Some horrible person has shot 30 rabbits

[slowmotion]

Well... duh! That's kind of the point of things like HFT and range shooting.

I was just explaining to Accy some of the basics. I used to do quite a bit of .303 shooting at 600 yards. Sling stuff, no telescopic sights or sand bags.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Nope. Want to try again?

Well to me it sounds like you're saying you can fire the air rifle, but if a pellet hits someone it was illegal to have fired that rifle. Perhaps you'd like to explain.

 

[Cubist]

Just for clarity (and a bit of geekery) the amount of kinetic energy necessary to kill a rabbit with a headshot is around 3 or 4 foot pounds.

In England and Wales the maximum muzzle energy for an air rifle available for purchase to a person over the age of 18 without a firearm certificate is 12 ft/lb. Ballistics dictate that a pellet fired from a air rifle loses energy over distance, and as stated above, the trajectory curves and drops as distance increases. This trajectory curve becomes more pronounced in heavier calibres, but even at distances of fifty to sixty yards, the pellet from a modern rifle will still carry sufficient energy to kill cleanly.

Many of today's air rifles are supremely accurate, especially precharged pneumatic rifles, which tend to be free of recoil or mechanical lash. They also tend to be equipped with high magnification scopes and in the hands of a reasonably skilled shooter pellet placement is consistent and accurate even over distance.

 

[slowmotion]

Just for clarity (and a bit of geekery) the amount of kinetic energy necessary to kill a rabbit with a headshot is around 3 or 4 foot pounds.

In England and Wales the maximum muzzle energy for an air rifle available for purchase to a person over the age of 18 without a firearm certificate is 12 ft/lb. Ballistics dictate that a pellet fired from a air rifle loses energy over distance, and as stated above, the trajectory curves and drops as distance increases. This trajectory curve becomes more pronounced in heavier calibres, but even at distances of fifty to sixty yards, the pellet from a modern rifle will still carry sufficient energy to kill cleanly.

Many of today's air rifles are supremely accurate, especially precharged pneumatic rifles, which tend to be free of recoil or mechanical lash. They also tend to be equipped with high magnification scopes and in the hands of a reasonably skilled shooter pellet placement is consistent and accurate even over distance.

Typical muzzle energy for a Lee Enfield 0.303 round is about 2000ft/lb. A bit of a cannon really.

 

[Accy cyclist]

All these technicalities and legal arguments detracts from the reason for this thread about some nutjob killing these animals. You just can't drive into a cemetery and start shooting rabbits because they've eaten some flowers.

 

[Tim Hall]

Foot pounds. Not foot/pounds of f/p. It's force multiplied by distance. See also Nm or Newton metres.
Anyway, Accy, were the dead rabbits left laying around or did you work out how many were killed by observation of the remainder?

 

[wisdom]

Just a thought maybe the shooter had been asked to shoot them to reduce the numbers.How do we know it was an air rifle and did the shooter leave the corpses for all to see.

 

[Accy cyclist]

The only nut job on here is the person assuming that whoever killed these rabbits did so without permission, as some sort of revenge for a few eaten flowers, and who has made all sorts of erroneous claims about the law.

Permission off the council then? If not who else?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Foot pounds. Not foot/pounds of f/p. It's force multiplied by distance. See also Nm or Newton metres.
Anyway, Accy, were the dead rabbits left laying around or did you work out how many were killed by observation of the remainder?

I'm assuming the cemetery worker removed them and counted them. The woman who told me talks to him quite a lot.

 

[Cubist]

OK, I'll have a go. The Highways Act 1980 (later amended in 1986 to include an offence of allowing smoke to drift over a carriageway from a distance) makes it an offence under section 161 for any person without lawful authority or excuse to
Light any fire on or over a highway which consist of or comprises a carriageway
Or
Discharges any firearm or firework within fifty feet of the centre of such a highway




And as consequence of which a user of that highway is injured, interrupted or endangered.


In order for the offence to be complete, there needs to be a real interruption, injury or endangerment. And the highway must be a proper carriageway, not just a footpath.

 

[snorri]

All these technicalities and legal arguments detracts from the reason for this thread about some nutjob killing these animals. You just can't drive into a cemetery and start shooting rabbits because they've eaten some flowers.

I agree, the thread has drifted off topic, lets concentrate on the villain of the piece, the nutjob who has played a major role in increasing the rabbit population by littering the cemetery with material likely to be consumed by wild animals.

 

[slowmotion]

Foot pounds. Not foot/pounds of f/p. It's force multiplied by distance. See also Nm or Newton metres.
Anyway, Accy, were the dead rabbits left laying around or did you work out how many were killed by observation of the remainder?

Sorry, you're absolutely right.I will go to the naughty step. Aka foot-pounds.

 

[Stephenite]

It's a cemetery for chrissakes! It's for dead things.

And, seemingly, for the freaks and ghouls that like to kill.

 

[wisdom]

Just to make a point.The person/s who carried out the cull may not be a "nut job or horrible person" It could have been licensed pest controllers.You would be surprised at the number of sports grounds and golf course that have the numbers controlled not eradicated.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Just to make a point.The person/s who carried out the cull may not be a "nut job or horrible person"It could have been licensed pest controllers.You would be suprised at the number of sports grounds and golf course that have the numbers controlled not eradicated.

If that's the case and the council have called some pest controller in they should make this public knowledge. After all, if there's nothing wrong in it why do it early in the morning and not publicise it?