[fabsroman]

Popplecop,

Do you really expect me to answer that question? Come on now, I'm an attorney. LOL The exact load escapes my mind at this time, but, they do make Hevi-Shot turkey loads, which would be non-toxic, and therefore, completely legal to use on waterfowl.

As for the recoil from the gun being because the gun does not fit properly, you must not know me very well after all these years on the board. I am pretty anal about my guns' fit, and make sure that they all fit the same with the exception of my trap gun which I have very little drop at heel on. Now, if you were referring to the recoil from the A-5, that might have been the case because I have never fit that thing to me, but I did pick it up and kill two doves with two shots, and one was at around 50 yards. So, it must fit me somewhat decently. The only two shells I fired out of that gun that day yielded two birds.

As far as game wardens are concerned, I have run into more nice ones that bad ones. We had two come to the field that day, and they were both very nice. One of my dad's friends didn't have his MD migratory bird stamp on his person (i.e., it was in his truck 150 yards away). They went with him to his truck, saw that he actually had the stamp in his truck, and they gave him a warning. I had just arrived at the field and was actually driving right behind the game wardens as they were pulling up the lane. I also had the unsigned permission form on me. So, when I got there, I had the landowner sign the permission form for me. In MD we need to have the signed permission form on our person while hunting. My dad's friend didn't have one and they didn't write him up for that either. They were very nice. Heck, they didn't even check guns to see if they were plugged.

Then there are the gestapo game wardens that do everything but a cavity search. I love those guys.

What happens if it is late dove season and goose season, and a person (i.e., not me because I wouldn't want to make it seem like I did anything like this) put out his decoys for geese and set up his blind, only to find that the doves were flying really well in the early morning? He decides to hunt doves instead of geese because the geese aren't flying, so he goes down to the truck, get a box of 7.5's in lead, and start killing doves about 100 yards from the goose setup. Then, he sees the geese coming so he unloads the gun 100 yards away from the goose setup, runs over to the goose setup and jumps in the blind, loads the gun with non-toxic shells, and hunts geese. Is he guilty of possessing toxic shot while goose hunting if the shells are 100 yards away? How about if he has the shells in the truck? Mind you, they are 7.5's now and could probably only take down a goose if it was a close head shot.

Oh yeah, a lot of people drive 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit too, but I guess that doesn't really matter too much because I never see them getting pulled over.

At the end of the day, I try to obey the law as well as I can, but even though I am an attorney, I do unknowningly make mistakes every once in a while. I think we all do. Heck, in MD I think a game warden could find a reason on almost every stop to write a citation because the game laws here are insane. The only reason my dad and his friends are extremely close to legal all the time is because of me. If I, an attorney, didn't always tell them what the law is, they would be screwed. Before hunting this year, I sat down and read the DNR handbook, and scanned the MD DNR Code book to see if any new laws had been promulgated (i.e., if there was anything new to worry about). Like I said, I try my best.