What's the point of guns? Please don't read if squeamish

[British Red]

I read a while ago how there is no point in airguns. Whilst walking around today I saw this fellah.

(Link shown rather than image ...don't look if sick animals upset you)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3573/3428391673_554382834d_o.jpg

He was huddled down with rain running off him. He was curiously uninterested in me (red legged partridge normally run away with that curious gobbling noise).

"Odd" thought I and wandered closer in that "one step and freeze" way

He couldn't care less

"Very odd" I thought "Sick ?"

No. You can't see in the photo other than the legs if you look close (stood on one leg only). He had been seized by a predator and half the right leg torn away.

Suffering, bleeding and infected (look at the eyes...thats a sick bird).

Trouble was he was near a footpath, on flat land, close to buildings. Just not a place to use a shotgun or rifle.

He was also just well enough not to let me get closer than about three yards (I thought I might be able to solve the problem manually).

Suffice it to say that my beaten old Webley ended his suffering.

Now at my age I take no particular emotion from the situation beyond "rest easy fellah". But as I tucked the gun back in its home I though "what would I have done without it"?

I would not have used a "proper" firearm. Just not safe in that location - no good backstop etc.

I could have called someone ....who? And if I had...would they have turned out for an injured bird (I doubt it)? If they had it would have taken hours of suffering...if it hadn't hopped off somewhere and couldn't be found.

There is a place for most tools in life. Even though I'm not big on air guns - I was glad I had one today I think he was too poor little beggar

Red

 

[rcs]

"rest easy fellah".

Your a good bloke,
There is a place for most tools in life.

regards,
Rob

 

[Wilderbeast]

Good work BR, There's no need for unnecessary pain, it was just going to bleed out anyway, you did the right thing.
Wilderbeast

 

[Matt Weir]

I totally agree. My allotment may well be within 50 meters (I think that's the limit for shotguns these days!?) of a residential area and if I were to sit there blasting rats with a shotgun it'd bring a bit of attention pretty quickly. The air rifle again is the tool for the job.

 

[locum76]

When one of the chickens starts doing that hunched over feeling sorry for itself thing (like your partridge), they get dispatched PDQ. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same to a wild bird with an air rifle too. (i'm scared of shotguns and the like).

just out of interest, did you take the bird home for tea?

 

[British Red]

No - it was in a pretty sorry way and I'm not certain what infections it had picked up so better safe than sorry.

I left it near where the buzzards are nesting

 

[humblebumble]

we get a lot of mixie in the rabbits up here, it's bloody horrible walking down the road in summer and finding a couple of rabbits with puffy eyes and flaky skin huddled together shivering. i even stood on one by accident walking through the long grass by the beach once.

horrible bloody disease, i think it's shameful to propogate it intentionally

i've never been taught how to kill a rabbit humanely though. i had to kill one with a rock when it got mauled by my dog, and i doubt that's the proper way.

should i just twist it's head round? i really hate to kill a living beastie, but it's better than letting them die slowly

i know this ounds like a daft question, but i really don't want to inflict unnecessary suffering on a beastie

 

[Shewie]

Just hold the rabbit by the neck in both hands with your thumbs next to each other, then holding it down by your waist give a sharp tug, breaking the neck instantly. You should hear a crack but not always.

That's the way I was taught but there's probably others.

 

[wicca]

I agree HB it's horrible to see them like that. Quite a few round here lately, it seems to flair up and die away at different times. If you haven't done it before, killing with your hands may not be best for you, especially if it doesn't work quickly and cleanly. I carry a thick Hazel stick, it's not difficult to kill cleanly with one good hard strike below the ears in the neck area. You can usually flick the dead bunny into the undergrowth too with the stick and it's humanely done.

 

[Chinkapin]

You did right, British Red, and if any nervous Nellie says you didn't, then they're so full of it, their eyes are brown!

 

[BorderReiver]

Aye it's horrible to see a moribund animal and not be able to end it's suffering because you can't get close enough.

I just hope that the "all air rifles should be banned, think of the children" brigade don't get that useful tool banned.

 

[Doc]

I do think it odd that teaching children the responsible use of sporting arms is not politically correct, but playing video games involving killing people is seen as perfectly ok.

I am in no doubt that the former is good for them, and the latter is very likely to be harmful.

 

[British Red]

Aye it's horrible to see a moribund animal and not be able to end it's suffering because you can't get close enough.

I just hope that the "all air rifles should be banned, think of the children" brigade don't get that useful tool banned.

Thats it in a nutshell.

I do feel this in lots of ways. On Wayland's "future of Bushcraft" thread I noticed lots of parralels of things being "banned" - from bowhunting (never done it) to fox hunting (never done it) to pistol shooting (done it).

It often surprises me how people are unwilling to defend other peoples rights but expect other people to defend ours.

I think its about time that we learned that we cannot prevent people doing wrong, and trying to remove the equipment to do wrong will not prevent wrong doing. Indeed it only punishes the law abiding and does more harm than good in removing the tool from its correct use.

I struggle to understand how we have come to this point as a society where we go around banning this and that in the expectation of improving life.

I suspect the ultimate conclusion is when we are all forced to live in sterile, air conditioned, hermetically sealed boxes and only interact via video screen.

 

[humblebumble]

thanks again for the advice shewie.

i think they must build up a resistance to it over a couple of generations and then lose it again, so it comes back. seems to be every 3 years up here.

i've been told the golf course does it on purpose, but without any real evidence i'd rather believe it's just "one of those things"

there are an awful lot of rabbits up here. i mind one year their burrows undermined a section of riverbank so much that it just fell into the river.

i think it's mad as well that i can't carry a knife. i can buy a knife and i can use a knife, but if i'm found carrying a knife then i might end up in jail based on whether said copper likes the look of me or not.

mind you, a lot of these are in the nature of "yes, but" laws.

as in

"i see you're carrying a knife and a hatchet"

"yes, but i'm camping"

"well, that's ok then"

they're not all robocops, thankfully

 

[locum76]

Just hold the rabbit by the neck in both hands with your thumbs next to each other, then holding it down by your waist give a sharp tug, breaking the neck instantly. You should hear a crack but not always.

That's the way I was taught but there's probably others.

Careful though, it's possible to pull its head clean off if you over do it or get the wrong angle... (thus spoke the voice of experience... )

 

[clcuckow]

Believe it or not I once found a turkey in a very, very bad way in the road on the way to work. It was obviously a dead bird walking. Blood everywhere, half a wing missing broken leg. it was pittyful and people were just slowing down driving round and and doing nothing for it. I had nothing with me to dispatch it in the normal sence so when it was my turn to pass I hung back a bit then decided it had to be put out of its misery, so took aim, put my foot down and dispatched it with tonne of car.

I felt quite guilt at the time and it was not pretty but I am sure I would have felt worse if I had just let it suffer.

 

[BOD]

Why is it necessary to provide a HSE warning to the sqeamish in the thread title?

Let's not apologise else we'll end up like the BBC with a minder on site when we log on to BCUK

 

[EssexMonk]

Like it or not it many animals are born to provide food for something higher in the food chain, as humans we can make it a relatively quick death unlike that which they often get from other animals. good for you BR

 

[East Coaster]

Of course you did the right thing Red,,,,,but you know that anyway.
I've had to "dispatch" a few sorry rabbits and birds in my time.
Rocks, big sticks and the hoof of my boot have been the order of the day.
All resulted in clean instantaneous death.
Unlike you, I don't have a gun so I would have been unable to help this poor creature from it's misery!

The media has it in for gun sports.
It won't be long before you're looked at like a paedo by joe public for walking along the road with a gun over your shoulder.

 

[humblebumble]

The media has it in for gun sports.
It won't be long before you're looked at like a paedo by joe public for walking along the road with a gun over your shoulder.

naah, i don't think so. people generally respect hunters. nothing the state says or does is going to change that.

anyhow, anyone who's gonna have a go at you for hunting with a gun better make damn sure they're a vegetarian or they're just a hypocrite.

i've never heard of anyone having their house burned down for shooting pheasants