Carpenter Bees and shooting sports

[Gobblerforge]

So there I was, wondering why it is that carpenter bees seem to hover at about 6 feet away and stare at me all the time. The conclusion? They have determined that my badmitten racket and arm are only about 5 feet long. Now after years of trying different treatments and caulk and stuff to combat them, I decided to try an idea I have had for some time. Many times I have farted around with 22 birdshot to less than satisfying effect for patterning. It was always the same problem. The shot collum is spinning and disperses in a rapidly expanding pattern. Then after reading about the Routledge bore and other ideas I decided to try to do it my way. I took a Stevens Crackshot 26 and with a 5/16 piloted bit proceded to drill out the rifling to about 10 inches deep starting at the muzzle. The idea is to allow the shot collum to stop spinning and form into a shot pattern again. Mission accomplished. The gun now shoots long rifle just fine and also throws a much tighter shot pattern. My test target is from 10 feet and has few holes bigger than carpenter bee size. The bees never saw it coming. War has begun and my body count has hit tripple digits. some spin in and for a dramatic crash while others simply die and crumple. If you get it right and they are close enough they will vaporise. My only problem is munitions aquisition. I am having a great time and my wing shooting is impoving and shootin costs are minor.
Gobbler

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[pwl44m]

Wow !,That's a pile of Bees. Looks like mucho fun.
Perry

[Mescalero]

Thats a good idea.
I have a stevens single shot and some barrel stock, think I'll make a smoth bore barrel for it.

[Sixgun]

Oh yea! The springtime around here brings on the tradition of shooting those big bees. I tried about everything, starting with a homemade paddle that really works good, 2 + 2 carb cleaner is great also. If you get a direct hit on 'em, they drop straight down, sometimes they fly up and die 20' up and drop.

.22 shot loads got expensive so I now use an 1892 Winchester in 32-20 with my special shot loads using 6 gr. of Unique, a wad, 100 grs. of #11 shot, another wad and then I run the case into a 25-20 die for a healthy crimp. These loads will knock 'em down 15-20' away. Those #11 shot are tiny! I even used shot loads in 44 Spl and 357 revolvers. ------6

From a few years ago

[Blaine]

Dang.....That's sort of over kill for bees

[Griff]

I've got a colony started, maybe I'll need to take a hint. #11 or 12 shot should do the trick outta a .45 Colt, no?

[rjohns94]

Bumble bees have been a problem at the cottage. I have 22 snake shot shells by the bag load. Can't believe I haven't thought of this. Very kewl.

[Blaine]

Mossberg used to make a smoothbore .22, if you could find one......

[Ji in Hawaii]

Great shooting, I hate them things! They put holes into my canec ceiling outside, a real pain in the okole'.
I used to own a Remington 22 pump smooth bore, great for shot capsules but not much else. Sold it to buy a 22 rifle but in hindsight I wish I kept it.
Here in socialist obamanation suburbia I would be arrested for just thinking about shooting shot capsules. I use my Daisy model ten lever action BBgun which makes it more a challenge to hit them but very rewarding. A couple nights ago my wife was freaking out because there was a huge centipede right outside out front door. I was surprised that one round from my daisy immobilized it enough to get a couple more rounds into it, it was 8 inches at least. Wish I took a picture of it now. A couple night before that my wife and I are watching a movie on my computer when out walks a huge cockroach. I grabbed my trusty model 10 and dropped him right then and there! Love my trusty Daisy.

[Sixgun]

I've got a colony started, maybe I'll need to take a hint. #11 or 12 shot should do the trick outta a .45 Colt, no?

Yea Griff. A 45 Colt with about 16 million #11 or 12 shot bb's will be the cats meow. After you get the last wad in, just run the loaded round in a 44 spl/mag fls. It will fold it over real nice. I'll go down right now and take a picture of that #11 shot. Be right back.----------6

OK, I'm back
loaded 32-20 ammo---feeds real nice, especially in the Rem. Model 25


This is #11 and #6 bird shot


Now, if you believed the above caption, your retarded. It is 36 cal round balls This is for real #2 shot. I could not find any bulk # 6 or 8

[BobM]

A friend of mine uses his Redhawk with homemade shot loads on those bees.

[kaschi]

I understand and appreciate the fun! Have been doing it since the 70s! What makes it really fun is when you do with an audience. Then challenge them to do it but instead of putting in a birdshot load, let them try it with a 22 short. Of course that works only if you REALLY live out in the boonies where the projectile will surely almost always land in the woods....

[bmtshooter]

I have alays used my trusty .177 Benjamin pellet gun for this activity. Pretty challenging but very rewarding when I can connect. I have used that Benjamin for about 45 years, & it still shoots incredibly well.

[dennie]

I have been using the CCI capsules and the Win. crimped .22s for the past 3-4 years on carpenter bees. Sure is fun! The CCI ammo goes up about $2 every year, so is getting kinda expensive at $9 for 20 rounds. Local farm store was selling the Win. 50 round box for $10, but ran them on sale for $6. I bought a few boxes then, but I am about out of them. I use them in my Ruger MKII, Super Single Six, or my 2" Taurus M94. The CCIs work much better for me, especially in the 6 1/2" Single Six. Once tried some .22mag CCIs. Shot holes in my rain gutters! Fortunately, they need replacing anyways. The females bore the holes, and the males are the ones you see hovering around you. I have read that the males have no stingers, but cannot verify that. Once while greasing my tractor I saw several females going in and out of the holes they bored above the barn door.
I grabbed a chair and gave each inhabited hole a couple pumps of grease. No bees came back out of those holes. I also use a badminton racquet, but not as much fun.
dennie

[Borregos]

Looks like a lot of fun

[Rusty]

I'll bet a blank cartridge would work just as well and not give over penetration problems.

[pwl44m]

I'll bet a blank cartridge would work just as well and not give over penetration problems.

Yeah, Ya don't want to ruin the meat.
Perry

[JReed]

Sixgun what are you using for wads?

[AJMD429]

Hah... mebbe a good reason to order a case of 5.56mm blanks - be fun to use an 'assault rifle' on them bees...

Probably wouldn't cycle the action without the 'blank adapter' though - and that would probably kind of play havoc with the blast pattern.

I need to 'pattern' some shot loads out of my various 22's and see which would be best to use; I get far too many misses and 'cripples' and with the cost of those shot capsules hate to miss.

Have a few questions:

1. what is the cost per reload of those centerfire #11 shot loads...?

2. how many reloads before the brass dies, with those deeper crimps...?

3. Gobblerforge, what kind of before-vs.-after 'patterns' do you get with those 22 shot capsules when drilling out the barrel like that...?

[.45colt]

Looks like You Guys have them small Bumble bees...for years We been using the .410 skeet gun, 1/2oz of #9 usually stops them.........

[Sixgun]

Sixgun what are you using for wads?

Jeremy,
I use the sleeves from primers, usually Remington and Federal. Look in the box, in my pic, right about in the middle, and you can see the "R" from Remington. I cut them out with punches that are made for such things. You can also use an empty case that is sharpened with a deburring tool, but make sure you use military brass as regular brass don't last more than a few punches.

Doc...............cheap Whatever the cost of a primer and 3 grains of Bullseye is.....total, about .04. That's not including the cost of the #11 shot as I bought about 10 pounds of it about 30 years ago and I still have it-----------goes a loooooooonnnnggggg way with revolver shot loads. ----------------6

[Gobblerforge]

3. Gobblerforge, what kind of before-vs.-after 'patterns' do you get with those 22 shot capsules when drilling out the barrel like that...?

At ten feet from the muzzle with rifling, the pattern was blotchy, had large holes and covered the whole plate. After the drilling, as you can see, it shrunk up the pattern a lot and filled in the holes.
Gobbler

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool!!!

[w30wcf]

Amaranth grain is pretty fine and is great for shooting bees around the outside of the house where you don't want shot to penetrate. Works great! Typically found at a healthfood store or online.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ama ... tedIndex=0

Sixgun,
Did you ever try any of the Amaranth grain I gave you last year?

w30wcf

[Sixgun]

Sixgun,
Did you ever try any of the Amaranth grain I gave you last year?

w30wcf

Jack,
I did just 2 weeks ago. I knew there was something I needed to tell you. While I did not perform "extended load development", I did load a dozen 32-20's with your "health food" and they performed about as good as your peanut butter and grape sandwiches. Ha! I just threw that in. (Your going to live to be 100) Anyway, They were great up to about 5 feet away but as you know I like to shoot things long distance, there was a lot to be desired for the 10-15 yard shots. Even the ones I did shoot at close range did not fold up and drop in several pieces like they do when smashed with a thousand #11 shot.

Tonight I'm going to extend my load development with the old 1894 smoothbore Marlin. I can get three 36 caliber balls in a 44-40 case. This ought to be fun and I'll think I'll even try it for silhouette shooting for the chickens and pigs as I never did hear a rule that says you can't have more than one projectile. THAT will make the boys at the McKean County Rifle Club real happy come July at the Regionals.

See you at the Regionals????-----------------------Jack

[Sigmar]

Y'all are retired too huh

[w30wcf]

Sixgun,
Thank you for the information. I also found that its effective range was shorter which I found to be ideal when shooting bees really close around buildings, especially when the bees were between me and the roof overhang. Worked great in those situations and no damage to the building. (.44-40 b.p. blanks work really well too at close distances).

w30wcf