HELP WITH MAGPIES

I've had great success wayback on Magpies with a decoy and a magpie distress call.
It was an old recording I bought about 20 years ago from hunting and fishing. It had the Australian magpie on one side and a Mynah distress call on the other side, and I played it on an old battery cassette player.

I now have a Primos Alpha Dog caller that I bought as I have seen them in action in Australia on wild dogs and foxes and they are really great.
I want to put the NZ/Aus magpie (the northern hemisphere magpie calls out there on offer are different) and mynah distress calls on it and wondered if anyone had an old copy of the tape or CD that H&F used to sell in the old days.

Cheers HH

Ive got an mp3 file of the magpie distress call, play it loud and it works a treat eh @Flyblown

I can email it to you. I'll be offline until moday night now thou.

Youtube has some and you can just download the sound file to use

Thanks, Ive got a mate at DOC ill ask him.
yea when i've winged them in the past with a 22 sub they squawk like heck and you cant reload quick enough.
Unfortunately the 204 ruger is not a good round if you are just trying to wing it.

I guarantee you mate, no one has got a magpie distress call as good as mine.

these magpies aren't distressed any more.No caller used.
Attachment 155935

Haha @Dundee. A good pile.

The absolute best combination of tools for pest Australians is a Larsen trap with a live bird inside in one compartment, a Bluetooth speaker in the other compartment, and a shooter with a phone and a rifle about 40 yds away hidden in the bushes.

Setup around 1hr after first light with the trap close to - but not under - the trees that the birds use in the mornings on their daily squawk before they head off to feed. Wait until 2 or 3 or more birds from one mob arrive - use the general song call if necessary. When one bird shows interest in the trap, hit the distress call for a few seconds. Guaranteed a bird will fly down to the trap. Try and shoot the first couple of birds on the ground near the trap - then play the distress call LOUD on repeat - more birds will come hurtling into the lower tree branches and that’s when marksman 101 comes into play. Whack ‘em and watch more arrive. A winged bird or two on the ground is good, don’t try and shoot them again, get them with the dog later. With a properly silenced 22 subsonic, some birds will fly away at the shot and circle and return, but other birds will just stay rooted to the spot fascinated by what’s going on.

My record is 22 birds in a few minutes out of pines next to a homestead - mobs of juvenile birds all competing for territory - magpie mayhem. That property hadn’t been shot for many years and it was insane how the birds kept coming in. A normal session is 7 or 8 or more, not unusual to get into the teens.

I have bought a second 10 shot mag for my CZ as there’s no time to mess around reloading.

An older adult magpie that survives a cull like this will wise up pretty much immediately and flatly refuse to come to the call. You can see the adult birds pretty easily from the plumage and it’s really important to get these birds first. On one of my sessions recently I screwed up the first shot in the wind and clipped an adult bird - feathers only - and since then the three of them (parents and this season’s juvenile) have played games with me and just won’t come in. So I have to get them in the paddock feeding, not always easy as they’re so sharp.

@Harry Horsesense I had a scrabble around and found my copy of the tape you refer to.

Attachment 155963

Magpies on one track and the Myna's on the other.
I couldn't complete a hard wired copy as I would have to go out and by a special cable , but have created a 3 minute copy of the Magpies.

PM with your email address and I can email you the 3 minute file to test and if you want a longer recording we can work something out

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flyblown

Haha @Dundee. A good pile.



An older adult magpie that survives a cull like this will wise up pretty much immediately and flatly refuse to come to the call. You can see the adult birds pretty easily from the plumage and it’s really important to get these birds first. On one of my sessions recently I screwed up the first shot in the wind and clipped an adult bird - feathers only - and since then the three of them (parents and this season’s juvenile) have played games with me and just won’t come in. So I have to get them in the paddock feeding, not always easy as they’re so sharp.

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I have this problem, been chasing them for a couple of weeks, either just too far for me (newish shooter), or sit in the trees beyond which are more lifestyle blocks (so can't take the chance), or like the rabbits on the ground but in front of my water tanks another no go area.

I have one of these.

Attachment 156027

Had it for some years and got it from Nneil Blaymore in Te Puke....I think that this company https://tinyurl.com/y5xje89y has the right to make them now, but their web site is not helpful .

I styart with the polystyrene magpie decoys.

Thanks for all your good advice and resources Flyblown, and also offer from kiwisapper. I’ll be sure to update you when I’ve got the setup all working.

Agree, learn fast they fly away when they see me holding my bang stick after a week of being hammered, but when I’m out on the quad those fuckers just sit in the trees and smile at me.
Been a bumper spring, numbers are up on them too.

Nothing like good ol harekeke to bundle them up with.

Attachment 156287

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I used a live decoy in a cage next to a opossum cage trap baited with mutton fat and were catching up to 900 a year.

Had a funny thing happen yesterday- a maggie flew straight into the window of our loggia and hit with a helluva crunch. Cat nearly shat himself. Anyway, it started screeching flat out, good enough for me to rip out and scone one of his mates with the PCP. They're bloody wary round here usually as the pressure is always on :)