Pesky pigeons

I have a problem with pigeons in my back yard. There are hundreds of them. I started out using my .22lr to snipe them off the power line where they roost during the day. Somebody called the police. The officer who came to my house decided to give me some advice instead of a ticket. He suggested I buy a high powered air gun and only snipe the pigeons during the day when everyone else is at work. After some shopping around I bought a Gamo Whisper .177 cal. pellet rifle.

I set up a blind behind my house and measured the distance from the blind to the roost at 66 ft. I then sighted the scoped rifle dead on at that range. I went out to my blind this morning for the first attempt at the pigeons with this new gun. I fired 5 shots and dropped 5 pigeons. All head shots.

Looks like I'll have plenty of trapping bait this winter.
http://www.gamousa.com/images/rifles/detail_whisper.jpg

Trapping bait?! What's wrong with eating them? Also, be careful handling them. They are prone to lice and mites.

http://www.pigeonvitality.com/index2...do_pdf=1&id=86

Nice rifle..

Thanks for the caution Rick. I'm hanging them on the side of the shed for a couple days before I cut them into bait. I'm also using nitril glove when handling them, it keeps the human scent off of them and protects me.

Kevin, how much for the rifle, is it a scope package.......?

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Originally Posted by Sourdough

Kevin, how much for the rifle, is it a scope package.......?

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It is a scoped package and cost was $269.00 at Sports Authority. I'm using 9.5 gr. flat nose RWS pellets

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Originally Posted by Rick

Trapping bait?! What's wrong with eating them? Also, be careful handling them. They are prone to lice and mites.

http://www.pigeonvitality.com/index2...do_pdf=1&id=86

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Yeah, I think that in most parts of the world, pigeons are concidered a delica.....deliku......dilecas.......good eatin'!:lol:

A lot of people don't know this about those air rifles, but: The recoil small as it is, is so SHARP that it will damage a high power rifle scope that will absorb the recoil of an elephant gun.

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Originally Posted by Sourdough

A lot of people don't know this about those air rifles, but: The recoil small as it is, is so SHARP that it will damage a high power rifle scope that will absorb the recoil of an elephant gun.

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That's why I was asking Rick, about the one he was putting on his air rifle, the other day. I didn't want anyone to kill a good scope. LOL

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Originally Posted by 2dumb2kwit

That's why I was asking Rick, about the one he was putting on his air rifle, the other day. I didn't want anyone to kill a good scope. LOL

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Yea, about the first 5 times I heard about that......I said: "BULL'SPIT".

I've ate pigeon. it was pretty good. like dove only bigger if I remember correctly.

I have a hard time keeping my scope mount from moving on my GAMO. Had to put some white out where it meets the base so if it moves I know and can reset/ retighten it.:sneaky2:

A buddy of mine was looking at getting one of those setups. Its legal to hunt some small game animals, birds and nongame critters in Alabama with an air powered rifle. But because that model has that muzzle/silencer thingy barrel would it be considered a suppressed weapon and be illegal to hunt with?

Air rifle recoil is very different than rifle recoil. A rifle recoils straight back. A spring piston air rifle recoils backwards at first then snaps forward as the spring completes its travel. Its the spike that occurs between the rearward movement and the forward that destroys ordinary rifle scopes. It's like the rifle internally slams on the brakes really hard during recoil, a motion that rifle scopes are not designed to deal with. There are also other back and forth vibrations as the spring comes to rest.

This difference also teaches proper follow through during recoil making air rifle practice excellent for shooting firearms. I practice with an air rifle here in Brazil and notice that my rifle skills don't diminish at all when I get back home to my "real" guns.

Good shooting BTW, 66 yard head shots are to be respected.

Mac

Yes, pigeons have been raised in rooftop cages in metro areas for longer than we have been alive. Chefs call them "Squab", and there are a gazillion recipes for them...some are here:
http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=pigeon
I've not tried them, but if I had a lot of them around and a nice air rifle, I would become an expert in Squab preparation!

I like the Gamos, Had a Gamatic (kind of a bullpup design). I killed more than 177 pigeons that were roosting in our hanger and pooping on our planes. The last straw was as I was walking across the hanger deck with my morning coffee, a damm pigeon dropped a load right into my coffee cup (and i was a moving target)

Here's the one I picked up and where I purchased it.

http://www.pyramydair.com/p/RWS-34-B...er-Combo.shtml

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Originally Posted by Pict

Air rifle recoil is very different than rifle recoil. A rifle recoils straight back. A spring piston air rifle recoils backwards at first then snaps forward as the spring completes its travel. Its the spike that occurs between the rearward movement and the forward that destroys ordinary rifle scopes. It's like the rifle internally slams on the brakes really hard during recoil, a motion that rifle scopes are not designed to deal with. There are also other back and forth vibrations as the spring comes to rest.

This difference also teaches proper follow through during recoil making air rifle practice excellent for shooting firearms. I practice with an air rifle here in Brazil and notice that my rifle skills don't diminish at all when I get back home to my "real" guns.

Good shooting BTW, 66 yard head shots are to be respected.

Mac

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66 yards.....I wish. Its 66 feet.

The scope that comes with the air rifle is designed for spring piston air rifles. Companies like Gamo, RWS, Beeman and other make scopes just for spring piston air rifles.

KKLAK, it was 66 meters, in gale force wind, on a moonless night (got to tell it proper)
Now a pidgeon with 66 feet, that's hard to swallow....

A black pigeon on a moonless night.....