doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Magnums and Pollution

Here as most everywhere, the wild and open coastlines are becoming populated, as much by cottagers as full-time residents. Lately influential persons hereabouts are talking about closing the harbour to hunting. Following is my profanity-cleansed email today to my hunting buddy.

"If someone takes it into their mind to close the harbour, it could happen and it wouldn't be easy to stop. And, frankly, the stupid---no, perfectly stupid--- 3 1/2-inch 12 and 10 gauge cannonading is responsible for it. I wouldn't put up with it on my shore nor do I think Joe Stewart or anyone else should. A common 12 will kill anything flying.

"I brought this up on the Parker board last week. We're going to lose our sport because of idiots who want to keep up with what the gun and ammo manufacturers are telling them in Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines. I'm not disadvantaged when I'm carrying my popgun 20 gauge, for ----'s sake. You've got me swearing again but those magnums deserve the same space as noisy car and motorcycle mufflers---in the dumpster.

"The community accepted gunning for two centuries here. It's noise pollution now. I'm half-deaf and appalled by it. How about a preemptive strike by establishing a voluntary common 12-gauge good-sportsmanship harbour to recognize all those harbour residents, including duck hunters, who worked long and hard 60 years ago to provide a duck and goose sanctuary?"

There you are, gentlemen. I'm going to have to take this on. Your opinions are important, pro and con. Struggles are won by knowing the opposition's strategy---and destroying it. It saves charging the barricades.

I agree. Loud noise guns and high speed skiffs in duck hunting areas.
jas

King, I am not fully informed about the situation or problem.
Are you suggesting that at a distance ( whatever that is 1/2 mile or more? ) there is significant differential in the noise to the ears of the residents between a 12 gauge 2 3/4" 1 1/8 oz load and a 3 1/2" 1 1/2 oz load? What is the comparative decibel reading? Is it the cummulative effect of numerous guns which disturbs the populace or the perception that the big noises must be more dangerous to persons?
Years ago ducking clubs established non hunting times - hours , days etc. and this went a long way towards better decoying of local birds. Likewise club memberships and guests were controled as to numbers in the marsh and where they hunted to make it a better experience for all. Granted these were mostly inland marshes not open coast. Restrictions that are self imposed by the sporting community will be better thought through and more responsive to the needs of the waterfowland quality hunting experience than those imposed by local governments. Personally I am opposed to setting limits on gauge or shot weights etc. In fact I believe that 10 gauge guns with well balanced loads of the obligatory non toxic shot in the hands of a good shot would be more effective in cleanly killing waterfowl than 12 gauge 3 1/2" loads. Fewer shots taken by hunters on decoying birds would mean less noise wouldn't it? We sacrificed the 8 gauge guns for waterfowl without much respect to logic. Should we sacrifice 10 gauges as well? Perhaps we would be better served by educating members of the hunting fraternity as to self imposed disciplines on decoying, range of shot etc. I have friends who take only 20 rounds with them to the marsh. They figure if they can't get a reasonable number of birds with 20 shots they require more practice and skill not more ammunition. As I said I am not familiar with your situation but what happens in one locality seems to find fertile minds for instituting similar restrictions in others.

I'm with you King. I've always made do with a 2 3/4" 12 gauge and never felt undergunned.

Personally, I don't think the gauge of the gun or the length of it's shell has much bearing at all on the "Anti-Hunters". I would suppose if one wanted to "Legally" restrict noise this would be best accomplished by limiting the velocity of all loads to less than the speed of sound to eliminate the Sonic Crack. This would of course impose a limit of about 1100 FPS. I would not support that restriction myself, though I seldom load above 1200 fps.

King: The 'noise pollution' issue is simply another vehicle for the antis to use to end hunting and shut down gun clubs. You (we) will be forced to address that 'problem' and another, no doubt, will soon be found.

I think 2 piper is correct. It is not the noise, it is the fact that someone is shooting.

You ought to see heads turn when I shoot a round of black powder skeet. Certainly the thunder boom of black powder has shaken the swamps long before magnum 12's.

RPr

Thanks. The posts are important to me. This isn't plain ole' anti-gunner sentiment we're hearing. Shooting is an accepted part of our culture; those against it are regarded with sympathy and good humor. This is a response from hitherto reasonable landowners. It doesn't emanate from come-from-aways. It's from neighbours who've been hunting and fishing from these shores for decades, providing access over their lands, interested in what we're doing.

No one wants limits on gauges and loads. We recognize the effectiveness and reasonable noise from some bigger gauges and loads. I agree with the law that allows access to all lands, public and private, below the high-water mark. Our harbour, as nearly all those along our shores, is between high hills. Barrages reverberate heavily far beyond a half-mile. A mile easily. This isn't anti-hunting; it's a noise problem.

We do not have ducking clubs, lodges or regulated numbers on marshes or shores anywhere in our province. As a resident and active gunner in this particular locale for more than 40 years, I can confirm that there has been a significant increase in noise attributable directly to the heavier loads. The blinds aren't an inch closer to houses. There aren't more gunners. It's easy to differentiate the sound of common 12s from heavier loads.

I don't ascribe to the notion of them-and-us in these matters. The environment is the No. 1 political issue in Canada, ahead of health care and Afghanistan. There is a legitimate beef here. Eighty per cent of Canada's population is urban, clustered in a dozen-or-so cities. The shooting sports don't have the numbers. Ignoring or blithely dismissing issues as just-the-antis-again isn't the answer. We're barely clinging to our sport everywhere.

You guys must be snowed-in in Nova Scotia.

Bet guys with 12s chambered for 2-1/2" could put up a fuss about those @#$%^! game hogs who use 12s with 2-3/4" and 3" chambers, too! How much quieter is a 2-3/4" 12 mag shot out of a ported 26" barrel than a standard 3-1/2" load from a gun with a 32" barrel?

If you want quiet in an area, fine - ban shooting altogether (and jet-skis, snowmobiles, etc. as well). Easy to enforce and not discriminatory. But picking and choosing between "acceptable" guns and loads pits hunter against hunter, puts a real burden on enforcement folks, and seems a bit petty as well.