Pesting season on the vineyard

[roachcreek]

I live on a 11 acre vineyard and each harvest season we are inundated with migratory birds which eat literally tpns tons of grapes. 4 years ago I shot 1875 birds during harvest and they still got 5 tons of grapes, we had rows where there were no grapes left at all. To make matters worse they bring in mold from other vineyards to our vines.

I have for the last 2 years been shooting long distance with air rifles and have extended my shooting range to 300 yards. Shooting the Haley with 70 to 100 grain bullets at 300 yards at my 3x4 foot steel target with a 8 inch center gong, makes the birds take wing in one huge flock and before I get through a 5 shot group they have circled the vineyard a couple of times and headed for neighboring vineyards.

I shot around 35 groups today with the Haley and these are the two best groups of the day, both are under 1/2 MOA at 300 yards. The group on the left was shot with the NOE 100 grain bullet, the right hand group is with the 257464 Ideal, both cast of 20-1 and lubed with Silicone 10 wt oil.



The NOE group



The Ideal 257464 group



The Haley ready to go.



View through the Leupold VX111 4.5x14 30 mm Long Range Hollands MOA reticle at 300 yards

[Djones]

this is a neat setup. what kind of velocity does your air gun fire those 100 grain boolits?

[Reg]

Best to be careful here. Almost all birds, even sparrows in some places, are protected in one way or another these days. Bird netting might be a smarter way to go. Not cheaper or more fun -- just smarter.

[roachcreek]

Yes I hear about the netting all the time especially from those who do not have to pay for it, quite frankly it is a very expensive alternative.

In agriculture, pest birds here, ie., Starlings which come in waves, are definitely not protected, so we can kill them by the thousands, luckily we do not live in "one of those places".

Thing is when you compare several thousand dollars worth of netting, which by the way does not work all that well, gets torn by the pickers and takes a crew of 6 to 8 to set up and take down for limited success, compared to cast 257 bullets, at around $2.50 per hundred to shoot at and hit a steel gong 300 yards distant and scare them off, rather than kill a bird you can legally kill, it is pretty much a no brainer

We do really keep up on what we can and can't do, both legally and financially, having been at this for many years, but thanks for the concern.

I get 998 FPS with the 100 grain bullet.

[luvtn]

Yes I hear about the netting all the time especially from those who do not have to pay for it, quite frankly it is a very expensive alternative.

In agriculture, pest birds here, ie., Starlings which come in waves, are definitely not protected, so we can kill them by the thousands, luckily we do not live in "one of those places".

Thing is when you compare several thousand dollars worth of netting, which by the way does not work all that well, gets torn by the pickers and takes a crew of 6 to 8 to set up and take down for limited success, compared to cast 257 bullets, at around $2.50 per hundred to shoot at and hit a steel gong 300 yards distant and scare them off, rather than kill a bird you can legally kill, it is pretty much a no brainer

We do really keep up on what we can and can't do, both legally and financially, having been at this for many years, but thanks for the concern.

I get 998 FPS with the 100 grain bullet.

I didn't see a source of air. What do you use to power that and at what PSI?
lt

[rondog]

What about those propane bird-scaring cannons?

[Djones]

I was wondering about the source of pressure too, and how loud is it?

998 fps and a 100 grain boolit is a bird dominator!

[roachcreek]

I have a 66 cf tank hooked up to the rifle and it is regulated from 4500 PSI down to around 3500 to 3700 depending on the bullet I am using. I have 5 tanks and a 4500 PSI compressor to fill them.

The rifle shoots around 1140 FPS with the 70 grain 257420 HP, so I have to turn it down to around 3400PSI to get subsonic, with the 100 grain bullets I have it fed with as much pressure as I can and still be able to open the valve, too much pressure and the valve will not open, in air gunning we call that valve lock.

As far as other methods, they have been tried and are not as effective, and not nearly as much fun. I take that back, we have not had the local wine tasting club out here with pans and spoons, but we have not asked either.

And I cast and shoot almost daily all year around on that piece of 3x4 steel, but it was last year that I noticed that the starlings took to the wing at the shot and 300 yards down range the resultant clang one second later and if I continued shooting they just circled and they left, it was one of those "ah ha" moments.

And really, what fun would it be to do that with a propane cannon? The other thing is the noise level. The PCP air rifle is somewhat less than a 22 magnum, but without the crack because your subsonic. You are right at the edge of not needing ear protection although I do wear it, but it is less annoying than a propane cannon.

I have been in agriculture of 64 years, having grown up on alfalfa ranch, we used carbide cannons and fire crackers on ropes to try and scare the mule deer out of the young alfalfa, after a while they would not even raise their heads at the report

Having a permit to kill, I simply drove to the edge of the field and shot 5 head as fast as I could work my Marlin, they left and did not come back. That was in 1967, things have not changed much. Occasionally you simply have to shoot one of whatever it is that is intent on eating your profit. I realize that is hard for folks that live in the city, and buy meat in a plastic wrapper or milk in a paper carton to fathom but it is simply the way it is, and it is legal, cost effective and going to happen anyway as I shoot almost daily as I said.

After a lifetime of this I have come to the conclusion that you need the human presence to along with the report to scare the wildlife and when given the choice of killing several hundred birds or a few, I will go for the lessor of the two.

[Smoke4320]

That's one fine rig you have there ..
and yes its a shame to care for the vines all year then see the profits fly away ...literally

[Wayne Smith]

I grew up on farms - I know exactly what you are talking about. Row after row of beans stripped by deer. Game warden tried everything he knew to keep them out of the field, nothing worked. We ended up with venison in the freezer all summer.

[Gibbs44]

Nice rig. 300 yard air rifle, I sure didn't realize they could do that; I probably should have seeing how air rifles exist that pigs and deer are taken with. Good shooting, and good luck with the birds.

[roachcreek]

This is the same air rifle that I set what is acknowledged as the longest accurate air rifle shot, 615 yards on a 12 oz soda can.

We call it the "Pepsi Challenge" the target is always a 12 oz cola or beer can for they are easily obtainable and the same size.

The shot has to be verified by Utube and a Rangefinder reading taken.

The first "Pepsi Challenge record was set by as fine a gentleman as you will find, who goes by the name of Tofasfou on the Yellow and TAG forums at 447 yards with a modified AirForce rifle modified by Doug Knoble, who then matched Tofasfous shot, shooting 100 grain Ideal spitzers. Then I broke the record at 502 yards, then again at 552 yards and last month at 615 yards.

Power plants are our draw back at this point in time, to get good long range accuracy, you want a rifle that will shoot the best BC'd bullet, which usually means the heaviest spitzer, at just below Transonic speeds. Right now with my rifle that is in the 84 to 94 grain weight.

I first set the record at 502 and 552 yards with the 100 grain NOE bullet, then broke the record with the 84 grain Ideal spitzer, 257388.

For that shot I had close to a 22 foot mid range trajectory, a wind you can feel on your face will blow the bullet close to 8 feet, and on my old range due to the target pit being on a canyon wall and the bullet path 150 feet above the ground, there are not range flags, you fire for effect, make adjustments and fire until the wind changes, which is usually about 3 or 4 shots.

I have a rifle in the works that should get me to transonic with a 120 grain RCBC bullet that most likely will cast out at around 130 grains of 20-1.

What I am seeing now is that as my velocity starts to decay at around 600 yards, if I have a head wind, the bullet gets a wobble and evidently is showing more frontal area, which lowers the BC and I get noticeable low shots, I mean so low they are 3 feet below the mean group and according to the chrony, which I usually set up when I am doing the long shots, they are going the same speed as the other shots. Bear in mind the tethered air system keeps my velocity with in a 4 to 8 FPS variation, it is very consistent.

I am of a belief that high pressure air is the most accurate way to launch cast bullets, or at least at subsonic velocity. We have very little leading as there is no heat, the faster you shoot the colder the barrel gets, and we have no deformation upon launch because were only dealing with 3700 PSI or lower. The leading we do get is from transfer leading, the deposit you get when you rub lead on a piece of steel.

I had a 1100 yard range on the property seen in the utube video below and lived on that property for over a decade, it was the only house in 110 square miles, and I competed in 1000 yard gong shooting and just love to launch things at distance. This 257 Haley is by far the most accurate cast bullet rifle I have ever owned.

My 615 yard shot is the one in the utube video link by my signature at the end of my posts.

[Blammer]

is your NOE the plain base version or GC?

[waksupi]

Just to help get the word out, this forum now has an airgun section!

[roachcreek]

Great to hear about the air gun section, I do see a few names I recognize here, how hard is it to put my threads into that section?.

My NOE is a gas check base, although I am without a NOE mold right now. I just sent my 80 grain off in a trade and the 100 grain mold the sprue plate screw broke when I tried to take it out, Swede tried to fix it but it did not work out too well.

Now the jury is out for gas checked bases on air gun projectiles. Although we do not use the gas checks as we have no heat, it is thought that it might act as a boat tail. Time will tell, some one will have to get one of the molds that is both gas check and plain base and do some extensive testing with them.

The 80 grain NOE bullet has proven to be one of the most accurate bullets we have seen in cast bullet air guns. I will probably replace my 80 grain and 100 grain NOE molds when Swede makes some 2 cavity molds.

[roachcreek]

Here is a utube video of a shot on the 8 inch plate from 280 yards with the 101 grain NE bullet, it is 101 grain when cast of 20-1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNz38yHi0Xk

[waksupi]

Great to hear about the air gun section, I do see a few names I recognize here, how hard is it to put my threads into that section?.

Just PM links to me, I'll move them.

[roachcreek]

I made a lot of 80 yard shots on Starlings yesterday with the little FX Tarantula when my 300 yard plate shooting failed to impress them.

One group that did impress me on my 300 yard plate was with the NOE 80 grain bullet. It measured 1.31 or .42 MOA for 300 yards

[W.R.Buchanan]

Good to hear from someone who has this discipline figured out.

Who are the good PCP makers currently? I have seen what is available over the counter, and I have seen some of the custom big bore guns, but never seen anything like yours.

Also where in CA are you? I am in Ojai and there is some but not much Grape growing here. Then is Firestone in the Santa Maria area, but there isn't enough air or guns to keep his vineyards bird free, he's way too big. Paso Robles has a bunch also. And then above San Francisco?

So where are you?

If you are the Haley Ranch in Ojai I can be there in 10 minutes.

Randy

[roachcreek]

I am in Oregon 20 miles outside of Eugene, Oregon towards the coast.

It is keeping me busy, I shoot that steel at 300 yards, which moves the birds to the tops of the trees, then go after them with the Tarantula. That little Tarantula is really earning it's keep, if there is no wind anything under 80 yards is dead or at least missing a lot of feathers.

Right now there are no 257's being made on a large scale, some being custom made. RLAirguns should have a 257 custom rifle out on a AirForce frame next month.