.22 wmr

[tegater 789]

BASC assist shooters all the time because police forces do not adhere to the guidelines and make their own guidelines.

 

What the feo can do is stipulate things like no shooting in a certain area in daytime, or only shooting from an upstairs window (when granting tickets for confined land)

 

10 years on from the initial guidance, the ammendments are now coming out with the first chapter now complete. I certainly think that one of the issues that may get cleared up is the issue with fox.

 

An interesting point from a BASC lawyer that was published about a year ago, was that in the event of whether fox was vermin or not, the courts will always use the dictionary definition of what vermin is, and fox certainly falls into that category. (now from reading a thread from you in 2011, you will probably throw one back saying that some people can be classed as vermin as well if we were to use that definition ) I think that would be rather silly.

 

The other one that you could always fall back on in the right circs is;

 

c; the shooting of animals for the protection of other animals or humans.

 

Again you could probably debate until the cows come home, exactly what that means

[cyclonebri1 8]

The wording in the home office guidance, the document that the police work from, is perfectly clear when it says that there maybe some circumstances that rim fires are suitable for foxes.

No where does it say foxes cannot be shot with rimfires!

It does however say that applying for a rimfire for the purpose of foxes would not be good enough reason to approve the application. Common sense I think we all agree because there are better calibres out there for the job. What that means is that rimfires can be used without fear of prosecution.

Ask yourself this.....does it state on your ticket, that you cannot shoot foxes with a rimfire? Bet it doesn't! Which is probably why, as far as I know, nobody has ever been prosecuted for doing so!

 

You're quite right and I bet there aren't many shooters on here that wouldn't pull the trigger if foxy poked his head up while sat with the .22 waiting for bugsy, on ticket or otherwise

[dadioles 68]

I do agree with you, it is common sense, and as I said earlier I too would use my .22 or .17 to shoot an opportunistic fox but I would not shout about it and accept that there is an outside chance that it could land me in court. It would only take a complaint from one of our more sensitive members of society (bless them all) coupled with a jobsworth anti shooting police person and I could have a lot of grief.... such is life. The more we can do to avoid these possible problems the better and making sure that the wording on our licences is as foolproof as possible and genuinely covers our activities the better chance we have if unlucky enough to bump into these people. For the same reason always get shooting permission in writing, a verbal agreement just is not safe enough.

 

Remember the case of the police woman who confiscated the guns and shotgun licence from a man was shooting into a field from near a road and behaving completely legally. She was in the wrong on all counts but it still took several months to sort out and the shooter was deprived of his guns in the meantime and probably incurred legal costs.

[DKGPestControl 22]

If your ticket states you can use the rifle on foxes with no mention to distance or circumstance then they wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court. They are not going to waste 1,000s of pounds of their budget for a case of this type.

 

IMHO the .22lr should only be used at very close range or for dispatching a trapped fox, although if the bullet is placed right the caliber will kill a fox cleanly. The hmr is the same really, however does drop foxes better than the 22lr.

 

As for people saying the 22 wmr isn't man enough is frankly silly, I have not taken many with my rifle as yet but I have been out with people who use the 22 wmr and seen 8 foxes shot in one night all between -120yards and every one drop dead on the spot. They dropped like being hit with my 58gr Hornady moly vmax 243 rounds.