Waterfowl and rifles?

[Dillakiller870]

I wish they would illegalize rifles on ducks/geese. Totally unrealistic, and especially annoying when the ducks fly away and your partner whips out the plinksington and fires off 500 rounds at a flying duck. Also get rid of pistol and rifles for turkey. However I think rifles for ptarmigan and pheasant will be fine.

Basically agree that waterfowl should be taken off the permitted list for rifles. Probably pheasants as well.
But Turkeys are primarily a ground bird, and mostly only fly when spooked, so the air and water dangers associated with rifle shooting do not exist in most cases.
Here in NZ we have some isolated areas where there are Turkey or Peacock, but they are classified as feral and no legislative controls exist for either that I am aware of.
I lived on a 10 acre block just out of Napier were both would wander across the fields. During late Nov/Dec they are fat from the spring and early summer Fare
and both make excellent table birds for Christmas dinner. But better headshot with a .22 than filled with shotgun pellets.

99% of places in the US outlaw rifles against turkeys. It is too easy to drive down a road, see some turkeys , pull your .223 out and shoot one. I don't think our laws have anything against the safety of rifle vs. turkey, but mostly just to make us use a shotgun so we have to get really close, which is not easy.

[gas56]

99% of places in the US outlaw rifles against turkeys. It is too easy to drive down a road, see some turkeys , pull your .223 out and shoot one. I don't think our laws have anything against the safety of rifle vs. turkey, but mostly just to make us use a shotgun so we have to get really close, which is not easy.

Hunting laws change all the time. The .22 rifle was used for shooting game birds & small game in the early part of the last century, then it became illegal in most states because of the standard safety issues of flat land states where the small projectiles travel for over a mile,.. and I wouldn't doubt that it may be changed back again to be able to use small rifles again someday.
It makes no sense when bureauocracy gets into our hunting laws. In Ohio you may use a straight walled rifle shell like a 45-70 for deer hunting that came into effect in 2016, say what? but deer
hunting has changed a lot in Ohio, and I imagine it's what's going on with a lot of states. It was a shotgun only state. Handguns are also since the 1980's of the use of straight walled shells. So you can go shoot deer during gun season with a .357 mag or bigger specified handgun, a black powder .45 or bigger muzzle loading rifle, A rifle that uses straight walled bullets of .357 mag up to .50 caliber, . A crossbow w/150 draw weight and a longbow w/45 lb draw weight or bigger. But also all deer hunters during the gun season must wear a full upper hunter orange vest or equivalent for safety.
There were always hunters who preferred the shotgun even when the rifles were allowed for birds,.. but the main reason was because there was a choice to use what you wanted then.
The lawmakers always will think they know what is best for us and sometimes it is a good thing. But on the other hand it may not be even a good reason to why they adopt the
change. That is why there is the NRA. Any law an anti-hunter can grab onto they will always try to get rid of it, and if we don't fight back we may have nothing left to fight for as far
as hunting is concerned. I'm willing to support the NRA for my hunting privilege's and for future hunter generations so they won't lose this great outdoor sport we hold so preciously onto
as all the hunters before of us have. It would be a shame just because a safety issue caught us all off guard instead of our implementations that we seriously watch out for them trying to destroy.
Let's keep it all intact so the anti's can't grab an inch of any of it.
Have a good 1.............

[xOEDragonx]

99% of places in the US outlaw rifles against turkeys. It is too easy to drive down a road, see some turkeys , pull your .223 out and shoot one.

Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia (my local states) all allow rifles for turkey hunting (fall season ONLY), and at least two of those states are very particular about hunting regulations so I find it hard to believe the majority, let alone 99% of places, in the continental US outlaw rifles for turkeys. I might look into this for curiosity sake. That said, the second part of your comment has me confused. Yes, seeing turkeys from a road and shooting them with a rifle would be easy but then you could say the same for literally any other game animal. I mean, couldn't I argue that rifles should be illegal for deer because it'd be way too easy to drive down a road, see a deer, pull your rifle out and shoot it? I assume it's more of a safety thing in spring since you can typically call birds in. In fall, that's much more difficult so they allow rifles. If the goal was just to make hunting harder, I'm not sure why rifles would be permitted anywhere, ever, for anything.

Rifles for turkeys are fine as turkeys are typically shot on the ground. Rifles for waterfowl in real life, absolutely not. Shooting in the air with no idea where that bullet will land is asking for trouble. In the game though I do find plinking off flyaway waterfowl to be very fun (although I can't stand people taking pot shots at single flyaways when there are other flocks incoming-- 9/10 times they don't get their bird and they spook literally all the incoming birds when they do finally break trying to get that one, which ruins everyone else's fun). I do not know why they allow it, what their inspiration was or if anyone at EW thinks it is ethical. That said, this is a game and as much as I encourage striving for reality, this really does not bother me. There has to be balance between realism and fun and I guess on this topic my opinion just so happens to lean more towards the side of fun.

[Eraser_SK]

My dog on overwatch. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4131D77F6/

[Eva999]

In British Columbia, it is legal to use centrefire rifles on grouse and ptarmigan. I could legally plug one with my .45-70--300 grains at 2400 fps. Would I? Mmm...no. I'm not a big fan of beak stew.

We are also allowed to use rimfire rifles when hunting turkey, including the .17 HMR and .22 WMR, which makes a lot more sense. But waterfowl? No, not even when it is on the ground or in the water.