Hunting with big bore air rifle, legal or illegal?

[browningboy]

800 lbs of energy isn’t that much especially out of an air rifle, that’s probably measured at the muzzle and quickly looses it energy afterwards, might give a deer a bee sting at 60 yards

[KodiakHntr]

The regs list what methods are legal to hunt with for each game species (or category of game). By extension, if it's not listed, it's not a legal hunting method.

No, the synopsis gives examples of what is legal to hunt with, and list specific things that are ILLEGAL to hunt with, ie big game with a rimfire.

The way the Wildlife Act works, if it is not specifically listed as illegal to hunt with, it is legal. An example would be spears. Spears are not specifically listed as illegal to hunt with (yet), so by extension they are legal
to hunt with. That is how the legislation works. The list of things that are illegal to use is a much shorter list than trying to put down everything that is legal.

[KodiakHntr]

800 lbs of energy isn’t that much especially out of an air rifle, that’s probably measured at the muzzle and quickly looses it energy afterwards, might give a deer a bee sting at 60 yards

Careful....

A 265gr pellet at 1000fps or 405gr pellet at 750fps will be close to the ballistics of many common pistol cartridges. There is likely thousands of deer killed every year in the US with those cartridges. Not to mention the dangerous game that has been killed around the world over the years. Just because a projectile uses powder instead of compressed air for propulsion doesn’t make it any more lethal on the receiving end.

One thing is absolutely certain, a 265gr chunk of soft lead traveling at 800+fps is definitely not going to bounce off a deer at 60 yards. A .457 caliber hole bored through a deers lungs is going to result in a dead deer in very short order.

[E.B.]

800 lbs of energy isn’t that much especially out of an air rifle, that’s probably measured at the muzzle and quickly looses it energy afterwards, might give a deer a bee sting at 60 yards

800 fp of energy out of an airgun is the same as 800 fp out of a regular firearm. A 410 slug has about that much and they will shoot through a deer where they are allowed for hunting, so what are you talking about?

[Walking Buffalo]

Fair enough point that the synopsis isn't the full regs. That's literally what the word synopsis means, heh.

A definition of shot exists on page 5 of the synopsis, however, which I suspect would be the accepted definition, if it ever came up in BC court.

So, two to seven projectiles in one cartridge is not "Shot"....
Neither is a single projectile.

What is the Canadian or BC legal definition of a "Shotgun"?

Is a shotgun only a shotgun when using "shot"?

[Ltbullken]

Definition of firearm from the Synopsis (pg. 3)...

Firearm - includes a device that propels a projectile by means of an explosion, compressed gas or spring and includes a rifle, shotgun, handgun, pellet gun, "BB" gun or spring gun but does not include a bow.

[browningboy]

Careful....

A 265gr pellet at 1000fps or 405gr pellet at 750fps will be close to the ballistics of many common pistol cartridges. There is likely thousands of deer killed every year in the US with those cartridges. Not to mention the dangerous game that has been killed around the world over the years. Just because a projectile uses powder instead of compressed air for propulsion doesn’t make it any more lethal on the receiving end.

One thing is absolutely certain, a 265gr chunk of soft lead traveling at 800+fps is definitely not going to bounce off a deer at 60 yards. A .457 caliber hole bored through a deers lungs is going to result in a dead deer in very short order.

Just saying if that's the muzzle velocity only, at 60 yards it diminish greatly and be a bee sting to a deer. I have a 1200 ft per second 22 air pistol and on a longer shot I can see the dro, in which equates to velocity loss which equals less impact. It's really just physics.

[browningboy]

800 fp of energy out of an airgun is the same as 800 fp out of a regular firearm. A 410 slug has about that much and they will shoot through a deer where they are allowed for hunting, so what are you talking about?

Are you saying that the measured velocity at the muzzle wouldn't diminish at 60 yards on an air gun? The muzzle velocity would damage a deer but at 60 yards I have my reservations.

[Yuritau]

Are you saying that the measured velocity at the muzzle wouldn't diminish at 60 yards on an air gun? The muzzle velocity would damage a deer but at 60 yards I have my reservations.

I think he's saying a foot pound is a foot pound, no matter what flavor of propellent created it. Whether you consider it an enthical kill or not, people have killed deer with a lot less than 800 foot pounds before.

[Gateholio]

There are all sorts of air rifles out there....