Around 15 years ago my dad and I were invited to a pheasant/chucker 'hunt' at a game farm in Nebraska. Before the hunt we were lined up on a deck outside the lodge for 'target practice'. They had a rock thrower with a piece of 3" plastic pipe attached to the throwing arm. They loaded live pigeons into the tube and let'er rip. It would chuck those birds out there and while they were catching themselves we were to blast them.
It felt sort of wrong at the time...but when in Rome...