Here's a little adventure I posted on another forum and I thought I would share it with you too.
I was coming into the house this afternoon and right before I stepped in the door a flock of crows lit in my pecan tree. This is the time of year they start in on pecans, while they're not quite ripe.
Well, I just went on in the house and decided what my firearm of choice was going to be and decided on the Handi rifle in .22 Hornet. Besides, it was already sitting out and was handy.
If you come out of the door very fast, the crows see you and off they go, so I just eased my eyeballs around the edge of the door frame, poked the gun barrel and scope out and didn't see a thing.
So, I ventured out further, into some sort of jungle my wife has growing up the porch columns and gave the tree a good looking over. Still nothing, so I thought about putting everything up.
Then, another flock of crows came into the pecan tree and one made the mistake of sitting on a limb, so it was pretty visible, may have been the sentry. Being already positioned in the jungle, I had time to set the AO and find it in the scope that was set on 4X.
POW, 13.5 gr of Lil'Gun with a 40 gr V-Max went off and the whole flock picked up and vacated their dinner location and I didn't see a thing fall.
Oh well, so I put everything up and went out to do the evening chores. While I was feeding the cow and calf, I decided to give the other pen a look see, just in case I did hit that crow. I looked under the pecan and didn't see anything, so I turned to go back to the other side and there it was, hit right where I had aimed at!
So, I stretched it's wings out and sorta hung it from the cattle panels as a warning for the rest of them. "These pecans could be hazardous to your health!" It'll probably work for keeping them away and I'll get at least a partial crop of pecans!
Crows are smart! Unless you get them riled up with an owl call or something, they just don't let you bag too many at one sittin'. At least, not these east Texas varities.
So, I normally try to take one example and hang it up for the rest to see and it usually works. I had two hanging last year and they stayed there for several months. When I did that, the crow conventions stopped!
BTW, the Hornet with a 40 gr V-Max is a pretty good performer, even on light bodied critters and with less velocity than what a lot of people think is sufficient.
I have clocked this load at 2750 fps, which is actually slow for a .22 caliber centerfire, but it still does the job with authority! There wasn't any "pink mist", but it was still instant dead!