Starlings anyone?

KjBeachy

New member
Do any of you consider it addicting to take out starlings with shotguns?

I personally think its great. Our farm has horrible problems with starlings, and there will literally be flocks by the thousands.

Its not that hard to get 10+ birds out of one shot, my brother once got over 20 out of one shot.

Its very bad though, because starlings will contaminate the heifer feed, so i get rid of all the starlings i can!
 
It's a good addiction. They have a survival mechanism that causes them to lay extra eggs when they have been reduced.
So more shooting of a dirty bird and invasive species at that.
I have scored 50 in one sitting with a pellet gun.
 
Originally Posted By: tripod3It's a good addiction. They have a survival mechanism that causes them to lay extra eggs when they have been reduced.
So more shooting of a dirty bird and invasive species at that.
I have scored 50 in one sitting with a pellet gun.

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i've spent years killing the [beeep] things. we ususually use our 22's, but i've used pellet rifles and shotguns too.

early in the year they're pretty stupid, as the summer progresses they tend to get educated and you really have to work for them. its what taught me to get so good with judging my holdovers for 22lr over the years.
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As a kid growing up in the Ozarks I didn't have much for wing shooting opportunities. I read about pass shooting and wing shooting in the outdoor magazines but other than the quail I occasionally stumbled into while stomping out rabbits on the farm, or the one or two decent days of dove hunting I might see if the fields were just right in September, all I could do was dream and wish. Once in a great while I'd jump shoot a wood duck on the creek behind the house. Mostly it was rabbits and squirrels for me.

I guess I'd been rambling about it around dad too much and one day he said "C'mon..." and I jumped in the truck with him. First thing we did was go to town where dad bought more shotgun shells than I'd ever seen him buy. He sure had my curiosity up as we took the 8 or 10 boxes of dove loads to the truck. It wasn't dove season so I had no clue what Pop had in mind. Next, we went up in the front field where a power line cut across the property. Dad stopped the truck and got the chainsaw out and began cutting up some smallish scrub trees. Then we cleared out a spot snugged up on the creek bank just to the side of the power line. Dad instructed me where and how to pile the brush and it dawned on me we were building a blind. A blind? Dad wouldn't crack and tell me why, just said "tomorrow evening you'll know."

School seemed like torture the next day, I couldn't wait to get home. I got my chores done first thing and waited impatiently for dad to get home from work. As soon as supper was over dad said to get my camo coat and hat. When I came out of my room Pop had his camo on and his Bowning Auto Five Light Twelve. Oh boy! We walked up the field to the new blind we had built and settled onto the log sections we had placed in there for seats. Pop loaded up the A5 and tipped his head to the sky. STARLINGS! Flocks that numbered into the hundreds, probably thousands, were streaming through the break in the overhead cover created by the power line. The nasty black birds were headed somewhere to rain crap down on whatever unfortunate thing was under their roost. The Auto Five flew to dads shoulder, a swing and "bang!" and I watched a starling fold like a cheap seat. After the gun was empty I quickly noticed a big grin on dads face and he loaded up again. Dad handed me his shotgun and began giving me instructions on target focus, swing and follow through. Now this was some kinda fun!

We would make it rain starlings as long as their flights lasted for the birds migratory season. I had to try to scoop up as many as possible and pile them up in a certain spot where dad knew he could pick off the fox or coyote that might investigate the carcasses. I think it was about 350 yards to the bait pile from the barn gate and dad surely loved his .243! Scavengers didn't share dad's enthusiasm for the 80 grain soft points. Did that for years on the farm. Great memories...
 
In the good old days, when I was in high school, I belonged to the FFA (Future Farmers of America). We had a contest each year (pest contest) where we killed all the farm pest we could. We took the heads off the birds we killed. The animals, mostly mice and rats had their tails removed. Every day before classes started kids brought in their kill from the night before in to be counted in the Ag room lab. Each bird or animal species was assigned a point value and scores were kept. Those that scored in the lowest half of the scores bought pints of ice cream and split them with the winning half.
Once or twice a year we brought rifles to school. Most of us brought them in on our school buses. (Along with the ammo of course.) After attendance was taken we got the rifles out of our lockers, placed them in the trunks of kids cars that drove that day and headed out several miles to our school forest. We would trim trees for a while, break to eat and shoot our rifles for score, then finish off the day with playing baseball. No wonder I liked high school so much back then, no wonder so many kids drop out of high school now.
 
I had a 20gr 4200 fps load for my 17 rem that would leave just the legs hanging upside down on branches. The puff of feathers and seeing the leg or legs hanging never grew old.
 
This is where suppressors are worth their weight in gold.

my friend and I set up with 22lr sub sonics and suppressors and we play the distress call, then start shooting at the bottom of the tree, and we have had great luck with this, to the point that we are reloading and keep shooting and they just keep coming and don't fly off.

It's been like a shooting gallery without having to add the quarters.
 
Originally Posted By: KjBeachyDo any of you consider it addicting to take out starlings with shotguns?

I personally think its great. Our farm has horrible problems with starlings, and there will literally be flocks by the thousands.

Its not that hard to get 10+ birds out of one shot, my brother once got over 20 out of one shot.

Its very bad though, because starlings will contaminate the heifer feed, so i get rid of all the starlings i can!

Its very ADDICTING to shoot starlings. Every spring I would have starlings getting in my pigeon coop making nests so I would pick them off with my 22-250 shooting 50gr v-maxs. Way over power but was fun to watch them vaporize.
 
Many years ago in southern Ontario, we went out end of August and beginning of Sept and shoot hundreds of starlings when they migrated through in huge numbers. The flocks would go on for an hour or more.

We gathered the carcasses in potato sacks and made the call to my Italian buddy. His wife would get on the phone and by the time we got to his house the place was buzzing with people looking to have a party. the women picked and cleaned the birds. Cut the feet and beaks off and wrapped them in bacon or cappocola, or prosciutto and onto the BBQ. They are dressed but still had the beakless heads on. Olive oil garlic and some wine brushed on them.

We drank homemade wine and told lies and laughed and ate those tasty little buggers until late into the night
 
We shoot them out of the mulberry trees. When a shotgun goes off the red tailed hawks that live in the back yard pine tree will fly down and watch us gather them. We stack them in a pile and the hawk feeds her young. She raises her brood on them with little trouble from lead poisoning as far as I can tell.
 
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Starlings,pigeons,and European sparrows are all not protected so all are on the hit list for me! I like the air-rifle over the shotgun just because its quieter and i get more shot opportunities!
 
Last Winter I shot 7 times into a huge flock of starlings. 39 fell (that I found) and my buddy that was with me said there was more falling out of the sky as he was watching them fly away. I killed 4 with one shot the first day we went out dove huntin this year. I call those non-target species bonus birds.
 
In the past I would run the FoxPro with starling distress and shoot them as they landed in the tall cottonwoods behind my parents house with my 28ga or 12ga, if they landed in the yard or outside of shotgun distance my .17wsm makes a mess of them. I also have a purple martin house in the yard and trap the starlings and sparrows that harass the martins.
 
We shot so many out the fruit trees one year that we trained the hawks to eat them. We would shoot them and then just make a little pile outside of the fruit trees. By the time that we made to the porch the red tail hawks would fly down and eat them or take them back to the nest. They should have all died of lead poisoning but they are still there in the back yard.
 
I love that plop they make when shot with a 17HMR. They love to nest in the bluebird nest boxes along my driveway. In early spring I make sure to keep the HMR in the truck at all times. Usually right beside the 204 that stays in the truck. Of course they are always around the shop and barns but they really tick me off around the bluebirds.

God Bless, Louis
 
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