Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire It's Official-Wisconsin Now Statewide Rifle Legal for Deer

ATTENTION The use of rifles will be allowed statewide starting on Nov. 1, 2013 in time for this year's 9-day firearm season. The Oct. 5-6 youth gun deer hunt will still be restricted to shotgun-only in those portions of the state that were previously shotgun-only (see the map on page 23 of the 2013 deer regulations booklet). Hunters will need to check with the local municipality where they are planning to hunt to determine if local ordinances are in place that would restrict the use of rifles.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/regulations.html

After working on this since 2010 with some Conservation Congress members I am very pleased that it finally come to fruition.

Congratulations!

Ed

Congratulations!

Logic wins!

Now if we could get Illinois to allow rifles. You wouldn't believe the Fudds IL has!

Thank You chainsaw, for your efforts!

Congratulations, Chainsaw! Never thought I'd live to see that happen.

Let's see now, should I use the Whelen,.358Win, 35Rem, 270Win, 243? Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Now if we could only get rid of those idiotic back tags! We are the only state to still have them state-wide. Maybe next year...?

WN

Oh, yeah? How'd you manage that Chainsaw?
Do you need armed guards to protect you from the Fudds now?

Sweet guys!

Confreakingrats!!!!!!!!

The county I hunt 95% of the time here in NYS will be rifle this year also for the first time EVER.

Color me happy.........

I agree about the back tags, Whelen Nut. They are noise makers!

Hope this happends in Michigan also zone 3 needs this an a big Congratulation Wi

Thanks Chaonsaw, now I don't have to buy that slug gun.

Figures just got a new slug gun about three weeks ago. It was a replacement from savage for the old one. But dammit I could of sold it new in box had I not shot it. Oh well time to sight in the 350 mag.

Actually, the back tag was how the shooter was identified in the Rice Lake shooting. One of the victims wrote the tag number in the dust on one of the four wheelers. Its never a good feeling when your setting in your deer stand and a medivac helicopter goes flying over. Wouldn't be a bad idea if more states had them, IMHO.

Whattaya know - some common sense get through..

I had a guy from church tell me two weeks ago how stupid that law was - allowing rifles statewide. I asked him if he knew handguns were legal. He said yes. I said .44 mag and .45LC were used in handguns - did he know that? He said yes. I asked him if he knew that those very same rounds are used in the Marlin LA rifles - and what difference (at that point) did it make to be used in handguns or rifles??

He stuttered and stammered and still mumbled something about how bad this was going to be.. I asked him further if he knew any coyote hunters in the area? He said yes. I replied that those rifles use centerfire rounds that have nearly the same maximum distance as a .30-06..

More stuttering and stammering - then he just walked away..

Liberals hate facts..and I KNOW he leans fairly far left..

Score one for a conservative..

I have talked to many Fudds about this change in hunting regs and yes many think that there won't be any deer left or hunters to hunt them after all the carnege takes place.

Chainsaw I heard that very same remark at a check in station last year. But many hunters use scopes on their shot guns and there still are lots of deer to hunt at least in the non wolf areas. I now will try to convince some landowners to let me use a rifle. They are much to dangerous to use on my farm.

It's really embarrassing how bad so many of the Fudds are.

They are proof that many gun owners do in fact vote democrat and support unions. I think when anti-gunners talk about uneducated, toothless gunowners it's those guys they are talking about. All the guys I shoot with are engineers and other professionals with degrees. The few who aren't educated are so smart they didn't need the sheepskin.

If you want to get some Fudds worked up, just go over to http://www.siloutdoors.com and suggest that Illinois allow modern rifles for deer hunting. Be careful, they'll probably track your IP address and come slit your tires.

Spencer

You have got to be kidding me!

WN

Chainsaw

Same mentality as when CCW was approved in WI. "There's going to be war in the streets" according to one local Ass't DA.

WN

I hunted in a rifle zone in WI a couple years ago, once. I simply couldn't believe the bullets zinging around. The terrain was flat, open and relatively populated with farm homes., lots of hunters and deer on opening day. I was actually scared of being hit for a few hours there on opening morning. When a group of deer busted out of the brush and ran across fields, those farm boys would open up with their semi-auto 30-06's and it sounded like a fire fight in Vietnam. There were wounded deer wobbling all over the place and one group of hunters actually got confused which blood trail to follow. I've never seen anything like it. I hope this decision doesn't cost any lives. Good luck to them, I'm not going to be there till later in the season.

AK Jim, No disrespect intended to you, but I am wondering why you would hunt in a place like you described if it is/can be so dangerous? No deer would be worth that to me.I agree there are those who one can consider somewhat unsafe, but with todays modern shotgun rounds they were already a detriment. A rifle as shown in the Lehigh Study is not going to make those types a "bigger" threat.

We simply don't have those type of hunters here in southern Shawano county near where I hunt, and hopefully it won't change.

Whelen Nut you are right on when it came to the CC debate. I sat at various sporting good store entrances guaging support and providing info for CC the first time around when Doyle got Sherman to turn the overide vote his way with the lucarative lifetime job offer, and the Fudds did indeed speak of mass carnege if CC were allowed to go into effect. Too bad they don't have to held accountable for those predictions.

I understand chainsaw, none taken. From my experience in Southern Rusk county on opening day, I won't hunt the farm until about the third day of the season. Until then, I hunt county land in the north of Rusk county, I take a trail east off the Thornapple grade. That farm country to the south, by our farm anyway is simply too populated, open and flat for hunters with rifles.

Just sayin it's much easier to shoot wolves with a rifle than a shotgun or a bow.

And no I'm not kidding. The back tag never bothered me. If you had your back tag, you had all your deer tags. Its pretty easy for someone to take a shot and blend with the rest of the orange. The back tag is like a license plate. If you're not doing anything wrong, you got nothing to worry about. It sure helped in Rice Lake.

Alaskajim.....what you reported in Rusk county is very common place where I live and we've never been shotgun only. I live about 40 mi se of Rusk county. Our Rural areas have absolutely "popped" with newer homes built out in what used to be dairy farm country.
A buddy of mine had a boat ruined this summer by a bullet hole in the roof of his shed. It rained like crazy this spring. Apparrently the bullet hole happened last fall and he never knew it. As crazy as it sounds he had his boat in the back of the shed where he never walked by it and he apparently was never in the shed when it was raining. He found the boat totally full of water this fall and the floor totally rotted out. He went up on the roof and found an elongated bullet hole coming from the direction of a field where the hunting crew is known to be quite trigger happy. Luckily my buddy is also a hunter although he's still not to happy with this falls "find"!

Well then, I guess you never change hunting jackets during the day, or during the season, or have ever lost one and had to get it replaced before you could legally hunt again. Same backtag for archery and gun season, too. Constant changing the idiotic tag from one jacket to another. Total PITA.

A license/tag belongs in your wallet not on your back where it can be easily lost or forgotten on another outer garment.

49 other states know it's a dumb, outdated idea. Frankly the only reason we still have it is because the WDNR would have to go through all the bother and expense of upgrading thousands of their license printing units, software, and supplies. That's the real reason!

The WDNR is slowly coming out of the dark ages and getting rid of some of their "gotcha laws". A couple of years ago they finally got rid of the 'gun case' regulation and now, finally, the 'shotgun only' areas.

Perhaps you can explain to me, please, why it is necessary for a private land owner or members of their hunting party to wear a "license plate" when hunting their own private property?

Looks like we are going to have to agree to disagree on this issue.

Even private land owners do unethical things. As far as remembering your tag, you also have to remember your other items for hunting. I found out the hard way when I got to Canada and found out I packed everything but my hunting clothes. I've known guys to ditch their orange when hunting. Not a good idea. Its just my opinion, nothing more. Just be careful. No deer is worth dieing for.
As I said, I was up by Rice Lake when the shooting happened. That sure put a damper on deer camp that year. That back tag number helped put the shooter behind bars for along time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3531-2004Nov22.html

Getting his back tag most likely helped. We found one case and there are others. Problem is if a murder is planned they don't have back tags. The guy was also suspicious from the get go. A Mung wearing all camo during gun season. If not getting the back tag I'm sure he would have been questioned when he got his ATV ride out of the woods cause he was turned around. They were waiting for him at the road, ( I think that's how it went anyway) Lets hope it never happens again, back tags or not.

I'm glad they FINALLY got rid of the ridiculous shotgun-only zones. I lived and hunted in a shotgun-only county for 15 years (Fond du Lac). Supposedly a "safety" thing... bullsh!t!!!

Since they allowed handguns and muzzleloaders in those counties as well, many hunters were out there with Contenders in .243, 7x30 Waters, etc, that shoot just as far as any rifle. And a LOT of people have been hunting with saboted 20-gauge shotguns that will shoot a 200 gr bullet a mile (my daughter, f'rinstance). Hell, the inline muzzleloader I shot my last half-dozen WI deer with fires a 300 gr saboted bullet into a sub-MOA group at 200 yards.




I can't find a photo of a 200-yd group, but this is a 4-shot group at 100 yards using 295 gr PowerBelt (plastic tip) bullets over 2 pellets of Jim Shockey Gold, shot out of a CVA Optima Pro with a Nikon Monarch 3-9X scope. Ballistics hold out to 200 yards, and get a bit wonky past that... but I've killed deer with this combination at 220-230 laser-measured yards, and in most of WI that's a LONG shot. Not braggin', just sayin' you don't need a centerfire rifle to make a "rifle" shot.

The "shotgun-only" rule was superseded by technology a decade ago.

As for back tags, I see no problem with them, since you've got to have 50% of your body wrapped in hunter orange anyway.