Henry Rifle Forums

I settled on the Aguila standard velocity ammo for getting rid of the Starlings and English Sparrows around here. I shot some more groups with the Aguila and the RWS sub sonic and the Aguila was slightly more accurate and is cheaper to buy. The Aguila has shot all the groups from a 1/4"-3/8" at 35 yds. so that is the ammo for right now and at $1.79/box it is cheap shooting and accurate and being a round nose bullet I won't need it for squirrels any way. The first day with the suet pack I put out to lure them in didn't get any visitors for more than a second or two and didn't allow me to get a shot. Then I told my wife the suet she bought was maybe not what they liked. So she walked over to where I mounted the suet holder and turned to me and started laughing. Then she said "Maybe you should try removing the plastic from it before putting it up." She had me on that one and I didn't have an answer. So with the wrapper removed I did get to shoot 5 before the winds came in and the rain and I went back inside. Some of the ones that were on the suet this morning soon as I crack the door open they are like crows and high tail it out of there before I can shoot. I believe they are afraid of my Grand Finale 452. Here is my last target from day before yesterday. Target on right was first five. The middle I only shot three after moving the scope adj. down. For got the Burris is 1/8" clicks so I had to move it down again and then shot the left target and left it right there for now. Then shot the push pins out of the corners. Right pin was only hit on the right edge but the left was a direct hit. My shots are usually always 25-40 yds. on the pest birds.

Sounds like you need to set up a blind at door.

My experience, too, with Starlings. They learn pretty quick when they see their buddies start to hit the dirt. You really got me drooling on that rifle, by the way.

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try going outside through a different door and sneak up around the corner of the house from where you got the suet posted.

bandit1250 wrote: ↑

Fri May 31, 2019 9:37 am

... Some of the ones that were on the suet this morning soon as I crack the door open they are like crows and high tail it out of there before I can shoot. ...

[quote=Mags post_id=98069 time=1559318731 user_id=2543]
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try going outside through a different door and sneak up around the corner of the house from where you got the suet posted.

If some dumb ones don't soon give me some shots I might have to sit out there with a Ghillie suit on to fool them.

nice report .... is there a window you could fire from ?

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Oh I like that idea. If you do, share a picture!

bandit1250 wrote: ↑

Fri May 31, 2019 12:18 pm

Mags wrote: ↑

Fri May 31, 2019 12:05 pm

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try going outside through a different door and sneak up around the corner of the house from where you got the suet posted.

If some dumb ones don't soon give me some shots I might have to sit out there with a Ghillie suit on to fool them.

STEALTH...Try out some serious tactical operations. ..don't get me wrong, I hate them too!

time to start thinning the squirrels too. went out today to check the remote drip irrigation places. a lot of it chewed up.

TARGET PRACTICE!!

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Ha! Target practice is on paper. Hunting squirrels and starlings is the real deal. Well at least a smaller real deal.

markiver54 wrote: ↑

Fri May 31, 2019 11:53 pm

TARGET PRACTICE!!

put out some decoys.

The merry birds of Shakespeare
Schieffelin was a late 19th century New York pharmacist and by 1877 was the chairman and driving force of the American Acclimatization Society. The group was founded in New York City in 1871 for the purpose of introducing European flora and fauna to North America. Schieffelin, by popular accounts, went a step further. He was an avid Shakespeare admirer and decided the group should introduce to North America every bird species that the Bard of Avon mentioned in his works. That would be roughly 60, give or take a species.

"It is not easy to come up with a complete list of bird species Schieffelin's American Acclimatization Society tried to introduce into the United States," said Joe DiCostanzo, a bird specialist at the American Natural History Museum. "It is not clear that a comprehensive list was ever published."

Some species which Schieffelin's group apparently did bring to America, DiCostanzo said, were the sky lark (Alauda arvensis), the nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), the song thrush (Turdus philomelos), the common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and, notably, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Shakespeare only mentioned starlings once, in Henry IV, Act 1, when Hotspur is rebelling against the king. Hotspur wants to get back at the ruler, so in the third scene Shakespeare has him fantasize about teaching a starling to torment the King by saying the name of one of his highness's enemies, Mortimer.

"Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion."

That was all the prompting Schieffelin needed.

He imported 60 starlings to New York and on March 6, 1890, brought them from his country house to Central Park. Reportedly, other introductions of birds from Shakespeare's poems and plays had not fared well in America. So what could possibly go wrong with releasing five dozen little black birds with stubby tails in the middle of New York City on what has been described as a snowy and cold spring morning? More than 125 years and 200 million starlings later, we know the answer.

English Sparrows were introduced also on purpose.

With respect to North America, eight pairs were released in the spring of 1851 in Brooklyn, New York. House sparrows were also introduced between 1872 and 1874 by the Cincinnati Acclimatization Society. Numerous similar introductions occurred in the years following the first release in 1851, and small numbers were collected within this country and transported to other parts of the country, resulting in house sparrows being established throughout the lower 48 states. House sparrows were established in California by 1910.

I wish there was a way to let Schieffelin know the mistake he made!
I guess our ammo manufacturers have benefited though.