife and I moved to our place in Southwestern Michigan. We bought a place on forty acres with a fixer-up house. I was busy remodeling the bathroom and had removed the shower glass that surrounded the tub. I had leaned it against our tool shed about a hundred feet from our back deck on the gravel road leading to our barn.
We had started feeding the birds from multiple feeders on and around our deck and were experiencing problems with a racoon that visited the deck nightly tearing up the feeders. To combat the raccoon I had purchased a CO2 pellet gun. I started getting up in the middle of the night when I would hear the coon and race to the sliding glass door to the deck. By time I could get the door open to shoot the coon would already be in full retreat and I could never get a good shot off - just scared him away for an hour or so. Then he would be back. My wife got a kick out of this nightly ritual.
Very late on one evening I heard the coon at the feeders again and tip-toed to the door. I opened the door as quietly as possible, but the coon had already left the deck and was climbing a nearby tree. This particular evening happened to be a full moon and the coon was silhouetted as it climbed the trunk of the tree. I didn't have time or a good target picture so instead of squeezing off a well placed shot I pointed in the general direction of the coon and let loose several quick ones. The coon continued up the tree unfazed, but it was what took place in the distant background that caught my attention.
From the area of the shed I witness a large square area turn momentarily opaque in the moonlight and then melt to the ground, accompanied by a pop and the sound of crumbling glass. Yup, I shot the shower glass
! The tempered glass completely disintegrated into a million tiny chunks of glass that fell from the frame to the ground. Tired and mad I mumbled a few choice words and returned to bed. In the morning the incident was all but forgotten. Several days later on the weekend my wife and I mowed the lawn - I drove the tractor and she did trim work with the push mower. At dinner she mentioned to me that something or someone had broken the shower glass out by the shed. Not wanting to admit my poor mid-night marksmanship, I feigned surprise - "what?" "Yes", she replied, "the glass is all crumbled on the ground".
Thinking fast I replied "you must have thrown a stone when you go dragging the push mower down the gravel driveway with it running". My wife (who once cut off half the toes on one foot with a push mower) quietly replied "oh" and went back to eating. She was aware of her reputation with a push mower and obviously accepted credit for the broken glass. I had difficulty finishing dinner while trying not to laugh out loud.
Unfortunately, my wife reads this forum. If (or when) she reads this I think I know what she will do with the remaining half of the toes on her foot
! Think maybe I'll just start running now..... Jeff
I use a similar tactic, I park my Trooper in a prime location and set one out when I've got a tuff one on the back sides of my houses. Your story is great!!! the only thing Better IMO if you would of used a 410. that way no more sparrow and clean up all in one shot
-
Guest
RC,
The easy thing about shooting them when I am on a riding lawn mower.....let's just say I don't have to pick them up after I mow.
The easy thing about shooting them when I am on a riding lawn mower.....let's just say I don't have to pick them up after I mow.
-
Guest
RC,
The .410 is indeed a great option where practical. The only downside to it is the availability and cost of .410 shells these days. I have mass quantities of used shells but I have not sprung for a reloader yet. My consumption of .410 shells is in the area of enough to definitely feel the pinch when I purchase factory loads but not enough to really justify the investment in a reloader. Seems like there should be a sparrow hunters discount.
I gave up on CO2 pellet pistols and rifles long ago. But, I never had the caliber of pellet gun (pun intended
) that I have seen discussed on this forum. From information others have posted it sounds like you can achieve a very high velocity and accuracy from some of the higher end rifled pellet guns.
Trapping has always been my main method of sparrow control. Usually the traps never catch anything but sparrows. However, during the migratory season we're in now I am catching white crested sparrows and song sparrows (good guys) so I have curtailed trapping until the good ones pass through.
Jeff
The .410 is indeed a great option where practical. The only downside to it is the availability and cost of .410 shells these days. I have mass quantities of used shells but I have not sprung for a reloader yet. My consumption of .410 shells is in the area of enough to definitely feel the pinch when I purchase factory loads but not enough to really justify the investment in a reloader. Seems like there should be a sparrow hunters discount.
I gave up on CO2 pellet pistols and rifles long ago. But, I never had the caliber of pellet gun (pun intended
) that I have seen discussed on this forum. From information others have posted it sounds like you can achieve a very high velocity and accuracy from some of the higher end rifled pellet guns. Trapping has always been my main method of sparrow control. Usually the traps never catch anything but sparrows. However, during the migratory season we're in now I am catching white crested sparrows and song sparrows (good guys) so I have curtailed trapping until the good ones pass through.
Jeff
Jeff, there are several lower priced Pellet guns that repeat pretty good. I find that most of the time it's me or the pellet flies when I miss. I clean mine guns once a month to keep the lead build up out of the barrels. IMO you also need a good scope 32MM or bigger, if fact for use that have visions problems the bigger the better. I am extremely happy with my latest one BS AS392T, It's a single shot airsorce bottle gun that has two power settings. Cost is around 125 bucks (air bottles 2 for about 9 bucks which is at least 200 to 300 shots per bottle). I like the pump-ups or CO2s (If they don't leak) due to the fact you don't have to worry about an repercussions like you get with the spring guns. Nesto your right clean up would be easy on the mower, HEE, HEE, Hee!