"The good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army.They may be led astray for a moment,but will soon correct themselves" - Thomas Jefferson
I wasn't Born in the south but I got there as soon as I could.
I like this site. MOSTLY good people. good ideas.
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't!!
"Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped." — Groucho Marx
"We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse"
I noticed these carpenter bees really digging into my fence and picnic table. I just looked on wikipedia and the males do NOT have stingers but the females do. It did say the females are generally pretty docile though. Also said they are great pollinators so I will be leaving them alone unless they get into the house.
Neighbor has a log house and it is covered in window screen to keep squirrels out. The place was sprayed with some preservative long ago and the tree rats ate the wood. Doesn't keep the bees out and at the corners, the screen sags from tons of sawdust.
Things are eating holes all through my wood bin and barn insides. Tried no 9 shot once but the patterns suck. Have to try the grits, etc.
This thread ought to be stickied as a public service.
I will be using this when I teach some friends to reload. Part of the chapter entitled "the fully employed gun", different bullets and different loads for specific uses, etc.
I've a old Crossman BB gun which knocks them out of the air out to 5-6 feet. I pump it up and "muzzle Load" it with saw dust from my table saw and a little WD 40 to hold the charge together, tamp it down with a brass rod. It also works great on the Wolf and Coconut spiders that sometime invade my shop.
Maybe a pinch of walnut media over just a little greendot would work for my little .380 LCP. hee hee
Any one have any advice or detailed info on assembling loads like these? Will these work with no powder? Would enlarging the primer flash hole be beneficial, powder or not? If so, how much?
I'm an experienced reloader, just never tried or made any of these loads. I'm going to try some of these very soon. Probably for 357mag. Have a 3" and 4" revolvers.
I've got the carpenter bees... And they are a problem. Sounds like some good practice and fun too.
Advise? Suggestions?
Charley must be right about the painted surface deterring carpenter bees. There are a lot around my house right now but since the eaves and fascia boards are painted, they don't seem to be boreing holes there. I started looking around and found a lot of round holes in the trunks of two or three dead trees. These are out back near a garden, citris trees and a live tree, with a hollow in it , with honey bees living in it. These tree trunks aren't painted so thats where they are boreing....that's okay with me. Got mason bees too they live in the cane and bamboo and unused carpenter bee holes. Amazing what lives back there. And I thought there were only honey bees and bumble bees. Haven't stumbled on any bumble bee nests yet!
Gary
Pb Sent you a pm.
Mal
Red Ryder bb gun! As a kid I used to spend hours shooting carpenter bees out of mid air. Just wait until they hover, then drop 'em. The Red Rider is quick on follow up shots and very quiet. Now that I'm an "adult" I pay my kids a $2 bounty for each body they show me. This is good parenting since it teaches the kids to work and earn their own way in the world.
I was thinking the "grits" loads might be safer, as in short range, no collateral damage. BB's can go for some distance. I'm in a rural area, don't want to be shooting bb's while aiming in the air.
Yeah gtgeorge, paint doesn't stop them at my place either.
Some of these loads look neat, but a bit of searching found http://bugblaster.net which looked pretty good also...
There are a lot of hymenoptera out there! There are some diptera that mimic certain hymenoptera and I have amazed my friends when I catch one in my hands and don't get stung. I did make an identity mistake one time though and got stung........just once!
Don
Straight "A"'s in both field entomology courses.
I've seen those "mistakes" as well. Won't admit to making one like that....
I solved a yellow jacket wasp problem once, at it's source. The hive was inside a 6 inch wide hole in the trunk of an oak tree, about 4ft off the ground.
I ran up to that tree, stuffed the muzzle of a tokarev pistol as far into the entrance as I could get it. and emptied a magazine of 7.62x25 PPsh submachine gun ammo into it.
The bullets probably didn't do much but the flash and muzzle blast of that PPsh ammo out of a pistol and inside that small space seemed to get their attention.
No flyers, but the yellow jackets that crawled out were slow, groggy and disoriented to say the least.
The following morning I found the nest to be abandoned, must of been a little to much excitement for them! Jay
Last edited by jaystuw; 04-30-2014 at 03:33 AM.
This past week I experimented with barley and rice. The barley seems too light weight, and the rice doesn't give enough 'pellets.'. Haven't tried grits yet. So far my favorite non-lead shot is this pasta called Acini de Pepe that Screwbolts suggested. I had never heard of it. One pound bag was $2.50, and I figure it will make 500 rounds...so 1/2 cent per round. The pellets seem to be about the same size as #9 shot. I filled up a charged 357 mag case, then counted the pellets. It holds about 100 which gives pretty good coverage. One thing I really miss about using the lead shot is that it gives a little bit of recoil which feels good. You don't feel this other stuff at all. I've reduced the powder to 2.6 gr. of SR 7625, which is the smallest hole on the lee auto disk powder measure. I tried less powder, but it went from a mouse fart to a flea fart...not much fun. And also, when I miss one of these suckers, I want him to at least know he's been shot at.
Last edited by cr2; 04-29-2014 at 07:27 PM.
how far away can you be with the sugar and still kill them?
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |