[M Jager]

This weekend I went to visit best buddy who was back from the Corps on leave. This in itself made it a good weekend but to make it better buddie's wife has a relative with a serious pigeon problem. Buddy and I are only too happy to our part to help out the inlaws you know and not getting shoot at all this summer meant I was really longing to get some trigger time in.
The pigeons live in a medium sized barn which they enter/exit via broken windows on the so side. Owner of said barn goes inside while me and buddy wait outside to do our duty. The initial action of course is intense. Buddy's 8 shot mossberg really shined here as the shooting furious for the first five minutes. I was at a deffinate disadvantage with my four shot Beretta but I got exellent practive at fast reloads.

Of course there are a good number of birds that refuse to leave the barn, so buddy's wife's little sister (17) when in and layed it to them with her paintball gun. For those not in the know, paint ball guns are very lethal against small game and she succeeding in taking several via that method. Of course, she got many to fly out for us to shoot at. At this point they were only coming out in ones and twos and buddy and I were warmed up so it wasn't a matter of if we got every one but who could get it first. Blue paint splatters on solid white pigeons make focus points I might add.
Add the end of the first date we picked up 39 fallen pigeons with an estimated 15-20 that fell in a corn field or were claimed by farm cats. We all got to corrupt buddie's wife's little sister :evil: and I don't think she is going to let us go shooting without taking her now.
Day two we made a second assault on the survivors and baged 8 more. All told I would say we took care of 2/3 -3/4 of the pigeon problem so the barn owner is happy. Buddy and I probably won't get to shoot there for another year so they have plenty on time to repopulation.
So maybe it wasn't quite world class but darn good for one barn and we had a good time and got in some excellent practice. Only bad news is buddy gets deployed overseas in December and its looks like he will probably go to the sandbox.
Take Care,
Matt

[kudu]

That brings back memories of my younger days going around to neighbors barns and helping reduce the pigeon population.

We didn't have paintball guns then, but I had a mean load in my 20ga loaded with popcorn kernals that would knock the birds out of barn rafters without hurting the roof. :D

[Dave McCracken]

Sounds like fun. Ya shoulda let little sister take some with a shotgun.

Way back when, Brother and I would do the same thing, except he would go inside and try to take them with a 22 loaded with those dust shot shells that were effective to maybe 10 feet on mice. One day he loaded solids, and ventilated the tin roof on the barn. Pop was not amused, and it was a hot July day when we got up there and patched that roof.

[M Jager]

Dave,
Believe me, I wanted to have her do some shotgun. Mother doesn't think much of guns and told her she couldn't shoot that day because she "might hurt herself somehow for volleyball" You know how semi anti soccer moms are. We've get her out shooting the next time buddy is home probably. She wants to go crow hunting so that should work out well as a good intro to hunting with a shotty.
Matt

[sm]

It is one thing to use "Chiclets" [tm] gum in a 20 ga reload to shoot inside a barn.

For some reason having a buddy find out why he "missed" all those pigeons outside the barn - and I was felling them is different. :p

They don't fell doves or quail either....some folks learn slow.....:p

[kudu]

sm, do you know how much experimenting it took for a 14 year old kid to come up with the dreaded popcorn reload for pigeons? It impressed quite a few farmers once I could convince them it was safe to fire inside their barns. :scrutiny: It usually didn't kill the birds, but it would knock them senseless and they would drop like rocks. :D

[sm]

I learned about the "dreaded popcorn load" while sneaking into a watermelon patch :D

I had already tested the Rock Salt loading....

Research , Testing and Evaluation at such a young age you understand. :p

FWIW honeydew and canteloupe are easier to scale fences with than watermelons. My mom doesn't understand when I tell her "I am burned out" on Watermelon.

kudu ,
you are absolutly correct, popcorn works really well. Some farmer (another one) mentioned it and my mentors said - oh yeah, works well for gardens next to the house, barns, garages...

Chiclets are not worth a flip as far as gum is concerned. So when the corner market had some damaged , they kept containers for credit and I took a brown paper bag home full of itty bitty gum. I really wanted the wooden pickle barrel - boy was I dissapointed when I found out they refilled it. NO wonder I was never able to get a wooden pickell bbl....

Chiclets- Not as good as popcorn. Gives a fella a fit when he misses. My original idea for it flopped. <looks both ways> I was curious if birds , squirrels and poking down a groundhog hole would produce any interesting results.

Kinda like birds eat rice , drink water and blow up ( so I had "heard") - Just curious what itty bitty gum would do. Hey, I was curious. Folks get rich doing stuff like this. I haven't hit the "big one" yet....don't give up on me yet....

So I went to reloading them in shells. I learned the hard way about folks "tossing: you a shell on station 8 going for a straight when you don't have another shell. Turkey load will break a target ,and my head came plum off the stock. So I decided to have "spl loads too". I played nice tho' . :)

Black Pepper Corns are kinda neat...we won't talk about Pla-Doh or Silly Putty....give me time....I'll figure out a soft slug yet....itty bitty rubber balls, I think that is the ticket- Mum's the word. :D