Squirrel shooting with an air gun is more difficult in the summer when the trees are in leaf than it is in the winter when the limbs are barren. Greys can be practically invisible due to the lush foliage that covers the tree canopy. So, what are your options? When the leaves are full and green, how can you carry the necessary pest control?
If you follow the air rifle pest control principles, you can effectively rid an area of corvids, greys, and rats while also helping to provide a safer environment for songbirds.
When it comes to vermin management, an air rifle is a fantastic tool.
When you combine a good sound moderator with a Air Gun Maniac, you have a piece of equipment that allows you to blast pests quietly without attracting the notice of inquisitive neighbors.
The most important thing to know is that you’ll need a sound moderator and a safe backstop, since if a pellet escapes your property, you’ll be breaking the law. Panel fences aren’t very strong, and an airgun pellet will almost certainly rip through them.
Put a handful of peanut or birdseed in front of your safe backstop to attract squirrels and rats there. For magpies, use stale crumbs because they are picky eaters that prefer bird tables. We maintain hens in our garden and, in addition to attracting the occasional rat, they occasionally attract the attention of magpies who prefer to perch in a neighboring apple tree. Obviously, I can’t shoot straight at these corvids for safety concerns. To attract the birds’ attention, I place a concrete slab beneath the apple tree, crack an egg in front of it, and spread a few vegetable scraps. The magpies would frequently flutter down for a closer look, allowing me to take a safe photograph from my perch.
Rats, corvids, and squirrels can drastically limit the amount of eggs and chicks that gamebirds produce. Another area where air rifle pest control plays an important role is in this. Grey squirrel activity is normally attracted to pheasant feeders, but in late spring, feeding stops, which is inconvenient because it is peak nesting season, and the greys’ diet shifts to eggs.
The feeders made my life simple; sit back and wait for the squirrels to show up.
When I was asked in to thin out grey squirrels in a wood where the owner fed big numbers of peanuts so he could watch the nuthatches and woodpeckers come in to feast, I came up with a solution. The greys, on the other hand, got ahead of the line and ate the nuts first. The feeders made my life simple; all I had to do was sit back and wait for the squirrels to show up. I realized that I could use the similar setup for some of my other permissions as well.
Landowners and keepers were quick to give me the thumbs up, so I built some quite rustic feeding stations that serve both wild birds and grey squirrels. I can typically count on a steady trickle of eager squirrels when I return with my best air rifle for squirrels after feeding them for three or four days in a row.
When shooting grey squirrels and rats with an air rifle, the head is the most reliable death region. Take them from the side and aim for the eye and ear with your pellet. With a strike to the heart and lung area delivered from the side to strike slightly behind the shoulder, a.22 calibre can likewise yield clean kills. A shot between the shoulders will hit the heart and lungs of a squirrel clinging to a tree with its back to you.
Again, headshots are the most effective way to kill. Magpies, on the other hand, can be dispatched with a strike to the chest or a shot from behind, precisely between the shoulders, striking the heart and lungs.