American Airguns Blog
The Random Ramblings Of An Airgun Addict

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.

There are all kinds of targets available on the market for use at the range or backyard. These days it is easy to find sites on the web that host a variety of targets from any kind of small animal you can think of to official bullseye targets. Doing a Google search for rifle or paper targets will yield a bunch vendors and hobbyists sites with targets listed on them.

For my practicing though, I like just a simple set of circles and dots arranged in an array to shoot at. I make my own targets on the computer using Visio or an older program by Micrografx called Designer. The targets I make are just an array of 1" circles that have a 1/2" circle and dot inside of it. The 1" circles are then arrayed across and down the page. This can yield up to 42 targets pretty comfortably. I also like to put dots in between the targets for additionals aim points. With such a large amount of targets the paper doesn't need to be changed out much.

For my standing shooting I have developed a target for shooting in my garage at 6.5 meters which is the max distance I can get on my indoor range. I took the basic 10 meter target and scaled it down to 6.5 meters and then put 20 of them on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper. I really enjoy shooting in the garage, especially in the evening when I can't shoot outside.

One problem we all have is the paper that is available for printing homemade targets on, it just isn't the same as standard heavy target paper. Most paper and card stock is made with long fibers that give the paper strenght but make the paper more prone to tear when shot. Most target paper use short fiber in the paper so that tearing is reduce and a cleaner hole is made when the pellet passes through. I have used cardstock for years for my practice targest and it works pretty well, especially for round nose pellets. It is easy to get at any office supply store or copy center. I usually just print out my target and have a copy center copy it onto cardstock, usually in a beige color.

I recently found a site on the web called Pistoleer.com that now sells 8.5x11 target paper in both light and heavy stock that can be bought for not much more than cardstock. I have some on order and will report on it later but if it works out, it could make homemade target perform much better. They also have a wide variety of standard targets for sale and it is worth taking a look at them as well. It is fun to make up my own targets and I would encourage everyone to give it a try.