English House Sparrows
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yotehunter57
New member
I used to when I was a kid with a pellet rifle. Back then, my dad had running dogs, and there were allways plenty of sparrows around the dog food.
Shayne
Shayne
I've been shooting them for 60 some years but never used a shotgun. A good feed lot and an accurate pellet gun can make for a good day of shooting. Almost like shooting prarie dogs but at shorter ranges. At 60 yards they are a very tough target. Never could get my Dad to pay me for shooting them, he was too smart for that as he new I didn't need any incentive.
HideHunter
New member
I'm after them constantly. One of my two favorite .22 fodders. I've lived on this same piece of dirt (120 acres) most of the time since 1963. Starlings and spatsies (as we call the house sparrows) are wilder than Ethiopian chickens. My dedicated vermin gun is now a MachII and I may have to go to an hmr. Heck I've even eaten them. Takes a lot to make a skillet full but they are really pretty good.
You're the second person I've heard of that eat sparrows. I had an Iranian coworker that used a 12 guage to kill them to eat which makes extremely expensive meat. It got more expensive when he found out it was illegal to shoot in the city limits and was caught.
If you go to the HMR there won't be much left to eat but any way to get rid of them is ok by me.
If you go to the HMR there won't be much left to eat but any way to get rid of them is ok by me.
HideHunter
New member
lol.. well - in all honesty I've only done it a couple times. 20 years ago when the son had a buddy stay the night they were out shooting them from under the eaves with a flashlight and bb gun. They were telling me how many they got and I told them they should have brought them in - we'd cook 'em. There little faces lit up like I'd said "Ice cream for everybody and no school tomorrow." Away the went. They honestly aren't bad.
We've got the Euro-trash moving in now. Eurasion tree sparrows. They're taking over here.
We've got the Euro-trash moving in now. Eurasion tree sparrows. They're taking over here.
chuck hunter
New member
I worked on 2 bird feeder bait stations during the winter in hopes of getting some of the many banded neck dove I have a round my place.
The fish and game said there is no limit, no season and no license needed.
That is an open door for my Benjamin marauder to speak to them.
I have it sighted in and ready to go. I put one at 50 yards and one at 35 yards.
So far no takers. I put a wind sock streamer on the one at 50 yards, but removed it thinking maybe "it" was the reason doves were not landing to get a free meal.
Everyone is putting in their 2 cents with suggestions like, use milo or used black seeds or just use chicken food. I put the pan to my chicken feeder on the ground just below, thinking they may want to taste it on the ground first. Still no birds showing up to eat some lead from my pellet gun.
You would think because it's winter, they would flock to the free food.
I'm not even getting the interest of the magpies.
Maybe it's just a matter of time.
.
The fish and game said there is no limit, no season and no license needed.
That is an open door for my Benjamin marauder to speak to them.
I have it sighted in and ready to go. I put one at 50 yards and one at 35 yards.
So far no takers. I put a wind sock streamer on the one at 50 yards, but removed it thinking maybe "it" was the reason doves were not landing to get a free meal.
Everyone is putting in their 2 cents with suggestions like, use milo or used black seeds or just use chicken food. I put the pan to my chicken feeder on the ground just below, thinking they may want to taste it on the ground first. Still no birds showing up to eat some lead from my pellet gun.
You would think because it's winter, they would flock to the free food.
I'm not even getting the interest of the magpies.
Maybe it's just a matter of time.
.
iowa roger
New member
You are not using the right grain or feed.
Go to your Purina feed dealer, one that sells chicken and pigeon feed. He will have dove feed also. Get some dove feed and put that out in your feeders.
I assume that you are trying to attract ringneck doves.I love to hear them coo.
We used to raise pigeons, and was around doves at the pigeon shows too.
Go to your Purina feed dealer, one that sells chicken and pigeon feed. He will have dove feed also. Get some dove feed and put that out in your feeders.
I assume that you are trying to attract ringneck doves.I love to hear them coo.
We used to raise pigeons, and was around doves at the pigeon shows too.
chuck hunter
New member
Originally Posted By: iowa rogerYou are not using the right grain or feed.
Go to your Purina feed dealer, one that sells chicken and pigeon feed. He will have dove feed also. Get some dove feed and put that out in your feeders.
I assume that you are trying to attract ringneck doves.I love to hear them coo.
We used to raise pigeons, and was around doves at the pigeon shows too.
Ok. I'll try that. You would think with the assortment I have, some bird would show up.
But I'll try dove food to see how that works.
CH
Go to your Purina feed dealer, one that sells chicken and pigeon feed. He will have dove feed also. Get some dove feed and put that out in your feeders.
I assume that you are trying to attract ringneck doves.I love to hear them coo.
We used to raise pigeons, and was around doves at the pigeon shows too.
Ok. I'll try that. You would think with the assortment I have, some bird would show up.
But I'll try dove food to see how that works.
CH
HideHunter
New member
Well chuck I am surprised you don't have birds all over that. We have a very few collared doves here. If they are like a mourning dove they prefer to feed on the ground. Once "something" finds it - more should follow. Good luck.
6mm06
Well-known member
When I was a kid, a local farmer / neighbor was plagued with English Sparrows. He had a lot of grain in the barn and the sparrows were a real problem. He kept me supplied with BBs. I rarely had any money to purchase much, so he saw to it that I wasn't lacking for BBs. The old Daisy model 25 put a lot of them down. That was good training for me as a kid. I had to be quiet, patient, sometimes do a bit of stalking, and be able to accurately shoot. I learned how to shoot that old BB gun well. It was a ton of fun.
Coyotehunter_
New member
I grew up shooting birds with my Daisy BB gun as a kid. I shot a bird out of a small tree about 40 yards away at the very back end of our 1 acre property. The bird fell down and before I could recover it a cat came out from the Rose Bushes and grabbed the bird and hissed at me when I tried to get the bird. I left the bird for the cat and walked away. Never did care much for cats. We have 8 ft tall 4 ft wide rosebushes that surrounded the property when we first moved there.
These days I feed the birds using five or six different types of bird feeders. I put most all the bird feeders up on tall poles off the back wooden deck and put a baffle on the pole under the bird feeder to keep the [beeep] fox squirrels out of the bird feeder with the peanuts.
I attract all types of song birds and a lot of the little brown birds. I use to chase the English Sparrows off but I got tired as they are persistent. I finally gave up and let them eat the bird food too.
I started this when I got my new digital SLR camera. I take pictures of the birds out though my kitchen window and get some good close up pictures of the various type of songbirds.
I even got some video of a Cooper's Hawk sitting on the rail of my deck about 10 ft from my camera. He was trying to catch those little brown birds that were flying into and out of my barberry bushes that surround the deck. The hawk never did catch any of those birds.
One day I was looking out the kitchen window by the sink and noticed a morning dove eating sunflower seeds. I screwed a flat 2'x 3' x 1/2" board onto the corner of the deck and use it as a fish cleaning station. But I also put a flat bird feeder on top of this board and the birds land there and eat the sunflower seeds daily. The hawks in the area see a lot of birds at my feeders thought out the day and they wait for them. The hawks sit in the top of a big 150 ft tall oak tree across the road about 200 yards away. This one particular day I saw a flash fly by the feeder and vanish. It was one of the hawks and he swooped down fast and grabbed a dove off the feeder and flew off faster than lighting. It happened so fast. All that was left after the hawk was gone was a couple of feathers floating in the air. Like the movie Forest Gump starts and ends.
Now when a large flock of blackbirds come to the feeder or grackles I get the pellet gun out.
Just the other day I finally shot a few black birds out of the tree. They were all gone the next day. There was snow on the ground so I could see the black feathers where the birds were at one time. A hawk had swopped down and started to feed on the dead blackbird or Starling. The hawks were hanging around for a few days as I shot several more Gracklings with the pellet gun.
The gun's scope had not be calibrated for shooting the birds out of the trees. I had it zeroed in for about 35 yards on the horizontal. I'm not that familiar with the flight path or bullet drop on the pellet gun so I was not hitting the birds in the trees. Shooting up or down changes the trajectory of the pellet evidently. I was shooting over the top of the birds and missing them for about two or three weeks. They were eating me out of house and home in bird seed. I had 20 or 30 of these black birds/Grackles flowing to my feeders and eating up all my seed and popping all over the deck. So I finally figured out a way to adjust the scope by picking a spot on a tall tree where I could see where the pellets hit and then adjusting the elevation on the scope to get me on target at that range and elevation. After I did that the birds started to fall out of the trees. Needless to say after I killed about a dozen of these nasty birds the rest went to other pastures to feed. They learn fast. They were not afraid of me when I was missing them. They would just fly off to the neighbors trees and then wait a few minutes before returning to my feeders. But after I killed a few they finally left me for good.
In the process I figured out how to adjust my scope for shooting up and downhill. Once I get the data on the pellet drop at various ranges I should be able to zero the scope at 40 yards and make adjustments for different ranges and elevations.
I was glad to find a few videos by a former sniper instructor and learned about MOA Mil Dot adjustments/scope and how to shoot up or down hill. And I finally learned how to use my Leopold RXII range finders TBR thing using the MOA stuff. I know that my scope moves the reticle 1/4 MOA at 100 yards so I can figure out how many MOA's I need to adjust for different shooting situations and adjust the scope accordingly. I didn't know how to do that properly before.
All I did before was shoot at the top of the tree and adjust the scope to make the pellets hit where I was aiming at in the three. Luckily pellets are relatively cheap and I have plenty of pellets and time to spare.
These days I feed the birds using five or six different types of bird feeders. I put most all the bird feeders up on tall poles off the back wooden deck and put a baffle on the pole under the bird feeder to keep the [beeep] fox squirrels out of the bird feeder with the peanuts.
I attract all types of song birds and a lot of the little brown birds. I use to chase the English Sparrows off but I got tired as they are persistent. I finally gave up and let them eat the bird food too.
I started this when I got my new digital SLR camera. I take pictures of the birds out though my kitchen window and get some good close up pictures of the various type of songbirds.
I even got some video of a Cooper's Hawk sitting on the rail of my deck about 10 ft from my camera. He was trying to catch those little brown birds that were flying into and out of my barberry bushes that surround the deck. The hawk never did catch any of those birds.
One day I was looking out the kitchen window by the sink and noticed a morning dove eating sunflower seeds. I screwed a flat 2'x 3' x 1/2" board onto the corner of the deck and use it as a fish cleaning station. But I also put a flat bird feeder on top of this board and the birds land there and eat the sunflower seeds daily. The hawks in the area see a lot of birds at my feeders thought out the day and they wait for them. The hawks sit in the top of a big 150 ft tall oak tree across the road about 200 yards away. This one particular day I saw a flash fly by the feeder and vanish. It was one of the hawks and he swooped down fast and grabbed a dove off the feeder and flew off faster than lighting. It happened so fast. All that was left after the hawk was gone was a couple of feathers floating in the air. Like the movie Forest Gump starts and ends.
Now when a large flock of blackbirds come to the feeder or grackles I get the pellet gun out.
Just the other day I finally shot a few black birds out of the tree. They were all gone the next day. There was snow on the ground so I could see the black feathers where the birds were at one time. A hawk had swopped down and started to feed on the dead blackbird or Starling. The hawks were hanging around for a few days as I shot several more Gracklings with the pellet gun.
The gun's scope had not be calibrated for shooting the birds out of the trees. I had it zeroed in for about 35 yards on the horizontal. I'm not that familiar with the flight path or bullet drop on the pellet gun so I was not hitting the birds in the trees. Shooting up or down changes the trajectory of the pellet evidently. I was shooting over the top of the birds and missing them for about two or three weeks. They were eating me out of house and home in bird seed. I had 20 or 30 of these black birds/Grackles flowing to my feeders and eating up all my seed and popping all over the deck. So I finally figured out a way to adjust the scope by picking a spot on a tall tree where I could see where the pellets hit and then adjusting the elevation on the scope to get me on target at that range and elevation. After I did that the birds started to fall out of the trees. Needless to say after I killed about a dozen of these nasty birds the rest went to other pastures to feed. They learn fast. They were not afraid of me when I was missing them. They would just fly off to the neighbors trees and then wait a few minutes before returning to my feeders. But after I killed a few they finally left me for good.
In the process I figured out how to adjust my scope for shooting up and downhill. Once I get the data on the pellet drop at various ranges I should be able to zero the scope at 40 yards and make adjustments for different ranges and elevations.
I was glad to find a few videos by a former sniper instructor and learned about MOA Mil Dot adjustments/scope and how to shoot up or down hill. And I finally learned how to use my Leopold RXII range finders TBR thing using the MOA stuff. I know that my scope moves the reticle 1/4 MOA at 100 yards so I can figure out how many MOA's I need to adjust for different shooting situations and adjust the scope accordingly. I didn't know how to do that properly before.
All I did before was shoot at the top of the tree and adjust the scope to make the pellets hit where I was aiming at in the three. Luckily pellets are relatively cheap and I have plenty of pellets and time to spare.
HideHunter
New member
You didn't shoot "blackbirds" or "grackles". You shot "starlings". Remember - you shot "starlings".
