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Mass BB gun and pellet gun laws

M

mac1911

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I ran across a funny thing in coversation about gun laws,hunting and use of bb guns and pellet guns.

I been looking for answers requarding pellet gun use for hunting.
Aside from all hunting laws apply. When I picked the brains of local LEO
he basically refered me to the definition of a rifle per mass law

“Rifle”, a weapon having a rifled bore with a barrel length equal to or greater than 16 inches and capable of discharging a shot or bullet for each pull of the trigger.

In a nut shell he said if it has a rifled bore it will be treated as a firearm?

Ok so am I missing something. Are all the pelletguns sold in walmart smooth bore now ?

If they can apply this definition, would you be in violation of possession if over 18 and no FID ?

Strange..............any thoughts
 
Damn good question as the gamos I had were all rifled but they were break action, I wonder if that effects it at all.

sent from my truck while driving down 95 in the high speed lane doing 55
 
It got a little strange as the only discharge law for bb,pellet,paintball is about discharge across or from a roadway? Interesting also is the 2nd officer who chimed in said there are no bylaws in town reguarding discharge of a pellet,bb,or paint ball except for noise. Here a noise that bothers someone only needs to be audible at 400'
noty sure but my paintball gun seems very load.???
Well to cover my ass I have writen permission from my neighbors to hunt on their property.
 
yanici said:
A pellet gun can be a "rifle" but it is still not considered a firearm in MA. Firearm laws do not apply to rifled airguns, period.
Click to expand...

This. Just do yourself a favor and treat your pellet gun like a real rifle while you're transporting it as to not scare the sheep, and definitely don't stop for lunch at the Burlington mall with it.
 
How about hunting with a pellet gun...such as killing chipmunks. Do you need to be a certain distance from roads/houses...or does it not matter because its an airgun?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
 
i remember when i was 16 and tried to buy one. You had to be 18 and if it was over a certain fps you needed an FID or above...below a certain fps you could own. What that fps was i do not remember.
 
Hunting laws are a completely different [STRIKE=undefined]Charlie Foxtrot[/STRIKE] field of study from the Mass Gun Laws.

Hunting is very liberally defined - any act that can be interpreted as "harassing" an animal is hunting.

If you're going after chipmunks, a hunting license is a good idea (If it's from you back window at the bugger on the bird feeder, you might want to "risk" it....but it still meets the definiition of "hunting"

Hunting without a license is a no-no.

So...if you're out in the woods, with a bb gun, you're hunting witout a license. If you're <18, and unaccompanied, you're also in violation of:

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section12B

Considering that umbrellas cause SWAT teams to show up, and an airsoft is treated the same as a firearm....be careful.
 
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MisterHappy said:
If you're going after chipmunks, a hunting license is a good idea (If it's from you back window at the bugger on the bird feeder, you might want to "risk" it....but it still meets the definiition of "hunting"
Click to expand...


So shooting a squirrel, rabbit or chipmunk destroying your garden is "hunting"? I have a hunting license but that just sounds ridiculous. I thought you could rid your property of animals creating a nuisance on your property without a license.
 
FreeWillie said:
So shooting a squirrel, rabbit or chipmunk destroying your garden is "hunting"? I have a hunting license but that just sounds ridiculous. I thought you could rid your property of animals creating a nuisance on your property without a license.
Click to expand...


You need to derive income from your "farm", for it to be legal. And sorry, that does not mean selling a few tomatoes.

I'm not sure about sustenance farming.
 
speedy said:
How about setting up a mouse trap to catch chipmunks, them friggin €£¥~#*@&$ creatures? Is that considered trapping?
Click to expand...
I hate chipmunks. For no particular reason, on my back porch I always keep a bucket of water with the surface of the water covered in sunflower seeds. Those greedy little bastards keep falling into my bucket and drowning.
 
I never said that the Mass General Laws or hunting regs were fair.

Just FUBAR.[laugh]

I was out with a bunch of falconers, and was literally "beating the bushes" to scare up bunies for the hawks to chase.....

I asked the EPO at my Club's Hunter Ed course if I could have been cited for unlicensed hunting, as I was definitely trying to harass animals.
The EPO said, "Well, we pretty much leave falconers alone, 'cause they're all nuts."

If you get an EPO that wants to, you could be cited. You can contest it, but since chippies have a "season" ( all year, except shotgun deer season), you'll likely not win.....

Of course, if there's no EPO (or unfriendly neighbors) about......
 
So lets see. I have no hunting license or a license and shooting out of season, I'm shooting an animal that is destroying my non-commercial garden, on my own property with a non-rifle and I'm risking being a felon. Got It! Does it get any crazier around this place?
 
whhohooo what a ride. think I moght get a 50cal smoothbore air gun, aint a rifle or a firearm. should take care of rabbits and such
 
Just remember, a BB gun is a "firearm" for the purpose of MGL 269-10j (carrying a gun on school property), as that subsection contains it's own definition of "firearms". Even a straw with a spitball meets the 269-10j definition [rofl]
 
Rob Boudrie said:
Just remember, a BB gun is a "firearm" for the purpose of MGL 269-10j (carrying a gun on school property), as that subsection contains it's own definition of "firearms". Even a straw with a spitball meets the 269-10j definition [rofl]
Click to expand...

Luckily they didn't enforce this back when I was in high school. Everyone after our glass-bending exercise in Chemistry Class had "infernal devices" that shot spitballs in our other classes. We'd all be convicted felons and PPs in today's world of "zero tolerance" <=zero brains>. Sigh, it makes me glad that I'm "old"!
 
Chipmunks at my house are seeking revenge! [smile]

attachment.php
 
yanci I been eye balling as the big bore air rifles as they have been getting more popular over the years. I have always had multi pumps or cheap shit CO2s. I recently scored a benjiman Discovery PCP and for the money is a great pellgun. It needed some ltc and the trigger really sucks. There are some DIY mods you can do to help it. Also the factory iron sights SUCK. this pellgun needs a scope to unlease its potential. Im getting nickle sized groups @ 35 yards so far. I still have some other pellets to try.
So far JSB match and Polymags get the thumbs up. I cant get to the range as much anymore so plinking with the 1969 crosman 1400 multi pump is fun. 3 to 5 pumps with 22cal 15grain pellets gets me plink'n accuracy inside 25 yards.
Also I have been collecting any and all pellet guns I can find to give to friends kids who for what ever reason cant own firearms. I have recieved daisy 880s right up to some nice rsw's. Was able to revive a few pumpers for short money for squirrel hunting with the kids.
With a little patience most broken pellet guns can be repaired on the cheap side.
As long as no one really boogered them up trying to fix themselves.
I have a few projects just about completed.
As for the hunting. Im going to stick to the wide open spaces where the public does not normally gather.
 
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Dicks is opening in the new "wegmans" plaza in route 9 and 20. My Crossman is 27yrs old and still pumping and doing its thing.
Cabelas and Bass Pro, but they are not nearby.

TimMcG74 said:
What's a good place to buy a good quality pellet gun in Massachusetts? I'm in the Westborough area.
Click to expand...
 

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