On Wed, 11 May 2005 16:12:43 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The message
from JB contains these words:

You do not need a license for an air rifle with an energy of less that
12 ft lbs, which should be adequate to deal with most small vermin.

The rules which might affect you are that you can not use an air rifle
within 15m of a public highway

There is no such law. You can fire a gun from the middle of a public
highway providing you have good reason, and you do not alarm or injure
anyone using it. You may have to have the permission of the controlling
authority too, but I'm not sure about that. (But I can find out
tonight.)

I don't think you're allowed to have a loaded firearm on a public
highway and I think they have to be covered when out in public.
That's why you have to unload a shotgun, not just break it, even to
cross a road.


and any bullet, shot or pellet from a
gun should not fall onto ground which you do not have permission to
shoot over. NB those are from memory so don't rely on that.

The bullet, shot or pellet mustn't cross your boundary unless your
neighbour permits.

In practice the only considerations are normal gun safety guidelines
it is unlikely that anybody will complain if you send an air rifle
pellet from your garden into an otherwise empty field and if you are
shooting away from a road then you probably need not worry about
measuring how close you are. As long as you shoot over open ground or
into a hillside / backstop then you are generally OK.

Practical points are that pigeons can be suprisingly hard to take
down, an air rifle is adequate but on another forum I have read
anecdotal evidence that they can survive even glancing shots from a
shotgun. Other than that then depending on circumstance an air rifle
is in many ways the best solution and has the bonus of providing you
with pigeon and squirrel pie.

The breast feathers of a pigeon can cushion pellets from a shotgun if
they hit face-on. Head-shots are favourite, so 'practice makes pigeon'.

Talking of which does anyone have any suggestions on how best to cook
squirrel - I have the same problem with squirrels causing damage in my
garden!

Skin, gut and joint your squirrel. Put a couple of tablespoons of plain
flour in a big mixing-bowl. Add some sea salt, ground celery seed,
ground black pepper, marjoram or oregano and sage, and mix it in well.

Put carrots, parsnip, swede &c into a casserole and cover with water (or
stock) and bring it to the boil in the oven or in a microwave.

Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and fry a couple of chopped onions in
it, and garlic if you like it. When the onions are cooked, 'seal' the
squirrel flesh by putting it into the hot pan and stirring it about
until all the surface has turned a greyish white. Tip contents of pan
into bowl and mix into the flour.

Put squirrel and onions into casserole and if there is any loose oil and
flour left, take some of the liquor and mix it into a thin paste, and
add to the casserole. Mix it in well, and replace in oven at around 100°
C, or in the microwave on defrost.

Cook for an hour at least, or until meat comes off the bone.

On Wed, 11 May 2005 16:12:43 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The rules which might affect you are that you can not use an air rifle
within 15m of a public highway

There is no such law. You can fire a gun from the middle of a public
highway providing you have good reason, and you do not alarm or injure
anyone using it.

I forgot (or didn't know in the first place) about the "and do not
alarm or injure ..." clause. A quick web hunt showed that subject to
that it is illegal to discharge a firearm from within 50 feet of the
centre of any highway (Highways act 1980, not firearms legislation)

The bullet, shot or pellet mustn't cross your boundary unless your
neighbour permits.

The breast feathers of a pigeon can cushion pellets from a shotgun if
they hit face-on. Head-shots are favourite, so 'practice makes pigeon'.

I stand corrected on the details.

Talking of which does anyone have any suggestions on how best to cook
squirrel - I have the same problem with squirrels causing damage in my
garden!

Skin, gut and joint your squirrel. Put a couple of tablespoons of plain
flour in a big mixing-bowl. Add some sea salt, ground celery seed,
ground black pepper, marjoram or oregano and sage, and mix it in well.

Put carrots, parsnip, swede &c into a casserole and cover with water (or
stock) and bring it to the boil in the oven or in a microwave.

Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and fry a couple of chopped onions in
it, and garlic if you like it. When the onions are cooked, 'seal' the
squirrel flesh by putting it into the hot pan and stirring it about
until all the surface has turned a greyish white. Tip contents of pan
into bowl and mix into the flour.

Put squirrel and onions into casserole and if there is any loose oil and
flour left, take some of the liquor and mix it into a thin paste, and
add to the casserole. Mix it in well, and replace in oven at around 100°
C, or in the microwave on defrost.

Cook for an hour at least, or until meat comes off the bone.

Ta for that ... now where's that casserole dish? ;-)

JB

What actually was the charge recently which put that Headmistress in
prison for 5 months (or however long it was) for using an air rifle in
the street because they were threatening her?

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...

What actually was the charge recently which put that Headmistress in
prison for 5 months (or however long it was) for using an air rifle in
the street because they were threatening her?


It was something along the lines of possession of a firearm with intent to
cause fear of violence. And affray, too.

I think you are the verminous one. How utterly vile. What are the creatures
doing to deserve death? What kind of a world do we live in where we blast
something we don't like into smithereens? You are the keeper of a small part
of this beautiful earth, please treat everything in it with respect.

Clare

"Clive in Kent @hotmail.com" cliverholdenremove wrote in message
...
Hi all, Need to get rid of (permanently!) 2 big, fat, greedy wood pigeons
and a verminous grey squirrel out of my garden. Thinking about buying an
air rifle. Do I need a license for one of these nowadays?

Clive in Kent

"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...

What actually was the charge recently which put that Headmistress in
prison for 5 months (or however long it was) for using an air rifle in
the street because they were threatening her?


It was something along the lines of possession of a firearm with intent to
cause fear of violence. And affray, too.

Is an air rifle classified as a firearm?

Steve

On Wed, 11 May 2005 21:00:42 +0000 (UTC), "batgirl"
wrote:

I think you are the verminous one. How utterly vile. What are the creatures
doing to deserve death? What kind of a world do we live in where we blast
something we don't like into smithereens? You are the keeper of a small part
of this beautiful earth, please treat everything in it with respect.

Everything? Does that include every plant and every slug?

JB

This land in which we live did not become the way it is by treating
everything in it with respect. If we left every living thing to its own
devices we'd be living in a forest and you, dear batgirl, would have
nowhere to live.

Ben
(on a top posting mission)

"batgirl" wrote in message
...
I think you are the verminous one. How utterly vile. What are the creatures
doing to deserve death? What kind of a world do we live in where we blast
something we don't like into smithereens? You are the keeper of a small
part of this beautiful earth, please treat everything in it with respect.

Clare

"Clive in Kent @hotmail.com" cliverholdenremove wrote in message
...
Hi all, Need to get rid of (permanently!) 2 big, fat, greedy wood pigeons
and a verminous grey squirrel out of my garden. Thinking about buying an
air rifle. Do I need a license for one of these nowadays?

Clive in Kent

"
"Clive in Kent wrote
Hi all, Need to get rid of (permanently!) 2 big, fat, greedy wood pigeons
and a verminous grey squirrel out of my garden. Thinking about buying an
air rifle. Do I need a license for one of these nowadays?

Clare replied
I think you are the verminous one. How utterly vile. What are the
creatures doing to deserve death? What kind of a world do we live in
where we blast something we don't like into smithereens? You are the
keeper of a small part of this beautiful earth, please treat everything in
it with respect.


He will probably have the greatest respect as he pulls the trigger. Like the
almost reverential respect, even love, shown by carp fisherman to the fish
they catch.
Personally I don't see the need to shoot the Wood Pigeons nesting in one of
our Cordylines or the Grey squirrels that occasionally infest our Bird Table
yet our next door neighbour catches them in traps. Some people go mad about
other peoples cats in their gardens which again doesn't bother me one bit,
Sue even feeds them (as I have just done to the local Hedgehog)!

Perhaps if Clive would explain why he dislikes these creature in his garden,
to those of us that find his desired actions strange and "over the top", we
could understand where he is coming from.

O.T. A steam train has just gone past, lovely hissing/clanking sound, the
glow of the firebox..... amazing, wonderful, nostalgic.
I suppose some people would complain about that too.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

Ben Clay wrote:
This land in which we live did not become the way it is by treating
everything in it with respect. If we left every living thing to its
own devices we'd be living in a forest and you, dear batgirl,
would
have nowhere to live.

Ben
(on a top posting mission)

[...]

..posting-top love just I

..distinctions making of capable are us of some but ,thread this for
hope little There's .preservation total meant "respect" said Nobody

..argument of level juvenile this with time our waste Don't

(.posterese-top perfect into this all translate couldn't I Sorry)

--
..ekiM.

In article ,
(Clive in Kent) wrote:

Need to get rid of (permanently!) 2 big, fat, greedy wood pigeons
and a verminous grey squirrel out of my garden.

AIUI and IANAL killing the squirrel is legal (subject to restrictions on
gun usage this thread)

The pigeons are another matter being wild birds. ISTR that they have to
be a public health hazard and you have to drive the bureaucracy
correctly.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:
The message
from JB contains these words:

You do not need a license for an air rifle with an energy of less
that 12 ft lbs, which should be adequate to deal with most small
vermin.

The rules which might affect you are that you can not use an air
rifle within 15m of a public highway

There is no such law. You can fire a gun from the middle of a
public
highway providing you have good reason, and you do not alarm or
injure
anyone using it. You may have to have the permission of the
controlling authority too, but I'm not sure about that. (But I can
find out tonight.)
[...]

I'm not at all sure about this. There certainly did use to a be a
rule about not discharging a firearm within n (40? 60?) feet of a
public highway. I have a faint suspicion that it may even have been
printed on the back of my old from-the-Post-Office gun licence.

Nope. You may not discharge a firearm within a certain distance
(whatever it is now) of the centre of a public highway if it could
injure or alarm a user of said highway.

If there is no-one using it at an alarming distance, you could discharge
a cannon if you felt so inclined. (And held the necessary licences.)

If you look at fields as you pass, you may see 'pegs' left by keepers
which are well within the stated distance. Keepers, I need hardly add,
can't afford to have any firearms convictions hanging round their necks.

Anyhow, all this talk is utterly absurd. No inexperienced shot should
go to the hassle and expense of buying and learning to use an air
rifle to kill two pigeons and a squirrel. You either live with them,
taking the usual precautions, or ask a regular shooter to deal with
them.

Quite so. However, I think the mooted acquisition was put by the OP? And
if he is going to get one, he really ought to get instruction in safe
shooting and care of gun - it isn't as straightforward as it might
appear, even to the averagely sensible person.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Jupiter contains these words:

Assuming he meant The Netherlands and not East Anglia?

Is Lincolnshire (Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland) in East Anglia?

Dunno, but there's a Holland in Essex, between Clacton and Frinton.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "shazzbat" contains these words:

It was something along the lines of possession of a firearm with intent to
cause fear of violence. And affray, too.

Is an air rifle classified as a firearm?

Not in my book, but the police class it as a firearm, and record every
minor transgression with an airgun and add them to their firearms
offences file, to add credibility to their demands for more and more gun
restrictions.

I understand (at least in some forces) that this includes reports of
someone who might be carrying a gun (or a chairleg?), and any incident
where armed officers are deployed.

I call it fraud.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from (Steve Harris) contains these words:
In article ,
(Clive in Kent) wrote:

Need to get rid of (permanently!) 2 big, fat, greedy wood pigeons
and a verminous grey squirrel out of my garden.

AIUI and IANAL killing the squirrel is legal (subject to restrictions on
gun usage this thread)

The pigeons are another matter being wild birds. ISTR that they have to
be a public health hazard and you have to drive the bureaucracy
correctly.

I believe you are correct - you have to be able to show that you've
tried to discourage them until you're at your wit's end, now you come to
mention it.

The local Head Keeper was commenting on this quite recently.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/