Prove Me Wrong! Big Bore Airguns are DESTROYING the Sport of Airgunning?

[lbc_PSI]

I live in the hellhole known as California and as far as I'm concerned, it's just a matter of time before our state legislators start us down the path of airgun registration and regulation. Whether small bore or large bore, all it'll take will be one incident of mishandling or misuse and we'll be filling out as much paperwork for airguns as we now do for firearms. Don't think it won't happen - it will.

Phillip is absolutely correct..unfortunately. CA has a law going into effect this year..pretty much states that no ammunition used for hunting with "firearms" may contain lead. Yes..I realize airguns are NOT firearms. That said, how long til the anti-hunters lobby to change the existing law? Probably about as long as it takes them to realize airguns can kill deer..or maybe until a CA condor is found with lead airgun pellets or slugs in its gut from eating a dead squirrel. Think it's crazy that lead airgun ammo could be banned in CA? LOL. It is CA we're talking about. CA is always on the cutting edge of legislative stupidity and passing asinine laws..especially ones related to weapons and hunting.

 

[ArmedLeftist]

Attention Airgunners: Prove me wrong! Comment below... Time for me to get on a soap box... buckle up buttercups because I am going to put out there what needs to be said.
So to echo the words of recent comment from a fellow field target airgunner - "big bore airgunning is just brute force... hold my beer - watch this... airgunning".

If this is true, then ya - hold my F*&^king Miller Lite and watch this because it is awesome and I love it - every fricken hollow-point expanding, massive wound creating, fruit salad making bit of big bore airgunning:






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vzZyGHILfE&t=4s&fbclid=IwAR0IhgPxNBn64N4YUQqwCIr4k5hTPCjM0kWSwJoTpaOdhM3xFyVZM0WrS-E







So here it is.... Big bore airguns and smaller caliber airguns that are now powerful enough to push larger caliber and heavy slugs with any real authority IS NOT DESTROYING the airgunning community! Period.

First off - I get it that that the airgunning community is a global community with various and differing laws with restrictions around airguns, but I am writing this from the U.S. of F&^$ing American from the High Five State (Michigan) where it is legal to hunt EVERYTHING with an airgun that can be harvested with a firearm. With that said, state and federal law dictates that airguns are NOT FIREARMS.

So if you don't live in the U.S. - sorry for ya - luck of the draw I guess where God decided to plop you out onto this beautiful planet.

I am part of a few online groups that have a lot of members from the UK and other countries that have VERY restrictive laws around anything that goes PEW! PEW!. Comments like "big bore airgun technologies are going to ruin it for all of us" or the "efforts to get airguns legalized for big game hunting is going to ruin the airgunning community" - that Sh*&T is just down right false.

I wouldn't even be in the airgunning community if it wasn't for big bore airguns. If it wasn't for Airgun Depot and their Long Ranger Challenge and AirForce Airguns and their Texan line of big bores I would still be a powder burning shooter and hunter.

I fricken LOVE it that companies like FX Airguns are coming out with .35 caliber and higher PCP airgun options and I plan on being the first hunter in the U.S.A. to take a white tail deer with an FX .35 this year during the regular legal season (not behind a high fence hunting ranch using a special hunting permit either).

My choice to sling big lead at big game or shoot 100s of yards with slugs our of my airgun isn't hurting your (I mean OUR) sport. Your 12 FPE or less field target metals aren't any less shiny because I now can go into the woods and hunt whitetail deer with my .35 caliber or higher big bore airgun here in Michigan.

The fact that I have deer antlers hanging on my wall harvested from the massive air belching efforts of my Airforce Texan .45 doesn't take anything away from your efforts of shooting at metal squirrel targets at 25 yards with a little wind indicator feather tied to the end of your barrel.

I beg you all to avoid turning the airgunning community into what the self righteous archery community has become! I have been on that roller coaster of hunter-on-hunter and shooter-on-shooter attacks and it sucks. Primitive recurve bow hunters scoffing at compound bow hunters who can hold their draw forever or compound bow hunters thinking crossbow users are a bunch of pussies because they choose to use a crossbow vs. being a "real archer" by shooting a traditional bow. It's all STUPID!Whatever gets you into the woods or on the range behind an airgun - that is all that matters.

Prove me wrong! Comment below....

[sarcastic. deleted.]

 

[Raden1942]

Field target is awsome but so is shooting ash tray size bullets at pigs and watching them die before they hit the floor. How is anything that gets people excited about airgunning a bad thing. I guarantee the dude that said that is a fancy boy. He probably shoots his air arms with his lolly pops in his fancy pants while jeering at fellow airgunners that refuse to see thing the way he does. On a more serious note did you just say miller light? Good god man where is your dignity. 

 

[UpNorthAirGunner]

Field target is awsome but so is shooting ash tray size bullets at pigs and watching them die before they hit the floor. How is anything that gets people excited about airgunning a bad thing. I guarantee the dude that said that is a fancy boy. He probably shoots his air arms with his lolly pops in his fancy pants while jeering at fellow airgunners that refuse to see thing the way he does. On a more serious note did you just say miller light? Good god man where is your dignity.

I was using Miller Lite as a literary tool to capture the redneck visual. "Here - hold my limited release Bell's Brewery Dry Hopped Bourbon Barrel Aged IPA" didn't have the same feel to it. HA!

 

[Motorhead]

It just may ? .... soon as someone uses a big bore to do bodily harm to another person because they now have the power & accuracy, the "Man" will take notice that yesterdays air gun are vastly different than today's air guns and the legislation that hurts & regulates ALL air gun will likely follow in short order.



History repeats itself & the FEW always ruin it for the Many ..... Fact !



Just being real ....

 

[ranedouglas]

.. it's great that convicted felons are able to go deer hunting again - as expensive as it is for the .30+ caliber 200 ftlb airguns required here in texas now (and this is the first year for us to be able hunt large game with and airgun). texas is the most lenient state when it comes to firearms and convicted felons from what i understand. and we can have a firearm only where we live as for home protection. non-violent crimes, or crimes where no weapon was used, and wait 5 yrs after finishing parole or your sentence, and be in no other trouble. the police here have more than enough to do as we are right next to mexico. the authorities cant protect everyone and they dont wanna do our job for us, so home protection is a welcomed thing here in texas. get shot for coming into one's home forcefully or stealing a car - just knowing that everyone has guns deters crime imo. otherwise we have to petition the judge here and ask for our hunting guns and privileges back , and i know guys who have done that. when i worked at bass pro in atlanta suburb, felons could come in and buy black powder to hunt with, but that may have changed when the ammo became much better than balls. other felons bow hunt or get a dr's note so they can use crossbow. there's army core of engineers land around town here that is too close for high power centerfires , so they allow arrows for hogs and deer and shotguns with bird shot for dove. but my mom won an air force .308 texan at the airgun show she lives rt by one year - and we sold that package quickly. even dry firing it into the carpet burned a hole from that tremendous amount of pressure - and first i fired it into a pillow that was obliterated, stuffing all over. it's just like it was in the days of lewis and clark and their pcp airguns - you had to be what they called 'a sportsman' back then to afford one (the guys that get all fashioned up and require all sorts of horses, hounds, and "tally-ho !"). .........but yes, as a conservative airgunner (.25 and under - really .22 and under calibers) , i am deeply concerned that these larger caliber higher pressure pcp's are gonna get our asses regulated. i dunno if new zealand is still a place where airgun power is not regulated , but the u.s. is a very young country and we are like a bunch of wild wild west indians to the older countries when it comes to guns in general. ..........but i'm personally too lazy to go thru all that prepping a deer and dont wanna pay a deer processor , so i learned to soothe my craving for wild meat to dove and cottontail. easy to clean and eat - and it's good. i get a combo hunting and fishing license every year and dove stamp. never use any of the tags, and only this week began fishing. but man, i get scared every time i see the news where some kids went through a neighborhood shooting out all the car windows with bb's .............. but i have been around air force and sun optics - who made everything but the gun for air force for some years now. just pray to God no one murders someone with a large bore pcp. - paul.

 

[Yarddog]

Well, for me, if I'm gonna go out 'hunting'...and for me, that means going mobile and LOOKING for the prey, not sitting down and shooting at things that are popping their heads out of holes, and like that...I'm gonna use a powder burner. Every time. I have no particular urge to use an air rifle when a powder burner just works better and more consistently. I use an air rifle to plink and target shoot, and I would use one to 'pest'...back to those varmints sticking their heads out of holes, or running around and barns. 

So for me, the issue of big bore airguns is moot. I simply have no use for such a thang. Are they destroying the sport of airgunning? Not to me they ain't! But I guaranderntee ya something...one of these days, the bureaucrats are gonna run out of serious things to legislate, and then, stand by...

 

[bandg]

Well, for me, if I'm gonna go out 'hunting'...and for me, that means going mobile and LOOKING for the prey, not sitting down and shooting at things that are popping their heads out of holes, and like that...I'm gonna use a powder burner. Every time. I have no particular urge to use an air rifle when a powder burner just works better and more consistently. I use an air rifle to plink and target shoot, and I would use one to 'pest'...back to those varmints sticking their heads out of holes, or running around and barns. 

So for me, the issue of big bore airguns is moot. I simply have no use for such a thang. Are they destroying the sport of airgunning? Not to me they ain't! But I guaranderntee ya something...one of these days, the bureaucrats are gonna run out of serious things to legislate, and then, stand by...

Until, as Motorhead states above, someone does something they shouldn't. The attention COULD (not will but absolutely COULD) affect all air gun shooters.