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Weather's fine and sunny over here at the moment, but rained this morning while I was at the pistol club. In fact, it's rained heavily for the past few days -- so the lake is now full, all the local streams are running, and I'm expecting to see the next adventurous coypu arriving to check out our lake as a potential home any time now...

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Hi lapin2008.

 

I'm halfway between St Malo on the coast and Rennes -- about 40 mins from each, in a small hamlet in the countryside near a village called Sens de Bretagne.

 

_________________

Zastava CZ99 Precision .22 LR, Hawke AirMax EV 4-12X50 AO scope, Harris bipod, SAK silencer

Weihrauch HW97K .177 16 fpe, Walther 3-9X50 AO scope

Nice part of the country!

They seem like an interesting pest to have about anyway and a fair lump of animal at 9kg, sounds like some interesting hunting, I take it you will need to use your .22 rimfire (LR) for them?

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Nice part of the country!

They seem like an interesting pest to have about anyway and a fair lump of animal at 9kg, sounds like some interesting hunting, I take it you will need to use your .22 rimfire (LR) for them?

 

Yes, but only because hunting with air rifles is illegal in France. Don't get me started on that...! My Weihrauch is quite capable of taking them down, since it's the 21 joule/15.5 fpe version. Let's just say that if a Gamo Hunter 440 DX in 23 joules/17 fpe can drop them, then the Weihrauch could too -- but don't ask me how I know...

 

France has a lot of hunters, and more relaxed laws in terms of gun ownership (e.g. I got my first licence from a gunsmith, who also sold me a .22 rimfire on the spot -- all I needed was proof of ID, proof of address, and a recent medical certificate). Yet they seem to think that air rifles are more likely to wound an animal than to kill it, hence the crazy law. They obviously haven't been watching YouTube!

 

Apart from anything else, having seen the local hunters lurching around the countryside after a few lunchtime bevvies, firing 12-bores at anything that moves (you know, foxes, pheasants, cats, chickens, ramblers...), I think I'd prefer to have a seasoned air gunner shooting in the fields around my house, rather than the local hunt... Like I said, don't get me started!

_________________

Zastava CZ99 Precision .22 LR, Hawke AirMax EV 4-12X50 AO scope, Harris bipod, SAK silencer

Weihrauch HW97K .177 16 fpe, Walther 3-9X50 AO scope

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Share on other sites

Nice part of the country!

They seem like an interesting pest to have about anyway and a fair lump of animal at 9kg, sounds like some interesting hunting, I take it you will need to use your .22 rimfire (LR) for them?

 

Yes, but only because hunting with air rifles is illegal in France. Don't get me started on that...! My Weihrauch is quite capable of taking them down, since it's the 21 joule/15.5 fpe version. Let's just say that if a Gamo Hunter 440 DX in 23 joules/17 fpe can drop them, then the Weihrauch could too -- but don't ask me how I know...

 

France has a lot of hunters, and more relaxed laws in terms of gun ownership (e.g. I got my first licence from a gunsmith, who also sold me a .22 rimfire on the spot -- all I needed was proof of ID, proof of address, and a recent medical certificate). Yet they seem to think that air rifles are more likely to wound an animal than to kill it, hence the crazy law. They obviously haven't been watching YouTube!

 

Apart from anything else, having seen the local hunters lurching around the countryside after a few lunchtime bevvies, firing 12-bores at anything that moves (you know, foxes, pheasants, cats, chickens, ramblers...), I think I'd prefer to have a seasoned air gunner shooting in the fields around my house, rather than the local hunt... Like I said, don't get me started!

_________________

Zastava CZ99 Precision .22 LR, Hawke AirMax EV 4-12X50 AO scope, Harris bipod, SAK silencer

Weihrauch HW97K .177 16 fpe, Walther 3-9X50 AO scope

I have been out with the shotguns in brittany a few times with my grandad but years ago (probably 23 odd years now), what struck me was firstly that people are aloud to shoot all over and secondly that while we were out there were probably 2 groups of shooters in almost every field (all rough shooting) you would see a single pigeon fly down the valley and hear sets of both barrels going off as it flew over everyone that was out!

 

The last couple of times I have been there I have noticed a lot more game (not stupid amounts but some!) than there was years ago. My granddad mentioned its because fewer people shoot nowadays than there was before and said it was due to there having been so little about for a while. Have you found similar?

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There are still plenty of hunters around here -- it's a farming area (like most of France) and all the farmers like to take a 12-bore out for a spin on Sundays. They have organised shoots too "à la battue" -- i.e. beating the bushes and using dogs to flush the game. The season is (theoretically) restricted though -- because there is so little game left. Around here, for example, there's only one or two days a year when hares can be shot. I actually saw one this spring in the field next to our property, and it was the first I'd seen for a few years.

 

Deer still roam the countryside around here though -- I've been within 15 yards of roe deer twice, when I've been stalking coypu and the deer have been grazing on the other side of our boundary fence.

 

Luckily, "nuisibles" (pests) like foxes, coypus and muskrats can be shot anywhere, anytime, or trapped. You are allowed to shoot trapped animals with an air rifle, although the locals tend to just use a big stick...

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There are still plenty of hunters around here -- it's a farming area (like most of France) and all the farmers like to take a 12-bore out for a spin on Sundays. They have organised shoots too "à la battue" -- i.e. beating the bushes and using dogs to flush the game. The season is (theoretically) restricted though -- because there is so little game left. Around here, for example, there's only one or two days a year when hares can be shot. I actually saw one this spring in the field next to our property, and it was the first I'd seen for a few years.

 

Deer still roam the countryside around here though -- I've been within 15 yards of roe deer twice, when I've been stalking coypu and the deer have been grazing on the other side of our boundary fence.

 

Luckily, "nuisibles" (pests) like foxes, coypus and muskrats can be shot anywhere, anytime, or trapped. You are allowed to shoot trapped animals with an air rifle, although the locals tend to just use a big stick...

I heard about some limits on stuff like deer, was told that for example the (region) fouestnant only issued 4 permits to kill deer in the region each year. The old man had a fit when I told him how many i had had so far this year. This summer was the first time I had seen roe in france.

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