.22 RF FOR DEER "the perfect calibre" So The Police Say

Porpoises have no protection. Its tortoises you're thinking of...

Quite right, my mistake, I guess I was really thinking of Dolphins... sorree.

For Dolphin lovers everywhere:

The girl on the packet looked like a very nautilass to me though. :D
 
All to often we knock the police for being to draconian and for over cautious conditions.

When the police do simplify conditions we, unjustifiably in my opinion, criticise them.

For very many years prior tho the AOLQ condition, my certificate has stated "The firearms shall be used for shooting vermin, ground game, fox and deer."

However, I am not stupid enough to think that it authorises me to use my .22rf to shoot deer. I just presumed it was a simple no nonsense condition.
 
I don't understand why they felt the need to go out of their way to add a comment on the FAC that it was the 'perfect calibre'....
:)
 
I have used a .22LR to humanely dispatch a roe that was thoroughly tangled in a fence. He had enough neck movement to be a risk to get close to, so was dispatched from about 20 feet. If I got any closer he started to thrash around making the shot impossible. He went down instantly with a good head shot, and certainly didn't get up again. If I'd had the 12 bore with me I would have used that, but the .22 was all I had, and it did the job admirably.

Of course, that's not stalking. I could place my shot precisely and the range was very short. Near on 100 ft.lb of energy is more than enough to kill anything in the UK with a good head shot!
 
It depends on the person shooting more than the calibre, I have seen more wounded animals with a .300 than I have with a .22
 
I should think in yrs gone by there were as many shot with a 22rf as larger rifles especially in the lowland forests
 
Shot quite a few Roe with .22RF when I was a youngster, it was the only rifle that I had unlimited access to and it was of course legal at that time.

While I would not recommend it as a suitable weapon for deer, it was preferable to the other method that was employed at that time, driving them to shotguns, seen many Roe wounded by shotguns usually due to lack of experience and shooting at deer at too great a range, to be sure of a kill with a shotgun shots should be limited to maximum of 15 yards.

As a young keeper in the 1960s the young plantations were driven these shoots took place after the game season
was finished, estate workers, tenant farmers, and any locals who had a shotgun were invited hence my comment
lack of experience, a shotgun can be effective on deer but only in the right hands, and at very short range.

Glad these days have gone and Roe are no longer treated as vermin.
 
The HO guidance states that additional conditions on certificate must be a number of things.

The very first of these is "lawful" meaning that (quoting from a HO email cited on the BASC website) [the condition] Must not permit or incite someone to do something which is illegal e.g. to shoot deer with a rifle which does not satisfy the ballistic minima of the Deer Act.

So there we have it, the condition is illegal and must be removed.
 
We all make mistakes as in this typing error. I was very surprised a few years back, I read my renewal stating I could use my 308 revolver for OALQ. I had to laugh and this was quickly amended. I doubt it will be the last mistake but like us they are only human.
 
I know this is an old thread but to add my example; my request for .45 rifle (a Marlin in .45Colt) came back as 45mm Rifle.

I phoned them to report the mistake and was asked "what's the difference?"

I suggested they look at a ruler or google "45mm Rifle". I explained that I would be quite happy to have a 45mm gun but that I didn't have a towbar to get it around.

It was sorted out sameday.
 
Back
Top