Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why do some state's insist on shotguns for hunting?

What is the stated rationale (and the real one) for some states insisting that hunters use shotguns?

It actually might make sense in NJ, were you cannot go more than 100 yards without running into either a strip mall or a split level.

Here in Iowa, it's relatively flat, open land with dwellings fairly close to one another in terms of bullet travel.

Relative safety, as in NJ. Just not as obvious.

It likely made sense when most deer hunting was done by still hunting or driving deer and excited hunters were taking shots as they came. Also, prior to WW II most eastern hunters did not use scopes. Since that time, much deer hunting is done from stands or blinds and most hunters use optics. Also, these days hunters are required to take safety courses which has helped a lot in reducing accidents.

In Ohio, there's lots of dwellings, and many of the woods are relatively small. It's not that big a deal-we've been subjected to it for as long as I can remember. Carrying a shotgun these days isn't such a disadvantage with the accuracy and longer ranges they are capable of.

Do you mean that in the whole of Ohio it would be dangerous to hunt with a rifle???

Same thing: do you imply that in the whole state of Iowa it would be dangerous to hunt with a rifle???

It would certainly be dangerous for the deer

I don't imply it, the state mandates it. The question isn't whether or not you can safely shoot a rifle anywhere in Iowa, but whether hunters would self-impose care about choosing the limited number of places it could be done. (The lower two tiers of counties are open to rifle hunting for antlerless deer during a special January late season. The terrain/population/hunter numbers there and then is deemed capable of handling it.)

The stated reason seems to be safety. In a lot of the open farmland regions with limited cover, I believe that it's also used as a management tool to keep too many deer from being taken with less restriction on selling tags.

I don't know but I hate it. No matter if it is buckshot or slugs, it just ain't right.

Iowa allows hunting coyotes with anything from 22's to 458 mags. I think their argument against center fires is worn out and not valid. How far would a sabot slug travel?

In Iowa we can hunt doe's in a special January season in the bottom two rows of Iowa counties but it's shotgun and muzzle loader for the rest of the State and all of the other seasons except Archery.

I talked with a gal who rehabs eagles and hawks a few days ago and she claims the lead sheared off of slugs is left in the deer gut piles and kills the eagles as it goes through the digestive tract. It makes sense so I suggested she fight for a center fire season that makes copper bullets madatory.

I'm sure we would have a number of Iowa deer hunters who would shoot copper bullets for the chance to deer hunt with their center fires. The same ones they drag out of the closet to shoot coyotes. kwg

Mil. installations are the same with shotguns, archery, muzzleloaders.

In Indian they say our population per square mile but I got it figured out....I use a rifle.

A legal rifle...that is.

Thing is, in MN, I could use a handgun chambered in 30-378 in slug zone, but I can't use a rifle chambered in .44 magnum.

There's lots of crazy rules and people in Yankee Land.

They hate children, they don't want them to hunt deer.

Most states with rules like that are hypocritical about it - rifles of any caliber are OK for everything else. So you know it's not about safety.

Most of Idaho allows rifles but there are a few areas near heavily populated areas where they specify 'short range weapons'. That includes shotguns, handguns, or muzzleloaders.

You're referring to states that allow deer hunting with shotgun only, right?
Lots of counties in Wisconsin used to be shotgun only. There's a few left, but most now allow hunting with centerfire rifles.
Most hunters prefer to hunt with rifles given the choice, and I don't think it can be proven that shotguns are safer.

A 2007 study by Pennsylvania's Legislative Budget and Finance Committee did a study called "Do Shotguns and Muzzleloaders Pose Less Risk Than Centerfire Rifles for Hunting Deer in Pennsylvania?". You can read the entire PDF here , or read the highlights (which I recommend) here.

Here is a good one. In Wisconsin a portion of the state is shotgun muzzleloader or pistol. I have the misfortune of hunting in such a area. It is legal to hunt with a 44 magnum pistol. Couple years ago they tried to pass a law allowing pistol caliber rifles in the zone. I was hoping it would pass as I have more than a sane amount of 44 mag rifles. Also It would be nice to shoot cheap reloads apposed to three to five dollar a pop slugs and be able to afford to put a hundred rounds or so through the gun I am going to hunt with. Anyways the DNR opposed the law. It would be too difficult to train all the wardens how to identify pistol caliber rifles. I guess being able to read is not a requirement for a wisconsin game warden. Well law was not passed. So back to my savage 12 gauge. My dad hunts with a savage muzzleloader and remington xp 100 chambered in 350 remington mag.

Yep the 350 is legal as is any 22caliber or larger center fire in a pistol. Now here is my favorite part of the law. You can hunt small game except birds with ANY handgun legal for deer hunting.

So I can go launch a 200 grain bullet at 2600 FPS skyward at a squirrel sitting in top of a tree. Totally stupid yet legal. But I cannot shoot a 44 magnum rifle at a deer with a hill as backstop behind it.

It is just pure stupidity. Every year in Wisconsin the majority of accidents when someone is shot involves a shotgun. Slug hits something hard good luck guessing where it is gonna end up. Rifle round more often than not is gonna flatten and be stopped by whatever it hits or penetrate and expel it's energy. Just don't get the DNRs thinking.

Also funny how many people in shotgun zones have a nice pretty gun that looks like it has never been hunted hard or fired often that they carry into the woods. Yet they have a 30/30 or bolt action that is beat to hell and looks like it has not seen the inside of a building since it left the store. Gee wonder why that is