Saturday, April 23, 2005
Two dead birds
It's spring again and with it comes so many things. One of those things are Starlings. Here in Alabama they are one of a few animals that are allowed to be shot all year round. They are a pest animal that can carry disease and they are known to kill song bird eggs in the spring.
Last night I was out on the back porch talking with my lovely wife when I noticed that two starlings flew in and landed in the woods right behind my home. While we continued talking I went inside the back door and grabbed my ProSport in .22 caliber and a couple of Crosman Premier pellets. The ProSport has a Hawke 6x scope on it with a mil-dot reticle.
I hadn't really shot the ProSport much since last summer but I knew where it was hitting the last time I used it so I was off to get the Starlings. They were only about 30 yards from where my wife and I were talking on the back porch but I decided to close the gap a bit. These birds were obviously used to humans being around as I was able to walk up to within 15 yards of them before taking aim.
One of the two jumped up on a log which sealed his fate, I drew down on him and positioned my crosshairs directly on his chest and squeezed the trigger. Thud, it fell to the ground and didn't move. I figured that the other bird would be gone with the sound of his buddy being dispatched but he only flew a couple of yards away and landed on a branch. He must of thought his buddy was taking a nap since he quickly flew back down to the ground and started foraging again. I reloaded and took aim again. This guy was a bit more active and I waited for an open shot, #2 paused for a moment and I jerked the trigger, apparently a bit too much as the shot went low and right.
Amazing to me, the second starling still didn't fly off. It went around a big tree so I moved up a bit more so that I was near the fence. As I brought up the reloaded rifle for a third shot it came out from behind the fence, the distance was around 17 yards which was still in my zero range, so with crosshairs on the birds chest region I squeezed once again and with a dull thud he went down. It flopped about a bit so I reloaded for final shot but by the time I walked up to where it came to rest all movement had stopped. I put one more into him just to be sure and it was over.
My ProSport is an incredible rifle. If I could only keep one of my airguns it would probably be it. This rifle is completely stock except for some extra spring tar that I put on it a few years ago. It is so quiet and smooth that it makes it easy to hit what I aim at. It shoots around 680-700 fps with Crosman Premiers, which is about 14.5 ft lbs of energy. I guess I was really impressed that with almost no shots put through this rifle for such a long time that it was still on zero. It is my primary pest rifle and probably will be for some time to come.
Last night I was out on the back porch talking with my lovely wife when I noticed that two starlings flew in and landed in the woods right behind my home. While we continued talking I went inside the back door and grabbed my ProSport in .22 caliber and a couple of Crosman Premier pellets. The ProSport has a Hawke 6x scope on it with a mil-dot reticle.
I hadn't really shot the ProSport much since last summer but I knew where it was hitting the last time I used it so I was off to get the Starlings. They were only about 30 yards from where my wife and I were talking on the back porch but I decided to close the gap a bit. These birds were obviously used to humans being around as I was able to walk up to within 15 yards of them before taking aim.
One of the two jumped up on a log which sealed his fate, I drew down on him and positioned my crosshairs directly on his chest and squeezed the trigger. Thud, it fell to the ground and didn't move. I figured that the other bird would be gone with the sound of his buddy being dispatched but he only flew a couple of yards away and landed on a branch. He must of thought his buddy was taking a nap since he quickly flew back down to the ground and started foraging again. I reloaded and took aim again. This guy was a bit more active and I waited for an open shot, #2 paused for a moment and I jerked the trigger, apparently a bit too much as the shot went low and right.
Amazing to me, the second starling still didn't fly off. It went around a big tree so I moved up a bit more so that I was near the fence. As I brought up the reloaded rifle for a third shot it came out from behind the fence, the distance was around 17 yards which was still in my zero range, so with crosshairs on the birds chest region I squeezed once again and with a dull thud he went down. It flopped about a bit so I reloaded for final shot but by the time I walked up to where it came to rest all movement had stopped. I put one more into him just to be sure and it was over.
My ProSport is an incredible rifle. If I could only keep one of my airguns it would probably be it. This rifle is completely stock except for some extra spring tar that I put on it a few years ago. It is so quiet and smooth that it makes it easy to hit what I aim at. It shoots around 680-700 fps with Crosman Premiers, which is about 14.5 ft lbs of energy. I guess I was really impressed that with almost no shots put through this rifle for such a long time that it was still on zero. It is my primary pest rifle and probably will be for some time to come.
