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