Sparrow getter

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kens

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If I read enough postings the answer might already be here but someone can likely answer quicker and more accurately.

I would like to be able to knock off bothersome sparrows at a bird feeder. On a large farm, off the deck of the house at 100ft, more or less.

Needs to be scoped but can you knowledgeable sorts recommend a model? Accurate and enough power to kill a sparrow is what I'm looking for.

I have plenty of rifles from 17 cal and up but not appropriate for this application and I know little about air rifles.

Thanks
Ken
 
to be accurate enough at 50 yards something like a air arms tx200 springer would do pal rated or not, they have a 495 version or
at least used to I think
about 800 bucks. used from 600 or so

50 yard REPEATABLE narrows the choices to the more expensive models and a little better scope


177 or 22. either would work

sorry I thought you said 100 yards, just got in from shooting that distance

listen to others on this and not me
 
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kens said:
If I read enough postings the answer might already be here but someone can likely answer quicker and more accurately.

I would like to be able to knock off bothersome sparrows at a bird feeder. On a large farm, off the deck of the house at 100ft, more or less.

Needs to be scoped but can you knowledgeable sorts recommend a model? Accurate and enough power to kill a sparrow is what I'm looking for.

I have plenty of rifles from 17 cal and up but not appropriate for this application and I know little about air rifles.

Thanks
Ken
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Budget?

Sparrows are a nice size to use a nice target air gun for.

But basically, you can start at a bit over $100, and work all the way up to $10K.

Do you know if there is a dive shop, or fire hall that will fill breathing air cylinders near you? That opens up the option of pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air guns, charged off a scuba tank rather than a hand pump (cheap-ish, lots of work) or and Electric pump (more money, less work). Most PCP airguns are not particularly cheap, but for the price, you usually get a quality air gun.
Recoil is almost none, some snap to the muzzle noise.

Watch where the online info you read is from, as in Canada, any airgun that shoots over 500 FPS and 4.7 joules of energy, is treated as a firearm, where in the states they are not guns at all, and in England the divide line between firearm and not, is 12 ft/lbs for rifles.

There are still a few CO2 powered guns out there. The 12 gram cylinders are a buck a piece, more or less, and are much more expensive than using a bulk CO2 tank. Low recoil, low effort, some noise. Like PCP's, you need to keep a tank handy to fill from.

A multi pump pneumatic takes a long time to reload, as it usually needs up to ten strokes of the pump to reach max power. More work, no added costs. No recoil either. Mostly, not high quality guns.

A spring piston gun only requires a single cocking stroke, which may still be a bit of a workout, and has the added recoil of the spring and piston assy moving and stopping on each shot. But. No extra stuff to buy other than ammo. Run the gamut from cheap junk to very high end sporting firearms. Springers can be hard on scopes, so you want a scope that is rated for the odd recoil of a spring piston air gun.
 
A little off topic but, this year it appears the robins and waxwings or even the smaller numbers black eyed juncos did not return this summer. Anyone else in Alberta or north Saskatchewan notice this trend?
I seen very early this past spring a flock of eleven robins that did not stick around and maybe four waxwings only once.
I seen these robins twice and only once the waxwings.
No dark eyed juncos either.

Strange.
 
33 yards...just use low velocity .22LR like CCI 22-Quiet. 40gr @ 710 fps or 45 ft-lb.

Air rifles R cool I guess...but are you sure you need it?

CCI 22 CB Short is 29 gr @ 710 fps or 32 ft-lb of energy.

A typical < 500 fps air rifle like Daisy 853C is 15 gr @ 490 fps or ~8 ft-lb. But I don't think that's what you are talking about. A .177 pellet 15gr @ 700 fps is 16 ft-lb.
 
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What kind of sparrows? There are many different species. I enjoy them at my bird feeders and don't get the "invasive" House Sparrows very often. Many sparrows are very striking birds. I don't think you can just blast away at the song birds. Some of them are species at risk. "The population of Harris's sparrow has experienced declines of approximately 60 per cent in the last 35 years".
 
timandkimandshea said:
Wait... you put out bird feed in a bird feeder, then kill the bird that shows up?
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Neighbor right across the street put up sunflower feeders for the birds and shot many Red Squirrels with a high powered pellet gun, which is illegal I believe. A shame really. I had one I was feeding peanuts out of my hand. They are territorial so not that many hang around the same spot.
 
Instead of using birds for target practice consider this.

How do you keep house sparrows away from bird feeders?
House sparrows prefer to feed on the ground or on large, stable hopper or platform feeders; remove these feeder styles to discourage house sparrows from visiting. Instead, use clinging mesh feeders, socks, or tube feeders with perches shorter than 5/8 of an inch to prevent house sparrows from perching easily.
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Consider something like the Brome 1057 Squirrel Buster Standard Wild Bird Feeder. I have several and they should work keeping off House Sparrows and are 100% squirrel proof also.

Also realize that birds fall into 2 categories. Clinging and perching. Sparrows are mostly ground or platform feeders, whereas finches, nuthatches, chickadees are both clinging and perching birds.
 
Brutus said:
A little off topic but, this year it appears the robins and waxwings or even the smaller numbers black eyed juncos did not return this summer. Anyone else in Alberta or north Saskatchewan notice this trend?
I seen very early this past spring a flock of eleven robins that did not stick around and maybe four waxwings only once.
I seen these robins twice and only once the waxwings.
No dark eyed juncos either.

Strange.
Click to expand...

Nope; Robins are here, plenty of Waxwings too, I consider them a pest. Even saw what I think was my first Baltimore Oriole this year.
 
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