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From: andrewt@cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: shotguns (was info on Falconry)
Message-ID: <1498@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
Date: 20 Nov 90 00:24:25 GMT
References: <1990Nov17.002351.25330@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1990Nov19.115024.6247@newcastle.ac.uk>
Sender: news@cluster.cs.su.oz.au
Reply-To: andrewt@cluster.cs.su.oz (Andrew Taylor)
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 21

In article <1990Nov17.002351.25330@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (ArchTeryx) writes:
> I consider, for small-to-medium sized game, falconry to be far, far more 
> "sporting" than hunting with a shotgun.  If you point a shotgun at something, 
> and shoot it, that thing is either instantly dead or instantly mortally
> wounded.  

This is *not* true, shotgunners can and often do just wound birds. For the last
two years I've spent the openning weekend of the duck season wading swamps to
pick up the wounded birds the hunters leave behind. There is no "instant 
death" for these birds some take hours to die, some days, some may survive but
unable to fly or swim properly and eventually starve.

The most disgusting thing I've seen was a Chestnut Teal which looked unmarked
but didn't fly when I approached. I found when I picked it up that a single
pellet had hit it in the eye.

In the duck season here, some estimate that for every bird killed one is
wounded. Its a difficult question so this may be too high but hunters when
surveyed admit to wounding (on average) one bird for every five killed.

Andrew Taylor