Successful Submission Page

Congratulations, you have successfully submitted your Pest Destruction Order. Someone will be in touch soon to finalise details of the shoot event. In doing so you have agreed to our terms and conditions.

Below you will find our pricing information if you haven’t already found the ‘Pricing Page‘. We continue to add information to this page in an effort to provide you (our paying customers) with confidential information not otherwise made available to the general public. And as such the information provided is ‘commercial-in-confidence’. The recipient of this document agrees to hold all information presented within as confidential and agree not to use or disclose, or allow to use or disclosure of the said information to unauthorised parties, directly or indirectly, irrespective of the acceptance or rejection of the presentation or at any time before, during or after an agreement has been reached, without prior written consent.

Shooting is not the whole process!

Sure sometimes it is, but for most of our customers their Pigeon problem didn’t just appear out of no where. Birds normally are attracted to locations with Solar Panels, Palm Trees, Food, Nesting, Loafing or Water that present opportunities to flourish. Besides taking care of the resident population, you will need to remove as much as possible the attraction(s). We will advise on the best options related to your site once we have seen their reaction to the shooting program selected.

But they will as a  rule require as a minimum a cleanup of the debris and in some cases barriers. Please don’t preempt this! Many customers think; ahha that’s all I have to do. Get the pressure cleaner out and clean the roof. Trouble is they come back and you have to do it all over again. There is a process and each needs to be done in their time. Please discuss these with your operator to confirm what, if any actions you may be required to undertake to help keep you free from pigeons.

Apportioned Risk

This section applies mainly to the larger corporate bodies that have strict policy and procedure in terms how they contract services and the management of their Work Health and Safety obligations. While we offer a system that complies with our Work Health and Safety obligations; what we don’t do is qualify that the activity of Shooting in the Urban Environment is inherently safe. It is only as safe as any risky activity can be. You can’t hold a boxing match and guarantee it will be safe. Equally, you can’t shoot without risk! And any operation that engages our services must accept they are undertaking a risk activity and must share in the outcome. 

To manage our risk, we do not sign any customer provided document that supersedes or diminishes the meaning of our terms and conditions. All contract shooters are private individuals and are personally liable for the discharging of a firearm in an urban environment! A contract shooter may work for a corporate body, but can not limit their liability through that corporate body.  There is no contract shooting job profitable enough to justify waiving our position in this matter. 

The authorised person who books a shooting event with us must warrant they are duly authorised to contract our services for the shooting of pest animals on their property. 

WH&S (SA)

Any activity required to satisfy the customer’s WH&S safety requirements are not included in any of our pricing packages. We charge $100 plus GST for any and all work done to satisfy the customer’s requirements. That includes the modification of our SWMS documentation to suit your site. It also means any meetings, instructions, inductions, reviews, etc will be charged based on this hourly rate. 

Our approach

We try to be efficient during all aspects of our work. To be able to offer the prices we do our management systems are published on the website. This way our customers can access all necessary information to make sure they can comply with all legislation and regulation required here in South Australia.

We’re not perfect so if you can’t find what you are looking for please let us know and we will endeavour to get the information up here.

This information provided here forms part of our business systems and are strictly confidential. Please make sure you only make the information available to those who will be involved in the shoot.

Proper Notice

We try to make sure all information is provided in writing so that records can be maintained. In order to avoid having to deal with duplicates of similar documents we provide links or downloads to our documentation so that you can access them at your convenience. However our Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) must be requested in writing as we don’t intend to make that available unintentionally to our competition. As such we consider our role has been duly met by publishing the necessary information online. If we haven’t provided the information you require, it is on you the customer to let us know so that we have the opportunity to provide that information.

Policy and Practice

We are obliged to notify the police at every shooting event. We do this just prior to the shoot so that any changes in arrangements don’t require re-communications with the police.

We don’t notify: Council’s, staff, neighbours, or any other requisite interested party other than those you have specified to us in writing. We may notify you that it is not our place to do so and that you are required to undertake this task. Notice normally includes information such as shooting dates, locations, accesses, restrictions, warnings, signs etc. We don’t include this in our scope of work unless we have agreed to in writing.

We predominantly use air rifles! The calibre is selected based on the job, but can be selected from .17 .20 .22 .25 .30 calibre rifles. Those rifles are stored in locked safes and only removed when required for cleaning and maintenance and actual use. The rifle(s) are then packed into rifle bags or case (lockable) as suits the job. We are licensed to and use are determined beneficial silenced weapons (sound moderators). Any requirement to not do so must be communicated in writing before the shoot event.

We don’t shoot with other people in the shooting area. We ask that everyone is away behind hard barriers ie inside buildings or cars or at least 400 meters away. The energy of the pellet is relatively insignificant at this distance. We don’t take liability for anyone entering the active shooting area. We don’t take liability for signage warning a shoot is in progress. This is the property owner’s responsibility! We can arrange for that to be done, but this cost will be borne by the property owner.

We shoot feral animals. There is inherent risk with discharging a firearm inside any environment but especially urban environment. While we try to minimise this risk, we cannot eliminate it! We have insurance and limit our liability to that coverage other than where legislation does not allow us to limit our liability.

Job Safety Analysis

Not many of our customers require a formal JSA’s or SWMS, but can be provided upon request. Please note the proper process is to carry out an analysis. This can be costly, given we require sign off by the authorised person. This means they normally have to be on location. And for the companies requiring a formal JSA the authorised person is not normally at the shoot location during the shoot. So this can mean a site visit for this sole purpose.

Where a formal JSA and or SWMS are required we charge by the hour in half hour increments. This includes time developing the risk assessment and travel to and from site including time spent on site. The Job Safety process is not included in the published shoot events with prices.

Otherwise, the following should suffice to cover our safety practice:

The risks and prevention methods are many. And like it or not many risks are inherent in any new location. Things that the property owner is required to make us familiar with such as Evacuation, Hazards, Chemicals, Fall prevention’s, welding and the list goes on. We ask that you bring to our attention any hazards you assess we could come in contact with. The following weblinks are hazards you might come into contact when we are on your property. Noisefrom the rifle! Who is responsible to manage the work environment and facility. The short answer is the “Property Owner”. Also we qualify the property owner is responsible for consultation, co-operation and co-ordination.  Most of our involvement with the customer’s property is for a few hours at a time. Often this is after-hours. Making sure the right people are aware of the shoot times, dates, locations and area is the property owner’s responsibility. Or in some cases agent who are in control of the property have short term control are the responsible party.

Shoot Area

Boundary/perimeter area – there are lots of terms that are used to describe what we shall refer to as the ‘shoot area’. It is always hard to predefine a shoot area, but if we can use naturally occurring access points to limit or restrict people or animals from entering the shoot area, this is what we will start with. For instance large warehouses are pretty easy because a lot of them have doors for access that can be closed. If this can’t happen we suggest tape, sometimes called perimeter barriers. Hazard tapes from your local safety store in Black and Yellow or Red and White will do.

Signage can also be helpful if you can’t notify those who may unwittingly wander into the shoot area. But this is a double edge sword. The more you make the public aware, the more you open the door to unwanted attention from animal lovers. We have found that the less noticeable the event, the better the outcome!

Sometimes the area is simply noted on a site map and sent out to the people who might have reason to need access. Whatever the scenario; we don’t supply any of this unless it has been specified and quoted for. The reason is, we often don’t visit the site for the first time until we are there to undertake the shoot!

The main thing to do is to communicate discreetly, and only to those you are aware might need to be notified. Remember it is often the person who is not meant to be there that ends up inadvertently in the shoot area. This is another reason we can’t be responsible for this aspect, we simply can’t know who might need to be notified. And what their reaction might be.

We can and do engage third party contractors to manage the shoot area boundary; very similar to the road works safety teams. Again this brings with it more cost and more scrutiny by potential animal lovers. These companies design a  traffic management plan and require sign off before attempting to manage the site. These plans can be simple or elaborate depending on the situation. Please advise us if you would like this for your next shoot.

Damage

We often see holes in tin sheds reported as damage by previous shooters. We use what is known as Pre-Charged Pneumatic air rifles. Or PCP rifles for short. These rifles are pressurized with air or CO2. We use air! And they can be used to shoot both large game or small pests. In the old versions this setup was left either to the factory or the local gunsmith. The rifles we use are state of the art and allow us to dial in whatever arrangement we want. For the most part we use .22cal dialed down so that at 10 feet away you couldn’t put a hole in a typical healthy garage roof. In fact, at point blank you can only achieve a hole if you shoot in the same spot twice. The point is we don’t need huge amounts of energy to kill a pigeon.

We aim center mass and not for the head as many would have you believe. Our goal is to have the pellet remain within the bird and cause as much shock to the system as possible. This achieves three important outcomes. 1. It lessens the energy if the pellet goes clean through; more than if it passed through the head. 2. It provides a larger target and therefore lessens the likelihood of misses. A pigeon’s head is almost always on the move. 3. The bird is less likely to flap around and appear to be suffering. This minimises stress if someone sees it.

The average shot taken is inside 30 yards. This is the distance a .22 calibre is considered useful to cull pigeons. Beyond that we would select a different calibre. Our real interest is in the pellet if it missed the target or went through. At what distance is it consider a danger or able to cause real damage. Some say 250 yards some say 450 yards. A ballistic software calculates it as 448 yards at a 28 degree angle. What this means is, all shots will be taken with hard backdrops unless otherwise advised. This means a very significant reduction in the effectiveness of the shoot. Most pigeons like the highest apex for landing. This gives them the best security. And it is also normally our best opportunity to take a shot. Risks versus results! If we think we have a 400 yard clearance, then we will take shots on our own cognisance. Beyond that we operate on instruction by the customer.

Height Work

We don’t do height work unless specifically stated. This means we don’t bring a ladder and shoot from it. Just as importantly, it means we also don’t climb up to retrieve fallen birds. It is rare we shoot pigeons on a single storey building, because this just isn’t secure enough for most pigeons.

Managing the risk of falls is another expense we exclude from our pricing packages, unless specifically stated. The main reason is the costs involved in getting this right. We are expert marksmen, not expert climbers or scaffold erectors or perimeter guard rail installers. We prefer to leave that to the experts.

Leaving Site

We have normally been engaged for a set time. As such, at the conclusion of the shoot, we will then collect any dead birds from the ground. We will clean any blood stains if possible. At this point the air rifle will still be treated as ready for duty. Often while we are cleaning up and getting ready to leave a last pigeon or two turn up. The shooting area should not be considered clear for access until such time as the weapon is back in it carry case and stored in the locked vehicle.

We will notify you when the shooting area is no longer a shooting area. Until that point please consider the shooting area still available for live fire and dangerous to others. Under no circumstance should anyone attempt to enter the shooting area to confirm the area is safe for access.

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Body Collection

All our prices exclude body collection other than readily accessible from ground level. If your location is three stories high then methods to collect the dead bodies can become an expensive issue.

Not everyone’s situation will require a body collection arrangement! Huh you say?? Well let’s face it, there’s probably between 100,000-600,000 pigeons in and around Adelaide. So what happens to all the pigeons which die without our help? Pigeon Heaven is the short answer. The long answer is not so pleasant. the truth is many die pretty young; being a pigeon can be tough!  These guys make for a great meal – cats, foxes, possums, rats, crows, owls, hawks, and off course fido all love a bit of succulent, fat pigeon in their evening meal. Now if the line of ready diners can’t get to the dead bird then blowflies really are one of nature’s best cleanup crews. And if all else fails the most important decomposers… bacteria and fungi will finish the job!

We hope that in most cases you will have someone who can put on some rubber gloves, face mask, overalls and save you the extra money. However, if that is not the case we will be more than happy to recommend a clean-up crew.

Spotter / Observer

Some jobs require a second person. Sometimes to maintain the perimeter, other times to collect birds quickly while the shooter can continue with targeting the birds.

Second Shooter

Other jobs may require a second shooter, this is where the birds are located in separate lines of sight but close enough to be scared away by the sound of rifle fire. Other times it’s about efficiency, where large numbers of birds exist.

Once started there is no going back!

I know right; sounds pretty ominous! Doesn’t matter what method you choose, the Pill, Poisons, Pellets, Trapping, or Deterrents – once you start a program, you will waste your money if you stop before you have finished the job.  Believe it or not, there is not a large amount of recent research done on feral pigeons, and that means facts and figures are not well known. But here is the reason you can’t stop:

1 x pigeon pair can produce 10 squabs a year. 40 odd weeks later and those 10 squabs can produce 50 squabs a year. Then 250 squabs 40 months later, and so on! That means In just three cycles or 2.2 years your originating pair have the potential to add 250 birds to the flock. Of course their is a natural mortality rate and other factors. But what this is meant to demonstrate is the rate at which a flock can replace it’s numbers. And they do! They react to predation by increasing reproduction.

No one can tell you how long it is going to take to finish the job, regardless of the method employed. But you can take some constellation in the knowledge that if you had chosen to do nothing for a year, your flock of 30 birds could turn into 150 birds. The number of shoots required is proportional to the size of the flock. Getting rid of 30 birds is much cheaper than getting rid of 150 birds. Finally it takes more effort to get rid of the remaining 20% of birds, than it does to get rid of the first 80% of birds.