😳 The CURSE of Success: Are you a victim?

[JungleShooter]

The CURSE of Success: Are you a victim? ​

⨁ Are you hunting down pest animals to kill them?

⨁ Are you any good at it?

Then, you might become one of the victims of success....


I will briefly describe my depressing descend into the successful pester's abyss:


I started out as a lousy shot.
And I blame that to 100% on the gun. (That little trick I learned right here at the forum).
And because my gun was a bottom of the bargain-barrel gun.

I bought a better gun.
And my success rate climbed. A lot more pests got dead on account of my shooting.

I discovered the "Fully Field Rested" hold for my pesting pistol: (a) The off-hand pressed the gun into a sock filled with plastic chips, rested side-ways against a tree, or rested against the top rail of a fence.
(b) The trigger hand does nothing to support the pistol; it only pulls the trigger.
This gave my stooting extreme stability, and it showed in the improved success rate in pest kills.

A wind meter told me how much wind I had to deal with, and a string told me from where it came from.
And math proved deadly once again — the ballistic calculator gave me better trajectory corrections, resulting in a yet higher death rate for my shots....

I bought a scopecam and figured out that my gun's favorite pellet started to spiral at around 50y — ranges at which I used to "score" mostly misses.
Now my success rate climbed again as I cleaned out pests at locations previously unassailable to me.
Great success!


Great, right?
Yeah, right....

▪ Ask my how many pests I've seen at my permission lately.
▪ Ask me how many kills I scored in the past month.


No, better not ask me.
It's too depressing.

After all this successful pesting — I now have very few pests to kill anymore.
I have become a victim of my own success at killing.
The curse of success....



֎ What's your story?

֎ Has success gotten to you?

֎ What's your curse?

What's YOUR CURE?!?


Matthias



PS:
I can give you the contact info of my psychiatrist. She is helping me to overcome this victim syndrome, and I am learning to cope.

One of the first therapeutic treatment regimens she put me through was a day-long expedition where I was to identify at least 3 more pest species within a 2-hour driving distance of my home.
I can see that she really knows what she's doing. — I am feeling already much better!

 

[delooper]

I suspect you aren't the only one: https://www.airgunnation.com/thread...or-pesting-my-job-appears-to-be-done.1267539/

I still get the occasional rat on my property, but the real pests have always been the raccoons, and they're gone, as far as I can tell.

 

[BackStop]

The CURSE of Success: Are you a victim? ​

⨁ Are you hunting down pest animals to kill them?

⨁ Are you any good at it?

Then, you might become one of the victims of success....


I will briefly describe my depressing descend into the successful pester's abyss:


I started out as a lousy shot.
And I blame that to 100% on the gun. (I learned to do that at AGN).
And because my gun was a bottom of the bargain barrel gun.

I bought a better gun.
And my success rate climbed. A lot more pests got on account of my shooting.

I discovered the "Fully Field Rested" hold for my pesting pistol: (a) The off-hand pressed the gun into a sock filled with plastic chips, rested side-ways against a tree, or rested against the top rail of a fence.
(b) The trigger hand does nothing to support the pistol; it only pulls the trigger.
This gave my stooting extreme stability, and it showed in the improved success rate in pest kills.

A wind meter told me how much wind I had to deal with, and and string told me from where it came from.
And math proved deadly once again — the ballistic calculator gave me better trajectory corrections, resulting in a yet higher death rate for my shots....

I bought a scopecam and figured out that my gun's favorite pellet started to spiral at around 50y — ranges at which I used to "score" mostly misses.
Now my success rate climbed again as I cleaned out pests at locations previously unassailable to me.
Great success!


Great, right?
Yeah, right.

▪ Ask my how many pests I've seen at my permission lately.
▪ Ask me how many kills I scored in the past month.


No, better not ask me.
It's too depressing.

After all this successful pesting — I now have very few pests to kill anymore.
I have become a victim of my own success at killing.
The curse of success....



֎ What's your story?

֎ Has success gotten to you?

֎ What's your curse?

What's YOUR CURE?!?


Matthias



PS:
I can give you the contact info of my psychiatrist. She is helping me to overcome this victim syndrome, and I am learning to cope.

One of the first therapeutic treatment regimens she put me through was a day-long expedition where I was to identify at least 3 more pest species within a 2-hour driving distance of my home.
I can see that she really knows what she's doing. — I am feeling already much better!

LOL!!!! Thanks Matt! (silly grin)

When the leaves fall off of the trees, I am hopeful that I will have more safe shots. For now and the last few weeks, I am not even SEEING a pest, let alone have a safe shot. (whiny teary eyed grin, chuckle, knowing evil grin, confident smile) (chuckle)

Great post!

p.s.

I don't think I am even coming close to 1/4 of what I did on tree rats on average for the last 4+ years. And on chipmunks, unless I get a LOT of safe shots and am 100% successful when I can shoot, my chipper count will be half or less than half than last year which was 72... I think? Let me check that... yes, I think this was the last cnipmunk I killed last year.

Oh well... I won't brag, but then again, I think I have had something to do with this decline in targets. (smile)

I just miss shooting with a purpose, because I don't get much joy out of shooting paper targets. I might enjoy shooting steel, but where I live, that would draw too much attention and might end up badly... for me anyway.

 

[SHOMER]

There is a time and a season for every purpose under heaven.
Aye that's one of the true perils of the sport, you either runout of money fueling your quest or you runout of those various lead customers. Ah what to do when, once you've reached that distant elusive nirvana?
Begin a new, change paths or seek some very serious couch time to get your mind right?

As for me I still haven't yet entertained cutting off my dick, so considering everything else, all in all life is still very good.

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” ~Jack London

 

[BackStop]

There is a time and a season for every purpose under heaven.
Aye that's one of the true perils of the sport, you either runout of money fueling your quest or you runout of those various lead customers. Ah what to do when, once you've reached that distant elusive nirvana?
Begin a new, change paths or seek some very serious couch time to get your mind right?

As for me I still haven't yet entertained cutting off my dick, so considering everything else, all in all life is still very good.

"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” ~Jack London

Yes, life is good and I have been successful, but during the time I fought the war on pests, it became a passion. No, an OBSESSION!

I still don't like shooting paper unless it is for tuning and I have found that I am usually better when shooting at a live target. Yes, it is true.

Go figure, but I bet I am not the only one. (chuckle)

I could start taking HOSPs, but they aren't really pest FOR ME. Starlings don't come around too often and Grackles are protected.

So... I will just keep up the vigil of watching for my prime targets, tree rats, chipmunks, rats and mice and eventually, they WILL return.

Sooner or later, they (one or more) will come back in waves. I don't expect to take the numbers I did when I first started, but I do expect see more targets before the end of the year... if not simply for the fact that once the leaves fall, they don't have that cover to hide their movements.

Actually, at this point I guess I should be posting the video clip of "Rocky Balboa" at the top of the steps, considering where I started in my war on tree rats and chippers. (grin)

Da da dada da dada da dada da...

I posted 2 laments about this same subject:

A pester's lament...

It has been over a month since I have had a shot at a chipper and have only seen one or two where I could not shoot them. I am trying to remember if there was a lull in the pest presence last year around this time, but I wasn't keeping records then. My last pesting shot was here and that was...

www.airgunnation.com

Another pester's lament

The A/C men came today really early, so I didn't get a chance to stalk any pests early. However, about 8am or so, I stepped out the back door and a chipper jumped off of my back porch just a couple of feet from me and ran around the corner of my house towards my wood pile. So, as usual, I set...

www.airgunnation.com

I think these were laments over not having chipmunks to target. This year, I have had NOTHING to target for quite some time. At least recently... more than 2 weeks.

Yeah, I know... Some people will be glad that I am not killing and some people will be happy just because they have more targets than I do. (chuckle)

Oh, well... to each their own. (smile)

 

[Chukar60]

I just started posting this year. My favorite place is a ranch owned by a friend. Pigeons beyond my wildest dreams.the first weekend we shot almost 100 and no noticeable difference in the #'s. I have not shot it for several weeks now because time will not allow it.
My intent is too get his pigeon numbers down but not out. He is happy with the reduction and does not expect total eradication. he tells me in winter he is overrun with Starlings so when it gets cold I will shoot starlings and lay off the pigeons.
Never want to shoot every critter you can. have to leave a few for seed.

 

[FelixS]

The CURSE of Success: Are you a victim? ​

⨁ Are you hunting down pest animals to kill them?

⨁ Are you any good at it?

Then, you might become one of the victims of success....


I will briefly describe my depressing descend into the successful pester's abyss:


I started out as a lousy shot.
And I blame that to 100% on the gun. (That little trick I learned right here at the forum).
And because my gun was a bottom of the bargain-barrel gun.

I bought a better gun.
And my success rate climbed. A lot more pests got dead on account of my shooting.

I discovered the "Fully Field Rested" hold for my pesting pistol: (a) The off-hand pressed the gun into a sock filled with plastic chips, rested side-ways against a tree, or rested against the top rail of a fence.
(b) The trigger hand does nothing to support the pistol; it only pulls the trigger.
This gave my stooting extreme stability, and it showed in the improved success rate in pest kills.

A wind meter told me how much wind I had to deal with, and a string told me from where it came from.
And math proved deadly once again — the ballistic calculator gave me better trajectory corrections, resulting in a yet higher death rate for my shots....

I bought a scopecam and figured out that my gun's favorite pellet started to spiral at around 50y — ranges at which I used to "score" mostly misses.
Now my success rate climbed again as I cleaned out pests at locations previously unassailable to me.
Great success!


Great, right?
Yeah, right....

▪ Ask my how many pests I've seen at my permission lately.
▪ Ask me how many kills I scored in the past month.


No, better not ask me.
It's too depressing.

After all this successful pesting — I now have very few pests to kill anymore.
I have become a victim of my own success at killing.
The curse of success....



֎ What's your story?

֎ Has success gotten to you?

֎ What's your curse?

What's YOUR CURE?!?


Matthias



PS:
I can give you the contact info of my psychiatrist. She is helping me to overcome this victim syndrome, and I am learning to cope.

One of the first therapeutic treatment regimens she put me through was a day-long expedition where I was to identify at least 3 more pest species within a 2-hour driving distance of my home.
I can see that she really knows what she's doing. — I am feeling already much better!

Hahaha, yes, me too. However, and I am happy to report that I just got my first GS permission yesterday (they approached me!). It looks like I need to do the scope cam thingy as well. Cheers!

 

[Ramjet]

The CURSE of Success: Are you a victim? ​

⨁ Are you hunting down pest animals to kill them?

⨁ Are you any good at it?

Then, you might become one of the victims of success....


I will briefly describe my depressing descend into the successful pester's abyss:


I started out as a lousy shot.
And I blame that to 100% on the gun. (That little trick I learned right here at the forum).
And because my gun was a bottom of the bargain-barrel gun.

I bought a better gun.
And my success rate climbed. A lot more pests got dead on account of my shooting.

I discovered the "Fully Field Rested" hold for my pesting pistol: (a) The off-hand pressed the gun into a sock filled with plastic chips, rested side-ways against a tree, or rested against the top rail of a fence.
(b) The trigger hand does nothing to support the pistol; it only pulls the trigger.
This gave my stooting extreme stability, and it showed in the improved success rate in pest kills.

A wind meter told me how much wind I had to deal with, and a string told me from where it came from.
And math proved deadly once again — the ballistic calculator gave me better trajectory corrections, resulting in a yet higher death rate for my shots....

I bought a scopecam and figured out that my gun's favorite pellet started to spiral at around 50y — ranges at which I used to "score" mostly misses.
Now my success rate climbed again as I cleaned out pests at locations previously unassailable to me.
Great success!


Great, right?
Yeah, right....

▪ Ask my how many pests I've seen at my permission lately.
▪ Ask me how many kills I scored in the past month.


No, better not ask me.
It's too depressing.

After all this successful pesting — I now have very few pests to kill anymore.
I have become a victim of my own success at killing.
The curse of success....



֎ What's your story?

֎ Has success gotten to you?

֎ What's your curse?

What's YOUR CURE?!?


Matthias



PS:
I can give you the contact info of my psychiatrist. She is helping me to overcome this victim syndrome, and I am learning to cope.

One of the first therapeutic treatment regimens she put me through was a day-long expedition where I was to identify at least 3 more pest species within a 2-hour driving distance of my home.
I can see that she really knows what she's doing. — I am feeling already much better!

Omg yes!!

Was literally just thinking this as I got back into the sport to take care of some pest birds in the back 40.

After about a month of heavy english house sparrow dispatching, I haven't seen one in a couple weeks.

They need to come back lol.

 

[hawkeye69]

My shooting partner and I have a dairy permission that just won't quit. They've been at the same location since the 1940's and it's a collared dove breeding ground, and very little else. We have taken out thousands of birds and there is no end in sight. Shotgun hunters shoot there as well, and take as many or more than us. It's an absolute shooting gallery, you can literally sit in one spot all day and not have more than a one minute break between shots. Our last day out, and this is only a fraction of the total kills for the day:

 

[Mr.H]

Funny, I was just thinking before I clicked on the thread, "where have all the pests gone"? Then I went to my back window where I shoot from. I keep a talley of my total shots taken, and the amount of "kill shots". Once in a while I miss, not often, but if I do I want to write it down, helps keep me honest, and it helps me strategize my next shot, so as not to miss.
Anyway, to date, I've got 40 "kills" on 4 legged pests. I don't count birds, as I don't have a lot of English sparrows (anymore)

 

[Calbarry]

my permission is loaded with pigeons, and ground squirrels. There is no way that they will all be eliminated. After shooing a bunch of squirrels, I won't see any for awhile, but they're still there. I've shot 40-50 in one day and a week later it looks like I didn't do any damage. It would be possible to shoot the pigeons everyday and not run out of them. I and the foreman estimate there are at least 500 pigeons at the grain bin every day. It could be the area that you're shooting just doesn't have an established population and you've wiped out the few that are there.They're like weeds, give it some time and they'll be back

 

[beerthief]

IF your lacking live pest targets .................................. BAIT

 

[JungleShooter]

IF your lacking live pest targets .................................. BAIT!

Yes, I'd hate to spend good money on bad animals — but then, how many thousands of good dollars have I already spent on guns to kill the bad animals....

I guess a few more for a sack of corn won't make much of a difference.

Matthias

 

[N2 Shooter]

IF your lacking live pest targets .................................. BAIT

I try and bait groundhogs with apples because the bastards live underground and don't give me a choice. I work for a living, so I can't just sit around and hope that the elusive groundhog just happens to come out of its burrow while I'm there!

But to be honest, I'd be super happy if I didn't have any pest to shoot, as these groundhogs have cost me close to $10K in foundation damage!

 

[JungleShooter]

10,000 Dollars?!?
TEN THOUSAND?!?

I'm very sorry, Ed. That's just plain wrong.


Airgun "hobby"...? Mmmm, looks like in situations like that "entertaining" becomes "existential."
Wow, that's rough.


I hope you can truly terminate them. End all. Done. Exitus.

Matthias

 

[beerthief]

Peanut butter works great for Squirrels , they have to sit right there and eat i found pork chop bones works good for Racoons

 

[FelixS]

4:04 - 4:12 cRaP!

 

[Ranchibi]

LOL! Great post and thread! I started into airgunning because of a rat problem as some of the smarter ones could not be trapped andI used to get 40-50 per year in the beginning now I'm down to less than 10 a year....

 

[qball]

10,000 Dollars?!?
TEN THOUSAND?!?

I'm very sorry, Ed. That's just plain wrong.


Airgun "hobby"...? Mmmm, looks like in situations like that "entertaining" becomes "existential."
Wow, that's rough.


I hope you can truly terminate them. End all. Done. Exitus.

Matthias

While 10k is nothing to sneeze at but my neighbor directly behind me had to re tar paper the entire roof and patch tons of holes under the tiles. Without counting the over half dozen failed exterminators the roof repair alone costed my neighbor north of $20,000. Yes, TWNETY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!

Needless to say I enforce zero tolerance no rodent trespass policy!!! Speaking of which I haven’t seen a tree rat for almost 3 month but this morning I saw one on my other neighbors oaks tree, it’s matter of time it wonders Onto the wrong tree…….

 

[N2 Shooter]

10,000 Dollars?!?
TEN THOUSAND?!?

I'm very sorry, Ed. That's just plain wrong.


Airgun "hobby"...? Mmmm, looks like in situations like that "entertaining" becomes "existential."
Wow, that's rough.


I hope you can truly terminate them. End all. Done. Exitus.

Matthias

Well, to keep my plausible deniability, I won't post any pics of my property, but I will show you what happened two houses down from groundhog damage.

Damn groundhogs totalled out the whole house. The city condemned it and they just tore it down a few weeks ago. They don't bark, they don't bite, they run when they see ya, so they can't be that bad right?

You better think again!

Burrows weaken the footer; sometimes they lean in, sometimes they lean out, but in any case, these bastards are worse than diabetes, talk about a silent killer!

I also have damage at the rear of my property and a new burrow near the front that I already had repaired. You can't poison them because they are very selective eaters, if you fill up the holes with gravel, they will just did a new one right beside it. I've used dozens of gopher flares/foggers, with limited to no success. I go down to this property for 3 to 4 hours every day, and maybe I'll get lucky enough to kill 3 per week. Bait works somewhat, but since they have no predators like fox, bobcat or coyote in the area, they multiply like rabbits! I've cut the renovation short and I'm looking to rent it out in September as is. Just trying to recoup some of my investment before the damage the house has takes its toll. If it stands for another 2 years, maybe I'll break even, but the city will charge us around $8500 to demolish, and add that to my already too high property tax rate on the property where I live. I had to put off getting my roof replaced at my own house to take care of these foundation issues!

No rest for a middle class working family trying to get some of that American dream.

Everytime I even think about this poop I just wanna gut shot each and every one of these bastards.