Pheasants ????

[chrismetallica1]

was reading a thread (licences)
http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread.php?t=69799
Is it legal to shoot Pheasants with an air rifle and a game licence? I was under the impression that you could only shoot rabbits and vermin.

[Gwylan]

You can't.
Gus

[robinghewitt]

There's a list of what you're allowed to shoot and pheasant isn't on it.

OTOH if an insane pheasant came at you with murderous intent I believe you could pop it in self defense

[chrismetallica1]

I wasnt saying you could. I thought that you could only shoot maggies, rabbits and such like. Basically what is listed on the BASC vermin list. It was just confusing reading the other thread. It read as if you bought a game liscence it was ok ????

[alanl]

I wasnt saying you could. I thought that you could only shoot maggies, rabbits and such like. Basically what is listed on the BASC vermin list. It was just confusing reading the other thread. It read as if you bought a game liscence it was ok ????

It is legal to shoot them after 1st October, with a game licence, but it is not advisable to shoot them with an air rifle, as it is unlikely to kill it.
They are big birds, and even a well placed head shot at 30yards may not be enough to kill.
Shotguns only in reality for pheasants.
Alan.

[chrismetallica1]

So i take it if you got a FAC and a rifle like at 707 at 80 foot pounds or a gunpower sss at 90 foot pounds it would be ok on a game lisence

[RemMag]

So i take it if you got a FAC and a rifle like at 707 at 80 foot pounds or a gunpower sss at 90 foot pounds it would be ok on a game lisence

Yes.

However, I don't think that shooting pheasants with a rifle of any kind is particularly sporting. When I was a beater many of them were so reluctant to fly/run away that I could have killed plenty with my stick, had I wanted to.

[Catcher]

It is legal to shoot them after 1st October, with a game licence, but it is not advisable to shoot them with an air rifle, as it is unlikely to kill it.
They are big birds, and even a well placed head shot at 30yards may not be enough to kill.
Shotguns only in reality for pheasants.
Alan.

Absolute nonsense. Do they wear helmets up your way or something?

Head shot = dead pheasant.

[Catcher]

Yes.

However, I don't think that shooting pheasants with a rifle of any kind is particularly sporting.

A fair point on a managed shoot but when an opportunity presents itself in the field/farmyard why not take it?

Never eaten one that didn't require copious amounts of wine to remove the taste with afterwards so usually give them to the old biddys near me, they quite like not having to pick out bits of lead shot from behind their dentures

[chris ballard]

Yes.

However, I don't think that shooting pheasants with a rifle of any kind is particularly sporting. When I was a beater many of them were so reluctant to fly/run away that I could have killed plenty with my stick, had I wanted to.

I guess that depends on whether you are shooting the particularly idiotic creatures thet seem to result from breeding these days, or one of the much more savvy "wild" examples I come across. A world of difference and no easier to shoot than any other quarry...but not a best so we dont bother with em

[max headroom]

with a licence they are legal quarry in season with any weapon except a crossbow.
tracking the boogers in a cornfield is an airgunners dream.
head up, head down.
if you get it right and track it to the right rut you can almost be on aim as it puts its head up.
get it wrong and its gone.
for pheasant i use good old betsie, .22 superstar, you know where the head is coming up, not when.
when it does one good shot in the crop usualy does it. either breaks its kneck
or brains it.
unless one is an armole never ever take body shots.
almost as good as a deer hunt i dare say, all your sences are tested.
you have to listen to it rustling in the corn, keep your eye on where you are treading. and keep up with the booger, they can move a bit.

[jackg]

Last year I was up a wood with them all roosting. Had my FAC Rapid and got 5 one evening. I do not give a stuff about sporting or not given that these birds are bred to be shot, and that it is a commercial venture. Theyt also eat lizards and small snakes so I regard them as pests, plus the fact they are not indigenous. They were introduced from the far East by the Victorians after they had shot most of the native game birds.
If they are flying in the air away from you in alarm its sporting to the blast them with a shottie having been driven to you, but not sporting to shoot with an air rifle. Yeah right.
I don't like cricket either.

[TaffyGun]

.
I don't like cricket either.

HaHaHa... liked that one....

[Born Again]

All the males round here are so preoccupied with fighting each other you could kill them with a broom, several times I've had to stop the car and wait for them to get out of the road.

[GHMikeB]

My wife and I once spent about half an hour to go about a mile down the road which was packed with pheasants sheltering from the terrible weather we were having. The country lanes here in Cornwall have, for the most part, high banks each side and therefore are sheltered. I felt sure that had we opened the car doors they would have been inside!