a BB gun for geese?

[dghboy315]

i got a lotta geese craping in my yard. i want to get rid of them and get some target practice in at the same time. anyone got any suggestion on a good BB gun and where to get it. i'm looking for something cheap and fun for plinking.

also, BBs won't kill a goose, right? i don't want to kill them, but to get them off my yard. i also want to use to to repel the occational deer or raccoon. would an air soft gun be better? but those guns are expensive.

it's legal to shoot a BB gun in a neighborhood, right?

 

[Doug444]

Well, the legality depends on your local laws, but these days most cities and incorporated towns and villages have laws against shooting even BB guns inside corporate limits. Check that with the local PD, but expect them to say "no way" regardless of the actual law.

And "YES" a BB gun can kill a goose. Ever heard of "BB" shot? Seriously, it's a traditional shot size for goose loads. Hit 'em in the head and their (and your) goose will be cooked. Hit 'em on the body and the BB will likely just bounce off with no damage, but probably without the desired effect of scaring 'em off, either.

Get a good Lab...that'll work, or get you free roast goose with less fuss with the neighbors .

 

[Preacherman]

Try one of these...

 

[son of a gun]

I think geese are federally protected species, believe it or not they use to be endangered. A dog should scare them enough not to come back or firecrackers, when they see my mom's 12 pound ????zu coming they get the hell out of there.

 

[rust collector]

Use extreme caution! Geese are the subject of international treaty because they migrate across our national borders. Don't use a bb gun--you could put an eye out. Be sure to use nontoxic shot in your slingshot, and heaven help you if kill one outside of the approved setting and season. You'll have the fish and wildlife service all over you.

It's probably against the law to haze or molest migratory waterfowl. Better put string silencers on the slingshot as well.

One of our local characters got in trouble a few years back for shooting a goose with a .22 in his yard. Said he was tired of them messing up his yard. Unfortunately for him, a couple conservation officers were watching and his house was across the street from the governor's residence.

They do leave quite a trail, particularly the ones with gastric distress.

edit: Flash of blinding inspiration: mebbe paintball guns are good for something after all...

 

[Moparmike]

I would use a paintball gun. Something low powered. Aim center mass.

 

[powderific]

Do NOT use a slingshot if you don't want to kill them. Slingshots are quite powerful when used properly and could certainly kill a goose. I admit that the largest animals i have killed with my own slingshot are Rabbits and Carp, but keep in mind that a ball bearing traveling at round 300 fps is quite powerful. You could try getting a blowgun with "stun" darts, they are just little plastic nubbin things (though, i don't know if they really are even powerful enough to bother the goose much).

 

[roo_ster]

Try a pellet rifle/pistol firing FELT barrel cleaning pellets (I think Beeman produces them)
--
A lawn sprinkler connected to an electronic timer box valve set to go off every hour for a minute or two might statle them.
--
A electronic whistle/noisemaker hooked up to a timer to go off every hour.
--

 

[Bigjake]

Stupid law. get yourself a used tippmann 98i paintball gun. great goose medicine, and it aint killed one yet

 

[antipop]

I'd have to side with the paintball solution on this one, BUT ONLY if you can't figure out something a bit more humane. Conservation officers tend to look down on shooting any kind of protected animal, and doing so might result in some nasty consequences.

Try the sprinkler, or buy a dog. Paintball is 50/50 to you getting screwed.

Related topic: A friend of mine had a father who wanted the grackles that soiled his pool gone, so he set us to devising some ways to do it. BB guns seemed the most effective, followed closely by a water hose. Great fun, and good entertainment when the bug zapper died.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Check your game laws first. You don't want the Game Warden executing a search warrant on your house.

 

[Logan5]

What about the garden hose? I'm stealing Antipop's idea, but think about it... You could tell anyone who asked you were just trying to give them a bath, or a drink, or something. And it'd be pure guilty pleasure to turn the hose on one.

 

[c_yeager]

How about just throwing good old fashioned rocks at them? Just bear in mind if they are anything like the Canadian geese up here (that the state is actually trying to cull like crazy) they may just get pissed off and come at you. Believe me they WILL bite you and it hurts like heck too.

 

[Snowdog]

I bought a M11 airsoft (KWC?) last year and find all kinds of uses for it.
With a cyclic rate of 1200 RPM (20 shots a second), it's not hard to find fun uses for this neat little toy.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Dghboy,

I'm pretty certain that discharging a BB gun in Montgomery County, ESPECIALLY at a Federally protected waterfowl, will bring the wrath of God down on you.

I'd advise against it.

 

[SteelyDan]

I don't like the BB gun idea, either, for several reasons. I don't think anyone has mentioned the foil stringers yet, but they do work to prevent the geese from "crossing a line," if that's your problem. The stringers are basically a piece of small diameter rope with foil strips (maybe 4" long) woven into it, and you string them about 18" off the ground, establishing a line that you don't want the geese to cross.

 

[jsalcedo]

When I was a kid I threw an apple at a goose and killed it instantly.

I was trying get the apple close enough for the goose to eat it and ended up breaking it's neck with the high velocity fruit.

Freak fruit fowl fate

I pretty much leave them alone now even though they are messy and obnoxious.

 

[dghboy315]

thanks for the responses guys

geez, i thought i was asking a simple question. what kind of country are we living in where i can't discourage an animal from messing up my yard?

seems like none of you are keen about the BB gun idea.

the paintball idea sounds like fun, but wouldn't that also mess my the yard with paint? plus they are kind of expensive.

the water hose would require me to get really close, but i guess it would work. dosen't seem much different then just running around and scaring them off.

a slingshot would probably kill them or really hurt them, and i don't want that.

fire crackers would probably disrupt the neighbors. and there's probably some ordinace about it.

as for the foil stringers, i already have a 5 foot fense around my house. geese still get in.

actually, if you guys are right about them being a protected species, i can't do anything to interfere with their habitat. not even throw rocks. i guess i gotta do some research. why do i have to do so much work to just get rid of a simple nuisance?

 

[dghboy315]

oh, and a dog is really expensive
no can do

is a sprinkler on a timer my only solution? that's no fun at all.

 

[Camel]

An airsoft gun would probably discourage them a bit. I dont know much about geese but I doubt a .12g BB at around 250 FPS would kill one of those huge frickin' beasts. A spring gun is all you'd really need and they can be had for less than $30. It might be (probably is) illegal to pop geese with any sort of "weapon" though. A sprinkler sounds like your best bet.

 

[Mike Irwin]

A paintball gun is an even worse idea than a BB gun.

Paint balls have substantially higher mass, and combined with their velocity, are more than fast enough to kill a goose.

 

[arinvolvo]

I have been shot a thousand times with paintballs....and i can imagine, that if i were a goose, some of those shots may have killed me.

paintball guns are no joke.

How about wax bullets?

empty the powder out of some shells, and fill the neck of the casing with wax...let the primer be the propellant.

 

[DougCxx]

A paintball gun would only seem to add to the mess, in my opinion.
And using a BB or any kind of airgun might count as hunting: there is a practical problem with airguns against such birds, you see. To get through the feathers and actually hit them takes power--elsewise the little bb/pellet will just bounce off the feathers. You cannot do it gently, and so firing a very small projectile very fast is not a good idea if you don't wish to cause harm. (Well you know,,,, you might wish to cause harm, but just getting them to leave would work too) You really want a much larger object, hitting a lot slower.
........
-I would suggest throwing ice cubes at them, aiming for their bodies of course. I first thought of tennis balls, but then the tennis balls would land on the ground, and get all covered in goose-%$*&, and then you'd have a bunch of dirty tennis balls to wash. So I began to try to think of -anything- that you could throw and not have to pick up afterwards--and ice cubes is the only thing I could think up. Rocks in a slingshot would work, except that you'd have to pick up the rocks later. Maybe you could find some way to make "giant ice cubes", hand-ball sized? or a bit larger?
-------
I would try just tossing one at one bird, hitting them in the side/back; as I have seen it, if one puts out a distressed squawk, many times all of them jump up and leave. Which doesn't keep them from returning, but at least there's no evidence for police to find! Unless they wants to grab a goose-$*%#-covered ice cube and try to drive back to the station with it before it melts!

~

 

[Sydwaiz]

There used to be clear paintballs. Not sure if they still make them. Great for horny cats! I second the blowgun idea with the stun darts. Accurate, quiet, and probably the safest.
How bout a remote control car?

 

[Logan5]

Well, I still favor the hose, just because some of those geese are pretty sassy and need to be taken down a notch. But anyway... Noisemakers are actually reccomended. Check this out: http://www.canadageese.org/nlcontrol.html

1) Reduce grassy areas by planting large borders of ground cover. Geese do not like to walk through such plantings.
2) Plant trees and shrubs. Geese tend to avoid lawns when they cannot see a water body for a quick getaway.
3) Allow grass to grow taller. Geese do not like to walk through tall grass.
4) Turn part of a lawn into a wild flower meadow.
5) At a golf course increase the rough wherever possible.
6) Plant grass less tasty to geese. Substitute fescues for Kentucky Blue Grass.

The big upside here is that you now have a very good reason to stop mowing your lawn. There are also apparently several lawn treatments available that will supposedly make them shove off.
And here's the golf course approach: "If they land on the grass, you have to make them feel hunted. I'll have a guy with a shotgun creep up on them from the woods for 10 or 15 minutes early in the morning or late in the evening. The gander will give out a signal: 'Something's wrong!' They stop eating. All their heads point in one direction, toward the stalker. They start to flap their wings a little. That means they're primed to go. Then the guy comes out of the woods blasting blanks. They take off and won't come back because they get the message."