The message
from Jupiter contains these words:

Having eaten chicken wings tonight, the little pile of bones on my
plate gave me ideas about the pigeons. Big fat sitting targets in my
cherry tree.
Apart from a .22 BSA Meteor or similar, I doubt there's any way of
deterring these crop destroyers. I think it's legal to shoot them,
but does anyone know differently and is there any other way of
deterring them? Incidentally, this is the first year that we haven't
been infested with cats, hence the pigeons no doubt. Despite being
sorely tempted to shoot cats, I'm mindful of the fact that they are
probably someone's pets and aren't really edible. Overfed pigeons are
a different matter.

A good Meteor is quite sufficiently powerful for a head-shot, but I'd
never take a wood pigeon with a body shot with an air rifle with much
less than the full 12 ft lbs permitted, as the feathers can prevent or
reduce penetration.

(I use a pre-charged AirArms S310, and that sometimes puts a pellet
clean through.)

Things to consider:

If you miss, your pellet must not pass into someone-else's property
unless you have their permission.

A lighter pellet gives you higher velocity, and as kinetic energy is
proportional to the mass of the pellet, and to the square of the
velocity, a lighter pellet gives a flatter trajectory and more
knockdown.

However, you should be careful not to exceed the 12 ft lbs muzzle energy
if you do use a much lighter pellet than normal.

Too many wood pigeons in the diet can poison you. (But you need to eat
them regularly to get any bad effects.)

One pigeon with spuds and two veg just about makes a meal for one person.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/