Shooting ducks at home

[SDHR10.22]

Hi guys...
im starting to keep ducks for eggs and meat at home...I'm picking up my new BSA R10 .22 black pepper tomorrow...
i would like to know people's thoughts on shooting my ducks at 20 yards ..
ive done a fair bit of reading on the net but nothing is really clear on this matter..

simon 

 

[crittahitta]

If you are keeping ducks for eggs and meat. are they going to be somewhat domesticated? I guess if you have to kill them take a head shot. But to be honest i would just walk up close and shoot them that way they don't suffer at all. Unless they are out in the wild and I am reading this wrong. Matt Dubber from Africa has some excellent duck hunting videos on you tube. All done with air guns. Good luck.

 

[SDHR10.22]

Hi Crittahitta.
yes these ducks will be in the domesticated.
ive four ducklings at the moment but will grow them on until this time next year but this number will increase by the end of the year. I shall look at those videos you have pointed out. Thanks for the reply

 

[JimNM]

When I harvest my meat rabbits, I prefer to snap the neck. Yes it is hands on, but it is fast and zero chance of a miss. Hypertension of the top vertebrae and it is lights out. I have tried the hatchet and the hammer, both of which run the risk of a less than perfect effect. Then you have a wounded and traumatized animal to deal with, not to mention anyone else who may witness the blunder like neighbors and or kids.

Show your livestock the respect to harvest it correctly.

 

[plinker]

Ringing chickens necks has always been the norm, but the hatchet lets them bleed out well. I can see the need for an airgun if you can't catch them. 

 

[NTSOG]

G'day,

If livestock is tame and remains calm, shooting can be an option. Certainly large animals such as sheep and cattle must be shot for many reasons including safety and the need to kill them immediately. We killed an Angus steer two weeks ago; it was brought into a yard, was eating calmly with another beast nearby for company and dropped with a single .22 bullet through the brain. In the past chickens and other poultry were always dispatched with an axe on a block, but a pellet through the brain - if the shooter is accurate and the air rifle of sufficient power - would be kinder.

Jim

Via Ballarat
Australia

 

[Bruce54]

I have "harvested" (trying to be a little bit PC) 2 or 3 hundred cattle and hogs with just a .22lr rifle or pistol from 5 or 10 ft. away. Very effective! But for birds of most types, a quick wring of the neck or a hatchet strike was the most efficient means of dispatch.

 

[NTSOG]

G'day,

I forgot to add to my post above that we take great care to keep stock calm before killing for the freezer. This aids the shooter in making a clean kill, but there is also the fact that we do not want a beast to become aroused and full of adrenaline which might affect the quality of the meat. When a steer is worth over $A3000 in the freezer that's an important issue.

As for the modern 'PC' usage of the term 'harvest', I understand why Bruce used it, but those who are anti-hunting, anti-gun or vegan really don't give a hoot about semantics and they cannot be appeased.

Jim

 

[JimNM]

The things I use, I harvest. I harvest fruit and vegetables from the garden and I harvest my livestock.

OTOH, I straight-up murder pests. Prairie dogs, ground squirrles and rats don't get used. They get dead.

 

[Mattblum]

Interesting use of the words. I think of slaughtering domestic animals and "harvesting" wild animals. Lets face it. When you've killed it and it's dead, the words just don't matter that much. What matters is doing it cleanly with as little pain to the beast as possible.