GardenBanter.co.uk - Air rifles

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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

On Wed, 11 May 2005 11:04:50 +0000 (UTC), "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?

Clive in Kent

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 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.

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.

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!

JB

Do I need a license for one of these nowadays?

Not yet but a review of the laws is due by July. The outcome could be a
total ban, but that seems very unlikely. More likely, I think, is a
licensing system probably less strenous than the current system for
firearms.

Henry

Clive in Kent wrote:
Do I need a license for one of these nowadays?

Maybe. You need to provide more information.

JB wrote:

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!

treat like rabbit, but with much tougher skin!

"JB" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 May 2005 11:04:50 +0000 (UTC), "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?

Clive in Kent

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 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.

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.

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 'em and treat 'em like rabbits....same as for cats as well...you may
not think that funny but you 'old timers' out there know that in WW2 cats
were fair game for ration starved folk.....incidentally, both taste very
good'''HW
JB

Skin 'em and treat 'em like rabbits....same as for cats as well...you may
not think that funny but you 'old timers' out there know that in WW2 cats
were fair game for ration starved folk.....incidentally, both taste very
good'

I have been advocating this and the owners of the newsgroup think me
disgusting. I was told it by someone in occupied Holland.

Mike

In article ,
"Mike" writes:
|
| Skin 'em and treat 'em like rabbits....same as for cats as well...you may
| not think that funny but you 'old timers' out there know that in WW2 cats
| were fair game for ration starved folk.....incidentally, both taste very
| good'
|
| I have been advocating this and the owners of the newsgroup think me
| disgusting. I was told it by someone in occupied Holland.

That's two factual errors in one sentence.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"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?
Not yet. Aim for the head, I borrow a neighbours old .22 air rifle.

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.)

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.

--
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 "Harold Walker" contains these words:

Skin 'em and treat 'em like rabbits....same as for cats as well...you may
not think that funny but you 'old timers' out there know that in WW2 cats
were fair game for ration starved folk.....incidentally, both taste very
good'''HW

We always suspected that was what happend to my cat Rufus - I must have
been about six at the time, and I spent days looking in the fields and
woods about my house.

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

"Jaques d'Alltrades" wrote in message
k...
The message
from "Harold Walker" contains these words:

Skin 'em and treat 'em like rabbits....same as for cats as well...you may
not think that funny but you 'old timers' out there know that in WW2 cats
were fair game for ration starved folk.....incidentally, both taste very
good'''HW

We always suspected that was what happend to my cat Rufus - I must have
been about six at the time, and I spent days looking in the fields and
woods about my house.

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

And.........I was "off Age" at that time and Winnie called me....yup, am
what some consider me to be 'an old geezer'..HW

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.

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.

--
Mike.