To the Canadian forum members and extended from us to everyone else on the board. Lots to think about this year.

Matthias

happy thanksgiving! its my personal favorite day of the year!

ug..i have to wait a few more month.

i wish i could have a ride up to canada eat there then have aother thanksgiving in the U.S.  haha its a good thing im not rich or i would weigh 800 pounds and have a feast once a week! ;D

We don't have thanks giving in Hong Kong.  What is it really?  Do you give thanks to god and eat turkey?

I think it's when we give thanks to the pilgrims and Native Americans, and when they first had a big meal together (the first Thanksgiving). For the food, it's my favorite  :)

the story goes that the first settlers to north america had a very bad first harvest, so the indians helped them by giving them food for the winter. So in return, when the settlers had some food of their own, they gave a feast for the indians - that feast is celebrated as thanks giving day.

Is that right?(i come from NZ, so don't have first hand knowledge of it)

I celebrate it as a harvest festival, which most cultures have. Once all the hard work of collecting food for the winter has passed, it is a time to relax and reflect on the year that has gone by. If you peel back the pilgrims etc, that is pretty much what American thanksgiving is as well. We get to celebrate early because, well, all the farm work is pretty much wrapped up by this time of year with our shorter seasons.

I made a meal for my Vancouver family, using walnuts, herbs, veggies and quince that had been hand gathered, and (store-bought) local produce for the rest.

I find it odd that people only seem to eat turkey at thanksgiving and christmas. I usually try to snag a smaller one or two after everyone else is done and make soup stock/meat!

Matthias

I HATE CANADIAN GEESE!!! eh once i get my .50 cal air rifle ill kill you one...and everyone else one too

Hey I'm with both of you. We have a surplus of geese up here as well. Why wait for the .50cal ben_banned - geese are sling-game! Ok, maybe not with my aim (flock of angry maimed gees).

I've been looking at large bore airguns in the last few days as well. What's your interest BB? Wouldn't a rimfire .22 be cheaper, easier to use/maintain, more accurate and just as efficient? What type of rifle were you thinking about?

Matthias

Holy moly! :o Are you guys serious about hunting geese with a rifle!?  Or have you never hunted geese before?  One of the first rules of being safe or even sane with a rifle is that you should never fire a rifle into the air without having a backdrop to stop the bullet.  Even the little .22 will travel miles and land who knows where.  Not to mention that shooting flying geese would be impossible with a rifle, as iron sights take too long to line up for a clear shot and a scope would have too narrow a field of view to properly lead the bird.  I don't know what the law is in Canada, but here in the U.S. it is illegal to hunt geese with a rifle or shoot them on the ground with any gun.  If you want to go goose hunting, I recomend a sturdy shotgun that can handle 3 1/2 inch shells with a half or open choke such as the Mossberg 835, and No. 4 steel shot at least.

Get some skill and use an atlatl!! ::)

wrote on Oct 13^th, 2005 at 6:27pm:

Holy moly! :o Are you guys serious about hunting geese with a rifle!?  Or have you never hunted geese before?  One of the first rules of being safe or even sane with a rifle is that you should never fire a rifle into the air without having a backdrop to stop the bullet.  Even the little .22 will travel miles and land who knows where.  Not to mention that shooting flying geese would be impossible with a rifle, as iron sights take too long to line up for a clear shot and a scope would have too narrow a field of view to properly lead the bird.  I don't know what the law is in Canada, but here in the U.S. it is illegal to hunt geese with a rifle or shoot them on the ground with any gun.  If you want to go goose hunting, I recomend a sturdy shotgun that can handle 3 1/2 inch shells with a half or open choke such as the Mossberg 835, and No. 4 steel shot at least.

thats why i said "air rifle" well thats one of the reasons. I have also made a pledge to myself that i would never hunt for sport with gun powder.

wrote on Oct 13^th, 2005 at 7:24pm:

Is it really illegal in *all* of the US to shoot a goose on the ground and/or with a rifle?  ??? I was gonna shoot one with a shotgun anyway, but I didn't know it was illegal to shoot them on the ground with a rifle...are you sure about that, Smudge? At any rate, I prefer size 7 or 8 shot, with a hefty dram load of powder...works well on clay disks at least. And the choke one uses is really dependant upon where (distance from the hunter) they want the focal point of the pattern. Some chokes give a tight pattern at 50 feet, some keep it tight even at 100 feet, etc.

yes its illeagle to shoot a sitting pheasent goose or a sitting duck for that matter. yes I know its illeagle but so is hunting with a sling for geese


http://www.pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=771

wrote on Oct 13^th, 2005 at 7:24pm:

Is it really illegal in *all* of the US to shoot a goose on the ground and/or with a rifle?  ??? I was gonna shoot one with a shotgun anyway, but I didn't know it was illegal to shoot them on the ground with a rifle...are you sure about that, Smudge? At any rate, I prefer size 7 or 8 shot, with a hefty dram load of powder...works well on clay disks at least. And the choke one uses is really dependant upon where (distance from the hunter) they want the focal point of the pattern. Some chokes give a tight pattern at 50 feet, some keep it tight even at 100 feet, etc.

Yes it's illegal to shoot bird game while they're on the ground with any weapon.  If you do it, I have no doubt that the United States game wardens will catch you.  The fact of the matter is that shooting geese on the ground with firearms of any sort is not hunting, it is a massacre as you can't miss the birds at all.  

What is the average distance that you find yourself from geese until they fly away?  The answer would probably be about 30 yards at the most.  At that range you shouldn't even need a rifle.

By the way, Funslinger, No. 7 & 8 are great for pigeons and clay disks but they will not humanely bring down a goose or even a duck.

wouldnt a shot gun blow the bird all to hell and get bbs all through the meat?  I have never hunted bird with a shot gun before but i have seen what a shotgun will do to meat.

Yeah, if you shoot them on the ground at close range.  But usually you're shooting the geese at fifty yards or more while they are in the air so the pellets disperse by the time they hit the bird.

ah i see

yeah most of the time when you shoot thm they are not dead, when they hit the ground they die or if over water you kill em when your dog brings em back

No worries Smudge - I mixed responses in my questions to ben-banned. The only birds that are legal to shoot on the ground in Canada are upland game, and single shot rifles are ok for those. Archery is ok too, for both game and migratory. No one should discharge a rifle into the air without a backstop.

What is the difference between hunting for sport with a centerfire rifle and using a .50 cal air-rifle BB? Have you considered black powder/muzzleloaders?

Matthias

I once fired a 4 bore muzzle loading black powder fowling piece and hit a clay pigeon with it :-)
The BANG and the smoke - you couldn't wipe the smile off my face for a week - or the bruise off my shoulder lol

Canadian geese used to be classed as vermin in england - which meant you could hunt them with whatever method, requiring just the landowners permission. But you really have to cook them properly or they are almost worthless to eat.
I believe now that our native british white geese are almost non-existent, that canadian geese are now no longer classed as vermin. You see huge flocks of the damn things everywhere - I'm sure most of them have british accents now :-)

Suprisingly, shot killed game birds often display little or no obvious damage - speaking as someone who's eaten entire flocks of game birds over the years (my dad shoots and so do a few of our friends) you occasionally get a a piece of shot in pheasant but almost never in pigeon or smaller birds. Partridge, woodcock, etc.
The birds breast feathers provide quite remarkable protection against shot, so it's quite often a head shot that kills them. Pheasant are often shot much lower than other birds so you get a lot more breast penetration of the shot on them.
Personally I don't believe in killing something for sport - but I'm quite happy to eat something someone else has shot. It's not actually hypocritical, I just believe everyone has the right to live their own life how they choose :-)

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 12:01am:

\ What is the difference between hunting for sport with a centerfire rifle and using a .50 cal air-rifle BB? Have you considered black powder/muzzleloaders? Matthias

with a rifle i could just pick off animals with an air rifle you have to get closer.
no actually i had never thought of muzzle loader I wouldnt mind that then again i might i wold have to look into it

I hate muzzle loaders.  They are inferior technology and a pain in the you-know-where to hunt with.  

thats what makes them fun!

About as much fun as throwing rocks by hand.

wrote on Oct 14^th, 2005 at 4:04pm:

I hate muzzle loaders.  They are inferior technology and a pain in the you-know-where to hunt with.

and a sling isnt?

At least the sling can fire more rapidly.

i dont know i still like my black powder.  :D

I still like my lever-gun  ;D

We should have eaten all the pilgrims. Would have had alot less problems. :)

didn't know there were any native american tribes that practiced cannabalism :-)

Now what you should have done was stake them out for the vultures :-)

Missionaries of any kind are an abomination. Believe what you like but don't try and force anyone else to believe it with you.

Ol Magua wasn't cutting out Col. Campbells heart just to make a political statement. It was quite common in the Northeast in the early years of colonization for the Native peoples to consume some part of their enemies during war. Various other tribes throughout the Americas also practiced cannibalism { a word derived from the Caribe Indians of the Carribean} at times. The Pilgrims were just lucky they didn't run into the Iroquois or the Lakotas.

lakota souix?

The very same. If the pilgrims had run into the "Sioux" or some of the other plains tribes, their scalps would have been hanging from their lodge poles, even if they weren't eaten. If they ran into any of the Iroquois Confederacy, they would have been burned slowly to death, and some parts might have been eaten. In any case they were very lucky.

Ill have to look in up But i remeber some accounts of cannilism among native americans other than Aztecs and mayans wich both had canilistic rights

from turkey to two legged mutton ;D

Whatever your choice of meat.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ;)