The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXVIII

[Flying Pig]

There are people who shoot a lot who load their own. But most people just buy manufactured ammo. And the problem with mandating that would be that the only way the police would find out that someone was using the wrong rounds is after someone a mile away from the shooter caught one of those rounds. While I'm sure there are many people who target shoot classic weapons such as yours, there is a significant trade in them in the US, most people hunting seriously are doing so with modern purpose designed guns. And there are many places in the US where you can do that. It's a big country. But the densest deer population also tends to be where there are a lot of people. Because there are no predators. So in those areas hunting is more restricted.

Hell, here all winter long I could have gotten deer in my backyard with a pistol. But then I would have had to explain it to the cops the neighbors would have called.

I suppose on a rifle range (which always have an ME limit) rounds are checked either randomly (at the Canadian meeting, for example, they call and test in five rounds from every tenth competitor, or something along those lines) or because somebody on the range noticed your rifle making a much louder noise than anybody else's. In a hunting context, both of those would be tricky - though I can't imagine any trickier than mandating muzzle-loading, since both involve a spot check of some sort. I mean, it seems logical that muzzle-loaders would have a much smaller peak ME (especially because the actions involved are nearly always much too weak for what someone like me would call target-grade ammunition), so the rule certainly makes sense.

 

[Cutlass]

I suppose on a rifle range (which always have an ME limit) rounds are checked either randomly (at the Canadian meeting, for example, they call and test in five rounds from every tenth competitor, or something along those lines) or because somebody on the range noticed your rifle making a much louder noise than anybody else's. In a hunting context, both of those would be tricky - though I can't imagine any trickier than mandating muzzle-loading, since both involve a spot check of some sort. I mean, it seems logical that muzzle-loaders would have a much smaller peak ME (especially because the actions involved are nearly always much too weak for what someone like me would call target-grade ammunition), so the rule certainly makes sense.

But it's a lot easier to tell the difference at a glance between a muzzle loader and a breach loading rifle.

 

[Flying Pig]

Indeed. I've actually realised that you need to regulate muzzle velocity rather than ME, since the important thing is how far the bullet flies - which could theoretically be done in the field if the police carried chronographs.

 

[Camikaze]

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