Bandtails

[glass_eye]

Anyone go out and shoot any ?
I grew up hunting Bandtails in Placer County but for the last 16 years I've lived in the desert in Imperial County.
I got these last saturday in Amador County. It was my 22nd wedding anniversary and I snuck away for a few hours to bag these.
I couldn't wait to mount them

 

[sageadvice]

Glass_eye, That's one bird that i never thought to mount but yours looks very nice. The pic of the full size of the bird really make him look great.

I really miss hunting those guys myself. I still see a few now and then but not around here and not in enough numbers to make a special trip for. Back in the early 60's, 64 i believe, BTP's came in by the thousands to the Livermore area and stacked up like cordwood in certain oak trees on our ranch. We always got birds that year but one time i was rooting for my Dad to really get a big mess of them.

He was sneaking up on this huge bare tree, i could see it and watch the show from our pickup parked a hundred or so yards away, that was just chalk full of pigeons. I mean hundreds and hundreds if not close to a thousand birds all huddled on every branch in one tree! Dad crept up to and shot over this little ridge on them at reasonable range. He sluiced them, boom, boom, boom! Flock shooting i suppose and little me expected dozens of birds to fall, not one bird fell! I felt real bad for my Father, i thought that even i, as a little boy, could have done better than that. To my knowledge, he never picked up a shotgun the rest of his life.

Great job on the mounts!!

Joey

 

[glass_eye]

LAST EDITED ON Dec-30-09 AT 05:28PM (MST)[p]They are a really tough bird to bring down. Most shots are at the tops of tall pines and higher. You can't use dove loads on these. I use a 12ga full choke 3" shells #6 preferably turkey loads with 2oz of shot.

 

[eelgrass]

Beautiful birds and very nice taxidermy. We still have quite a few on the north coast. They like Elderberries, Cascara berries and Tan Oak acorns. At least here. My wife has a few that hang out at her bird feeder on ocassion.

Neat birds.

Eel

Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

 

[califhuntn]

I grew up hunting BTP. That's actually how I got the fever. I remember some fun hunts back when the limit was 6-7. It has got to be just 20 years ago. Wow. They are definitely some high flyers. I'm about an 1 1/2 hour away from where I used to hunt them on the coast and was considering going this year but it is a long ways for 2 birds. Good memories.

JR

 

[Jingow]

Did you mount them yourself Glass-eye? If so I never seen such a quick turnaround. Excellent hunt, and great taxi work. Thanks for sharing Jim

 

[RACKMASTER]

I HAVE TWO SPOTS...1 in mendo's b1 and other is in shasta co's X1 have not been hunting them in 3 years, number seems to be increasing! they still roost in same area after all these years!
these taste great! do you use a dog at all? I use my lab "Bart" hes a big help!
great mount!

rackmaster

 

[glass_eye]

Jingow
I mounted them myself. My customer turn-around time is about a year, but the turn-around for my own personal mounts is about a decade. I didn't want these birds to end up like my others so I mounted them the fist day back at work.
Rackmaster
I didn't take my lab with me. These birds are delicate enough as they are. If I had let my dog retrieve them, there would be no feathers left on them. As it was, I had to pick up handfuls of feathers off of the forest floor and glue them back into place.

 

[NickW]

Ahhhhhh! The American River canyons! Clipper Gap! Sore Finger Point! Foresthill!......but I digress!

Nice work on the birds and a great bird to hunt!
I'm another Placer County native.