Has anybody ever tried this? I read an article several years ago in which the author jump shot grasshoppers with 22 LR bird shot, I remember him saying a smooth-bore worked much better. I think it sounds like great fun, just wondered if anyone else has tried it!

I tried it once but quit after being arrested for shooting hen grasshoppers.

Sam

Yeah I know, it sounds pretty silly, but I was just curious if anyone has tried it. Of course, this isn't limited to 'hoppers. Millers, dragonflies, basically all the insect kingdom. I know while fishing I've popped off a few rounds at airborne dragonflies (especially when I wasn't catching anything).

I believe this same magazine article proposed the idea of sitting down to a nice picnic, taking a half a melon and setting it at some distance away. You would then wait for bugs to alight on the melon, and blow them away with whatever weapon was handy.... Sounds like fun to me!

I always wanted to put the muzzle of a .410 into a cloud of gnats and pull the trigger.

spring is coming, and with it the cicadas/7year locusts. About as big around and as long as your pinkie finger here in Idaho. The best medicine for culling is a hotrod air rifle and a good scope. I have a Condor SS in 177 that is good for 1300+fps and a Nikko-Sterling 10-40X scope. The critters are in peril out to 50 yards. It really is a hoot on a sunny afternoon with a grandkid or niece/nephew along.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

This topic brings back memories of my early railroad safari days shooting crickets, hoppers etc with my BB gun. Thise were the days. --- John303

And shooting flies off the garbage cans from my bedroom window.

not jump shooting but fun. at the local shooting range there are bare spots(grass free) at the base of the target stands at the 50 yards distance. i use to have a lot of fun sitting at the bench with my cz 452 and looking through the 9x scope and waiting for those big yellow grasshoppers to crawl across the bare spot. sniping grasshoppers at 50 yards is a nice change from just punching paper.

in one of Capsticks books he talks about shooting dragonflies out of the air with one of those freon powered, fully automatic BB machine guns. that sounds like fun!

At my local indoor range we used to have great fun shooting flies at 50 feet with 22 target rifles. It was a great change from position shooting at regular old paper. Great fun!

Hi, Here in central AR we have a group of dragonfly shooters. Smooth bore .22 rimfire rfles are the way to go. WE have also staged grasshopper shoots from the bed of a pickup driving through pastures. Last year we purchased 15 bricks of .22 birdshot ammo. If anyone has found a way to make a Ruger 10-22 function as a semiauto with birdshot ammo let me know.

When I was young, I used a BB gun to jump shoot grasshoppers. It was great sport!

quote:

This topic brings back memories of my early railroad safari days shooting crickets, hoppers etc with my BB gun. Thise were the days.

Stalking lizards and bugs on the tracks was my first experience "hunting" also. Things were much simpler then don't ya think??

Have always had a ball doing this. Got a cheap .22 bolt gun that I've drifted the rear sight off (goes back on quickly to witness marks). Then just walk along. No pressure, no worries, no range limitations concerning the quarry. A great way to spend some time.

Rem. 700 PSS set up w/ 4-14x Springfield Range Finder scope. 223 Ackley.

We'd shoot eggs at 300 yds off a benchrest. Then the crows would move in for the broken eggs . . .

quote:

Has anybody ever tried this? I read an article several years ago in which the author jump shot grasshoppers with 22 LR bird shot, I remember him saying a smooth-bore worked much better. I think it sounds like great fun, just wondered if anyone else has tried it!

That is just plain wicked and evil!
Therefore, I would love it.

No, sir. I have never tried grasshopper shoots.

But, as a kid, I have shot minnows in the river with a pellet gun until my father caught me. It was almost addicting!

Sadly, I realized that the use of a pellet gun was definitely out when my pa gave me his disapproving stare. "Pellets are expensive, son," he said gruffly. "Use BB's!"

So from that day, I limited my minnow culls to my lever action Daisy BB gun. My dad was a wise man.

My ex, I still miss her, used to blast dragonflies at over 20 yards, with her 20 gauge. It was the only hunting she liked! I used to love watching the show!! My dad, a WWII vetreran, would throw rocks at dragonflies, and actually hit a few!!! He taught pistol craft in the big war.

Used to 'stalk' around the cattle tanks [farm ponds] and shoot dragonflies when they would land on the grass stocks. Also shot a lot of bumble bees when they would work my grandmother's holly hocks. But the most fun ever was shooting at bats, flying, with a pistol and rat shot. If you stand on the levee they will fly over really low. And notice I said 'shooting at' the bats as we never did hit very many. I suppose all such pursuits would be illegal today, especially the bumble bees, but we sure did have a lot of fun! of course that was a long time ago - wonder what the statue of limitations might be for shooting bats?

When my son was about 10, I gave him a bb gun for his birthday. I had taught him all the safety for guns anyway, so I was very curious when I saw him out in the backyard hunting. I went out to find out what he was doing. Hunting crickets! Never had a cricket in the house that year!

quote:

Originally posted by prairiegoat:
At my local indoor range we used to have great fun shooting flies at 50 feet with 22 target rifles. It was a great change from position shooting at regular old paper. Great fun!

We did the same thing it's a nice deversion when you'r scores are sucking anyway. happens to me alot some nights LOL I miss small bore club;(
MM

Oh boy, the bats are in swarms towards the evening here in the north woods. My buddy hooked one once with a fly on the back cast...

As a kid we used to hunt grasshoppers with bb guns. I was just telling my dad a month ago how much fun we used to have.

We once went to a trap range and the prarie dogs had a village set up just out of range, or so we thought.

My buddy said pull the clay went up he aimed down - sent target shot towards the town. One rolled around like it was stung by a swarm of bees... The town should probably relocate.

All this brings back memories... some less than a year old! I have shot minnows in stock tanks with pellet guns, more recently on a boring dove hunt last year the dragonflies paid the price. My buddy was like 6 for 6... my shooting was poorer... The funnest though was I used to strap on a ruger single-six .22 loaded with rat shot when I'd cut my dad's field on his old ford tractor. Always jumped a few field rats then the chase was on. Ususally managed a couple with only the occasional shot winding up hitting the tractor.... Tried bunny busting on a 4-wheeler but have not been very sucessful...

Occasionally on nights when millers are flying their circles around the lights at our skeet field, several of us will put in our .410 tubes and have a miller shoot. A direct hit will smoke them pretty good.

Prairiegoat,
I read a similar article many, many years ago in Outdoor Life or Sports Afield where the author was shooting dragon flies over farm ponds with a smoothbore .22 with shot cartridges. It was interesting ! I have shot trap with a smoothbore Remington .22 at Boy Scout camp when I was a kid and they were pretty efficient-(I don't remember the range though).

Hipshot

Did alot of grasshopper "wingshooting" as a boy with my daisy "Red Rider" BB gun.
FANTASTIC PRACTICE to this day!!!

It sure is entertaining to see how everyone, regardless of age, gets a kick out of just plain old shooting stuff (like grasshoppers) for fun. Honestly, reading you folks posts brings a tear to my eye and makes me pretty damned happy there are still folks out there shooting FOR FUN!

I had to show this to my wife; she thinks I'm just a bit nutters for wing shooting grasshoppers in the back yard with a Gamo Viper shotgun.
I am now completely vindicated! So thank you all!

I used to shoot the big ole Georgia Thumpers when I was little... it was the closest thing to pheasant hunting I had

The Anschütz company was trying to introduce some kind of mini skeet with smooth bore .22 lr rifles and tiny clay disks in the 60s. The article I read did not mention why it never gained popularity.

A friend of mine who happens to be the largest grower of green chile in the world shoots grasshoppers and butterflies with his .410 and says it's a Hoot!

I had a crossman bb gun that had a magnetic bolt in it you could load several steel bb's at a time with it. it was a pump up type so you could get a little more power from it. made a neet little shotgun worked good on dragon flys at the pool I have been known to put a little jelly/jam from my micky d breakfast on my 50 yd target to bait the flies

Had a hunting club in Northeast Louisiana named katydid. She was slap full of armadillos. Riding around and shooting them with .22's is some of the most fun shooting I have had to this day. A friend of mine also had a farm ditch that got filled with gar fish when the river backed up and the gar got trapped. Think we fired a whole brick at those gar as they'd quickly come to the top and go back into the muddy water. Good times.

When I'm out practicing Sporting Clays, I shoot lizards that I kick up with my 12 ga!

Kinda fun

Daniel 77 Do they still have those nutria derbys in la. where they shoot nutrias kinda like a bass tournament?? I've had 22 lr deflect off gars before, they are almost armor plated

I've never heard of a nutria derby. Sometimes if the populations get too high they will put a bounty on them though. We do have snake rodeos. A few years back, a black man and woman drowned because they both jumped out of their boat when a water snake fell off of a limb into it. They couldn't swim and drowned in three feet of water because they were scared of a non poisonous snake.
I like your suggestion of bullets not penetrating the gar. That makes me feel much better about how few we killed that day. We also shoot one hell of a lot of turtles. My brother in law owns a turtle farm now and was buying breeders for $2-3 per. I've pissed away a retirement fund in dead turtles, but it was a lot of fun, and very good practice.

Marlin used to build a smooth bore bolt action 22 for use with bird shot. I think that it was called a garden gun. It would be great for hoppers on the wing then all you would need is a small dog for flushing and retrieving . No limit and you would never run out of targets.

Jim Yackley is modest. He is founding member of the 'Fly Masters' club of Searcy Arkansas which promotes dragon fly shooting. He's by way of California (we won't hold that against him as he's a retired Army Major) and an exceptional wing shot.

I'm the 'northern Yankee' member of the club. I've been there, witnessed it, and participated in organized dragon fly shoots. Smoothbore .22's are used with crimped birdshot loads.

Dragon flies shoots are best done in the mid-morning (depending on what kind of whiskey storm came through the night before) and in the afternoon. During the mid-day grasshopper jump shoots can be had. For the bold, 'dangerous game' shoots can be organized for wasps and hornets. Be advised, that no matter what order of battle plan you come up with, some of them will get through!

I went so far to pattern various smoothbore .22's and loads in my garage. Forget the 'shot capsule' loads...they are marginal at best. Old crimped Winchester ammo of 70's vintage is the best there is so hang onto that stuff. Modern WW, Federal, and Rem 'Rat' Loads are ~okay. Grab your butt on the current prices however...we were lucky to buy a bunch at 4 bucks a box and now it's 10 bucks a box of 50!!!!

Remington made some recent pump smoothbores. Marlin made some bolt single shot smoothbores. Some Winchester and Remington smoothbores command collector prices. A decent gunsmith can cut out the rifling of most any .22 rimfire which greatly improves patterning at 20 feet (proper dragonfly or grasshopper range).

Bottom line is: HAVE FUN!

I used to shoot bees with the bb gun. The big solo types that hung around the hay barn, chewing holes in the rafter lumber.

JR