Air Guns

[Sandman1221]

RWS 48 side lever in 0.22 with a 4X Leopold scope (7 oz)) and Predator pellets (plastic tip causes extreme expansion), makes for a very effective squirrel removal system. I have a neighbor 2 doors down who was bringing squirrels into the neighborhood (illegal, but only if you get caught). Not sure why he was doing that, but he called the Police on me early on when I was trapping them ( Police did not know that was legal). Since then, the squirrels became trap shy, so air rifle was needed. I have taken 30-50 squirrels per year for years. Wonder where he is getting them from, maybe a wildlife removal company that wants more business? Recently, I had a mocking bird going nuts for a week, all day long would not stop on my bedroom side of house starting at 6:30 AM, finally realized two squirrels had made a nest in a large oak tree on that side of the house. So went and got my air rifle, and the moment I raised it the one male squirrel dove behind a branch to hide, still got it. But first time I have seen a gun shy squirrel. Can only imagine how they trained it to be gun shy!, bb gun or air-soft gun while it was caged?

After that mocking bird problem, I told my neighbors that I thought their neighbor was bringing squirrels into the neighborhood, have not seen a squirrel since then. Wondering if their neighbor had offered a friend's services to remove the squirrels that they brought into the neighborhood!.

 

[spicer]

Anybody have a suggestion for a decent affordable pump air pistol suitable for a red/green dot sight. Might consider CO2.

 

[mfrench]

Anybody have a suggestion for a decent affordable pump air pistol suitable for a red/green dot sight. Might consider CO2.

I have a Crosman 1322 in the form of a Pyramyd Air Bug-Out Kit.
This is a 14" barrel added to a stock 1322, and added skeletal stock (that makes it a rifle/carbine), to create the 2289 Backpacker (Crosmans name for same thing).
in order for this kit to be most functional, a change in the breech is necessary. It comes with a plastic breech housing, and, pellet probe. This plastic breech needs to be swapped out in order to get more advanced sighting, such as a Red Dot, or, Scope. The upgraded breech will add somewhere around $40 + - to the price, as an aftermarket upgrade. i went with one from Baker Airguns that is made from machined aluminum. It is quite a bit longer, and far better than the OE plastic breech. It also adds a second retention set screw to hold the barrel, and has a really nice dovetail for the scope mounting.
If i were to look elsewhere, I'd also look at Umarex multi-pumper. But the Crosman is a really functional kit item; a Lego gun.

 

[mfrench]

RWS 48 side lever in 0.22 with a 4X Leopold scope (7 oz)) and Predator pellets (plastic tip causes extreme expansion), makes for a very effective squirrel removal system. I have a neighbor 2 doors down who was bringing squirrels into the neighborhood (illegal, but only if you get caught). Not sure why he was doing that, but he called the Police on me early on when I was trapping them ( Police did not know that was legal). Since then, the squirrels became trap shy, so air rifle was needed. I have taken 30-50 squirrels per year for years. Wonder where he is getting them from, maybe a wildlife removal company that wants more business? Recently, I had a mocking bird going nuts for a week, all day long would not stop on my bedroom side of house starting at 6:30 AM, finally realized two squirrels had made a nest in a large oak tree on that side of the house. So went and got my air rifle, and the moment I raised it the one male squirrel dove behind a branch to hide, still got it. But first time I have seen a gun shy squirrel. Can only imagine how they trained it to be gun shy!, bb gun or air-soft gun while it was caged?

After that mocking bird problem, I told my neighbors that I thought their neighbor was bringing squirrels into the neighborhood, have not seen a squirrel since then. Wondering if their neighbor had offered a friend's services to remove the squirrels that they brought into the neighborhood!.

I caused a localized extinction of Cal Ground Squirrels within a 500yard perimeter. Seriously, I beat the rodents in my area.
They became extremely wary of me early on. So, I built a blind. I actually ended up with three blinds in total, as I pushed the rodents back, and off my property. That led me to gaining permission from my neighbor to shoot onto his property, where I found large nests of them in a number of places.
One of the blinds was made from PVC pipe framing, and, stretched nylon camo tarps, my rear patio blind. The other two were my forts, made from stacked firewood trunk sections, and, split wood; the Western Outpost, and the NorthWest Outpost.
I got sort of into it, and weird.

The rear patio blind. It was foldable, and hinged around the patio cover support framing.


To the far left of the blinds view is a stack of firewood. That is the backstop of that shot. Many Ground Squirrels met there end right there.


This is a view at the impact zone from the rear patio blind, mentioned above, at least at the busiest point. There were other shots that ranged outward to 125' from here as well.
The reason for the rodents is that is where my wife feeds her wild birds; and she still does, and I still pop the rodents. Many rodents have met pellet here.
These quail are safe, and never bothered. But the *rodents on the other hand,.... *(Ground Squirrels, Rats, Mice, and Gophers)

 

[mfrench]

And, this mornings wake up shot, at zero:dark:15am
This is the same gallery shot as where the Quail are feeding above. I've been calling it the Whack-A-Mole Gallery, due to Gophers popping their heads up in various holes at dirt level. And, the Rats, they like to run along the base boards of the backstop, very much like the chain of Ducks at the Carnival shooting gallery.
I managed to pop a Rat, last night, at such a dark moment that I could barely see it. But, I got a bead on its chest, from an it looking right at me angle. It was a vitals shot, running parallel to the spine, between the lungs, hopefully into the heart. It bounced around and disappeared into some thick shrubs.
Well, due to yesterdays Rattlesnake capture and release, I didn't feel like rooting around in thick bushes after dark - so no pics.

Then, I woke up to this Rat at the same spot this morning, and dropped it with a shot just below the right ear. It died where it lied.

This shot angle. The white at the backstop is the Rats belly fur.
It was far darker than this image makes it appear; 5:15am'ish


If a dead Rat offends you, please don't open the images:

 

[mfrench]

Air Guns

Is it a hunk of plastic maybe splined onto barrel? Any grub screw? You could take a board and drill a hole a tad larger than the diameter of the steel barrel just past the brake. Then rip the board in half and clamp it together around the barrel using wood screws. Whack both sides of it with a...

audiokarma.org

Well, I finally took the Beeman Chief out for a zero check.
The above linked post is from Oct. 2023, and it suggests that I feel that my air leaking had finally been solved. I shot it for the first time yesterday, July 4th '24, after a long time in storage. I had last pumped it back up in Nov. '23 when I replaced the scope with a new one. It then sat, not fired, due to my cataract blindness.
So, 9 months of no activity later, and, its pressure was perfect. It had not lost a bit of air. Finally, I can call it a success.

 

[mfrench]

I'm looking to up my game on the rodents. So, there have been a few modifications, and changes.
I have what I call my Whack-A-Mole Shooting Gallery. It is where Sarge feeds her wild birds. It is an area of about 5'x6', or 30sq.ft. It is about 35' from my patio.
The Whack-A-Mole Gallery is infamous amongst the rodent community as sniper ground. Many, many rodents have perished there. It started out as Ground Squirrels. It has evolved into Gophers, Rats and Mice, now that the Ground Squirrels have been controlled/reduced/eliminated (at least within a 600' perimeter).
I have always had a backstop at this location, a it is at the crest of my graded building area.
Whack-A-Mole is named for the way that area works.
Ground Squirrels and Rats like to stick close to the face of the backstop, and, tend to enter and exit the gallery much like the chain of ducks at the carnival shooting gallery; left-to-right, right-to-left across the face of the backstop. And, Gophers,.. they dig holes into their tunnels (without the dirt moundings), and, pop their heads up out of the holes, just like the Whack-A-Mole carnival game. Thusly,... the Whack-A-Mole Shooting Gallery

This is the early gallery. The backstop was of stacked split firewood.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> Big enough boots, Mike? ^

I used to pick off mice that crawled around between the wood pieces. They'd jump around deep in the backstop, and provided tough precise shots.


I ran out of *quality rodents. That firewood eventually got burned.
*(ground squirrels)

Years pass,.......

We recently started seeing more lesser rodents,... mice, rats, gophers.
Between Sarges bird feeding, and being surrounded by neighbors horse properties, and all of their grains and feed, we've got rodents galore.

And, adding this little complexity,.... is my ongoing competition for the rodents, by my cat, Kitty. She gets them daily.
To be quite frank,.... shes been kicking my butt lately. So, I need to up my game.

Some of Sarges wild birds, a cal valley quail family up against the backstop:

 

[mfrench]

Alrighty,...
I've been whacking away at the lesser rodents, and doing alright. But, that has slowed down considerably. But, I know for a fact that we still have rodents. They've mostly gone nocturnal.
I'd see them really early, and, just at dusk. Both of these hours were low enough light that I was having trouble seeing my reticle crosshairs. The mid-day rodents, except the gophers, were just not around during the day.

So, I started studying about Rats, and what drives them. And, I began experimenting with things like Bacon Jerky (real bacon bits), dry cat kibble. And because of our coyotes, I decided to bait this area behind the protection of welded wire fencing that created a rodent only tunnel into the bait; I wanted to avoid feeding the coyotes.

Studying Rats,...
> TV series NYC Reloaded - Rats episode
> real scientific data found on the internet of stuff.

I learned that Rats are color-blind in the Red-Green color band region from the scientific data.
hmmmm! very interesting,......

I also learned that rats tend to seek the same foods that their moms brought back to the nest.
This explains to me, and my confusion (as a lover of bacon), why the rats didn't eat my bacon jerky bait. And they also avoided the cat kibble.

This is my new backstop, where the firewood used to be:


I learned that feeding preference thing by putting three piles of food behind my grid; kibble, bacon, wild bird seed.
You can see a bit of the bacon bits behind the grid, on the base boards of the backstop.

I placed the bait with the kibble on one side, and the bacon on the other side of a centered pile of bird seed. And, guess what,....
The Rats climbed over the bacon bits, and the kibble, and cleaned out the centered seed entirely. They preferred the seed, as, many, many generations of rat had been raised on that, and, the horse grains around us.

But, they only came out to play after dark, and all I was left with was evidence of their night time feeding.

 

[mfrench]

So,... I built a new, quickly fashioned blind for my patio, of PVC pipe, fittings, and a scrap piece of shade cloth from my patio cover redo.
New patio blind from a couple of days ago. The shadow in the background is the Whack-A-Mole Gallery


Rodent view:

 

[mfrench]

So, I pick off the random gopher sticking its head up, and the occasional daylight rat and mouse.
I learned that Rats are color blind in the red-green spectrum.
There is large evidence of them feeding in the Gallery at night.

hmmm,.... Maybe try some Red LED garden lighting? Yep.


The unveiling of the revamped Gallery with its new LED light.
From two nights ago - the first night with new rigging:






And,... closeups of a dead rodent in the following images. If that is offensive, then please don't open the images.


And, I popped another one last night, but it wriggled its way back into the thick shrubs. I have so many rattlesnakes here, including a recent one, that I don't follow them into the shrubs at night.

Both nights, I saw lots of other rodents. But, they seemed a bit off, and cautious; by the presence of the new light I assume?

I'm going to make a better mount for the lamp (already altered to being a taller mount by 3' above ground for last nights effort).
This totally worked, with immediate tremendous results; two nights, two rodents, one missed shot on another one on night one).

Now Kitty is the slacker! ha!

 

[mfrench]

This lamp - from Amazon:

Lamp Link - Amazon

I bought the AC version as I'm so close to the house, and power is no problem to access.
And, in huge part, because of the remote control, and the ability to control it remotely for levels of lumen intensity, colors, and timer schedule, color band selection from red, gold, green, white, and flashing of all four..
Since this worked so well, I have a couple of other more remote areas, like my fire wood pile out back. So, the research continues for a similar function solar/dc lamp that I can move around remotely.

I remounted the lamp from its push-into-dirt base stake level, to being up to about 3' high, mounted in a piece of 1" pvc pipe. I ran the light that way, last night, and, it provided a more broad light spread. I was able to watch the Rats as they peered over the end of the backstop base logs. They were active but a bit skittish.
The rodents tend to stick tight to the face of the base logs, if on the ground. Or, they stay on the top of the base logs for the seed pile. They tend to like seclusion, and cover, so I mounted an awning over the seeds, a roof to be under. We have a pair of owls here, my theory is that the awning and shrub helps for concealment.
The lamp is temporarily mounted to the cat fencing to the left (cat fencing keeps Kitty from going after feeding birds). That 3' elevation change really helped in light distribution.

The new higher lamp mount is to the left:


The Rat that I got last night, it entered from the right side, at the cat fence. It ran out to where there is a small upward hump in the overhanging branch. It then stopped, and went vertical in a stance similar to a Cops demand of hands up against the wall. Thats how I popped it. It flopped its way back into the shrub line and became coyote bait.

 

[mfrench]

I gave the Rats the night off last night. I still ran the lamp to get them used to it. I went out and watched them through my scope.
I also put the battery back into by Beemans UTG scope, with the illuminated reticle, to see if that might help in the low light situation.
Damn, that illumination thing is calibrated for full sun, bright daylight, level 11 brightness. It was intensely blinding in the dark of night. It could be brought down in intensity, but the initial burst is blinding.
In an odd note,... the red reticle coloring was easier to see than the green lighting.

At one point, there were two rats, both eating seed on the backstop base boards, and another eating on the dirt floor. Then a mouse entered the arena.
Then I went to bed (9:30pm zzzz)
They may not get the night off, tonight.

 

[2FarGone]

My grandad gave me a Crosman Powermaster 760 back in the 1970s. Used to take out rats with it.

I recently fished it out of mom's attic and had it repaired. Social sensibilities being what they are, not to mention local regulations, means I only shoot it in the basement these days. Still shoots perfectly and is a lot of fun.

I had one of these as well. Short stroke, though…I’d pump that thing up to 50 pumps. Not the smartest thing in the world to do, but hey - I was a kid. By the time you get up to that pressure you’re not getting much additional per pump stroke anyway…not like a Benjamin.

I still have a Ruger Air Hawk Elite II that I prefer to the Crosman F4, if for no other reason than the sights. I still prefer open sights on an air rifle if not a red dot.

 

[mfrench]

a $1000 7k.psi air compressor with No Off button:

 

[Bill S]

a $1000 7k.psi air compressor with No Off button:
View attachment 3265641

Time to wire in a kill switch?

 

[REMINGTON700]

Between Sarges bird feeding, and being surrounded by neighbors horse properties, and all of their grains and feed, we've got rodents galore.

One of my neighbors had a rat infestation created by the bird-feeder. I caught on to it through traditional Indian style observations. Began to notice unusual numbers of Red Tailed hawks circling the target area, then seeing and hearing screeching owls, bobcats and coyotes appearing nightly. Concerned, I immediately began searching nearby for rattlesnakes, luckily to know avail. I literally watched a whole food chain come to life. Vector control gave them ideas on how to maintain a feeder and keep rats at bay. Not an easy thing to do as rats are very smart and can climb, shrink themselves, and jump like nobody's business.

 

[spicer]

One of my neighbors had a rat infestation created by the bird-feeder. I caught on to it through traditional Indian style observations. Began to notice unusual numbers of Red Tailed hawks circling the target area, then seeing and hearing screeching owls, bobcat's and coyotes appearing nightly. Concerned, I immediately began searching nearby for rattlesnakes, luckily to know avail. I literally watched a whole food chain come to life. Vector control gave them ideas on how to maintain a feeder and keep rats at bay. Not an easy thing to do as rats are very smart and can climb, shrink themselves, and jump like nobody's business.

Wow. On the other hand watching various predictors getting rats from every angle would be quite the show. Both are fast.

 

[mfrench]

I nailed another Rat tonight with the red LED light. But, I didn't just dead-drop it, and it got around behind the backstop.
Well, given my history of rattlesnakes here (17 in twelve years), I won't go chasing hit/dying Rats around the bushes at night, especially not around the backside of the backstop (have caught and released two large ones there over time).
So, I grabbed the large MagLite flashlight, and trash picker-upper tongs, and went to look around for the Rat, in safe regions, where I can see with the flashlight, and what do I find?
yep,.... another Rattler, and this one was after dark.
So, I tried with the same tongs, and, it managed to twist away, and got back into the shrubs just wide of the house.

So,... another Rat, and another Rattler (though it still is out there, and caution will be necessary).

regarding the lighting,....
It seems that my lowest output level is the best. The rats are less skittish at that level of amplitude.

 

[mfrench]

One of my neighbors had a rat infestation created by the bird-feeder. I caught on to it through traditional Indian style observations. Began to notice unusual numbers of Red Tailed hawks circling the target area, then seeing and hearing screeching owls, bobcats and coyotes appearing nightly. Concerned, I immediately began searching nearby for rattlesnakes, luckily to know avail. I literally watched a whole food chain come to life. Vector control gave them ideas on how to maintain a feeder and keep rats at bay. Not an easy thing to do as rats are very smart and can climb, shrink themselves, and jump like nobody's business.

The Cal Valley Quail family from an image higher up on this page, Here, they don't want to have anything to do with feeders. They are like Sarges favorite thing in bird feeding, aside from her hummingbirds; And the other birds, they just scattered the seed out from the feeders.

 

[REMINGTON700]

This thread made me realize that having a quality Diana scoped bolt action air rifle is something I would use. I ended up ordering this W....T....F!!! lol