3/31/11:
Peacock Marsala with crimini mushrooms, seared peacock breast in butter with S&P and followed Chef's chicken marsala recipe for the sauce. I am eating it now on jasmine rice.

3/27/11

Getting ready to plant, MIL said it would be a waste to just feed the birds. She demanded opsec and keeping the grandkids in the dark about the matter. So, hen at 23 yards with CZ 452 and iron sights. SK subsonic 40gr HPs. She folded and never moved, broke her back and wrecked 1 lung with the bullet following the spine and winding up in her neck (recovered). Could have taked another, but had my hands full with cleaning the first one.

I plucked her and cleaned her as best I could, gutted and washed her out. Went back today (3/28) and pulled her out of the fridge, detailed any other pin feathers and cut her up.

Nice looking meat, not as dark as a duck, no fat.

On the menu for tommorow, braised with mushrooms. Any pheasant hunters have any cooking/cleaning  recomendations? More birds will likely follow.


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I am posting this here because it is garden related and pest control issues have been discussed before. I also hope to avoid the some of the idiots that populate other forums.

Birds have gone feral, predators have thinned the flock by 2/3rds in last year, but they have decided my garden is the new, best place to eat. Over 1600 sq feet, almost 100 plants and I got maybe 3 meals worth of vegtables out of the deal. In addition, they are crapping all over my MILs porch and deck area.

Owners contacted repeatedly, they have been of no help and offered  no compensation.

Offeres have been made to many parties to trap and remove the birds wth no takers. Lots of folks interested, no one willing to do it without compensation.

I tried scaring them off, they changed their schedule to raid the garden when I am at work.

I've tried repellents, no luck.

I am going to talk to the sheriff before I fo.

Local crazy lady (potential trouble) feeds them and they cross from her property onto MILs and exit via powerline cut (on Mils property) following a pretty regular route (snares or traps maybe?) there is a very good hide within feet of their egress route.

I am concerened about the effect seeing or hearing the birds being trapped might have on the locals.

Limited direction with safe backstop to take a shot. range would be 10 to 20 yards max. Range may be 10 ft or less.

If I am going to kill them, I intend to eat them and possibly save skin/feathers. (any advice welcome)

Adults weigh less than 20 lbs. I am thinking long barreled 22LR with sub sonic hps, sounds like a pellet gun. Would a shot to the root of the wing be a killing shot? They have these little pin heads and skinny necks that move around a lot.

They are beautiful birds and I hate to do it, but business is business. Any advice on bullet placement, suitability of 22LR, or other issues would be appreciated.

SSS after checking all local laws about shooting pests. These animals are not contained or controlled by their owners and are causing damage to your crops. Eat a peacock really? Have any recipes? I would send ya a box of Colibri 22 shorts for a few dozen tail feather eyes. Never have mailed ammo before tho.

Of you are going to shoot them be double sure of the laws, you could end up in big trouble for discharging firearms in city limits. Maybe you can trap them would be simpler, no noise.

rat traps

leg traps

poison

anti freeze

snares

get a dog

get a pet bobcat

buy groceries at the store

fence

scarecrow

fence

sticky rat traps

fence

airsoft on a tripline

grenade

c-4

higher a computer comando operative to stalk them and "take them out"

Air rifle.

I shoot damn feral chickens all the time!

Even in most of the rural areas here, there is some kind of county Animal Control office/officer.  I'd try that route first, they'll usually come out and set up live traps and take care of the problem for you.  Barring that, I personally wouldn't have any reservations about disappearing them, whatever it takes.  As others said, check the local laws first, but in most areas feral animals destroying garden crops is a no-brainer.

hunt around online; there's a motion activated pulse sprinkler for scaring off deer, ect. It's around $70, IIRC.

Peacocks are a pain in the ass; seems the folks that feed or own them never get the headaches others
around them endure. My ex-es mom lived in a hood that had no fences, they run wild thru the canyons behind the houses;
climb on the roof & crow & shit; walk down the road, crow, shit & stop traffic; repeat at new location.

Then the pricks that ran the HOA made it illegal to "harrass" them: WTF?    good luck

I always wondered what peacock tasted like...


I'd try and trap them in town, or use .22 shorts.

I'm just going to point out Peacocks are a type of pheasant.

What about a compound bow using the arrows that are designed to decapitate turkey?

There is a small amount of info available about their edibility, suppose to be similar to a cross between duck and pheasant, lean, dark and mild.

The bow thing would be a great idea, if I had a bow. I could probably get a bow hunting buddy to help out.

The area is rural, but with enough pop density to make things complicated. Roads on two sides, crazy lady on part of the third. Her land is surrounded by my MIL's. I have patterned their movements. They use to be so tame that I could get within 6ft of them. They didn't cause problems in the garden till a long dry spell hit and the only greenery around was my vegs, now they seem conditioned to it and keep returning. My attempts at running them off without killing them made them very shy of me and my car. I have left them alone for a while now and they are still shy, but do not automatically break into a run when they see me.

Long barrel CZ 452 and a Very accurate scoped Sako P94 will be the weapons of choice. I am concerned about anchoring them with the first shot, anyone with experience on shot placement for birds.

Unless you plan on killing ALL of them forget it. By the way, they are tasty.

Peacock is a fine meal.  Pellet gun is enough gun for them

You cant anchor a bird, they will flop around like crazy where ever you hit them, especially in the head

This is the plan. Predators have been thinning the population (1 male was killed in the last month) and they will probably be gone in a year even if I did nothing, but in that year the amount of damage would be huge. My fall garden was over 90% loss.

Current body count is 7, 5 males and 2 females. There were well over 20 two years ago in at least two distinct flocks. The remnants of the two flocks have merged and are resident on my MILs property most of the time or were until I started pressuring them, then they started hanging out at crazy ladies more often and raiding the garden from there. They still roost and feed on MIL's property in the woods behind house (15 acres). They cross onto the home area twice a day, late morning (9-10 am) and a afternoon (2-3).

I am probably going to try and take the hens first.

In areas where it is legal to take turkeys with a rifle (my closest analog), what is the recomended shot placement?

Two calls you must make first. Call local animal control if none exists call the Game Warden.

head shot with a cb long will take them out for sure and is as quiet as any high powered pellet rifle. Thing is if you are in an area with houses around, you would have to be sure of your backstop before trying it. As others mentioned, I'd contact animal control first. They may be able to help you out. If not, then I would probably take matters into my own hands and dispatch them quietly at times when neighbors are not likely to notice.

We've got free range chickens, peacocks, and guineas - the nice thing is we have hardly no ticks and they make great watch animals, the bad thing is they can destroy crops, scratch up cars, and crap on the porch.  We're starting our garden this winter and I'm building giant cages to put the garden in.  We'll see how that goes.

Pellet gun FTW

Worked for these squirrels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-d3rZZ-_M

peacocks are related to pheasants, dependning on what they eat (whats in your garden ) they probably taste pretty good IMO

+1 beat me to it

I would go with roasted peacock.  

so,

air rifle,

roasted peacock, (maybe peacock-au-vin)
or just breast them, maybe fry with some bacon

sell feathers on ebay, to buy more pellets, replace veggies etc,


win win?

Peacocks can fly

I am covering my legal bases right down to the original owners giving the O.K., and the limitations on taking a shot have already been discussed. I am concerned about using enough gun for a killing shot to the heart lung area. A CNS hit on these guys can be tough, with small moving target.

A sub-sonic hp is very quiet from a 29" barrel and will have a lot more hit than even the most powerful pellet gun (Well upon reconsideration, this is not true. I remembered the 9mm pre-charged air gun that a guy I met used to kill a coyote). I won't shoot if the set up is not right

My discretion has to do more with trying to be a good and considerate neighbor than legal constraints. I am rural with no animal control. Sheriff has jurisdiction and he is good to go. Crazy lady is a concern only because she is a neighbor to MIL and loves my kids and has been very generous to them in the past. No reason to upset her, if it can be avoided. A ridgeline will provide a back stop for the only shot I will be willing to take.

If you are a bow hunter, now would be a good time to practicve your skills.  I had a pretty bad-ass blow gun as a kid. Whatever you do, stealth must be your companion. Time to become a super- green delta seal sniper!

Drop a headless carcass on the owner's front porch.

A buddy of mine has killed a few and said they taste like chicken.
Post pics of kill.

OP we are of course going to require dinner pics.

Anybody ever tried skinning and preserving a bird skin?

IMHO, watch the crazy lady, or have your MIL watch her. Learn her schedule and pattern, then try to find a time when the peacocks are around but she isn't. Shoot them with a shotgun and the problem is solved.

Man this is no different than dogs harassing cattle.  Shoot them with prejudice.

The only thing that will work is a two man knife team. I can't say anymore.

Nuke 'em from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.







I've never gotten to say this in a thread before!!!!

Seriously, I would shoot them.  Peacocks are stunning, but they are destructive, and I think a .22 would take them out just fine.  Go for the males first, BTW.  Even if you don't get all the females, no moe babies.  Offspring in the wild have a really tough time surviving the egg stage, but with no males, you'll lose most of them quickly anyhow.  Peacocks are stupid nesters, btw.  

It's a shame, they're so pretty, but they need to go away.

how are you with a bow?

klill them with enough fire to cook them thru, but not burn?

Tomorrow, I'm setting up a blind and trying for a shot, we will see how it goes.

We will, of course, expect video.

Won't happen, I am so slow and illiterate with computers, you will be lucky to get dinner picks. It takes me forever to post a pick and link to it.

Good luck

Find where they are roosting and take them out at night.

This is darned intriguing.

I'll be checking back same bat-time, same bat-channel tomorrow to see how it went...

It didn't today, we are down to one car so I am at the mercy of conflicting schedules and didn't get out there till 3:30-4:00 and the birds were gone. I did get a blind set up.

Its not going to help that the freeze has killed off the last of the veg that was drawing them in. I need them gone before Feb when I plant the english peas.

I also vote for figuring out when neighbor lady isn't around, and then go noise-be-damned with a shotgun to get them all in one incident. Bury the bastards and never speak of it.

The peacock version of SSS.

Quick question this thread made me think of:

We own a nice Savage bolt action .22 LR. Naturally, owner's manual says only shoot .22 LRs. Obviously .22 LRs are going to feed correctly from magazine, but no reason whatsoever couldn't shoot .22 sub-sonics, right?

Sub-sonic shorts will shoot just fine if willing to load individually like conventional pellet air rifle, right? No spooky chamber spacing problems would result from using shorts in LR chamber? I know this already, just want to hear it from somebody else...

The only issue could be a build up in  the chamber at the mouth of the short that could cause a long rifle shell to stick.  A good cleaning should clear that up though.

Dcon mixed with cream corn. I used to own a small diner in the midddle of town and crows would tear into the garbage in my dumpster. They would eat the corn mix and fly away and never see em again. No one ever knew or noticed anything.

That's a really horrible way to die.

Couldn't just close your dumpster lid?

For me, it will be a 40gr subsonic HP. I have the advantage of time, I am going out tomorrow to give it a try.

Lead poisoning is a good choice.

Fast and as humane as death can get.

Good luck!

progress report,

or dinner pics?

Exactly what I've been wanting to ask.

Or maybe we need to bail the OP out of jail?

MIL figured out a plan to try and trap them, a friend from church is helping her, no luck so far. She gets all squishy about killing them

Meanwhile, I have been making nice with the survivors (predators have taken two more).

One let me get within 7 yards yesterday feeding it french fries. They also roosted on her porch again and crapped all over the place. I'll talk to her again today or Sunday and have a rifle in the car, JIC.