Starling/sparrow removal from a horse barn?

[Flintknapper]

Use which ever you feel most comfortable with, starlings and sparrows are not hard to kill....so either will work.

The small amount of noise generated by either will not be a problem IF you wait until dark to shoot them.

 

[Cob]

At lowes they make a thin plastic type of netting, called bird netting, it comes in a black roll that's 8' wide X 150' long. It can be used to exclude birds from the rafters and attaches with a staple gun. It costs less than $15.00 for the roll, i bought some at Lowe's in the garden center.

I almost hate to mention this next method, as it is very non-selective.
If the only types of birds you see are sparrows & starlngs, (& they are territiorial, communal nesters, and generally once established problemeatic.) - Then:

you can always use the pea-nut butter & birdseed smeared onto a common household mouse/rat-trap to rid the problem... they come in 4 packs, buy Two 4 -packs, and place strategically on the rafters and monitor. Use this in conjunction with the Benjy 392 or CZ 452 Trainer , and you can eliminate some of the problem.

 

[Grumulkin]

The time to go after birds is at night. The really don't like to fly at night. If you REALLY disturb them and kill a few, they'll probably leave and not come back for awhile.

 

[WardenWolf]

The Red Ryder will likely NOT kill starlings and sparrows. I *have* shot a mockingbird with one before. Didn't kill it or even seriously injure it. Just made it not want to come back (which was the goal all along, though I was prepared to kill it to achieve that goal). They're not a viable option for killing anything larger than a grasshopper. And yes, you can hit a grasshopper at 30 feet with a Red Ryder if you're good with it. I spent so much time with that thing in the backyard. I know full well what they're capable of (and not capable of). Worst you're going to do a bird with a Red Ryder is injure it.

 

[shiftyer1]

Go to walmart and get a crossman or daisy pump bb gun only pump it a time or 3 and go shoot the birds. You're way overthinking this!!!

 

[788Ham]

It won't matter which is more powerful, the benji or the CZ, if you hit a sparrow, he's a goner. If you hit him in the ribs, he's down, they aren't made of cast iron! Shoot 'til the barrels hot on the benji, them switch!

 

[Random Discharge]

Lots of work heating up the Benji. And the CZ is scoped, requires no pumping... Have fun! I'd go to work with my scoped QB78 Deluxe CO2 pellet rifle with soft 177 chinese wadcutters (The "Peak" or Tech Force). Should be OK on the steel roof, barely. Dropping a few cents worth of CO2 cartridges in every 60 shots beats a pump gun anyday in my book.

 

[Clipper]

I used to have a .22 cal Benjamin myself, and my mom used to make cakes professionally...I soon found out that sugar BBs for decorating cakes made really cool close range shot loads out of the Benjamin (enough to kill pigeons out to 10 yards or so) with a full 10-pump air load. they would penetrate birds, but shatter if they hit the aluminum sided garage.

 

[1911 guy]

A friend and i cleaned starlings out of his barn a few years ago. We posted up outside the barn with pump shotguns, one on each side of the door while our wives went in the opposite end. They commenced to raising cain and we waited a few seconds. As the starlings came pouring out, we emptied our guns into them. A few minutes later, the survivors came back and got a repeat performance. By lunchtime, we were filling trash cans with starlings by the shovel full.

 

[MacTech]

Update on the sparrows;

bear in mind, this is my first time ever shooting birds, I have zero experience with them

the first excursion netted two, they were skittish the whole time, lighting on a wooden slat fence surrounding the manure pile, I used my CZ Trainer with Super Colibris, the two I got were kind of funny, as there were four or five on the fence, I popped one of them, it tipped over and fell over dead, the other birds looked puzzled as the first one fell off the fence

click...Thwip!....thump!
"Where'd Steve go? he was here a minute ago!"
click...Thwip!.....Thump!
"Now Kevin's gone too, what's going on!"

I was able to pick them off the fence without disturbing the others, but soon they got wise and just left....

the next trip I took my H&R Topper Deluxe Classic 20 Ga with Rio #9 birdshot and a Improved Cylinder choke, set up behind the barn's truck (Toyota Tundra) and aimed at a bush they like to hang out on

four of them were on the bush, I aimed *at* the upper curve of the bush and fired, blasting two of them, the others flew up and away from the shot cloud, a little while later (they were wary for a while), two more landed on the same bush, this time I held slightly *above* them and fired, hitting them both

all four hits were instant kills, no suffering, thankfully

Now that I have some experience shooting them, I'm going to sight in my CZ 452 Ultra Lux for CCI CB Longs at approx 20 yards, hide behind the truck (or maybe in the bed covered with something to break up my outline) as a blind, and pick them off one at a time from their favorite bush with the .22, as it tends to scare them less, the shotgun may have the potential for more hits per trigger pull, but it also scares them off for at least a half hour

 

[Hugo]

I think the trick with the "Creepy eyes" and plastic owls is you have to move them every month or so because the birds figure out the frightening thing doesn't move. Moving it occasionally keeps them on their toes and choosing to nest somewhere else.

I think I remember hearing NASA constantly moves the plastic owls and other "creepy" looking bird repellers and puts a lot more out in the few days before moving something to the launch pad. NASA doing this for 50 years they (or an ex employee with a website somewhere) must have some stories on the internet.

 

[svtruth]

Drive a car in, leave it running and close the door?

 

[1911 guy]

Not gun related and therefore not worthy of consideration.

Actually, that's a pretty good idea, if the the doors will close tightly enough and the barn isn't huge.