Hey Gents,

A few weeks ago, I made a post about hunting starlings. It didn't get much attention. I wanted to do an update. I got tired of not being able to go hunting because of my 1yr old daughter, but I still had that drive to go shoot something. I decided to carve some starling decoys and see how well they would work. I have been impressed with the results this far. This was my 1st attempt of carving and painting, but I don't think the birds cared much.

foam body mostly shaped out


2 restle coats of saw dust and Titebond 3. painted UV black. I then added mallard green, and iridescent purple


my decoy spread and some of my first starlings over my dekes.

Nice

Real nice!
We used to hunt starlings as kids. It's great practice.

Thats neat and I'm sure using your own decoys made it more satisfying.

Good deal. Keep at it!

They are also susceptible to starling distress calls.

Got 18 with one shot once when I was a kid.

We used to do it too; with muzzle loading shotguns, lots of fun.

Thats really Awesome

There is a market for starling skins selling to fly tiers. Check eBay.

One of my first paying gigs as a nuisance trapper. My neighbor would give me a nickel for each one I shot off his martin gourds when I was a kid.

If I had a dime for every starling I killed as a kid, I wouldnt be spending my evenings on here talking about it

Hunted them when we planted our sweet corn.

You aint kidding, I had to go look, and there were about as many sold listings as for sale lisitngs.

Nice job!

Starling hunting sure can be fun! Love the decoys as well!

Silly question but, can you eat them? Are they any good? I have a mess of starlings that get into my chicken coop and decimate my feed. I normally wait till they fly in the coop then block off the doors and then I go inside and do some up close messy work. However, if this works really well and you can eat them I might start hunting them with my kids.

I've been wanting a smooth bore pump 22 for bird shooting but they are too pricy for me. What are y'all using for starlings?

.22 pistol, they dont spin the shot as bad as the rifles do. Still only good for close range such as in the shed. Outdoors put a pile of chicken feed in a straight line and sit on one end with a 12 gauge, if you can reload shot shells fill a 3.5" with 7.5 bird shot, if you get a big flock feeding and shoot them with that you will have an idea of what it used to be like to shoot ducks with a punt gun.

They are bullies. I bought a marten house with starling guards. They can't get in, but the martens can.