Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)
  • Shooting seagulls
  • trailmonkey
    Full Member

    Got a bit of a problem developing with some noisy and quite aggressive seagulls on mine and a neighbours’ chimney stacks. Affirmative action is called for. Will a BB gun do it or do I need an air rifle ?

    uplink
    Free Member

    BB gun won’t do it

    an air rifle may – depends

    iDave
    Free Member

    preferably needs to be head shot with an air rifle. probably will be illegal to use if it’s close to roads.

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    uplink
    Free Member

    BB gun won’t do it

    Unless of course the BB is loaded in a 12 gauge cartridge 🙂

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    I can get pretty close to them by climbing the tree in the garden but then I’ll be shooting out towards the street. Need to shoot from the street really so any wayward ammo lands safely.

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    you need one of these:

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QcfZGDvHU8[/video]

    derek_starship
    Free Member

    If a pellet leaves the boundary of your property (highly likely if popping gulls off a chimney) you are breaking the law.

    You would need to head shoot them with a full powered (11ft/lbs +) air rifle. Not all gulls may be shot – I think it is just herring gulls. Check the BASC website for a list of what it is legal to shoot.

    jp-t853
    Full Member

    Many Gulls were added to the protected list in 2010.

    At work we used to shoot a couple of the Herring gulls each year and it stopped them nesting.

    It is now illegal and we had 80 of the vermin by the end of summer.

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    They are herring gulls.

    Not sure what to do with the corpses though 😕

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    !!?? I used to shoot them all the time when i lived up in scotchland, maybe the rules are different there. Shouldn’t be too hard, catch them just before they take off. The spread wings make them an easy target for wounding, then you can finish them off with a boot or but of the gun.

    edit: Corpses? the feathers are quite collectable for some folks, particularly amongst the Native American community

    derek_starship
    Free Member

    Not sure what to odo with the corpses though

    Make kippers 😮

    CharlieMungus
    Free Member

    Sorry, scrub all that. I meant eagles

    lazybike
    Free Member

    watch that film The Birds, might be best to leave them alone.

    uplink
    Free Member

    Not sure what to do with the corpses though

    Sell them to KFC?

    Del
    Full Member

    Bicarb sandwiches…

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    won’t they block the barrel up ?

    ski
    Free Member

    Bird spikes on your chimney & roof top, pass the problem onto someone else 😉

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Good trolling 🙂

    I too have VERY noisy crows on the chimney and gutters. 4am alarm call anyone?

    Helios
    Free Member

    It’s illegal to shoot wild birds in this country* – unless you have a license. The licenses are normally only granted if public health is at risk or birds are causing serious damage to crops.

    *Obviously I’m not talking about game birds here…

    slackman99
    Free Member

    An air rifle will be touch and go at close range with a good head shot.

    I’ve seen seagull survive many a 12 bore shot unless they take a head shot or a wing shot. A shot to the breast just gets absorbed by the feathers.

    If you shoot one, put it in your garden. Seagulls are pretty interested in dead gulls and tend to pop down for a look. Makes it easier to shoot the next one. Once you’ve shot a couple of them though, they tend to get wise and steer well clear!

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    This book contains all the information you need to know about deterring seagulls;

    sharki
    Free Member

    Second the Bicarb sarnie idea.

    Head shots are needed, but as others have said, has to be a good shot, with a quality sprung or air charged rifle.

    Sodium Hydroxide sarnies to for a more dramatic cull. But are very hard to make.

    Incinerate the bodies. Gull tastes rank.

    Zulu-Eleven
    Free Member

    It’s illegal to shoot wild birds in this country* – unless you have a license. The licenses are normally only granted if public health is at risk or birds are causing serious damage to crops.

    There is a general dispensation that permits the shooting of pest species, applicable to all authorised persons (landowner or their agent) – you don’t need a specific personal licence.

    2011 licences published here:

    http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/regulation/wildlife/licences/draftgenerallicences.aspx#a

    For Herring Gull, you’ll need to apply for a specific licence, as its not included on the general licence – though you can take their eggs or destroy their nest under the general conditions.

    Helios
    Free Member

    Zulu – only where there is a risk to public health and where non-lethal control methods have previously failed. A few seaguls being annoying on the chimney doesn’t constitute a threat to public health – so the general licenses don’t apply.

    slackman99
    Free Member

    If you have a hook, some fishing line, bread and a rock, I know of a slightly less PC way of getting rid of said gulls which doesn’t involve any sort of gun (but needs a strong stomach).

    Zulu-Eleven
    Free Member

    Not quite the rules Helios, its whether the alternative methods have been judged to be ineffective or impractical, there is no rule that non lethal methods have to have actually been tried and failed – full conditions are all in the published licences, which is why I linked to them.

    Olly
    Free Member

    paint marker with pepper balls?
    wont hurt them, but will certaily scare them off!
    dunno if they are that easy to get hold of though :s

    Helios
    Free Member

    You’re right – my paraphrasing from memory lost a little in translation – however trying to claim that non-lethal methods would have been impractical/ineffective without having actually tried them is a pretty huge leap.

    And that doesn’t change the fact that the birds are unlikely to be a threat to public health – so the general license wouldn’t apply anyway…

    uplink
    Free Member

    And that doesn’t change the fact that the birds are unlikely to be a threat to public health

    The OP said they were aggressive – that’s a treat to public health

    Helios
    Free Member

    Only if you’ve watched too much Hitchcock

    oldgit
    Free Member

    There’s been an upsurge in gull numbers near me. Two concerns are the mess and the effect they have on the native garden birds.

    uplink
    Free Member

    Only if you’ve watched too much Hitchcock

    We [work] have many sites up & down the country where herring gulls will dive bomb our engineers – shitting on them as they do so

    Is this Hollywood?

    http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4091368.When_seagulls_attack___/

    Burchy1
    Free Member

    OP

    Hire the ginger one, as a lady of the land of the six finger she is fully adept in the art of ‘anti-seagull warfare’. She lists her dream job as ‘Seagull prevention officer’ for St Ives Council and is the only person I’ve ever seen kick a Seagull to get her Pasty back…

    trailmonkey
    Full Member

    😯

    KT1973
    Free Member

    Black widow catapult FTW. You can get them on ebay. Or 2 small fish tied together on 20ft fishing line if your feeling sadistic.

Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)

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