I have finally had good success hunting with my flint Kentucky type pistol. The carpenter bees are back in force, and it occurred to me to try a bit of aerial shooting. 25gr. of powder, newspaper wad, a big scoop of uncooked grits, and another wad on top has proven very effective on them. I was hoping to have some photos of trophies but they get blown away and are hard to recover. I have not been able to track any but assume they are dead since they don't come back. Now I can mark that pistol as an effective hunting arm.
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spring flintlock pistol hunting
- Thread starter Nobade
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Those carpenter bees can be really pesky. I like your solution involving the pistol and uncooked grits!
from here on out I will call that 'Loaded for Bees"
doubleset
50 Cal.
I've only got about 8 lbs of powder, and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be enough for the ones around here. I make traps for them and then just wage a passive war of attrition. I've been doing well against them since I started making the traps, but I need to make a few more. But now that I'm thinking about it, maybe using the Crockett rifle on them with grit loads would be good practice for 28 ga. trap. 
So your rifled barrel doesn’t “donut” the grits/shot; e.g. pattern in a circle with a big hole in the middle?
Regular grits tend to patten better than quick grits.
Well played, sir. Well played…
Haha you may think I was just joking but there is some seriousness to that in my own mind. I’ve shot grits as a filler in my BP revolvers for years. I mostly shoot my Ruger OA. I ran out of grits and bought some not realizing I bought quick grits instead of regular grits. I might have been off my game shooting, psyched myself out, had to blame it on something but I swear I don’t think my gun groups as well with quick grits lol. Might try the Amish yellow old style grits next time to up my game a little.
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You should try some of that yellow cornmeal. It's pretty robust stuff.
Seems to pattern pretty well out to five feet or so.
doubleset
50 Cal.
I wonder how Grape Nuts would work.
try the skychief load. shoot em in the face when they are COMIN AT YA 
doubleset
50 Cal.
Often they're up pretty close against a house or outbuilding. And you don't want to shoot into the building or you'll have splotches of grits all over it (and possibly damage where the grits hit). So an oblique approach is often advised.
may bee barnwood camo would work . hold real still ,when they come to check you out light em up.
that is the locust load
it is an amazing feat on how that they can bore a perfect 3/8 th, hole in wood? I have never hears of them stinging any one?
doubleset
50 Cal.
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For twenty years my youngest brother has been waging war against carpenter bees every spring. His weapons of choice are oversized wiffle bats and tennis rackets.
FWIW He's found there is a brief time at/near dusk, when the dark is just settling around him, but there is still enough light to see the bees silhouetted against the sky; at that time, they come out en masse, swarming the eves of our old farm house.
Apparently, the bees have poor night vision and cannot see him against the dark ground below. They don't even know he's there and take no evasive action on his approach. He will slay more bees in this short 10 to 20 minute window of perfect light conditions than a whole 12 hour day.
Since they are against the sky, this might be a good time for shooting grits nearly straight up, and avoid hitting structures. JMHO.
doubleset
50 Cal.
Of course in those conditions you need to be careful that you don't accidentally take out any bats. I'm not sure what the penalty might be for hunting bats without a license. It's too bad that the bats aren't interested in gobbling the carpenter bees. The woodpeckers are hell on them at times. One of the large pileated woodpeckers, about a year ago decided to go after them in a (treated!) 4x4 post that was attached to our deck so my wife could hang chimes from it. Ignoring us completely as we sat on the deck, he spent about 15 minutes going after the bees and larvae in that 4x4, and then flew off after he'd created about a 2"x3" hole in the post. But trading off woodpecker holes for bee holes in your house is probably not a good way to go. I worked briefly with a bunch of university entomologists for a while, and one of their specialities was bees. When I asked them what their advice was about the carpenter bees they told me that the best approach was to provide them with "alternative housing" where they would make their holes instead of boring them in your house. That was the point at which I started making the traps.
Your brother expends a lot of effort in this, but I'd guess it helps him stay in good physical shape -- though I'm not sure about his mental health. I'm content with my passive approach -- in part because there are just too many to take them on for long in a mano a mano scenario. I catch hundreds of them in my traps, but still feel defeated and irritated. I caught one the other day drilling a hole in the center of the top moulding of my walk-in garage door -- just below the vinyl siding!! I couldn't believe it! Why THERE? I finally assassinated it with insect spray, but they are notoriously resistant to most of that except for specific bee and wasp insecticide.
A triumph of evolution.
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Ever try rice? Not really sure what grits look like uncooked. I find a tennis racket works ok. If you really want a good thwap, a canoe paddle is great, especially for the ones that don’t come down low enough.
