The magpie is a monumental pain in the arse. Introduced from Australia, its colonised the whole of New Zealand and is extremely abundant. We've put a big effort into planting native shrub and tree species to attract our native birds, only to watch magpies raid the nests and aggressively chase native passerines out of their territory.
So that means war.
A combination of decoys, recorded distress calls played loudly through a large speaker and a CZ 455 Varmint .22LR slays the pest to great effect.
When we make a big dent in the numbers, it leaves a hole in the territory map. The neighbouring mobs work that out and suddenly all arrive at once, competing to claim the open space. That's when we move into position... This was from 15 minutes this morning. Six birds recovered, another five hung up in the pines.
The shooting is between 30m and about 120m. The CZ is fantastically accurate, having been pillar and epoxy bedded, trigger worked and a half decent BDC reticle employed on the 4.5-18x50 scope (which never moves off 10x, which is what the reticle is calibrated to).
So that means war.
A combination of decoys, recorded distress calls played loudly through a large speaker and a CZ 455 Varmint .22LR slays the pest to great effect.
When we make a big dent in the numbers, it leaves a hole in the territory map. The neighbouring mobs work that out and suddenly all arrive at once, competing to claim the open space. That's when we move into position... This was from 15 minutes this morning. Six birds recovered, another five hung up in the pines.
The shooting is between 30m and about 120m. The CZ is fantastically accurate, having been pillar and epoxy bedded, trigger worked and a half decent BDC reticle employed on the 4.5-18x50 scope (which never moves off 10x, which is what the reticle is calibrated to).
