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To Kill A Mockingbird

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jaybird

jaybird

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Should I use a .12 gauge or do you think the Ruger would be sufficient?

This bloody bird has tortured me for 4 or 5 years now - at least. Every stinking spring it comes back. I'm fairly certain it's taken up residence on my bedroom window ledge. At 4:05 EVERY FREAKING MORNING it starts its racket. This morning I counted 27 DIFFERENT tunes before it repeated.

I want it dead.
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

jaybird said:
Should I use a .12 gauge or do you think the Ruger would be sufficient?

I want it dead.
Click to expand...

Easy there, Ms. Tree-hugger! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

As a pacifist, my soul is conflicted Mickey. I hate this bird. I want to kill it.
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

I knew that about the . - was just testing ya'll.
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Ummm, John, won't that bird scarer thing (IF I were to spend $400+) make as much racket as the bird?
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Unless you live in a really rural area or don’t mind a visit from the local swat team, I’d avoid any sort of *conventional* firearm.

Now depending on the distances involved, I'm a fan of Air rifles for short range urban applications. Silent, stealthy and with a little target practice & sighing in session they can be deadly accurate.

Great if you’re worried about neighbors that might take acceptation to you dispatching some of the more annoying of god’s little creatures. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Bret said:
...Great if you’re worried about neighbors that might take acceptation to you dispatching some of the more annoying of god’s little creatures. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
Click to expand...
I haven't 'dispatched' any of the neighbors' kids that won't stay out of my garden. I don't think they'd take offense to a bird. Besides, it HAS to be waking the neighbors in a 4 block radius.
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

jaybird said:
Bret said:
...Great if you’re worried about neighbors that might take acceptation to you dispatching some of the more annoying of god’s little creatures. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
Click to expand...
I haven't 'dispatched' any of the neighbors' kids that won't stay out of my garden. I don't think they'd take offense to a bird. Besides, it HAS to be waking the neighbors in a 4 block radius.
Click to expand...
Still think the air riffle is the best bet. I think you could get a nice .177 cal at a sporting goods store for about $50-$60.

As for the kids invading your garden - two words: Stinging Nettles. Don't know if you have them in your part of the country but these grew naturally around where I used to live.

We had this old gal (the cat lady) down the block who hated all of us neighborhood kids using her property as a segway to the canyon. So she placed those nasty bushes at strategic locations around her yard where we'd traverse her property. First time we discovered this was a real awakening!
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

jaybird said:
Ummm, John, won't that bird scarer thing (IF I were to spend $400+) make as much racket as the bird?
Click to expand...

Well, there is that side effect.

I recommend the two remedies at once. The spikes and the multi-bang. Use the multi-bang for a few days and then add the spikes. (Sleep in a different room to avoid the noise) Think about it - the bird will leave after a few days and then plague the neighbors. It'll show up every morning with its existing repertoire plus a loud "BANG!" every minute or so.
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

coldplugs said:
jaybird said:
Ummm, John, won't that bird scarer thing (IF I were to spend $400+) make as much racket as the bird?
Click to expand...

Well, there is that side effect.

I recommend the two remedies at once. The spikes and the multi-bang. Use the multi-bang for a few days and then add the spikes. (Sleep in a different room to avoid the noise) Think about it - the bird will leave after a few days and then plague the neighbors. It'll show up every morning with its existing repertoire plus a loud "BANG!" every minute or so.
Click to expand...
Good idea I guess - but I don’t think JB wants to scare it away. She’s got mayhem on her mind. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

My air rifle solution offers the best of both worlds – stealth, nobody need know what she did. And the chest thumping satisfaction of personally taking the annoyance out herself. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Kinda an "1812 Overture" in an a cappella, birdlike sorta way... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Here is your solution (and only $7.95):

https://www.tbotech.com/slingshot.htm

The local birds that bug me are Catbirds. I hate their sound. But we needs them to feed the local hawks. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

By the way, here is a picture of the birds *I* get every year on my porch light.
Probabaly 10 generations now.
Used to drive my old cat berzerk.
They are, or course, bluejays. I like bluejays because they have "attitude".......a good quality if you live in NJ.

blujays-cl-06.jpg
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Some folks call them thar birds 'jaybirds' around here...
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

Bret said:
Unless you live in a really rural area or don’t mind a visit from the local swat team, I’d avoid any sort of *conventional* firearm.
Click to expand...

"One shots a backfire. Three is gunplay." /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif (James Caan, way of the Gun)

Seriously though, Bret and Doc both have a great point about the air rifles. Likelihood of someone even knowing you discharged it is pretty low. Just don't go outside and shoot back at your own window while trying to hit the bird. The spike strip could work to move him to an easier place to shoot him.

If your conflicted about actually killing it, try a lower powered BB gun instead of a high powered pellet gun. Might just give him the hint to move along without really hurting him. I've watched some BB's bounce off of crows barely disturbing the feathers.

My neighbor was having nightly visits to her bird and squirrel feeders (full of peanuts) by one of the local Raccoons. She asked me if I shot it with my paintball gun if it would kill it or just scare it. I used one of my pistols (lower power and sounds more like a champagne bottle popping) that is extremely accurate and popped him center mass from about twenty yards one night. He was very upset, bruised but otherwise unhurt and easy to spot for a few days as the paint was fluorescent green. He was also probably very popular with other Raccoons as he would have smelled of fish oil for a few days. The main thing was that he hasn't been back to those feeders. Neighbors happy, no one else in the neighborhood even knew, and now the squirrels have started leaving me unshucked peanuts on my front door step. I guess they are saying thank you as well.
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us. [/QUOTE]
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

I still want to put some buckshot smack in the middle of that singing little heart.

It's music from 6:30am til midnight or so. After than, it's noise pollution. The stupid thing will start singing all night long pretty soon. Usually starts about the time I turn the last light out in the house. Another couple weeks, mid April normally.

You think it's mating calls? I would be more than happy to find him a Mockingbird Brothel...

in Colorado.
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

lawguy said:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us.
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

...And it's the state bird of both Texas (my birthplace) and Tennessee (my home)!
 
Re: use aTo Kill A Mockingbird

You want the remains Mickey? Maybe a nice Christian burial?
 
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