Quiet, accurate and comparatively low-powered, the air rifle is as close as you can get to the perfect tool for controlling small pests around the confines of a farmyard. Many of us served our airgunning apprenticeships by sniping rats, feral pigeons and corvids that were making a nuisance of themselves around barns and other farm buildings.
Although I now have the privilege of being able to target rabbits and pigeons on open fields and in mature woodland, I still do a lot of farmyard pest control and I still enjoy it. There is much satisfaction to be gleaned from helping farming friends when pests are causing problems around the yard. There are also times when it’s simply nice to have somewhere sheltered to shoot.
A farm close to where I live is plagued by crows and jackdaws that nest in the
