Night Shooting on the General License - Crows

[Hartshot]

That's a very good answer Mark and exactly what I read into it too

Out of curiosity, let's see if the question sent to BASC this morning comes back with the same answer. I'll let you know Dave, OK.

Cheers

H

[some bloke]

Quite possibly correct Marky, Cheers H, it possibly depends on who's interpretation would be correct in court if one were to video the shooting of branchers in the evening for example and put it on the tube and RSPB for example decided to report the bloke wot done it. The issue of night time is clear for deer but would it be as clear for wild birds?

On one hand we could video it with what we choose to call our add-on night vision device - which needs illumination to shoot to the ground in most cases but would we call it a low light CCTV device to shoot up into trees at dusk which doesn't need artificial illumination.

It would be good to hear an educated opinion from BASC who have a qualified grasp of the legal aspects involved, and possibly might get a qualified definition of "sighting device for night shooting" in respect of daylight capable kit if its done at dusk.

[sunndog]

have i read that right?.....your not allowed to shoot birds with a semi auto?.....surely not!

[Hartshot]

To be even more specific, I am talking about the use of a..................................... shotgun after dark with no sighting system.

Cheers

H

[Hartshot]

have i read that right?.....your not allowed to shoot birds with a semi auto?.....surely not!

It is confusing Adam, aint it....which is why I want to be certain bud

It says you CAN use those methods under those conditions, this includes a semi-auto.

h

[sunndog]

phew.....for a minute there i thought i was gonna have to take down all my 10/22 vs parakeet vids!

[some bloke]

To be even more specific, I am talking about the use of a..................................... shotgun after dark with no sighting system.

Cheers

H

Ah cheers - we have different intentions then.

I've asked David BASC on the PW forum what he thinks legally constitutes night as opposed to dusk in relation to birds on the quarry list, and if digital CCTV that can be used in daylight or darkness could be construed as a device for seeing at night.

[chas]

In my opinion for what it's worth, the safest option is to use NV or lamp on ferals only.
This little bit would worry me if someone wanted to be awkward " any sighting device for night shooting " so possibly if you were shooting any other listed species apart from ferals by using a good low light day scope to shoot under moonlight, you would be using a sighting device for night shooting, albeit not NV or some form of artificial illumination.
The way the RSPCA have been of late I could imagine them arguing that iron sights were a sighting device if being used at night on anything apart from ferals, it's only liable to cost tens of thousands to fight them.
Were you to go out with no sights at all on your rifle and just blast away randomly from the hip, it would appear that this would be quite acceptable.
Typically confusing and vague.

[some bloke]

That's probably the best way to consider it Chris.

If it were done in full daylight with a colour cam on the back of a scope it could be seen that it was full day.

A B&W low light cam might make the imaging look like it was later - even though birds would be back in their nests for the night.

[Shedder]

I suspect that part of the reason for the "ban" on shoting bird pest species in the dark is the possibility of shooting the wrong sprecies without adequate light to discriminate one type of bird from another. There is no way of guaranteeing that all NV users would have/use good enough equipment to differentiate between birds of different species. The diffilculty of range estimation in the dark adds to the potential for mistake.