Air Gun Home :: View topic - Question about the POLYMAG style pellets in Canada

Witchdoctor · Member

Greetings.

I have a question about the "PREDATOR POLYMAG" style pellets.

Some of the members of the local "powder burners" club are telling me that the PREDATOR POLYMAG and JSB Predator pellets are illegal in Canada.

Is this true or are they shooting me a line of BS.

Thanks in advance

John

rsterne · Moderator

Well they are readily available in Canada from several sources.... I can see no reason they would be illegal....

What do they base that assertion on?.... ie what law is being broken?....

Bob

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I would have to go along with Bob's questions: How have these people made such a determination?

As most people in Canada are aware- the Canada Border Services Agency generally takes the most cautious path when anything "firearm" related crosses the border- whether it be an AK-47 Assault Rifle ("prohibited") or a BBgun "could this be a 'replica'?, Is this a 'firearm'?" etc. etc. Essentially, any importer- business or individual, is forced to "prove" to the CBSA that an item is legal to be coming into/in Canada if they have any doubts about things. The fact that people often have to co-ordinate communications between the CBSA inspectors and the RCMP firearms people to get many products across the border in order for the CBSA inspectors to gain an understanding of the law in respect to specific items is actually both a bit comical and somewhat depressing (and time consuming). My point being that you better believe that Predator's have been "intercepted" by the CBSA more than a couple times- and have found their way in, ultimately.

And not to rant on, but the more involved I get in 'gun related' things, the more people who fancy themselves "gun guys" (powderburners) I meet, the more depressed I seem to become. While I may be ignorant of the inner workings of many specific models of firearm- at least I have a basic handle on Canadian laws and firearms practice- which in my experience seems to be lacking for far too many powderburner owners in Canada. Strikes me that for many, what they can buy at the Canadian Tire gun counter is "legal" and anything else must therefore be "illegal" and the educational process for them pretty much ends there.

Just to give an example of the "expertise" of powderburner people- recently a gentleman bought a replacement 22xx barrel. It was immediately taken to a local "gunsmith" who proceeded to re-crown it, and then "discovered" after the re-crown that there was a score mark right down the rifling of the barrel from front-to-rear. Looking into this, I speak to the manufacturer, who explains that there manufacturing process has no ability to introduce a score down the inside of the barrel as the only implements that see the inside of the barrel are the rifling tooling, which have no ability to both rifle the barrel, and then leave a scoreline across the rifling afterwards- the barrel would either be rifled properly, have the rifling completely chewed up, or only partially done if the tooling was extracted prior to the job being completed- scoring down the bore is just not possible. This barrel was brand new, and actually had an excellent bluing job done on it (better than most bluing jobs on airgun barrels in my experience), I had not looked down the bore immediately prior to shipping- but I do inspect the crowns and bore upon receipt- so I obviously did not note any damage on it previously. Anyways- "airgun" people know that the rifling in airgun barrels is not as tough or as deep as that in a powderburner barrel generally- thus why plastic or aluminum cleaning rods are used to clean them. But a powderburner shop- dealing with a "simple" airgun may not be aware of this- so they machine a new crown, get flakes of steel into the barrel, then proceed to "clean" it with a brass or steel rod- and guess what- damage the rifling. Funny enough- the manufacturer stated that the only times they had seen this issue was exactly under these circumstances- on guns returned for service. So, I am convinced the "gunsmith" who may excel in firearms work (I really can't say) caused the barrel damage (why didn't they verify the condition of the barrel prior to machining?) by using the wrong implements (and possibly dragging steel shards down the barrel) for the job due to their ignorance. My point in this example is that an "expert" in one area may not, in fact, know their a$$ from a hole-in-the-ground in another, apparently similar area. Perhaps not directly applicable to this situation, but the idea is the point.

But back to the issue: If some of these people believe Predators are not legal- perhaps they should produce some "proof" of this- otherwise it's just a bunch of yahoos with an opinion- of which there is generally no shortage.

Witchdoctor · Member

I kind of felt like I was being shot a line of BS.

John

Slavia · Moderator

Witchdoctor · Member

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Slavia · Moderator

Jaxom · Senior Member

It's kinda odd, I hadn't realized all the issues and urban myths about airguns until I became insterested in them a few years ago. Since then I've ran into all sorts of odd or totally incorrect information. Often times being spewed by sapposedly "experts".

Like what has already been said earlier, gotta do you're own research if you want the trueth.

Witchdoctor · Member

Don't worry. your meaning was perfectly clear to me.

I decided to ask my question here, as everybody is more familiar with "things pellet gun" than I and apparently some of the local powder burners currently are.