Magpies

bambooman2

I have a licensed air rifle which I have for many years but I am not very au fait with the gun licensing laws. I have a large suburban garden stretching back 120 feet. Recently our garden has been taken over by a pair of highly aggressive magpies which have driven most of the song birds from the garden. I am very tempted to shoot them with the air rifle but I am unsure of the legalities. Can somebody enlighten me please as to whether this would be considered illegal?

bitemybanger

It all depends on what is around you and how close they are, If you are in an estate with lots of houses around a larsen trap will be a better option, Its not so much legalitys but common sence.

Genghiz Cohen

bitemybanger wrote: »

It all depends on what is around you and how close they are, If you are in an estate with lots of houses around a larsen trap will be a better option, Its not so much legalitys but common sence.

Trapping > shooting, in this instance.
The birds are considered vermin, so I think you could shoot them with the rifle legally, but don't.

See if a friend has a larsen trap and a magpie to bait it with, then you're golden.



Edit: w00t 1,000 posts!

Schism

The trap's the easy part, getting another bird for it is a bit more difficult unless you know someone using one at the moment.

bambooman2

Thanks for the advice to all. I have Googled how to get rid of Magpies and most forums seemed to recommend shooting them. According to one theory if you shoot one the others will come down and you can pick them off one by one. Does this sound right to anybody

Rovi

IF (and it's a very big IF), you have a suitable backstop and are well screened from the view of your neighbours, the air rifle option might be feasible.
You'd need to be very discreet and absolutely certain that the neighbours and/or their children/pets/visitors and/or people passing by on the road are in no danger whatsoever, and almost as important, that they cannot see or hear what you're doing.
This will all be very dependent on your particular situation: IF your garden is big enough and well enough screened, and IF the nearest neighbour/member of the public is far enough away to be out of danger (and earshot), you're perfectly within your rights to use your legally held air rifle to shoot magpies.

If you can't guarantee the above preconditions, I'd be strongly of the opinion that it'd be better not to bring firearms into the equation at all.
The last thing you want is a panicked busybody calling the Gardai/ISPCA/Joe Duffy/whoever; remember the furore over the fox getting shot on the golf course a few weeks ago.

I'm afraid I can be of no help on alternatives, but perhaps if you were to give us an idea of your location, some of the regular magpie hunters here might be able to help out with a Larsen trap and the expertise to use it?

bambooman2

Thanks for that Rovi. My garden is large and not very overlooked and there is no danger of hitting a person or animal. I live in one of the coastal suburbs of North Dublin.