Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Indiana Boys - What rifle will you use in 2015?

Red35 must be a younger twin....LOL

I have an old Krag-Jorgensen 30-40 I'd like to try on a deer. The only thing I have ever shot with it was an old stray dog that wouldn't let this old couple out of their house. A sheppard size and would come after you as soon as he seen you. Must of had bad eyesight at long range....lol

Basically anywhere that has water flowing into the Ohio River has deer. The hottest counties are Pendleton and Owen. I'm in Bracken within gun range of the Pendleton line. My stand sounds like a war zone on the Opener.

300 lb bucks with antlers like chandeliers are not all that uncommon. I've seen a few whoppers hanging, and caught sight of one on the last day of season this year. I was tagged out and up in my stand cutting off the camo skirt. They are out there.

Thanks! I'm definitely planning on giving KY a bigger consideration. As my boys are getting older (7 and 4 now) its getting a bit harder to get away for the 7-10 days I take for my western trips. I did kill a small buck in KY back in '96 while in high school near Green River, KY. My dad and I were invited by a co-worker of his for the trip.

I will use a 7mag or .308

257 Weatherby Mag if I get it dialed in, otherwise the 25-06 I use to Coyote hunt with. I hope they get it passed I spent my money on the 257 instead of a 358 Hoosier this season. Took a yote this last weekend with the 270 Winchester so its on the short list too.

Never, never understood why they haven't done this earlier.

Has anyone heard anything about the meeting last Wednesday (March 25th) ?

I'm not sure TWRA has ever asked for input on Anything from the public. You guys are lucky

My son says TWRA's FB page gets bombarded every time they post about anything by folks demanding QDMA, straight-wall cals. During muzzleloader, baiting, etc.

"Wildlife officials at the Department of Natural Resources are recommending against the proposal"

Meeting May 19th to make final decision.
The board could go against DNR but they never have.

. What a joke !! There is no logical reason not to pass it.

When a committee designs a racehorse, you get a camel.
I hope the taxpayers in that state are "permitted" to be American Riflemen.

Cards are stacked against Hoosiers for change in law in up coming season. DFW does not recommend approval of this proposed change.

I read an article about it last night and the DNR says that it doesn't believe that there would be any issues on safety or anything else. Their reason for not reccomending it is that the Indiana hunters are split down the middle for and against. The people that are complaining the most are the bowhunters. Which the bow season is by far the longest season we have. I find it funny that a lot of bowhunters have no problem shooting an arrow at a deer 70 or 80 yards away. But they are worried about someone with a rifle taking a 200 yard shot.

Yep, the squeaky wheel is getting the grease in this case. The DFW were the ones who passed along the rule change to the commission and now seem to be getting cold feet because of a few loud speakers against the rule.

I have read the Lehigh Valley Study but see a few flaws in the report. If a slug from a shotgun will travel further than a rifle bullet why don't they use shotguns out in the western states? I have never seen a 500 yard shot with a shotgun slug across a mountain valley. Have to put my .243 back in the safe.:(
I have talked to several farm owners that won't allow hunting on their farms if a hp is used.

It has been my feeling for some time that there is a rather vocal component of the archery community in Indiana that has too much pull with IN DNR and has hampered hunters that prefer to hunt with firearms.

I have no proof, can't point to a ring leader, don't care how you want to hunt since I hunt both ways myself. It's just a general impression I have after 30 plus years deer hunting here in IN.

I thought the DFW was ultimately responsible for promoting the change.

See this from the website; it is the preamble to the explanation of the changes:



http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/2362.htm

They should be promoting it but now they are backpedaling. I bowhunt when I have the time so I'm not trying to single them out. But I did the breakdown on all of the seasons here and it is pretty lopsided in the bowhunters favor. Here is the breakdown: Urban zone : Sept.9- Jan. 31 for a total of 139 days. Almost all of the urban zones are archery only. Regularvarchery season: Oct.1 - Jan. 4 for a total of 96 days. Keep in mind that if you kill a buck in an urban zone that you can still kill a buck with your regular bow license. Firearms season : Nov.15- Nov. 30 for a total of 16 days. Muzzleloader season : Dec. 6- Dec. 21 for a total of 16 days. One buck only. So a bowhunter could possibly hunt 139 days a year and gun hunters could only hunt 32 days a year.

Farm owners/Land owners have the right to decide what type of weapons are allowed to hunt on their land. If hunters don't want to abide by their rules then permission may not be granted. Hunters need to respect Farm/Land owner requirements.

I quite agree. Landowners should be able to chose. I'm reminded of a situation I faced in trying to hunt groundhogs and squirrels up north of Cincinnati years ago. The farmers around Mason, Ohio were dead-set on not allowing hunting, but I had a buddy who'd been a farmer up there. He took me around and introduced me to the families I knew. I got permission to hunt, but I had to promise to use shotgun on squirrel and .223 on groundhog.

The former made sense; folks were tired of 22 LR coming through their windows. The latter seemed odd, but the idea was that 22 LR seemed to bounce and carry, where .223 REM was thought to tumble or shatter. Whatever. It got me permission slips, and that is all what I cared about.

Ballistics tests, prompted by accidental shooting of Valley woman, give surprise results.


March 29, 2007|By Christian Berg Of The Morning Call


Forcing Lehigh Valley deer hunters to use shotguns instead of rifles wouldn't boost public safety, according to a state-sponsored study released Wednesday.

The study, done in response to the November 2004 accident in which Casey Burns of North Whitehall was hit in the head by a stray rifle bullet, says shotgun slugs are much more prone to ricochets than rifle bullets. And in some cases, the study says, slugs can travel farther than a bullet.


FOR THE RECORD - (Published Friday, March 30, 2007) A 12-gauge sabot slug fired level 3 feet off the ground can travel 8 percent farther (including ricochets) than a .30-06 rifle bullet fired in the same manner, according to a state-sponsored safety study. An article in Thursday's editions included an incorrect percentage.








Officials said the surprising results contradict conventional wisdom and make it unlikely the Lehigh Valley will be added to existing shotgun-only areas around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Using rifles for deer hunting has been prohibited since 1964 in parts of counties bordering Philadelphia, since 1979 in Allegheny County and since 1991 in all of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

"We were just making people feel better, when in fact we weren't making them safer at all," Mike Schmitt, deputy executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said after reviewing the results, unveiled at a meeting of the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, a joint panel of the Legislature.

Despite the findings, Burns' mother, Allie Dickinson, continues to support the expansion of shotgun-only regulations.

"It can't be safe, and there's no study that can convince me of that," said Dickinson, who launched a campaign to expand shotgun-only restrictions after the accident. "If he would have shot a shotgun that day instead of a rifle, it would not have hit Casey. I truly believe that."

Dickinson, whose daughter survived the shooting, also said that if shotguns are as dangerous -- or even more dangerous -- than rifles, perhaps both types of firearms should be prohibited in residential areas.

"If that's the case, then maybe we need to look into archery-only areas," she said. "Lehigh County has changed a lot over the last 15-20 years, and they have not adjusted the [hunting] laws. That needs to be fixed."

The state House authorized the safety study in March 2005 to inject scientific data into the rifle versus shotgun debate. The project was coordinated by the legislative committee, which hired Mountaintop Technologies of Johnstown, Cambria County, at $41,576.

The study's conclusions are based on ballistics analysis of shots fired by deer rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders. Ballistics data were calculated for Mountaintop by the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

Many people assume shotguns are safer than rifles because they have a much shorter maximum range. That assumption has been used as the basis for shotgun-only hunting regulations in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Some states, including New Jersey, Ohio and Delaware, don't allow any rifle use by deer hunters.

However, the study says none of the states contacted by researchers could provide scientific data to back up their assumptions, indicating this may be the first comprehensive look at the rifle versus shotgun issue. (Continued on next page)