The grackles have returned for the spring & I was talking with my neighbor about them. It appears as though one could take advantage of their tendency to roost on the highest point on the property. My idea is 2 .223 cases fastened to an insulator. They will be close enough so that the grackle will put a foot on each and complete the circuit. My experience from shooting them with a pellet gun shows that when one goes down, they roost around it. The question is what to use to energize the system. I have a 50 microfahrrad capacitor that we decided wouldn't work. We're pretty much in agreement that it needs to be a coil of some kind. Does anyone have any ideas on what to use as a coil, rectifier, etc.?

Send a PM to HTRN.
Have a fire extinguisher handy.

Set them up with 110 volt house current, hot to one leg and neutral to the other. You should be able to drill and tap the primer hole fole a screw to attach the wire on. Make sure it is NOT plugged into a ground fault recepticle, and that you DO have good circuit breakers. The little screw in adapters for light fixtures to plug in a cord work well for this. Hook it to an outside light and leave it off until you have a subject in place. Make sure there is about an inch or more between the cases. Turn it off in the rain.

Have fun!

I've been zapped by both 110 and 220 ac and had no ill effects other than minor burns at the contact points and numbness through the path of the current. The reason that I'm thinking along the lines of a capacitor or coil is that they would both produce higher voltages than household current, while storing a finite amount of energy, hopefully eliminating the need for the fire extinguisher, as poletax suggests, (although I will have one on hand, if a grackle bursts into flames, I may be laughing too hard to use it)

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(although I will have one on hand, if a grackle bursts into flames, I may be laughing too hard to use it)

Thats in case the Grack coasts into your house or barn.

Capacitors require DC power.

To boost the voltage enough to fry, you need something like a flourescent light transformer. Now you're getting into a bit more complicated of a system...and a lot more dangerous to the unaware!

The 'joy' of 110 VAC is that (hopefully) the bird will not be able to let go and sit there on the perch, cooking all the while. When you got zapped, you probably either didn't have your hand gripping the live device or were able to pull away in time.

Your problem is not voltage, it is frequency, or hertz. The heart operates at 50 hertz, and US voltage is 60, just so it will hit and not kill.

In addition, you should be able to up the amperage using a basic electrical instruction manual. The amps are what does the real damage.

Don't forget to turn off the juice before you use the fire extinguisher

On the farm we use a "Weed Burner" fence charger .
Run 2 wires 1" apart and 1 a inch higher than the other .
The bottom wire is a #8 solid and the top is #16 .

The bottom wire is the hot

The starlings will tend to land on the biger wire and touch the top wire .
Most will fall off , but a few will die leaning against the top wire and tend to smoke a little after a while .
I turn the charger off every night a clear any of the days kill off .

On a good day I may get 20 or more Starlings and Grackles

Johnch

quote:

The starlings will tend to land on the biger wire and touch the top wire .
Most will fall off , but a few will die leaning against the top wire and tend to smoke a little after a while .

I wonder if that would work on Brudder-N-Laws?

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Originally posted by poletax:
Send a PM to HTRN.
Have a fire extinguisher handy.

I think I'm developing a reputation

Go look up "flyback transformer" - they're in televisions, so keep an eye out for one on trash night, something like 10Kv.


HTRN

quote:

Have a fire extinguisher handy.

quote:

something like 10Kv.

See there?
What did I tell ya?

quote:

I wonder if that would work on Brudder-N-Laws?

Only if ya can hide the wire in the high grass where he pees

quote:

Originally posted by poletax:

quote:

Have a fire extinguisher handy.

quote:

something like 10Kv.

See there?
What did I tell ya?

I would use bare copper wire with a standoff insulater between them. I've seen them for sale somewhere, but I can't remember where. You can always make some stand off insulators from plastic or other non conductor.


HTRN

6V coil and 12V battery.... Watch for the sparks to fly.... HEHEHE... or 2 batteries and 12V coil.

Ray

I would use bare copper wire with a standoff insulater between them. I've seen them for sale somewhere, but I can't remember where. You can always make some stand off insulators from plastic or other non conductor.HTRN[/QUOTE]

The electric fence zappers use the plastic ones. Our old unit used to burn off weeds that got to close. derf

We used to have a weed eater when I was growing up. I thought that they quit making them because they could start fires under certain conditions. I do have a TV that doesn't work courteousy of some tenants that left most of their crap. I think that most farm supply stores could set me up with insulators.

Be sure and ground the capacitors in the TV before you try removing anything. They pack quite a wallop (Something like 400V)

A 12 ga SxS with 8's works pretty good too.