Shooting Ducks

Bertie Dastard

Well-Known Member
I have been asked to thin out a population of Tufties on a fishing lake.
As they never come within 12 bore range, is it ok to use a rifle as I do for the Canada Geese??
 
I have been asked to thin out a population of Tufties on a fishing lake.
As they never come within 12 bore range, is it ok to use a rifle as I do for the Canada Geese??

I would have thought whoever 'asked you' should apply for a licence on your behalf including a risk assessment.
If it is granted then it will be legal within the terms of the licence and risks like the Canada Geese you shoot...
 
I was asking whether it was legal....Not if there was a suitable backstop !!!

Legal or not, I'd think any police force hearing of you firing over water would have your licence revoked immediately. On the plus side it's obviously good reason to get a colossal punt gun.
Another of those situations where it's pretty unreasonable that we can't possess light mortars - which would also be ideal for corvids.
 
There is nothing in the legislation to say you cannot shoot wildfowl with a rifle - its not particularly sporting mind. I would question why you want to get rid of lots of tufties as they are not a fish eater like a goosander or other sawbills. They are on the quarry list, but not particularly good eating.

A friend who is a wildlife manager has had a big problem with feral and semi tame mallard and has culled a lot with a 17 HMR - head shots so that they can then be fed to falcons that he also breeds.

Personally, I would try some decoys and decoy them - tufties like to flock and should decoy well within range of a shotgun. Two or three sessions and they will soon get the idea and disappear.
 
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To which license do you refer?

I shoot Canadas under the general license terms.

Tufted Ducks can be shot in the appropriate season..(with a shotgun).
The only thing I can find relates to the magazine capacity of the gun. Not the type of gun.
 
There is nothing in the legislation to say you cannot shoot wildfowl with a rifle - its not particularly sporting mind. I would question why you want to get rid of lots of tufties as they are not a fish eater like a goosander or other sawbills. They are on the quarry list, but not particularly good eating.

A friend who is a wildlife manager has had a big problem with feral and semi tame mallard and has culled a lot with a 17 HMR - head shots so that they can then be fed to falcons that he also breeds.

Personally, I would try some decoys and decoy them - tufties like to flock and should decoy well within range of a shotgun. Two or three sessions and they will soon get the idea and disappear.

The problem is them diving on Anglers baits and becoming hooked which causes mayhem.
As they are paying 500 quid a year for the privilege to fish and bait is £6 per kilo they get pi$$ed off, as we bailiffs do when retrieving snagged lines.
With no predators they have bred out of control and increase each year
I have to disagree about the culinary properties of them. The breasts are delicious pan fried !!
 
lead bullets are fine only lead shot is banned. could you drive them towards a bank or bay with a couple of boats to make them fly over waiting guns with a gun in the boat aswell you should kill a few fairly quick
 
There is a bay about 3 acres at one end of lake with a 15 foot drop to the water. This has a soil Berm behind it about 20 feet high from when the pit was dug.
Anglers fish to this margin from about 120 yards away. so a baited area where they feel safe.
A rifle would pick them off from behind cover.
 
I do quite a lot of wild fowling on a big expanse of water, (22 miles long 1mile wide), tufted are one of the min species of ducks we shoot when the water gets over 6 feet deep, and can provide good sport. We set up in the dark for a morning flight, we always shoot more on a morning flight that an evening, put out decoys like you would pigeons, we use tufted and pochard decoys, but they will decoy to anything, as long as they have clear water in front of them when they land in case they need to take off, they can provide good sport. One thing I would say is if you do decoy them and one comes down which you think is winged, a double tap is in order, they are not as bad as pochard but buggers if your chasing them round in a boat trying to stop a cripple.
 
Bugger that rifle idea just invite us down one day. We can line the lake out send the dogs in and unleash semi auto non toxic hell on them and you could drop an absolute shed load in minutes rather than just one off plinking then as its such a shock to the system its unlikely to make them go weird by camping out in the bushes. Simples you just need about 10 guns now ;)
 
Tufted ducks are AFAIK in season now...from 1st September. As Ogri syas shoot them from a boat. They'll not associate it with danger and should be easily approached.

Note as Bertie Dastard says the magazine capacity issue that applies to BOTH self-loading shot guns and self-loading rifles. So if you use a Ruger 10-22; BSA Ralock; Etc., you must have the magazine pinned to no more than two shots holding capacity.

However reality is if you kill them you are simply creating a vacant territory for some other wildfowl and better "tufties" than cormorants!

Now...a boated "duck drive" is something I've never done but be clear it WAS done and it'd be fun ('tho expensive with non-toxic shot) to re-visit what once was not uncommon even if infrequent.
 
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Steel shot is not that dear and is almost as cheap as lead now, if ur gun can handle them.

When there in season u can pretty much shoot them however u want (any safety aspect is up to urself as with any shooting).

Might even be possible to trap them, some old school commercisal fowlers would use large traps/nets, feed them inside some pen sections every day and 1 time shut the gate on them.
 
Steel shot is not that dear and is almost as cheap as lead now, if ur gun can handle them.

When there in season u can pretty much shoot them however u want (any safety aspect is up to urself as with any shooting).

Might even be possible to trap them, some old school commercisal fowlers would use large traps/nets, feed them inside some pen sections every day and 1 time shut the gate on them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_decoy_(structure)
 
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