Jim Chapman
This year we had four Crosman air rifles for our annual airgun safari; 2 Maruader .177's, 1 Marauder .22, and a Discovery .177. Using these guns we hunted the small game and pest species hard during our down time from the big game hunts. The guns worked flawlessly and turned out to be our most productive airgun hunt yet!
These are one of my favorite birds to hunt; they flock like quail, are smart and wary like turkey, and are to be found in vast numbers. This is one of the hardest birds to stalk I've ever hunted. It's difficult to sneak up with forty pair of eye watching for danger.
I shot them either by spot and stalk in the heavy bush, or by setting up a blind and ambushing them as they came in to feed. Yhe Marauders were allowing head shots, or at the base of the neck out to 60 yards.
These birds are not a pushover either. They circle an area looking for danger before landing, and have very good eyesight. Shoot one in a field, and it was days before they'd give you a chance in the same area.
We shot for the head or the base of the neck as these birds have a muscular breast.
Crows
I hid in the barn behind bales of hay, or in a ghillie suit by the side of a feed lot to get the guys as they came in.
I've been trying to get one of the big black and white carrion crows for three years now, but they've been shot at and won't even come into 30-06 range..... except when you don't have a gun ... they seem to know!
The pigeons were flying in huge numbers. I was taking them down with both the .177 and .22, but after a while I started picking specific shots; head only, between 50 and 80 yards, taking hovering birds, etc... just to slow down a bit. I could easily take a hundred birds per hour.
Rabbits are rabbits everywhere you go, they look the same, act the same, and are hunted in the same way. I took this picture with kudu horns so it looked like Africa.
We shot them early in the morning, evening, or at night with lights.
These are a cool animal to hunt. They live in rough places to get to, are very wary, and in numbers
There were four species of starlings hunted at the farm; glossy, red wing, pied, and European. Rob is really getting into the Marauders I brought over for the guys to keep, and has become the nemisis to the pest birds popping tem left and right.
In these pictures he's got a pair of glossy starlings
