daNattyFatty
Ultimate Member
The rules are a bit confusing, but basically the use of centerfire rifles/pistols is only allowed in less populated and in some cases terrain typical of being able to stop a rifle projectile from traveling a mile or so in the event of a miss. Shotguns are mostly limited to slugs and can't travel nearly as far before they drop to the ground, so it was mainly done this way for safety reasons, to protect people and property around hunting areas.
There are separate seasons for bow, muzzleloader and rifle and they change a bit every year (well, not every year, but they have changed a lot over the many years that I have hunted). Gun season is two weeks, muzzleloader is two weeks and there are a few scattered extra days for each in areas where the deer herd needs to be reduced. Archery is separate (though you can hunt with a bow during gun seasons) and much longer, because archers take fewer deer than gun hunters and it is harder to take a deer with a bow than a gun. Archery is also much safer, so they give us a very long season to use that gear for deer hunting.
The seasons and regs are to help control the population of wildlife and also keeping in mind the safety of those that live in areas where deer and game are typically hunted. The seasons also take into account the safety of the hunters in the field, so we don't shoot each other too often... LOL Well, more like they don't want gun hunters out when the archery folks are out hunting, etc.. the orange rule for most hunting seasons helps minimize collateral damage to hunters as well.
To further elaborate from Sticky's comments, hunting is used for game management. More people can manage to hunt deer successfully using modern firearms than using other methods (bows, muzzleloaders, etc). So, hunting deer with modern firearms is fairly limited in the length of season in large part to control the harvest number. But for those who want more challenge, you can also have dedicated seasons for bow and muzzleloader. Furthermore, as deer populations have exploded, more hunting opportunity has been opened up albeit primarily with bow or muzzleloader. There have been other expansions as well including such things as youth hunts and extended deer firearms seasons (such as the 2 day January dates that have become common in recent years) as well as making more hunting accessible to more people during bow season by allowing use of crossbows during archery season (modern crossbows, especially when equipped with a scope, require somewhat less practice to be reasonably proficient than compound or recurve bows especially since most hunters are already familiar with shooting rifles). Note that these seasons mostly have to do with deer hunting rather than small game, upland bird or waterfowl hunting which generally just have a firearms season although it is allowed in some cases to take these other game animals using a bow or muzzleloader. In addition, because of the much more limited range of bow type hunting implements, some areas close to population centers limit all deer hunting within their boundaries to bow only and sometimes disallow the use of firearms for any hunting at all (even shotgun for small game). Nevetheless, shotguns, at least when using small shot for small game or birds (which actually also have very limited range a few hundred yards or less) so are often allowed for small game or bird hunting even in areas where deer hunting is limited to bow. This is because even though shotguns shooting slugs have more limited range than rifles in general, they still have very significant range when compared to a smoothbore shotgun using smaller shot. There are, however, a number of areas open to bow hunting for deer where no firearms are allowed.
Yeah, it can be complex. However, what you really have to be concerned with is the exact hunting regs and laws for the area you expect to be hunting.
Thanks for the very detailed explanations!
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