Starling killers

[Oregonhunter5]

I need to unleash all hell and furry on the starlings. What's the more accurate BB gun rather than the pump crossman?

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[Morpheus]

410 shotgun?

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Not this time. To close to house. There sure great flyers, but there crap on everything blows.

 

[erudne]

There are excellent air rifles for around 1500.00 YouTube has vids on them

 

[Brutus57]

No help here but we used .22 as a kid in our blueberry field 45 years ago. I did see a 1400 fps air rifle in the latest American Rifleman, can't remember the name.

Brutus Out

 

[Oregonhunter5]

There are excellent air rifles for around 1500.00 YouTube has vids on them

That's a lot of commitment to a BB gun.

 

[Blaylocke]

I think he means 150. There are oodles of pellet rifles out there that have the power to kill any small game. Find a sporting goods store, avoid Walmart.

Edit: My answer was the sort of vague crap I hate, so here's some additional info.

I have friends who swear by the RWS 34, but that's about 230-300 dollars of pellet rifle. There's also people who hate Gamo rifles universally (sound like the topics we gun owners bicker about?)

But I have a friend who has this:

http://www.amazon.com/Gamo-Hornet-Rifle-177-Caliber/dp/B004ZIEWIY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

and loves it. The scope is tacky crap. You can try it, maybe you'll be ok with it for starling shooting. Otherwise you may want to go without, or get a better one.

I haven't seen the Gamo Hornet at Walmart, but that might not be a terrible find if they happen to have it.

 

[SP101]

<broken link removed> Guns/Slingshots

this has been my rat/starling killer of choice

 

[BigStick]

Blowguns are another option. You might need to practice a little, but you can get decent range and accuracy, and drive a needle straight through them.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Sharknado, feh.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I hate Starlings and'll off 'em with piston guns.
Has anyone tried or patterned a cheap .22 or .25 with super fine shot? I haven't.
Seems you could just jam a zig-zag rolling paper just into the breech, drop in perhaps an inch of shot and tamp down with another wadded up paper.
If you do this, you assume all responsibility but I'd like to hear about it.

 

[Cougfan2]

You didn't say so, but if they are roosting anywhere under the eaves in your house you need to screen every possible roosting place up.

A few years ago a couple of Starling families ended up roosting under the eaves in my house and it was a real pain getting rid of them. Even after I had sealed up every possible area they could roost, they came back for the next two years trying to roost in the same places. They're worse than rats.

 

[Invader]

Blowguns are another option. You might need to practice a little, but you can get decent range and accuracy, and drive a needle straight through them.

Just remember- DONT INHALE THE DART!

 

[jbett98]

What you need is a Starling Trap.
It looks like a regular bird house, but it has a trap door on the bottom, in which the Starling falls through and then slides down a shaft into a holding pen.
Picture a bird house with a long 4" ABS pipe attached underneath and a screened bag to hold the pest until you come and collect them.
Starlings cannot resist entering a dark hole when they are in their nesting cycle.
YouTube has a bunch of segments on how to build one.

 

[CoastRange57]

I have been using a cheap pellet gun and a .22 out my office window. Neighbor is oblivious to the 7 starling nests in his barn and 3 more in his shop. I wait until they go to church and start whacking them off the top of the barn and their nest holes. These pests raise up to 4 clutches of young per year.

They will come over to my place, shot on the cars and get in my chicken food. I have a rest set up on my office window and can usually pick off 3 to 5 a day. But they are a real perceptive bird and will figure your stalking strategy pretty quick. Got to hit them square on, otherwise they will flop around and fly off.

 

[carracer]

Depends on how close you can get to them. I used to kill lots of birds and squirrels with a cheap daisy lever action. About 10 yards max for one shot kills. My favorite at the time was the Daisy Model 1894. My friend had a Benjamin pump that had a much longer range. About 25 yards or so.

 

[Dan1477]

.22 subsonic! Don't buy a dedicated air rifle when you can just get some nice quiet ammo

If you own a bolt action 22, get .22 longs. If you have a semi auto rifle, get .22 LR, you can choose to get ~1000 fps and have the bolt cycle, or go for ~750 fps and be deadly quiet.

Or if you really want to be <broken link removed> ...

 

[carracer]

Be careful of over penetration or missing with a .22

 

[Blaylocke]

Yeah with the scarcity of .22, I'd stick with pellets.

 

[Dan1477]

Yeah with the scarcity of .22, I'd stick with pellets.

It's coming back to a lot of places. Especially over the next month or two.