shooting nuisance pigeons – technical question

After my partner had the exact same argument with a fellow worker who thought we could shoot our nuisance pigeons in the back garden I wrote this:

‘The shooting of ANY bird in the UK is covered by an annually released government agency General Licence. By definition you do not need to apply for general licences but you are required by law to abide by their terms and conditions. Crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, jays, woodpigeon, collared doves, and feral pigeons can all be humanely and legally shot with a legal limit air rifle, but they can ONLY be shot under the terms of the General Licence for the following reasons:

1. To prevent serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters.

2. To prevent the spread of disease.

3. To preserve public health or public safety.

4. To conserve wild birds

5. To conserve flora and fauna.

Even then shooting is ONLY an option after other non lethal methods have been considered and proven to be inappropriate.’

P.S. Much as I agree they should be shot, you only have to have some bunny-hugging neighbour see you and be against it for you to be in trouble.

If you were shooting up into the air (12ft lbs about 45deg ish) you pellet could go about 350 meters ❗

Okay, i guess the question is what do you want to achieve?

If it’s harvesting pigeons for tasty purposes (nothing wrong with that) then i say blast away (within reason as lots have already said)

As for pest control, shooting is generally seen as a short-term measure which needs constantly doing. This is true for lots of species (grey squirrel control is a good example).

If you arent gearing up for a long-term battle with the pigeons, you won’t stop them showing up (and might achieve the opposite) as others will take the place of the ones you shoot as long as food and perching remains available. They repopulate very fast, so if you don’t eat them it could be killing stuff for no reason, which is hard to support.

This is something that is documented by pest controllers and ecologists, so maybe consider it.

also: http://www.pigeoncontrolresourcecentre.org/html/reviews/kill-pigeons-pigeon-traps-killing-pigeons.html

I had a similar problem when I moved into my current house.

I launched a war against them. But then I am lucky as I have a sloping garden and no chance of a pellet leaving the property.

The law does say you’re supposed to try every other preventative measure before killing them. I didn’t really try that hard…….

But, as said, they breed like rabbits – well flying rabbits. In the end I took the tree down they were roosting in. I went from shooting two a week to two a year overnight. It’s drastic, but it’s really the only way to get rid of the problem you’re suggesting.

catapults are a silly idea to cull them. No matter what Gamekeeper John shows in his youtube clips.
Inform your neighbours first to explain or maybe convince.
Then sit there one morn and put a pellet through them.
Odds are they will very soon move down the road to a safer address .. they soon learn.
Or .. Get yourself a couple Fenn traps and place them where they roost or feed.
These will fold the problem soon enough.

thanks OwenP, that’s an interesting site.
the studies that reveal an increase in pigeon numbers after controlling is intersting but I can’t help but think the pigeons in my garden are not part of a flock, there’s just two of them – do you get isolated pigeons?
what is depressing about that site is that any of the pigeon control methods listed aren’t viable or won’t work, unless someone climbs the tree and removes the branches that they roost on or prevents them from landing on them with spikes/ other deterrents. I’m not sure how feasible/ costly that would be – to get someone to climb the tree and put spikes on it.
the tree is also in the neighbour’s garden and is protected so there’s no way it’s coming down.

what I’d be inclined to do is lure them down with food and then peg them and see if it fixes the problem and for how long.
I am obviously keen to comply with regulations/ law, which is why I started this thread.

I’m sure I read a case where someone had been nailing quarry legal bird species in their back garden with a legal air rifle but were prosecuted because a neighbour complained (and they weren’t complying with the terms of the General Licence presumably).

Or I could be talking total rollox, I do that sometimes. 😐

I would think that the pigeons will be part of a wider population.They will spread out as far as they can, as densely as they can, until food and/ or places to roost run out.

This is what makes shooting them a tricky one. As pigeons are removed, the ones that replace them may increase in number as they are more youthful/ breeding individuals, or just filling the vacuum in greater numbers as part of a rush for the suddenly-available resources.

In your case, that might mean more pigeon crap. Of course, if you keep on shooting them at a high rate they will go down in number, but you have to keep on and on and on doing it. The pigeons keep breeding/ relocating to fill the void, so i guess it would be a battle of who gets bored first.

As for putting down food – you will be drawing in more pigeons, so killing them from a wider area, but it just scales up your localised issue into a larger one. Unless you have a use for lots of dead pigeons (i’m assuming feral pigeons?) then its a lot of ongoing work.

Like DrRSwank said, removing the perch causing the problem is probably the best way for least effort.

I wouldn’t care if they just used a different tree in the garden, there are plenty! but the one they choose to roost in just happens to be one from which crapping causes the most inconvenient mess.

maybe the best solution is to put some deterrents in the tree to stop them roosting there. how much would it cost to hire a tree climber for a day to stick some spikes on the branches? not cheap I’d imagine.

You really need to get your neighbours on board, as the sound of air rifle pellets whistling overhead when you’re working in your garden is a little bit disconcerting to say the least, speaking from experience.

get up the tree and put some nails in the branches they roost on

what could possibly go wrong ?

Zero sights to pre-defined range in garden, shooting down from bedroom window. Put down grain and some twigs so that the birds have a sense of being in ‘cover’. Leave window open with dense pillow or beanbag on sill or small table inside. Partly draw curtains so that when you approach the window and aim you are not observed. Take your time to get a safe clean shot, ensuring that any mis goes into the lawn / soft substrate. Moderated muzzle should not extend beyond window line, ideally the window should be opened only enough to allow a clean shot, and sound will be further dampened within room / by curtains…shoot as some other background noise arises if there is sensitivity over this.

and use a bazooka.

or call the neighbors and tell them to all get on the floor, then fire a Claymore Mine–no more pigeons—–and you’ve trimmed the tree as well

I had one yesterday. Before I could pick it up a bloody buzzard had it!

I would;

1) Get neighbours on board and happy that you will be undertaking some pest control work.
2) Get some decent hollow point pellets.
3) Practice shooting with said pellets until you can consistently shoot a group no bigger than a 10 pence piece and be able to do so at different ranges.
4) Try using decoy pigeons on the ground to lure them out of the tree.
Decoys

I think the most important thing here is to make sure your neighbours understand what you are doing and why. Even if you do everything correctly and legally it will be a pain to have to deal with grumpy neighbours and the police.

hmmm, decoys.
Thanks BigEaredBiker, that’s some good advice.

this might be worth a try…

I’ve read that they quickly become accustomed to those types of deterrents.

I was working in central London last week and noticed a hawk kite attached to a pole on an adjacent building. It was flying pretty well and I did not notice any pigeons about so it may be worth trying.

http://www.pigeonstop.co.uk/hawk_kite_bird_scarer_kit.asp

You say that the pigeons roost on a tree in your neighbours garden – I guess that branches overhang your garden? – could you ask the neighbour to trim the branches?

You could also try bird repellent

http://www.pigeonstop.co.uk/bird_repellent_liquid_1_us_gallon_3.8_litres.asp

n the end I took the tree down they were roosting in

This. Everyone around our way who shoots pigeons does it for fun or eating rather than pest control. Much like rats – you need to remove the reason for them to be there or others just take their place.

it’s a massive tree, must be 25m tall – higher than the 5 storey town house that I live in.
the pigeons roost at the very top on some thin branches – I’m not sure if a tree climber could actually access the branches and I don’t see that cutting the branches is viable but it’s worth checking.

can you not lure them to the ground (grain etc) and shoot down to the bottom of the fence, in todays climate I’d probably not want to be seen leaning out of an upstairs window with a gun

alternatively why not get creative and use the good ole RSPB/twitcher/ringer – ground decoy, net and explosives carry on (*well some washing line props, over centre cammed and a rope as a trigger or something similar to deploy the net quickly) or even a box balanced on a stick, some grain under,with a rope attached

have you tried painting some eyes/hawk silhouettes on the garden or even a bird kite shaped thing hanging free etc

edit – make a crow trap (baited mesh box with hole in roof[bit bigger than bird and wingspan) they seem be able to fly in but can’t get up and out (well was used to kill crows on sheep farms)

or could you make a sort of lobster pot type baited box with a one way entry

edit *apparently grain soaked in alcohol limits their flying ability

Use arrows with a bit of fishing line tied to the end that’s just the right length that they can’t go further than the end of your garden?

yeah, I’ve decided that shooting them out of a tree is not a good approach given the proximity of adjacent gardens.

not sure I want to dispatch a load of pigeons flapping in a box – I’d rather kill them from a distance. plus I’m worried that putting grain down will attract other nefarious bastards to my garden.

Use arrows with a bit of fishing line tied to the end that’s just the right length that they can’t go further than the end of your garden?

I like your thinking. could I tie bits of string to rifle pellets?

I have learnt things on this and previous threads about the law on shooting pigeons that I was blissfully unaware of. I guess the overall intention is safety, but seems a little strange that we give basic vermin so much protection.

When were these laws introduced? I don’t recall them in my youth when shooting pigeons with airguns was a popular hobby where I lived.

I suspect the protection is there to prevent collateral damage;

Hunting season has just finished in Italy and it’s been a dangerous few months for boar, birds, hunters—and bystanders. Some 35 people have been killed in hunting accidents since October:

http://www.newser.com/story/111068/italian-hunters-face-crackdown-after-killing-35.html

put the grain down on plastic/weed inhibitor mesh etc surface etc so you can clean it up quickly

re flapping in a box, what would you do if you winged/injured one – leave it to die slowly and painfully ?

sorry for this but if you’re not prepared to wring necks as required then I’d suggest you should get someone else to do it for you

sorry double post … ? browser didn’t refresh

I reckon anti pigeon spikes would do the job.

http://www.thepestshop.co.uk/plastic-pigeon-spikes-5m-pack?language=en&currency=GBP

Plenty around if you google, and would be quick work for a tree surgeon to tack them to a branch or two. I’ll bet they come in brown too.

Im guessing more will turn up after you’ve shot the first lot and if your going to be shooting them over a period of time then somebodys going to complain sooner or later. You could try a dummy hawk moved around the garden. You might consider cutting down the tree or moving the decking. Have you got a good food source nearby such as a bakery that leaves waste outside etc. Moving a good food source would help. I grew up in the country with riffles, shotguns & airguns. There was an old saying my old man used to say to me “Although a good shot you may be, never shoot where you can’t see”. This means dont shoot at something against a hedge or on the brow of a hill ect because if you miss there may be something behind. You never shot up into the air with a riffle and I would say it would be good practise not to do it with an air gun in a built up area. good luck!

34 hunters and 1 mushroom picker.

Shame about the mushroom picker.

Assuming not everyone eats them what do all you pigeon shooters do with the bodies? I’m thinking the Daily Mail would get involved if the dustbin man found a pile of corpses in the wheelie bin and the neighbours twitchy curtains would be going full-time if you we digging lots of little holes all over the garden.

Markie, I can’t tell but was that a joke?

Use energy weapons

but do not blame me if you are prosecuted!

1) Get neighbours on board and happy that you will be undertaking some pest control work.
2) Get some decent hollow point pellets.
3) Practice shooting with said pellets until you can consistently shoot a group no bigger than a 10 pence piece and be able to do so at different ranges.
4) Try using decoy pigeons on the ground to lure them out of the tree.

5) get bored waiting and start practiceing on the decoys.

THIS IS F**KING SUCH A STUPID THREAD. JUST SHOOT THE F**KERS. JESUS CHRIST.

Nobody is going to come and tell you off and if you do…just tell them to piss off.