doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Lethal range of birdshot?

How far can one reasonably push .22 shotshells? Having a varmint issue here and a bb or pellet gun won't exactly do the job (inadequate backstopping).

I saw a brood of immature woodies yesterday in a beaver pond about a mile from my house. As I passed by on a loud tractor it startled them and they were scurrying across the pond to what they considered safety. Looked to be about the size of mature doves. Springtime is fun to see.

Have you tried talking to the varmint and asking it to leave politely?

Shot a bat off of the utility room ceiling with 38 rat shot at about 20 ft one time. Just put a few little scrap marks on the ceiling but killed the bat.
Lots of rabies in bats down here. Ceiling/drywall was an EZ fix.

FWIW I've never considered #12 shot, which is what I've always been told is in 22RF shotshells, to be bird shot. They were, however, fully up to the task of breaking the cracker sized clay "hummingbirds" that we shot at Boy Scout camp firing range. The game, trap and targets were dubbed MoSkeetO brand. I just wish I could remember the ranges at which we shot them. Though I cannot, I do believe we broke some of them at more than 5 yards. Granted, killing a bird outright, without wounding it to die a slow death later, is not the same as chipping a clay target.

Why don't you pattern some, and do a penetration test at the same time?

I would love to have one of the Remington smoothbores designed for these shells but have never gotten up the gumption to pay the prices a nice one brings today. Wingshooting carpenter bees around the barn and sheds would be super fun with one.

You will gain just a little more range by virtue of a better pattern, if you using one of those chamber adapters in a 20 gauge or similar shotgun. Rifling does nothing good to patterns. Also it has been my experience that the shot shells with the plastic cap do not pattern quite as well as those that brass-crimped on the end. YMMV

When it stops raining (we were lucky it was not torrential for the Coronation) I intend to compare all 3 types on paper at 10 yards in this converted Rook Rifle, that had been Parker-rifled to .22 LR but sadly then smoothbored.

They are Gevelot 6mm or No.1 Long Shot Double Charge. As Gevelot ceased production about 1980 they are probably 50 to 100 years old.


The Federal crimped Long Shot contain 25 grains of No. 12 shot whilst the CCI Extra Long (with plastic shot container ) have 31 grains (2.01 grams).

Sacrificed a misfired Gevelot No. 1 Long shot to find out the contents. 21.2 grains of shot (42 pellets so about No. 10 shot) ahead of 2 thin card wads and 3.2 grains very fine black powder.



Whilst it looks more impressive than the modern cartridges it has a smaller payload. “All hat and no cattle”.

As a diversity, equity and inclusion experiment I tried that once, a few years ago. No dice. I still had to shoot, shovel, & shut up (the three S rule).

Because I’ve never been able to get the barn swallows to nest under the eaves of the house.

Seriously,
There are a bunch of reasons to shoot at insects.

Around my pond, they are plentiful. They are legal.
The 9 mm Flobert is such a short range shotgun, that it was very easy to sit out by the pond, and take a crack at the bugs.

Nothing to clean up. The fish take care of that.
Don’t have to worry about a season. Don’t have to worry about shot fall out.
Don’t have to worry about noise. Flobert’s are very quiet, and quite slow.

And the ammunition is inexpensive. About 12-15.00/50.
“Move, mount, and shoot”

It is definitely a great way to work on your wingshooting.

June bugs are good as well. But, are slower, and relatively brief in their availability.

Buzz, he can obviously do as he pleases, and will. I'm just trying to understand his reasons. Dragonflies are harmless to people, and eat millions of mosquitoes and mosquito larvae, among other pests. He doesn't eat them himself, like I do the ducks, doves and quail I shoot. I shot them off power lines, as an 8 yr. old kid with a BB gun. But, I grew up. "I guess you eat them"? Well, of course. Can you think of a better reason, or do you not consume the gamebirds you take?

Wingshooting practice, he claims. Bullshit. Just a desire to kill, period. What's it to you, anyway, besides the obvious?

It most certainly is Stan. Quit being a nut case and give us a break, eh dude.

I saw a lonely cock pheasant twice this week in the same field. Ears all perked.

Rarer than hen’s teeth around here.
I hope he finds love before the inevitable.

The ducks are doing well, geese all hatched out already.

I don’t know how I should feel about this.

Self-defense.

Try to hit him sooner, next time.

Mosquitos are fair game, any old time. About the only reason I like winter these days.

Best,
Ted

I don't know about yellowhammers, but when I was building my house, I was working inside one day when I heard a loud tapping. It sounded like someone was knocking on the front door. I went to see, and nobody was there, and no vehicles were in the driveway. A few minutes later, the tapping started again, and again I went to the front door. Nobody... nothing. Then I heard the tapping again, and now being outside, it sounded different than inside the unfinished interior. I walked around the back side of the house, and when I got around the corner, I saw a small woodpecker, a downy woodpecker I think, pecking on the expensive 5/4" clear cedar trim I had just installed around a large window at the end of the kitchen. He quickly flew away, but damage was already done. And he returned again later to do more pecking at the same spot.

I vowed that I would eliminate the threat, and the next day, I brought an old Savage model 94 20 gauge and some shells. Shortly after I arrived and started working, he started pecking on the same piece of cedar trim. I loaded the gun and crept around the house. As soon as I poked my head around the corner, he spotted me and took off like bat out of hell. I mounted the gun to shoot, but he hugged the side of the house, and I was afraid I might rake the siding, so I didn't shoot.

This same scenario went on numerous times over the next several days. He would fly like a little fighter jet with his left wing tip almost touching the siding, and then swoop left around the front of the house, never giving me a clear shot. Then finally, after almost a week, he made the fatal mistake of flying a little further away from the siding, and I pulled the trigger, turning him into a ball of feathers. I was elated, but by then, he was totally through that piece of cedar trim and into the Tyvek House Wrap covering the plywood sheathing underneath. I cursed the little bastard.

Shortly thereafter, I started noticing large black ants inside the house, crawling over the sub-floor and studs in the unfinished kitchen. Carpenter ants! After a few days, I watched one to see where it might be entering or leaving, and was shocked to see it crawl into a small gap at the end of the large header made of sandwiched Hemlock-Fir 2x12's and plywood, over the kitchen window. This was exactly right where the dead woodpecker had been drilling into my new cedar trim board on the exterior. I never thought that carpenter ants would attempt to nest in new dry framing lumber, but they kept going in and pushing fresh sawdust out. I tried dusting the area with powdered boric acid, to no avail. I tried blowing boric acid powder into the crevice where they entered, and they would come out unfazed, covered with the white powder. I decided it was time to get serious, and shot a little Diazinon in there with a syringe, and that killed them before they could get established and do real damage.

I have always been thankful for the game animals I killed while hunting. I never felt much remorse for any vermin I've had to shoot. But to this day, I still think about that little woodpecker, and I'm sorry I shot him. He was only trying to tell me something very bad was going on in my new unfinished house.

I kill every housecoat that I see, Stanley. Rats on the other hand depend upon the rat, wouldn't you say?

As for farmers understanding beneficial insects and giving them a pass, how do you explain their wreaking hell on pollinators, among others? Monarchs certainly are in their crosshairs, as are most any bee.