In Minnesota, you’re only allowed to use a rifle in the north/northeastern 1/4 of the state. The rest of the state is Shotgun Only, Blackpowder or Archery.
Cute, maybe. But mean.
I may be biased since I got attacked by deer when I was a teenager.
(I’m sure I’ve told the story before. I was volunteering at a wild animal rescue place. They had a herd of five or six deer. They decided they didn’t like me. Let it be noted that I wasn’t doing anything to them. At least one of them reared up on its hind legs and tried to batter me to death with its front hooves. I ran under a tree with low branches. The lady there was like ‘just knock them down!’ I was 5’4" and about a hundred pounds. Yeah, that was totally going to happen. The wolf at the other location was nicer than the deer.)
(Stupid deer.)
Does crab count? We caught dozens of red rocks and dungeness. Those little fuckers are dangerous too with their pincers…
Deer went OK. Nailed three does for the local food banks. Small game and grouse not so good. PA still has a population problem with predators which has really racked everything but squirrel. I still blame them moving furtaker (whether by shooting or trapping) to a separate license.
Thanks, all, for the shotgun info.
Turned a deer into the processor yesterday for summer sausage but easily the coolest animal we collected this weekend came when we crawled into a two chamber cave that we just discovered on the place. We’re several miles from Longhorn Cavern (Texas Hill Country) so I guess the cave shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise, but the bear skull inside it sure was. I would guess it’s been a hundred years since they’ve been seen in this part of the state.
I was in Smicksburg, PA Saturday so I got to see how the local Amish hunt deer. They all were wearing their usual attire, but with pieces of fluorescent orange fabric safety pinned to them. A tad silly looking, but they stood out.
They walked to their hunting spot carrying Davey Crockett looking rifles (not a scope seen). When someone got a deer, he would walk back to get a horse drawn utility wagon and bring his kill home like that.
Many father/son hunting parties. No women allowed apparently.
Cool! I’m just getting into muzzleloading so I’ll stick with that for awhile but crossbows sound like they’d be fun down the line.
I’m so sorry butler1850, that really bites. If you hunt long enough it’s bound to happen. My dad lost a few deer right in a row bow hunting so he gave it up. I was thinking of getting into archery and then I lost a bear this spring with a lever action .44 and it pretty much killed my desire to hunt with anything other than a bolt gun or a muzzleloader for the next little while.
Others have already addressed the issue, but in my home area, you may only use shotguns with slugs, or 00 (or greater) sized buckshot. You may instead use a variety of pistols, restricted heavily by caliber/shell type. They claim it’s for safety, though I have my doubts about whether one is safer than the other in the less rural environments.
I’d much rather have had one of my .30-30 rifles, but one must work with the laws of the state/town you’re hunting in. When I head out of Southeastern NH, I do use a rifle.
It’s about equal (see page 19 of this pdf).
In any event, my .308 didn’t get to get out in the bushes this year. I had to drive by while the blaze orange army invaded.
I hope they did well. Damned deer decimated my garden this year.