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BBs or Pellets?

 
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Hey everyone!

Yesterday, I bought an air gun that shoots both BBs and Pellets. I am intending to kill the damn crow that's been waking me up for the past few months. I know this isn't the best place to ask, but I thought I'd give it a shot: my gun shoots both BBs and Pellets... Which one would be better for annihilating a crow, and why?

Thanks.
 
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The Queen's men shot her neighbour's cat with pellets. Poor thing has them embedded in her liver, stomach, collar , revealed on scan , but it's ALIVE and WELL.

Alfred Hitchcock's The Crows has to be the most damning piece against crows.
[ June 20, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]
 
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Which one would be better for annihilating a crow, and why?

What about rogatka? :roll:
 
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Shooting a crow brings bad luck. According to Wiccan mythology the crow is the spirit of an ancestor. Err! I mean the spirits of ancestors appear as crows. So you really cant be sure it it's a real crow or an ancestor.
[ June 20, 2004: Message edited by: Mohanlal Karamchand ]
 
Mohanlal Karamchand
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If the crow appears to be berating you for being lazy there is a good chance it is an ancestor.
 
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Best thing for crows is to use home made ammo. Get some of those edible medicine capsules and fill them with Superglue. Works wonders, honest.
 
Ivan Jouikov
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None of you seemed to answer the question: BBs or Pellots?

And Rogatka, is ghetto, u dont use it if u have a damn rifle.
 
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None of you seemed to answer the question: BBs or Pellots?

Ah, that's because you positioned yourself to accept the answer entertaining only the choices that you seem feasible.
 
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I know this isn't the best place to ask, but I thought I'd give it a shot

So to speak...

None of you seemed to answer the question: BBs or Pellots?

I'm guessing most people either don't know or don't care. I've fired both BB bun and pellet gun in my life (as a child), but no live animals were involved (despite my intentions; I've a very poor shot.) So I don't know which is better really. Tin cans seem to be affected by each equally. Naively, I'd guess that pellets, being larger and less aerodynamic, will deliver more damage at short range, and less at long range. I suppose it depends on how far the target is from you, and whether you prefer to wound or kill. I'd guess that even wounding a crow might be sufficient to dissuage that particular crow from frequenting that particular location. However other crows probably won't know or care.

Have you considered grenades? Actually fuel-air explosives would probably solve your problem nicely. You've got to think outside the box.

Historically, farmers have been known to deal with this problem by constructing an effigy of a human being and planting it in a field, in hopes of scaring the crows away from the region. There's a term for this I think, but it escapes me at the moment. I don't know how effective this actually is, but it might be worth a try.
[ June 20, 2004: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]
 
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Originally posted by Jim Yingst:
There's a term for this I think, but it escapes me at the moment.



Scarecrow
 
Jim Yingst
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Oh come now, that's too obvious!
 
Mani Ram
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Well...what about "Ragamuffin Mannequin"?
 
Mohanlal Karamchand
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I think constructing a human effigy is too elaborate a solution. Serves you right for posting this question here.

You can try an appeasement ritual just in case it is an ancestor. This is a complicated ceremony which can have adverse effects if you get it wrong, so get a Shaman priest to do it for you.
 
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I saw a fascinating (ie simple and very dangerous) demonstration of a fuel-air explosion once.

An explosive expert (ie lunatic) took a simple theatrical maroon (makes a small pop and flash, usually safe to use inside a building), placed it with a bag of flour underneath a simple plastic washbowl, lit it, and got a long way away. The tiny bang of the maroon was enough to disperse the flour and lift up the washbowl, which in turn sucked in surrounding air until the flour/air density at the edges was just right for an ignition. This ignition pushed the bowl higher and pulled in more air, which ignited the next section of flour and so on. Result: an enormous explosion and a washbowl flying over a hundred feet in the air.
 
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yes, dust explosions can be quite nasty.
It can take down 100ft+ tall grain elevators from a single electrical spark, no explosives required.
Any crow caught in the blast area will be terminated

And the term isn't scarecrow, it's farmhand
 
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In the US the crow is a federally protected species.

In the movie, Cold Mountain, one of the characters says they need to get a purple martin box so as to run off the crows. I wonder if this is true or just in the movies.
 
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BBs or Pellets?



Tactical Nuclear Weapons or Depleted Uranium Shells?
Or howsabout Kinetic Harpoons?

This is the 21st Century after all
 
Mohanlal Karamchand
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Originally posted by Homer Phillips:
In the US the crow is a federally protected species.



Even if this is wrong information, it's not wise to take chances. The bird in question could be a bald eagle in drag.
 
Helen Thomas
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Now what kind of crow are you trying to kill? The softer-tongued country crow
or the coarser accented city crow?

Ducks, like humans are influenced by their surroundings as well. Resevoir ducks sound a lot more aggressive than ducks quacking contentedly in a country pond or stream.

You could move to the country. Or end up being like the Chinese businessmen who says he has swatted 8 million flies in 10 years. All because they ruined a business lunch costing him a �13,000 deal.One landed in a clients meal. He has since spent �20,000 building fly killing machines and hiring "swat" teams to help him wipe out the insects. Not a chance in hell.
[ June 21, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]
 
Richard Hawkes
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Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
All because they ruined a business lunch costing him a �13,000 deal.One landed in a clients meal.

I'm really curious to know just how a fly in your soup ruins a business deal (assuming it wasn't a crappy deal anyway...)? None of the links I found gave any details. Perhaps the problem was there was a fly in only one of the dishes?
 
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Originally posted by Helen Thomas:
Resevoir ducks sound a lot more aggressive than ducks quacking contentedly in a country pond or stream.



Resevoir ducks? Isn't that a film by Quentin Tarrantino, the one where one duck cuts of another duck's ear?
 
Mohanlal Karamchand
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Please do not discuss ducks in this thread. That is thread hijacking.
Your post must confine itself to either of the following subjects

1) Crows.
2) Weapons of Avian Destruction (WAD).
 
Helen Thomas
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Just making a point:

If you can shoot ducks why not crows ? There seems to be some resistance to the idea of shooting crows ? Are ducks protected in the US ?

Well, with ducks there is the added bonus that you can eat them.

Eating crow is self-explanatory.
 
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Crows are small and fly fast. Your best chances will be with the BFG9000, unless you have a really good ping.
[ June 22, 2004: Message edited by: Ernest Friedman-Hill ]
 
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Originally posted by Ivan Jouikov:
None of you seemed to answer the question: BBs or Pellots?



The answer is simple, you use pellets. Pellets are more accurate because of the way they spin coming out of the barell.
 
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Why such brazenly unilateral action in the first place? Get all your neighbors to agree on a nonviolent approach of appeasement and economic sanctions against the crow. That way you at least maintain a decent reputation among them. Although it does seem odd that crows find a way to make do even when you cut off their food supply. The smaller birds seem to suffer, but the crow toughs it out. Strange.

Now, if the crow is close to one of your favorite neighbors and appears to caw intent of crapping on their roof at any moment, that's different. If your neighborhood gets obstructive, that's a good story to plant.

Be mindful that some neighbors may like the crow for several reasons. For example, they may think it proper that you have to get up earlier than you are inclined. Or perhaps they see an advantage in having you distracted by the bird. Maybe they're redrawing lot lines or something like that while you're preoccupied with stockpiling.

You're going have to figure out damage control if you go straight after the crow and the plausibility of your motives evaporates later on. Neighbors can have long memories for shenanigans like that, and it may take a while before they'll believe you when you really need something important.
[ June 22, 2004: Message edited by: Michael Ernest ]
 
Jeroen Wenting
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Originally posted by Homer Phillips:
In the US the crow is a federally protected species.



But what species or subspecies are protected?
What most people call a crow doesn't have to be what scientists call a crow but could be a rook, raven or jackdaw as well among others.

Rooks and ravens I know are protected here, jackdaws are more common than starlings in some places...

As to ducks, same story. Some species are protected while others are dinner.
Some others are useful to identify witches and as the fastest bird on wings your common duck could be an excellent messenger pigeon if only they could be trained and persuaded to act like one of the stupidest birds around
 
Mohanlal Karamchand
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Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
Crows are small and fly fast.


Very true. It would be much easier for you if you hired an ostrich to annoy you every morning.

Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
unless you have a really good ping.



Good Lord!!!


[ June 22, 2004: Message edited by: Mohanlal Karamchand ]
 
Frank Carver
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Just a thought. Have you considered using a stone?

I've heard plenty of people claiming that they have killed two birds with one stone, but can't recall that claim ever being made about pellets or bbs.
 
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For the sake of the crow, use enough gun:


Crows require two-inch accuracy at 40 to 60 yards, the same as "wild" woodchucks, but the chucks require 10 to 15 ft. lbs. of energy at that range, the crows only half that. "Suburban" woodchucks can be approached to within 30 to 40 yards, so a less powerful rifle will do.


Beeman Precision Airguns: Caliber Selection
BB's are smaller than .177 pellets and are less consistent in size so they will neither be as accurate or have as much power as a pellet, so I'd scratch them off the list.
 
Mark Fletcher
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Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
Crows are small and fly fast. Your best chances will be with the BFG9000, unless you have a really good ping.

[ June 22, 2004: Message edited by: Ernest Friedman-Hill ]



While we're on the topic of exotic weapons or weapons from Quake III, why not stroll down to your nearest Naval base and ask if you could borrow one of these:

Rail Guns from the US Navy!

Now with a range of aprx 250 miles!
 
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Outing myself (probably too late) as one of them candy-ass, bleeding-heart, sissy-boy, tree-hugging types, the only thing I could shoot a bird with is a Canon or a Minolta (or perhaps my room-mate's Sony in a pinch). I have no compunctions, however, about the hypocrisy displayed when I stomp one of the 3-inch wood roaches we get down here in Texas. They just make my skin crawl, man.
 
Ernest Friedman-Hill
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Originally posted by Mark Fletcher:
Rail Guns from the US Navy!



There's actually a lot of info on the web about building your own. It's a favorite geek project, perhaps second only to the potato gun.
 
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