# Air Rifle ECDs.



## Rusty Shacklford (Oct 24, 2008)

My boy posted a few photos the other day from our father son late December dove hunts, he usually talks me into using the scatter gun a few times a year but I love hunting them with my air rifles. So today when I left work early I decided to drive by my hunting spot to see how many were hanging around. From years past I knew that the snow has a tendency to make the congregate in great numbers due mainly to the easy food sources at the dairy. Well today was no different, as I past the farm I could see few flocks of ECDs but literally thousands of starlings were also hanging out too. I quickly drove the 3 miles to my house and grabbed my newest air rifle and was back at the farm in just a few minutes. As I pulled up and parked the car I had a choice of at least 60 birds to choose from. I decided to take shots that would make recovery the easiest (nothing is as messy as a working dairy farm in the winter). I settled on small group of birds feeding in one of the cement silage pits. I picked out a single bird feeding a few feet away from a large flock and settled the cross hairs right where the wing joins the body. A millisecond after I touched the trigger I heard the pellet smack home and the bird just crumpled where he stood. The rest of the flock and several others took flight and the sound of that many birds taking off was unbelievable loud. The birds were completely confused as the where the sound came from and because this one went down without so much a s wing flap the birds soon landed again and I had already reloaded, within a few seconds later I had number two down. My pellet guns produce more than enough energy to shoot all the way through the birds shot placement is still critical for quick humane kills on these birds. I’m constantly surprised how a seemingly well hit bird will fly a few hundred yards before going down for good. All in all I was only out in the snowy weather for about 30 minutes and ended up taking 6 birds with a few misses. As I was preparing the birds for the photo shoot I remembered one that I forgot to pick up so I’ll be headed back down in just a few minutes to get number six, good thing the farm is only a few minutes away. 

The gun in this photo is a slightly customized BAM B26 in .22 caliber shooting Crosman Premier pellets at about 660 fps. This one is considered a medium powered springer and it is extremely accurate. 

I just recently read about a new teriyaki recipe to try on this group of birds.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

Outstanding! I was in Oregon last week and there were literally THOUSANDS of those things up there!


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## Rusty Shacklford (Oct 24, 2008)

Thanks Tex. It seems like it wasn't that long ago when we saw the first ones here in Utah during the Sept dove hunts. Now it's about the only dove we shoot anymore. I hunt alot with my son and brother I don't think we shot a single mourning dove last Sept. It's nice to have a year round source of fun like these birds offer. Yesterday I took a new hunter out with me (to try his Christmas present air rifle). He ended up taking 3 and I got 3 more with a different rifle. There were hundreds of birds flying yesterday it was fun to watch this guys excitement build. 

The gun pictured is a Gamo Big Cat in .177 that has been slightly modified.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

I found a few to play around with last year, but they haven't shown up yet this year. This is a 1 hour hunt with the 28ga. I like to see them fall out of the sky.


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## blueshooter (Oct 10, 2009)

lookin good there


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

How do you slightly modify a bb gun?


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## Rusty Shacklford (Oct 24, 2008)

Much like everything else these days these air rifles are designed and manufactured to be affordable not necessarily as good as they can be. I’ve replaced the stock spring / piston seal assembly with a better made closer tolerance one. Replaced some of the cheaply stamped parts with machined hardened parts, the hollow stock has been filled with resin to add a little balance and eat up some of the vibration the loading breech recut and polished. With the addition of fully adjustable 2 stage trigger the gun has become slightly modified.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Sounds cool


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## Briar Patch (Feb 1, 2010)

Very nice!


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## Skally (Apr 20, 2012)

Are air rifles legal weapons?


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Do chickens have lips?


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## Rusty Shacklford (Oct 24, 2008)

They are for the Eurasian Doves.


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## outdoorser (Jan 14, 2013)

I am planning on keeping either an airgun or a .22 with me while I'm in my dove blind for any ECD's that land on the ground.


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