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AirGunEric · Site Admin

Seems different people have different views of what constitute "hunting" as it applies to airguns.

Apparently most (all?) of us would agree the shooting of 200lb wild boards with a .177 caliber airgun isn't "hunting" and is more inhumane treatment of an animal (thank-you Gamo for underlining this to the world)- but what is/should/do people consider proper "hunting" especially as it applies to airguns?

fritz · Silver Status Member

My definition of hunting involves leaving the house. Sorry Roger.

Any activity with a gun with intentions of killing a creature for sport, food, or recreation, Hunting takes place outdoors generally in the wilderness. In circumstances, hunting may be expanded to pest control.

Now Roger, if you went out and hid in your bushes, then it would be hunting.

Crosman140 · Senior Member

Well, to hunt is to search for or to seek.

So, if you sit around your living room hunting for loose change in the sofa or roam out into the forest hunting for quarry, I think you are defining "hunt." Smile

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

The word hunting can mean many things. But I think it is a little more than just killing an animal. My girlfriend ran over a cat not long ago, but she wasn't cat hunting.

I think hunting involves stalking prey and killing it. So the real question is what constitutes stalking?

Walking out into a field and shotgunning birds that fly away from you is not really "stalking" by any stretch of the imagination, but that is still considered hunting. So I'd say that just placing yourself into a situation where your intent is to kill prey, then you are stalking it, and are a hunter.

Airgun hunting from a bedroom window isn't glamorous. It is what it is though.

sniper · Silver Status Member

.

i kill rodents from my kitchen window and no where else. i consider it hunting because it is a challenge in low light. never with a scope.

i have no problem with pest control nor do i believe in killing and animal just because i can.

Jaxom · Senior Member

From the other thread

"Why would that make me feel better shoot all the birds and squirrels you want just kill them when you shoot them ........................"

So, that would mean that all those hunting shows, where the deer/turkey/coyote/bear ect that don't drop dead instantly after being shot by a rifle/handgun/bow aren't really hunting then. Because only hunters would drop the game animal in it's tracks. hhhmmmm

Honestly, I don't see any difference with me sitting by my attic window or if I was up in a tree stand. Only instead of shooting a deer, I'm waiting on a pigeon or squirrel. Still takes the same skill set, most of which is patience.

lauchlin · Supporting Member

yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

Let's see... Sitting in a lawn chair on my porch with a camo sand bag on the rail, "sniper" on top of that... having a smoke... something moves and catches my eye... Pop and it's done... Comfortable Hunting in my book... One less bird turd on my lawn furniture...

The cans don't even have to move to deserve a pellet through them.... Mr. Green

kanyon · Silver Status Member

Hunting for me is wandering around the hills...Blasting every bunny that gets with in range..take 2/3 for the pot...leave the rest for the hawks to feast on...and for ever 6 I drop the land can run 1 more sheep.....
WOW I must be one of those greenie prats Shocked

Nar greenie's are OK if they don't have two much power.

dummyracer36 · Senior Member

i'd say hunting is the killing of an animal with the intention to use part or all of it, be it food skins ect. i dont see that doing so from a window makes any difference.

pest control is killing a nuisance animal with no intention to use any part of it.

as far as Roger dispatching the bird with the butt of his phone, well i doubt he walked into an intersection carrying his gun, he used what he had at hand, that by no means lessens hunt/kill.

personally i'd like to hear what lauchlin's definition of hunting is.

Buster Bodine · Veteran Member

I've got to go with DR here. If you're shooting food, you're hunting. I don't think it matters whether I'm shooting from my lawnchair or deep in the mountains. If you're putting wild meat on the table, it's hunting.

If you're shooting nuisance animals you wouldn't normally eat (like say, uhm, rats?) it's pest control.

Gotta say I'm not real fond of the idea of shooting birds just for the sake of shooting birds. I've been known to pop the occasional Bluejay trying to rob a nest away from it's original builder. It just offends my sense of fairplay to let them get away with it. I've also been quite tempted to start blasting into the trees indiscriminately with my 12ga to shut up that damned obnoxious whipoorwill but I haven't actually "snapped" and done it yet. There's also a certain woodpecker who's tearing hell out of my favorite maple tree. I like woodpeckers but I like my maple more. Things might end badly for ol' "Woody" if he doesn't move along soon.

If you're shooting rabbits and squirrels and leaving them to rot instead of eating them, I'm generally going to have a problem with that. Exception of course, being folks like Kanyon who are dealing with a true overabundance where there aren't enough natural predators to deal with the problem. Even then I'd like to ask if there isn't some local soup kitchen or similar that would be glad to have the meat. Letting good meat rot while there are folks going hungry just doesn't seem right.

yourdaddyjoe · Supporting Member

Hey Buster,

Jays are fair game on my property. Those little nest stealing squawkers... The woodys... Technically... they are a protected species... So I can't shoot the redheaded bastards... now matter how much damage they do to my house...

My hawks... are never fair game... Those are my hunting buddies... I have seen several times them with snakes or rats in their talons... GO HAWKS!

A dead limb rat... is a good limb rat.

Crosman140 · Senior Member

As far as shooting from a window...

If you live in the woods, you shoot from a tree.

If you live in a house, you shoot from a window.

I've hunted, shot (whatever you want to call it) from what my environment offered.

As far as what a person uses to kill quarry with...

I really don't see much difference between shooting a gun, throwing a spear or throwing a phone IF your end result is a clean kill.

oddtodd · Silver Status Member

How ever you define it, pest control and hunting is using the same skill set. I look at it like this: Pest control is removing an animal from the environment to minimize damage caused by that particular animal. Hunting is killing an animal for your own use such as hides and/ or meat. Purely semantics on my part and on some animals such as deer you are doing both. Either way I am perofrming a function in my environment. By killing non-native animals such as starlings ( which I hardly do anymore due to reducing the population very steeply in my area) I am allowing the native birds such as robins and cardinals better living conditions.

Either way you want to break it down, you are still using the same skill set.

lauchlin · Supporting Member