Seagulls

[Nightjar]

More to the point, the OP hasn't. Killing a large bird with an air rifle needs rather more skill than he is likely to have.

[Brian Gaff]

Its worse around here, the seagulss have been joined by parakeets, Magpies and crows. I think this started a few weeks back when some nice trees were removed from the verges of my and adjoining roads. It was said they were diseased, but the were growing fine from what others said. A few half dead weeddy saplings have been thrown in a few holes around the estate, but it will be many years if they survive before they can hold large birds. Like you say the small birds seem to have all pissed off somewhere as well, so I'm not sure what the outcome will be in Spring. Also the ubiquitous Pigeons are always hanging around to grab stuff just as the small birds come along again. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depends how long you expect it to live after you have

In general the first shot will disable it and then you walk up and do a head shot for the kill shot.

Or wring its neck.

Mind you, I pulled the head right off a pheasant and its still kicked and flapped for ages.

[Tim Watts]

I walked past one the other day at Brighton - yes, they seem *massive*. I wonder if they taste like fishy chicken?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. They are I believe relatively disgusting as well as massively tough.

[Chris Hogg]

Yes, that's about it. But not tough as TNP suggests, and I speak from personal experience. A chap at work, who used to shoot pigeons amongst other things, brought a cooked gull in to work and let everyone sample it. That was before it became illegal to shoot them.

[JoeJoe]

Detached house in a not too crowded estate, so may be a problem with a shotgun sound... ;-)

Thanks anyway.

[JoeJoe]

That was meant as a joke... No intention of shooting the buggers.

[JoeJoe]

It has been a while now, but I used to be a sniper with the special forces.

[Tim Watts]

Were you on the Balcony?

[Capitol]

My experience of using plastic eagles, was that they didn't work. I keep the birds off the new aerial with a combination of prickle strips and cable ties with the ends pointing upwards. Ultra sound generators didn't work for me. Farmers use gunshot sounds for bird scarers I believe, the neighbours probably wouldn't like that. Where are they roosting/landing?

[JoeJoe]

Not that one.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim+ writes

Those licences can be hard to come by:-(

The applicant is expected to have exhausted alternative non-lethal means before inviting the local pigeon shooters along. e.g.

Where we holiday, the hotel employs a visiting hawker (tame Harris hawk) to deter the Pigeons.

[Tim Watts]

You must be the only man that wasn't! ;-)

[damduck-egg]

Haven't heard the baking powder version , have heard about throwing them a lump of calcium carbide as once used in cycle and car lamps years ago and until recently caving lamps. Like in the lamp the calcium carbide reacted with water when they dived into the sea and created acetylene gas which supposedly expanded enough to kill them , No doubt an urban legend that spread as well.

G.Harman

[Caecilius]

Sodium was the legendary seagull-killing substance when I was at school. Lots of people had "a mate who'd done it", but strangely noone had actually witnessed it themselves. Of course, we all believed it and helped spread the legend.

[Tim+]

At least calcium carbide was pretty readily available back in the day. I've never known metallic sodium be easy to get.

Tim

[Nightjar]

I would expect herring gulls to present similar problems to geese, which need a heavier hit to kill them than game birds. However, if the OP is as good as he says, he would probably drop them with a head shot every time :-)

[Alan]

That's the RSPB, they won't tell you that you can legally kill some birds, including gulls. Lesser black backed are on the General Licence, so shooting them won't get you into trouble. Other Gulls are not on the General Licence, so are protected as other birds. However, an air rifle is not the gun to shoot gulls, unless within 20 feet, as they are just not powerful enough to kill them outright - disregard what someone else has posted about winging them, then going to break their neck - that is illegal, as you would be causing unnescessary suffering to the bird.

[polygonum]

Round here (close to the coast) we only get any gull nuisance on Friday mornings. When the bin men come round. Local folklore has it they know which day to go where...