# Legality and shooting air rifles?



## zzyzx (Mar 20, 2010)

After a friend saw the coyotes and what I used to nail the critters he brought up something interesting. "Is it legal to shoot 'game' with air rifles in North Dakota?

I mainly get grackles, crows, pigeons, blackbirds(great masses here decimating sunflower fields), gophers, ground squirrils, skunks, porcupines and some raccoons. Mainly on our land and that of neighbors who farm close by.

I am careful to shoot within the power range of the rifles. The Tech Force 89 in .22 I will go out to 60 yards. The RWS 48 in .177 I'll go about 45 yards. The Evanix Blizzard in .22 I'll go to nearly 100 yards, it has a lot of power. The distance depends on the animal. I woudn't even try a coyote with the RWS 48 further than 15 yards and a perfect eye shot, just not enough power. With the TF 89 coyotes are 20 yards, skunks to the full range and birds the same. Really hits hard and is nice and accurate. With the Blizzard I wouldn't try a coyote more than 50 yards with 40 being the 'sweet spot' for accuracy. (1/2 inch groups regularly) Have hit blackbirds in trees and cattail marsh areas at 75 yards. Nice accuracy for that but not enough power to kill a coyote at that range unless all were perfect and I sure can't count on that. I don't want wounded animals, just clean kills. The Blizzard with JSB Monster pellets is very accurate. Really likes them. EunJin are close and heavier so pack a harder punch but I am sticking with the Monsters as they sure shoot true.

So, what is reality with Air Rifle shooting? Not Red Ryder BB guns but very accurate Air Rifles with enough power to kill pests within reasonable shooting distance?


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## Ambush Hunter (Jun 29, 2009)

Are you talking about legality here or effective/practical range for airguns?

Don't know about other states but in Texas you can only hunt non-protected, non-game animals, squirrels will depend on the county. Good enough for me because any animal I want to hunt and usualy do, is a non-game one: p-dogs, g-hogs, rabbits, pigeons, crows, possums, *****. To step up in size would be hogs and coyotes. Plenty to choose from.

As far as practical range, one needs at least 1" accuracy regardless of the range since kill zones of small vermin are small.
My .177 R7 gets me out to 35-40 yards on a good day but I only shoot squirrels and pigeons with it. .177 HW100 will take down small animals with authority out to 100 yards. .20 HW97K will nail any of those little critters all the way to 70 yards. 
.22 AATX200 and R1 to 70-80 and .25 Rapid to 120 yards easily. These are just some I shoot regularily.


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## zzyzx (Mar 20, 2010)

I was talking of 'legality', not range. I am careful not to exceed the kill range of my air rifles. Having accurcy built up a bit with practice helps a lot here with putting pellets in the kill zone.

I am looking at the legality with some animals. Some are relegated to centerfire or shotgun hunting only depending on the locale.

Not too worried about the pest species but some... of them are protected at certian times of the year in some States. Just looking for info on them.


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## spentwings (Apr 25, 2007)

If your asking about a game animal like squirrel, airguns aren't mentioned as a legal means to take them in ND.
Since you seem to be aware of this fact, guess I'm not sure what you're asking.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Crow have seasons, and blackbirds you need a permit or have your name on the permit to shoot them. These are only issued in the fall for farmers with sunflowers and are having problems with blackbirds.

You would be better off email the North Dakota Game and Fish with these questions, as they are the ones that make the rules.


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## goose killer (Mar 26, 2004)

Idk bout the whole permit thing for shooting black birds. We used to shoot them all the time on a friend of my dads farm. We would shoot hundreds of them and we talked to the game warden and he said you could shoot them if they are doing damage to the crops. the sunflower thing to they do as much damage to corn as they do to sunflowers. The nock the tassle part or whatever it is called off the top of the corn stalk then the corn quits growing. We had decoys and everything for them cause the farm was surrounded by corn fields and they would decoy like honkers. They would ruin a lot of crops.


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