craig

A good thread!

Brings back a few memories for me to.

Cracking open the kitchen window when young & shooting starlings off the Martin house, which was about 35 yds away with a .22 Crossman that you pumped 8 strokes for full power. That Crosman was a pretty fine air gun for back in the late 60's & early 70's. I not only killed a ton of Starlings with it, but also rabbits, muskrats & squirrels as well.

I grew up on a farm, and it was set up to first & foremost provide for the families needs, only after that sell grain, cattle, eggs, chickens ect. ect. As a kid we'd have a huge number of raspberries & strawberries ripen at about the same time. We ate some fresh & froze a bunch for rest of the year + sold more at a small road side stand.

Now the local Starlings were well aware of these goings on & seemed to believe that we owed them a portion..........

Grandma one day saw a huge flock settle into a big maple trees that was not far off the edge of that garden. Gram grabed the 16 SxS dropped in a pair of shells and came out the back door ready for battle. Now I was not far off & having never seen Gram's with one of the guns before stopped to watch. LOL, Gram's didn't know guns well at all, even though farm born & lived all her life there, that was a man's affair in her mind. But that day when that big cloud of Starlings was getting ready to eat the family harvest Gram's managed to step up big time! ! She raised that 16, & just then the Starlings flew out of the tree & bunched like they'll do.... The two barrels fire made one longer than normal BoBoom. It just plain rained Starlings for a second. She killed 37 of them Starlings with that one dual blast and had a huge bruise that took a couple weeks to fade away completely. I went out and picked up the dead, as I wanted to see just how many Grams got. Never, ever saw Grams with a gun again, but she did a heck of a job that day. Grandma had put a finger on each trigger.......LOL.....but not funny that day if you were a Starling.

Another interesting memory......from decades later......at farm I lived on by then & now.

Came home from work & saw lawn lounge out in the old orchard & 16 yr. old Kristi in it in bikini with book, near the sweet cherry trees. As I started to walk out to ask her what made her move out to the orchard I saw her slooowly putting down her book & picking up her 20 ga I'd not seen till then. I froze & watched her sit up & take down a incoming pair of Starlings, put shells in 391 & then swap gun for book. I went in the house & changed, took my 12 & went and joined her with a couple cokes, extra shells & latest Outdoorlife. Was a fine afternoon & evening, unless you were a starling hungry for sweet cherries that day.

Starlings still contend with me for the cherries off our trees every year. With Kristi grown & gone they do a lot better now......but I still take some out each year.

BUT, 2 yr. old grandson loves sweet cherries, so the circle continues! ! !