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broommaster2000 · Moderator

I'd like to open something about this. It's not illegal in the states, and I noticed that somewhere on the internet, airgun hunters were shooting animals. Okay, so they are vermin and need to be gotten rid of, sometimes.

What I see, and read, is that most of these critters have to take a few shots before going down. And that's a bit sad, I think. An animal is a living thing too, right?

A real hunter needs one shot, and has a powerfull gun. These house, town and garden hunters aren't really hunters, right? You must really feel mighty to make a little animal suffer his last minutes.

If you need something to die because it's chewing on your cars wiring or something (I don't see why killing is a good solution, but whatever) why don't you at least do it with dignity and shoot it with a powerfull gun... I'm not against hunting, but I am against making animals suffer.

If you are going to kill an animal do it quick, without hassle. If you have a low powered airgun, don't try it. Buy something with power and make sure it's dead in an instant. I saw some people with their hunting stories " it took 4 bullets before it went down" and then a picture of a squirrel with next to it the air-rifle. A cheap pump-gun.

People who make other living things suffer must be really having a hard time with themselves.

Hunters? Bleh. Cheap thrills.

leadman · Veteran Member

i do alot of airgun hunting i use a airgun of sufficient power to cleanly take my quary

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Honestly- I haven't seen too many forums/posts where discussing "kills" involves more than one or two shots. Why? Most everyone seems to know that taking more than one shot- or possibly two if someone's aim is off due to wind or other factors- is the only "humane" way of doing it.

If there's been a bunch of posts around recently about "hunters" taking more than a single shot (or two) to bring down some critter- they a) are idiots and/or b) don't understand that virtually no one else wants to know about their poor hunting skills or propensity to be cruel.

I can certainly see how people want to rid themselves/their property of vermin and have no problem with people shooting them- if done properly. Funny enough- I managed to eliminate almost all "varmint" type creatures from my own property by setting traps (mice), removing the reason they were coming around (shelter spots for porcupines), or mistakenly running them over with a riding lawnmower (out-of-their-element water snakes and frogs). Thus far- I actually haven't had opportunity to need to shoot any creatures around here- although I did pull out a sub-400fps airgun with wadcutters in it a couple of times to try to scare off a raccoon at 30ft that was bent upon trying to get into my garbage on more than one occasion- but it always managed to run away before I got back in the house to retrieve the lower-powered gun.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Well, that's a bit of a relief. Still, it means that a lot of people out there aren't really doing a good job hunting. Neutral

Glad I'm not the only one with this opinion on hunting. Wink

leadman · Veteran Member

definetly not and i do keep a redrider in my garage in a locked cabinet for scaring pests

23ib0d0n · Moderator

However the only thing I've shot in the last four years have been birds in the act of predation and one rather ill squirrel. We'll see how the next season goes . . . Huh?

AirGunEric · Site Admin

"One rather ill squirrel"

How do you tell a squirrel is ill? Does it bend over hacking up a lung?

I think this one might be sick- but I'm no squirrel expert:

DelfinJager · New Member

I just got out of the military and I am staying with my parents til I get a job and a good cash flow going. They wanted me to remove some "pests" from the yard with my old Beeman R7. The R7 is a rock solid plinking gun as many here probably know but doesn't have enough whack for the larger pests. I got my R1 out of the attic yesterday in .20 sighted it in last night. Now I use the R1 for shots in the trees and a Bow (that could put an arrow through a grizzly) for the animals on the ground. This morning I shot one of the tree rats as he ate our cherries. The Pellet hit him in the left side went through both lungs and heart and stopped in the right shoulder he ran 30 feet and was dead in the time it took me to walk 20 yards. Being a hunter not an exterminator he is now field dressed in the fridge soaking with hickory smoke red wine garlic and smoked chipolte sauce. He will be celebrated with green beans from the garden cherries from the cherry tree he was in a glass of merlot and a nice salad. He's going to be my lunch.
As for the animal suffering that is how 95% of hunting is done on larger game. Go on Youtube most of the animals do not drop the second they are hit and many run a good distance. The hunter then waits and walks up on the dead animal. Yes it was 1 shot and that shot destroyed both lungs but the animal ran 70 yards and took 2 minutes to be dead. The reason he wasn't shot again? The hunter could no longer see him. With an airgun it is different. Shots are much closer. The hit may be a good solid hit. Fatal in minutes like the bigger game hunters. He can still see what he has shot and it is now dying and flopping about. A second shot is fired to put the animal down quickly and humanly as the exterminator moves closer. A third and forth shot is fired. Unless you hit high in the Cental Nevous System (brain or brain stem) the animal is going to move. A lot. This is a difficult area to target because it is well protected by bone and moves a lot. As for using a low powered gun...Some people don't know any better. How many people who own Airguns guns really know the true muzzle velocity pellet weight and real accuracy of their guns? Only true die hard airgunners care about that. People who don't aren't being cruel intentionally and it's not like they are passing over there huge collections of powerful airguns thinking "Screw the twenty five caliber Crowmagnum II, I am getting my weak assed crossman! Bunny has to suffer!" They are eliminating a pest. Traps, posions, getting a cat all don't involve shooting an animal but I would not call them quick or painless some of those things take hours to kill! Ever see what happens when a dog gets into rat poison? It's horrible death of a loved animal. As for removing what is making them come that is not always possible especially if you have a garden. You are right these people are not hunters even if they call themselves hunters. They are exterminators. From some views what they are doing can be viewed as cruel. I think they are being humane as possible by firing more than once. That is just my humble opinion though.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I see what you're saying DelfinJager- especially in respect to an average person not knowing the real muzzle energy of their airgun. Of course- if they try to shoot a couple of critters, hit them in the correct location (i.e. neck/upper back area) and they just don't die but only bleed a bit- hopefully this would be a clue their gun is not what they thought it was!

Also- I think the idea behind people shooting more than once wasn't oriented at bringing down larger targets- it was that the shooter's hunting "skills" aren't terribly high so they need to shoot an animal a number of times to get the kill- i.e. they hit the wrong part(s) so frequently, it takes them multiple shots to either have the animal bleed out and/or finally hit a part of the central nervous system.