Tally to date, chippers and tree rats.

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Kerry,

I feel your pain of not being able to shot at quarry with the frequency you're used to:

▪ The falcons have cut into my pigeon shooting. They circle overhead or scream from a nearby tree — and the pigeons stay hidden.

▪ The mocking birds have cut into my pigeon shooting. Just today I saw one viciously chasing away a pigeon that came by to pick up one of my lead pills. No joy! Just mocking!!


Of course, I could credit myself with a success at liberation of a small slice of the country from this invasive, poop-dropping, germ-spreading, feed stealing, plump ugly pest bird. 😡

But I'd be kidding myself. 😉
There are still 10,000,000 pigeons in and around my city of 10,000,000 inhabitants. Just not within my reach.

I hope you have more luck.



🔶 Your kill classification in
▪ confirmed kills
▪ unconfirmed kills
is helpful. 👍🏼


I have a more differentiated classification:
▪ confirmed kills (DRT, DCB, DFA, DSF)
▪ probable kill
▪ possible kill
▪ non-lethal hit
▪ miss
•shooter's error: ranging, dialing, holdoff
•obstacle miss (branch or wire strike)
•motion miss (quarry moved)
•power miss (air below regulator setpoint)

Some of these require scopecam footage to analyze the hit/miss....

Matthias
 
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JungleShooter said:
Kerry,

I feel your pain of not being able to shot at quarry with the frequency you're used to:

▪ The falcons have cut into my pigeon shooting. They circle overhead or scream from a nearby tree — and the pigeons stay hidden.

▪ The mocking birds have cut into my pigeon shooting. Just today I saw one viciously chasing away a pigeon that came by to pick up one of my lead pills. No joy! Just mocking!!


Of course, I could credit myself with a success at liberation of a small slice of the country from this invasive, poop-dropping, germ-spreading, feed stealing, plump ugly pest bird. 😡

But I'd be kidding myself. 😉
There are still 10,000,000 pigeons in and around my city of 10,000,000 inhabitants. Just not within my reach.

I hope you have more luck.



🔶 Your kill classification in
▪ confirmed kills
▪ unconfirmed kills
is helpful. 👍🏼


I have a more differentiated classification:
▪ confirmed kills (DRT, DCB, DFA, DSF)
▪ probable kill
▪ possible kill
▪ non-lethal hit
▪ miss
•shooter's error: ranging, dialing, holdoff
•obstacle miss (branch or wire strike)
•motion miss (quarry moved)
•power miss (air below regulator setpoint)

Some of these require scopecam footage to analyze the hit/miss....

Matthias
Click to expand...
Well Matt, I appreciate your more detailed classification, but for me, it is really either a confirmed kill or not. The only reason I make the distinction between pure misses and unconfirmed kills is that I know when I make a good hit. Based simply on the sound. As I always have a good backstop, usually the tree the pest is on, it isn't difficult to distinguish between a good hit and a hit on the tree/wood. However, even with a good hit, there are times that I simply can't confirm the kill (sometimes I do, much later) by being able to see or retrieve the carcass. Sometimes that means that the pest made it to/died on a property where I don't have permission to search.

Sometimes it simply means that I could not find it.

Recently I shot a tree rat in what I thought was a good heart shot. Watched it fall and thought it was DRT. Well, I was out looking for it within 60 seconds and it was not where it fell. Looked for about 15 minutes and did not find it. The next day someone did some strange things in a car in the alley that caused me to go outside and repair the damage. That is when I found the tree rat in the brush pile my neighbor had put out days before. If not for that drunk or whatever he/she was, I would never have found and confirmed that kill.


Anyway, I would have to build a spread-sheet and learn how to use it to have as many variables to keep up with as you do!

Umm.. ain't gonna happen! (grin)

Many thanks for the reply! (smile) (y)
 
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Nah, playing with the kill classification is just my personal way to enjoy shooting beyond the actual shot.... 😄

I still have to make a spreadsheet to keep tallies as nicely as you do, I only have a pedestrian list, nothing to enter a few formulas to keep track. So, yeah, more playing with the kills beyond the actual shot.... 😄

Have you thought of calculating your kill rate (or hit rate)? Correlating it to off-hand shots and rested shots? Sorry, my mind goes off another rail playing with the data.... 🤣

Matthias
 
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JungleShooter said:
1. Nah, playing with the kill classification is just my personal way to enjoy shooting beyond the actual shot.... 😄

2. I still have to make a spreadsheet to keep tallies as nicely as you do, I only have a pedestrian list, nothing to enter a few formulas to keep track. So, yeah, more playing with the kills beyond the actual shot.... 😄

3. Have you thought of calculating your kill rate (or hit rate)? Correlating it to off-hand shots and rested shots? Sorry, my mind goes off another rail playing with the data.... 🤣

Matthias
Click to expand...

1. I think I understand you. We agree too often for that not to be at least be true to some extent. ;)

2. All I do is keep hash marks on a calendar. 4 vertical marks and a diagonal slash for 5. A question mark for unconfirmed kills to the extreme right in the same date box for each day. Also, I keep at least one area where I do the same for the entire month with the same hash marks to give me some semblance of an accounting system.

Other than that... (chuckle)

Oops...

3. No. I VERY rarely shoot off-hand. And when I do it is because the shot is so close and/or I have no other choice. Sometimes I am successful.
As far as calculating my kill ratio. Never even thought about it. (smile) I just work very hard at being accurate/precise with the tool(s) I have.

Thanks for the reply! (smile)
 
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BackStop said:
95 Tree rats (+1)
36 Chippers (+1)
1 Norway rat

Yes, pesting is really slow in my backyard lately... but I have to keep in mind that it is because I have been very successful! (chuckle/sigh)

I actually miss the days when I had multiple chances for safe pesting shots on any given day as I don't shoot paper targets for any other reason than to maintain accuracy/precision. (smile)

Saw a chipper today, but it was smart enough to keep moving so fast that I never could get a sight picture on it.

Maybe tomorrow... (smile)
Click to expand...
Nothing to update since the post above.

No pest sightings in my backyard or permissions and, therefor, no possible safe shots.

I might have to start shooting paper just to keep my edge. (heavy sigh)

I really hate shooting paper... except when it is necessary to keep my accuracy/precision/checking zero or I am just plain bored to death... (smile)

There is one young chipper that shows up from time to time, but is smart enough to keep moving. There are also a few tree rats I have seen in the neighborhood, but they are also smart enough to stay out of my yard... at least my backyard.

Oh well... maybe it is time for me to START to tear down the DAR and try to diagnose the leak and fix it.

Damn... I dread this... I just want a PCP that works like a hammer. (smile)

In other words, it does its job if I do my job and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. It is accurate/precise if I am accurate/precise! (grin)

That PCP airgun does NOT exist... (sigh)
 
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Since it's November I thought that I would update my count, 107 tree rats for the year. I do have one that runs across my yard now and then but have not had a shot on it yet, he will mess up one of these days and stop long enough for me to get a crosshair on his beady little eye!

As far as a dependable rifle I have two Daystate Huntsman's one is a .22 regulated that is a dependable as they get and another Hunstman in .177 unregulated and is also super dependable. I also have a Taipan .25 regulated that is super dependable but that is too much gun for around the house and is my walk around rifle. All three of these rifles are as dependable as a hammer, never have been readjusted just load and shoot and expect to hit exactly what I'm aiming at.
 
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I hate tree rats not just because they eat all my pecans, but the potential damage they can do to your roof. I trimmed my biggest pecan tree so no limbs were any where near the house just because of tree rats and the potential for them to jump to the roof. I've seen damaged roofs around where I live, and way back in the 70's pictures of one of my uncles summer home on a lake. His wife fed the tree rats and chipmunks the first summer he bought the house, even though he tried to stop her.

She thought they were cute and would come to her feet looking for free handouts by the end of the summer. When they went back home for the winter, the critters took offense. Looking for their free food they invaded the house. The remodel the next year cost more than the house did originally. Not one room in the house wasn't tore up, not one cabinet wasn't chewed open, not one wall without holes in it, not one carpet wasn't tore up to make nests, scat and piss ruined all the floors...etc... The remodel on the house ended up being a 100% gut job to the frame. His wife learned her lesson on feeding the cute buggers, even bought him a case of 20 guage shells so he had no excuse if she saw one on their property after that, shoot them all. Not counting all the ones that escaped, the exterminator accounted for over 50 in the house.
 
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Flintsack said:
What are the stats from your best year?
Click to expand...
I don't know if I have good records on the Norway rats, but for tree rats and chippers, since I started keeping accurate records it was:

322 tree rats
75 chipmunks

However, the number of tree rats was probably higher during the 2 years before I started keeping records and that is when I actually started going after chipmunks.

Needless to say, I think I have them under control now. (smile)

At least my lawn no longer looks like a moonscape and I haven't had another tree rat attempt to enter my attic by tearing up the eaves.

p.s.

Add one more tree rat to the tally as I dropped it at~37 yards while trying to answer posts here. DRT heart shot.

So:
104 tree rats
37 chipmunks
1 Norway rats

After my suspension on AGN ended, the site has been VERY unfriendly to me as far as reading and replying to posts.

What should take a few minutes, takes me 20 100 1000 times that when I can see posts at all and replying is even worse. At least now I know where Jack Dorsey is employed...

When I don't log in, everything pops up quickly... but, of course, I can't post or reply.
 
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Add 2 more tree rats from today. Rain seems to bring them out here.

Both were at ~22 yards. One was DRT and I could not find the entry and there was no exit wound, absolutely no blood. My aim was for the heart, so I think I did well on this one.

The other was a head shot, not DRT and took 2 follow up shots at very close range to close the deal. (heavy sigh)

106 tree rats
 
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Ended 2022 with these stats:

108 confirmed tree rat kills and 9 unconfirmed (but likely dead). See my first post(s) about what "unconfirmed" means here.

37 chipmunks confirmed with 2 unconfirmed.

1 Norway rat confirmed with the airgun, but many more died from my poison box... located where the other animals can't get to it. Well, chipmunks can... (smile)

New year's day 2023, got 2 tree rats. One at about 18 yards and the other at about 22 yards. I see a scant few moving in the oaks on properties (100 yards or more away) that I can't shoot and couldn't hit them if I tried with the pellets and low velocity I use for safety. So, I simply watch them and learn their habits. Funny how you learn when a tree rat is heading for your property even when it is still WAY out of range. (smile)

Got another tree rat on the 3rd as well. Don't remember the details as I didn't write them down for that one. (sigh)

Just put out more anticoagulant poison in the rat box and it is being eaten fairly quickly, so I should be seeing some dead Norway rats in the yard soon. As much as I like shooting them, I just don't get many chances... thus the poison in the rat box.

Oh, almost forgot since I don't keep count... got 2 Starlings a few days ago.

BTW, haven't changed my signature, but I DID switch back to JSB/FX 10.34 domes because, even though the Hades were accurate, they simply didn't seem to give me the DRT kills I like. Perhaps they simply did not penetrate enough, where the domes sometimes penetrate too much... as in pass through.

For me, domes work the best for accuracy although the 3 tree rats I took at ~75-80 yards were taken with Hades.

In case you don't know me and are wondering... I ONLY shoot .177

Until AGN makes it possible for me to communicate here without it taking literally 1000 times longer than it should, you may not see many more posts from me.

Some will cheer and some will wonder... (chuckle/heavy sigh)
 
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My count for 2022 was 117 tree rats. So far this year 1 and it's been really quiet with few sightings, although I did see one yesterday that ran across the old apple orchard out behind my house probably about 75 yards but that is not my property so off limits most of the time;) Every year I get less than the year before last year was 129, so that's a good thing, I guess that means that I'm winning the war slowly but surely!
 
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So far, 2023 has been very slow for tree rats.

Since the first of 2023, my confirmed kills of tree rats is only 14.

I have gone weeks without seeing, let alone having a safe shot, any tree rats.

I don't expect the chipmunks to be abundant either as the season evolves. At least not as much as they have been.

Oh well, I am not whining. Just stating the fact that I have been so successful, that I no longer have enough targets to make shooting pellet guns my main reason to get out of bed.

As soon as I can get my 1960 oven fixed (capable of 650-700 F), I will once again be making the best pizzas on the planet! (grin)

Good luck to all pesters! May you all be as successful as I have been. (smile)
 
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BackStop said:
Good luck to all pesters!
Click to expand...


Thank you! Good luck to you as well.

I have been similarly without pesting opportunities — due to the country I have been working in for a couple of months. 🤦🏻‍♂️


[Sorry, the rest of my comment was offensive and I retract it.]



Good luck to all you pesters out there. There's a lot of work still out there!

Matthias
 
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JungleShooter said:
Thank you! Good luck to you as well.

I have been similarly without pesting opportunities — due to the country I have been working in for a couple of months. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Yeah, in Germany it's striktly prohibited to kill anything with an airgun. The fines are severe, criminal charges are probable.


Well, what can a die-hard pester do???
Kill by other means that are less illegal! 🤣

For example:
Recently, on a three-lane street with no traffic at all I had the golden opportunity of two fat feral pigeons crossing the street on foot.
I swerved hard and with the lowly impact velocity of only 64 fps I still made a dent. 👍🏼
(Not in the car, mind you, a dent in the pigeon, of course. — Or, well, less of a dent than a mess.)


Good luck to all you pesters out there. There's a lot of work still out there!

Matthias
Click to expand...
Wow... (heavy sigh)

I only pest to protect my property. I don't kill simply for the sake of killing.

In my opinion, you have taken it too far and to call what you described above as "pesting", seriously makes me a little sick.

I call them as I see them...
 
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