what is the Law with regards to shooting pheasant with an air rifle?

[Dave333]

I have been having a discussion with a few mates,and we just dont know the answer,i know the BASC "guidlines",but i cant find the actual "word of law" anywhere.? thanks

[sitsinhedges]

You can do it legally if you have permission but it's considered bad form.

[Ratinator]

Is pheasant on the vermin list?

[Hsing-ee]

Are they roosting in your satellite dish? Pesky critters!

In the early 80s there was some geezer in AGW who shot pheasants and ducks with an air-rifle but that's the only time I've heard of it.

Nowadays the only people who shoot pheasants with an airgun are poachers, and they like to flout the law according to the film 'Withnail & I'.

Also, you are not allowed to shoot peasants even if you own them and their cottages. Try pigeons, they are tastier than pheasants and are an acceptable airgun species.

[Geoffc]

I wouldn't personally take a Pheasant with a 12ftlb air rifle unless it was a certain clean headshot. They're too big so there's a real danger of wounding.
You have to have landowners permission of course.

[sitsinhedges]

Are they roosting in your satellite dish? Pesky critters!

In the early 80s there was some geezer in AGW who shot pheasants and ducks with an air-rifle but that's the only time I've heard of it.

Nowadays the only people who shoot pheasants with an airgun are poachers, and they like to flout the law according to the film 'Withnail & I'.

Also, you are not allowed to shoot peasants even if you own them and their cottages. Try pigeons, they are tastier than pheasants and are an acceptable airgun species.

Whether you've heard of it or not is irrelevant, the fact is that you can quite legally shoot any game bird with an airgun as long as it is in season and you have the right to do so. It's just the fact that shooting them in flight with a shotgun is considered more sporting and that is why it isn't generally done.

I would shoot one for the pot with an airgun if I needed one without any concern.

[SandyB]

Is pheasant on the vermin list?

In a word no, they're classed as Game, and have closed seasons and cannot be shot on Sundays' BASC extract below:

Sunday and Christmas Day Shooting

England and Wales

No game may be killed or taken in any county on Sunday or Christmas Day. Game for the purposes of this section means pheasant, partridge, red grouse, black grouse and hare.

Orders prohibiting the shooting of wildfowl on Sundays made under sections 2 and 13 of the Protection of Birds Act 1954 still in existence are in the following counties (or parts of counties in existence before the 1974 local authority re-organisation): Anglesey, Brecknock, Caernarvon, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Cornwall, Denbigh, Devon, Doncaster, Glamorgan, Great Yarmouth County Borough, Isle of Ely, Leeds County Borough, Merioneth, Norfolk, Pembroke, Somerset, North and West Ridings of Yorkshire.

[secretagentmole]

Are they roosting in your satellite dish? Pesky critters!

In the early 80s there was some geezer in AGW who shot pheasants and ducks with an air-rifle but that's the only time I've heard of it.

Nowadays the only people who shoot pheasants with an airgun are poachers, and they like to flout the law according to the film 'Withnail & I'.

Also, you are not allowed to shoot peasants even if you own them and their cottages. Try pigeons, they are tastier than pheasants and are an acceptable airgun species.

Bog off, I have shot plenty of pheasants with my air rifle, I have permission to on the land where I have permission to shoot. If the pheasant is on land where you have permission to shoot, you are allowed by the land owner to shoot pheasants, you can shoot pheasants with an air rifle. Simple as. I have always killed humanely via a headshot, the same way I shoot my pigeons. I do not attempt to shoot the birds in flight however as with a .22 or .177 this would be nearly impossible!

[Minuteman]

Bog off, I have shot plenty of pheasants with my air rifle, I have permission to on the land where I have permission to shoot. If the pheasant is on land where you have permission to shoot, you are allowed by the land owner to shoot pheasants, you can shoot pheasants with an air rifle. Simple as. I have always killed humanely via a headshot, the same way I shoot my pigeons. I do not attempt to shoot the birds in flight however as with a .22 or .177 this would be nearly impossible!

Why bother shooting them, half of the dozy buggers you could walk within range and brain them with a stick.

Not considered sporting and, as an aside, it's not the impossibility that should prevent some one armed with an air rifle from taking the shot at a flying anything - it's the cruelty of it, you could not be reasonably confident of a killing shot (very much different with a scatter gun ).

[ChrisH00]

Aye, dumb critters they are - and suicidal also. They hide in the hedge waiting for you to drive past then try to cross just as you reach them. Seems their one objective in life is to bust your headlights. Gun not needed around here.

[nitemax]

I guess it would be like you being struck with a golf ball hit from the tee, it could kill you if it hit you in
the right spot but otherwise it is just gonna bloody hurt a lot.

[shaun the sheep]

I have to laugh at the irony of people who say shooting pheasants in the head with an adequately powered airgun at a sensible range is unethical but that it is acceptable with pigeons.Is the pheasant more deserving of a more noble() fate?
Remember that the pheasant was imported and bred for the purpose of being shot for goodness sake.For every pheasant 'dead in the air' with a shotgun how many hit the ground running with a broken wing or continue flying with several pellets in the rump or gut ?
Now I am not knocking any kind of shooting,since,as a participant,it would be very hypocritical of me but I would suggest that people have a good think before getting on their moral high horse.--Shaun.

[harvey_s]

Its always struck me as odd that the definition of 'sporting' is being "fair and generous in one's behavior or treatment of others"....
However, for the shooting community, taking a single shot gun to a bird on the wing is considered 'un-sporting', but a head-shot through cross-hairs is somehow fair & generous when I can't think of something more predjudicial really.

Not passing any kind of comment other than the paradox of the terminology...

[AdamA]

To date I have found a series three land rover a very very success full projectile. The square front and lack of aero dynamics really helps take them out of the air. The roof rack does a perticually good job too (not so good with high value furniture like items up there mind you). I have no idea of the ftlbs of a 1 1/2 tons of land rover doing 60mph, but its always a quick, even if not very clean kill :-) Normally get about one a month. Mind you I have lost 2 wing mirrors to the buggers!

Honestly with rearguard to the notion its not sporting to maim them in flight with a shotgun so your dogs can then have a chew, well i really don't have much of a answer to that one :-(

[timmytree]

If you are the landowner, or have permission from the landowner then there is nothing to stop you taking pheasants with an air rifle. The perception that it's "unsporting" is ridiculous, it's an introduced bird, bred and reared to be shot so if you are capable of taking one with a headshot and have the rights then go ahead.
Personally I think a headshot with an air rifle is more ethical than using a 12g or similar, I've done it in the past and as a beater years ago I saw far too many wounded runners that I would be finding in the woods for days afterwards and then have to shoot them cleanly, with an air rifle.
As an introduced species pheasants should be treated the same as grey squirrels, or maybe we should treat grey squirrels like pheasants?
Could someone invent a catapult that will launch a squirrel 100 yards or more over the trees?