At age 11, after learning to shoot at Boy Scout camp, my father offered me a bounty of 5 cents for every one I shot.
He had 52 budded pecan trees, bearing massive amounts of "paper shell" pecans, and he told me that one jaybird would eat a peck (1/4th of a bushel) of pecans a year. Thus the bounty.
My rifle was a hand-me-down Rem Model 24 semi-auto, chambered for 22 Shorts, only.
We had about 8 acres of land, half a mile outside the city limits. A creek meandered through the full length of the property. I would spend hours and hours slowly still hunting.I would stalk to within 20 yards, generally, and seldom missed a shot.
After bagging 8 jaybirds, at 5 cents bounty each, I would break even on the price of a 50 round box of bullets. Then, it was pure profit after that.
Now, in my seventies, I discovered that the open iron sights on the little Rem are off about 2 inches to the left at 25 yards. Maybe my aging eyes are to blame.
