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Thread: LAZ(er)Y WAY TO SHOOT MAGPIES

  1. #1
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    LAZ(er)Y WAY TO SHOOT MAGPIES

    So yesterday I'm getting peeved at the damned magpies, rooks and squirrels raiding the feeders on the trees near my office (down the bottom of the garden) . . . as it's a garden area with no safe backstop I couldn't shoot them and can't keep getting up and opening the window to request them to far-cough, as it were, so looked around for a deterrent that I could use and not scare the other birds in the garden . . . . so I grabbed a green laser pointer and tried disturbing them with it . . . strangely enough the rooks seemed oblivious (as are rabbits and squirrels) but the magpies were intrigued by the green spot and I had two of them chasing up and down the garden trying to snatch it . . . . you can guess where this is going can't you . . .

    . . . today I grabbed my .25 Falcon Prairie with the green laser and brought it with me to work . . . and every time there's a magpie on the feeders or on the fence I've enticed them down onto the lawn to chase the green spot and over to where there's a safe backstop and, well there's 5 less magpies in the village so far today.

    So if you've a laser (presume red will work also) and you want to entice a maggie down onto the ground for a nice clean and safe shot, just make the dot dance enticingly near the tree they're in and get ready for some action.
    Matou: The Braughing Banger

  2. #2
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    lazer

    great tip,
    going to try that one out myself,

    thanks

    mark

  3. #3
    tufty is offline I wondered how that worked..
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    Seems a bit strange to put bird feeders out,then get annoyed enough to shoot them when birds try to feed from them
    Steyr LG110 Hunter,AA410 in Gary Cane stock,HC, Steyr LP50,Morini 164ei,Morini CM84e,Anschutz 1417 thumbhole,Rimfire Magic 10/22,Anschutz 1913,Rieder and Lenz Z2,Keppeler 6mmbr

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by tufty View Post
    Seems a bit strange to put bird feeders out,then get annoyed enough to shoot them when birds try to feed from them
    Also non-compliant with the General Licences.

    ATB
    Ray.

  5. #5
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    Popcorn at the ready
    Sometimes I sits and thinks, but mostly I just sits.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by tufty View Post
    Seems a bit strange to put bird feeders out,then get annoyed enough to shoot them when birds try to feed from them
    Magpies are not birds as in the sense of a blackbird, thrush etc.

    They are vermin, with no natural predator and are taking over our towns and cities, destroying the nests of our garden birds (which have enough trouble with cats etc), and the magpie population is ever expanding.

    Forget waking up to the dawn chorus - its the dawn cackle these days

    And the RSPB do nothing but sit back in a smug way, and go and visit some bird sanctuary hundreds of miles away rather than sorting out thier own back yard.

    So well done Matou and good tip.

    Rant over

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tone View Post
    Magpies are not birds as in the sense of a blackbird, thrush etc.

    They are vermin, with no natural predator and are taking over our towns and cities, destroying the nests of our garden birds (which have enough trouble with cats etc), and the magpie population is ever expanding.

    Forget waking up to the dawn chorus - its the dawn cackle these days

    And the RSPB do nothing but sit back in a smug way, and go and visit some bird sanctuary hundreds of miles away rather than sorting out thier own back yard.

    So well done Matou and good tip.

    Rant over
    ALL birds are protected.

    ATB
    Ray.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raygun View Post
    ALL birds are protected.

    ATB
    Ray.
    =================

    I respect your view Ray, and did expect you to cite GLO6, as you have in previous articles debating the shooting of other species of bird in garden areas.

    in response (and I am not offering this as defence) may I state that I have witnessed repeated attacks by maggies on the young of songbirds in my garden - predominantly blue tits, long tailed tits and one goldfinch (I have about 20 nesting boxes situated on my property), and in the past week I have had to put down three baby bunnies that have either been blinded or severely injure by packs of 2 to 4 magpies attacking them on the lawn.

    The magpie is an opportunistic killer, IMHO, and I feel that my actions to reduce the numbers so as to protect the songbirds, especially, would stand as equally justified as the use of larsen traps to reduce corvid numbers on the two shooting estates bordering my village.
    Matou: The Braughing Banger

  9. #9
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    Last year whilst working in a customers house , the lady of the house came in really upset(crying) She had been hanging out her washing and spotted a half dead woodpigeon chick in the garden with its eyes pecked out and compleatley bald on its head and bleeding.She asked if i could put it out of its misery, which i did. 30 minutes later her husband came home and she told him what had happened. He proceded to tell me how the last few days before he had been throwing stones/sticks ect at a group of magpies trying to raid the nest (which was in a tree in his garden)

    Magpies imo are vermin to be classified in the same bracket as rats .
    I wouldnt hesitate to shoot a few given a chance

  10. #10
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    Doesn't matter what you think.

    The law is quite specific, whether you agree with it or not.
    All birds are protected but you may shoot some listed species PROVIDED you comply with the requirements of the General Licence that is applicable.

    Having feeders means that you cannot comply with any of the Licences. You could say that you are enticing the Magpies in so you are responsible for the deaths of the songbirds.

    Get rid of the feeders and you can shoot as many as you can and at the same time comply with the General Licences.

    ATB
    Ray.

  11. #11
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    You could be skating on thin ice from another legal point of view, in so far as you are not to use " artificial light, mirror or dazzling device" to help shoot birds (yes I know lamping feral pigeon is OK).

  12. #12
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    A method to dissuade or prevent magpies from your garden would also dissuade or prevent song birds

    "Condition 3 of this licence – which requires users to satisfy themselves that other appropriate legal methods of resolving the problem are either ineffective or impracticable"

    Wouldn't that therefore mean, that as those methods were impracticable (you still want the song birds), you would have sufficient grounds to pop a lead pill in their (the magpies) lug hole?

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Minuteman View Post
    A method to dissuade or prevent magpies from your garden would also dissuade or prevent song birds

    "Condition 3 of this licence – which requires users to satisfy themselves that other appropriate legal methods of resolving the problem are either ineffective or impracticable"

    Wouldn't that therefore mean, that as those methods were impracticable (you still want the song birds), you would have sufficient grounds to pop a lead pill in their (the magpies) lug hole?
    Not really as you have "baited" the birds in. This hardly complies with the requirement of dissuasion. Either you have tried to dissuade them or you have enticed them in, it can't be both.

    I have no problem with people shooting birds that are on the Licences as long as the Licences are complied with.
    When you deviate from that and it's found out, you are just another hooligan with an airgun, shooting birds. That does none of us any good at all.

    ATB
    Ray.

  14. #14
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    green lazer added to my hunting kit.
    thanks for the tip

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raygun View Post
    Not really as you have "baited" the birds in. This hardly complies with the requirement of dissuasion. Either you have tried to dissuade them or you have enticed them in, it can't be both.

    I have no problem with people shooting birds that are on the Licences as long as the Licences are complied with.
    When you deviate from that and it's found out, you are just another hooligan with an airgun, shooting birds. That does none of us any good at all.

    ATB
    Ray.
    But to follow that logic to it's ultimate conclusion would be to say anything that a magpie finds attractive would have to be removed to remain within the law? That would surely be the very definition of impracticable!

    I can see however, how the OP falls foul of the use of artificial light, and the following (unless there is a veg patch/fruit tree);

    The general licences authorise shooting for specific purposes such as: preventing serious damage to crops, vegetables, fruit and foodstuffs for livestock, and for the purpose of preserving public health or public safety. It is important that any shooting complies fully with the terms and conditions of each general licence.
    EDIT: http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Ima...tcm6-24151.pdf

    Don't need a veg patch/fruit tree

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