Originally Posted by
AlongCameJones
No, this thread is not about me. I'm trying to assess how far America (and various state game laws makers) have advanced in acceptance of the air gun as a serious tool for recreatonal hunting. Game law makers have widely accepted archery equipment and just about everything else under the sun for killing game. An arrow scares me a lot more than a BB or pellet whizzing through the air.
I will pose another question here though. Does anybody here believe an air gun, even one with subsonic velocities, is more dangerous, ballistically speaking, in any way, shape or form than a powder shotgun for hunting dove or other fowl on public or private lands?
Air guns seem to be frowned upon by some lawmakers as skateboards are frowned upon by older people.
In short, I see the air gun as the final frontier for American hunting weaponry on dry land.
The laws are an evolution, they change all the time. In some places, an air gun is frowned upon much like a crossbow as being a poacher's weapon of choice. I have no idea of the current law in California, as I'm unwilling to research through pages of regulations trying to figure it out. One thing that seems fairly consistent in California is it has been legal to take Turkey with an air rifle by all accounts, which I found surprising. Nothing like making life difficult IMO you have to be a lawyer to figure out game law. It makes it even more difficult when the game you are hunting has different seasons in different localities and the localities read like a manic road map. I'm sure it all makes sense to somebody. Just guessing but the lax air rifle law in California are likely due to the fire danger in many places, they may figure the benefits outweigh the liabilities.