Legality Question - Game Birds in Alberta

[Bluedevil25]

This just came back to me while reading this thread. Wasn't that one of the handful of charges laid against Jeff Folies of Foiles Migrators in Alberta a few years back? He was shooting a Benelli SBE II and I seem to recall they had him in one of his videos firing a 4th shot at birds and I thought the argument was the term "ghost loading" a 4th round?

Floating a Fourth!!!! LOL! You can't float a 4th/Ghost Load a SBE 1/2 without modifying it. I think the H&K models (late 1980's early 1990's?) were capable right out of the box? Not sure if early Benelli SBE's were capable or not, I guess you could try and see if your SBE is capable? At least I can't Ghost Load my SBE 1 (bought in 2000) and SBE 2 (bought in 2007), my M4 does so quite easily but not going to take the chance in a goose blind.

 

[the spank]

Floating a Fourth!!!! LOL! You can't float a 4th/Ghost Load a SBE 1/2 without modifying it. I think the H&K models (late 1980's early 1990's?) were capable right out of the box? Not sure if early Benelli SBE's were capable or not, I guess you could try and see if your SBE is capable? At least I can't Ghost Load my SBE 1 (bought in 2000) and SBE 2 (bought in 2007), my M4 does so quite easily but not going to take the chance in a goose blind.

Atta boy BD!! Keep it on the up and up. You shoot enough in a season why shoot the 4th round anyways?

 

[sheephunter]

Me too!! Third shell is always a waste IMO anyways......just one of the reasons I shoot an O/U.

I think lots of guys could make good use of a fourth and even fifth round....I know I could on decoying waterfowl for sure but I'm not going to push the law on it.....law says three....I shoot three. I always get frustrated when C.O.s are looking to bust you on every little technicality....I guess this thread might be part of the reason why.

 

[Xero]

First off, I didn't want to spark any hard feelings between anyone with this thread. I was just legitimately curious I think I have my answer. There's reasonable probability that a judge will interpret the "spirit of the law" as opposed to the "technical law". Fighting it isn't something I have the time or money to deal with so I'll simply avoid ghost-loading while hunting.

Floating a Fourth!!!! LOL! You can't float a 4th/Ghost Load a SBE 1/2 without modifying it. I think the H&K models (late 1980's early 1990's?) were capable right out of the box? Not sure if early Benelli SBE's were capable or not, I guess you could try and see if your SBE is capable? At least I can't Ghost Load my SBE 1 (bought in 2000) and SBE 2 (bought in 2007), my M4 does so quite easily but not going to take the chance in a goose blind.

I've been ghost loading my SBE 1 on the range since I bought it... Friend has an M4 and showed me how to do it, works exactly the same on my SBE 1, though you can't pull the bolt carrier back quite as far.

 

[CV32]

First off, I didn't want to spark any hard feelings between anyone with this thread. I was just legitimately curious I think I have my answer. There's reasonable probability that a judge will interpret the "spirit of the law" as opposed to the "technical law". Fighting it isn't something I have the time or money to deal with so I'll simply avoid ghost-loading while hunting.

No worries, Xero. As I said earlier, I think it was a fair question even though the answer is probably obvious. No problem either with vigorous and respectful debate, and unfortunately the Interwebz is not a great place for communicating tone of voice. In the end I think your decided approach is probably a good one. As hunters we should always be striving to promote conservation and that is the intent of this particular regulation.

 

[53Izzy744]

No worries, Xero. As I said earlier, I think it was a fair question even though the answer is probably obvious. No problem either with vigorous and respectful debate, and unfortunately the Interwebz is not a great place for communicating tone of voice. In the end I think your decided approach is probably a good one. As hunters we should always be striving to promote conservation and that is the intent of this particular regulation.

Necro

Why dont they just change the wording of the reg to be "maximum number of shells that the gun is capable of holding will be no more than 3" none of this saying where in the gun the shells are. Plain and simple "gun cant contain more than 3"

 

[scruffee]

Why is it that some gun owners/hunters always try to get around rules and regulations?

Just follow the f@cking rules, no matter how pointless they are. Why risk it and give us a bad name?

I personally don't feel special enough to "ghost load" my shotgun when hunting birds. The three round rule is in place for a reason, it's to prevent over harvesting and crippling birds since anything past the third shot would most likely be nothing but shyt shots anyways.

 

[scruffee]

Necro

Why dont they just change the wording of the reg to be "maximum number of shells that the gun is capable of holding will be no more than 3" none of this saying where in the gun the shells are. Plain and simple "gun cant contain more than 3"

Because like anything governmental, the rules and regulations are made up and written by people who mostly have no idea what they are talking about.

It gets even worse when it gets translated in the other official language by someone who has equally no idea what they are talking about.

 

[53Izzy744]

Because like anything governmental, the rules and regulations are made up and written by people who mostly have no idea what they are talking about.

It gets even worse when it gets translated in the other official language by someone who has equally no idea what they are talking about.

It really makes no sense. So frustrating to see how complicated and vague most of the hunting regs are. You can ask 15 different hunters as well as 15 different COs as well as 15 different course teachers and they can all have different answers to every question.

 

[Kenny_G2]

Necro

Why dont they just change the wording of the reg to be "maximum number of shells that the gun is capable of holding will be no more than 3" none of this saying where in the gun the shells are. Plain and simple "gun cant contain more than 3"

If they used your wording then people with a gun that can be ghost loaded would be forced to ghost load if they wanted all 3 shots. The magazine would have to be plugged to just hold one shell.

 

[Butcherbill]

Funny, I was just thinking about this last week while putting a spare parts 870 together as a truck gun. I was checking to see if I could ghost load a 6th shell. 4+1+1, works fine. I’ve never considered doing this while hunting and I would expect the CO’s to look at it as illegal if they caught someone doing it. Technically the 4th shell isn’t in the mag tube completely so it would be a grey area at best but it is still partially inserted into the mag tube to allow the breech bolt to ride over it and lock up.

If you need an extra shot I would say you should google combat loading and get yourself some snap caps or dummy shells and get some dry fire and loading practice, it’s bloody fast once you get it down. I have run into groups of 4-6 grouse and have on occasion dropped 4 of 5 by port loading the last shell.

 

[stubblejumper]

Back in the 80s, some people purchased the Beretta 302, or the Browning B-80 because they were easy to ghost load. And since they were hunting in blinds in open fields, if a F&W officer approached them, they would just empty the gun, before the officer could reach them. The officer would then check licenses, verify that the plug was in, and leave. Personally, I often don't even shoot three shots, and have no need for a fourth.

 

[Pocisk]

I've never had the experience myself, but I've "heard tell" that CO's carry rods that they use to measure the capacity of the magazine. I've never ever "heard tell" of a CO "counting the number of rounds that pop out of the gun". Based on that, and the wording of the regs, I would feel comfortable ghost loading as far as obeying the law is concerned.