Illinois Hope

Time for a Sharps 45-70. I moved from Missouri to Illinois and totally hate it. But the wife’s inherited farm is here so………

I'll bet Armored farmer has this possibility covered. At least one of those Handi-Rifles has to be in a straight walled round.

No one can convince me that such laws make a bit of sense, unless the authorities there are just trying to make it difficult to harvest a deer. I suppose you could maybe get a narrow piece of wood dowel (like tinker toy diameter) the required length and drop in down the front of your mag tube inside of the spring and plug the mag so that it could not be loaded, like how a shotgun is plugged to a 2 round magazine cap. for duck hunting. This makes the pump or auto shotgun 2+1 (and compliant). In your case, the rifle capacity would be 0+1. Does the mag tube on any of your rifles detach from the front? It does on my WInchester 94. I would think that would meet the requirement for single shot, since the rifle would be modified so no rounds could be loaded except the 1 in the chamber. Could save you the PITA and $ of trying to mod a contender and obtain suitable ammunition, unless you just want to do it. Maybe bonus points if you only carried 1 round?

With the advent of rifled slug barrels and sabots, most modern shotguns probably have as much range, and accuracy, as any straight walled handgun cartridge in a carbine. Exception may be some of the new super mags like .460 and .500. Many states now allowing straight walled handgun calibers also limit the length of the cartridge which eliminates calibers like 45/70, etc. Thus, I see no real advantage of handgun caliber cartridges in most cases, over a modern shotgun. While rifles are legal where I hunt, for the most part, if I am not using my revolvers for deer, I'm using a PCC. Same goes for my sons and my granddkids. For one thing, we do not need something that shoots past 100 yards or so and second, being in rural farmland that is being constantly invaded with folks wanting their 10-20 acres of heaven mixed in, it's almost impossible to find a spot in the flat open farmland where it's safe for a bullet to go the distance that a legitimate centerfire rifle bullet will travel. Corn don't stop bullets like trees do. The ground, especially when it's frozen will ricochet bullets to extreme distances. Not so much for the slow moving large diameter generally flat nosed handgun bullets. One still needs to know their target and what's beyond with a handgun caliber carbine, but the chances of it's bullets fired, getting off your property, even when that property is small, is almost moot.

I was quite disappointed when I actually read the bill. I had high hopes of using my Henry lever action .44 magnum carbine.

PapaG said:

On my land, the longest possible open shot would be maybe 150 yards. I have a 20 ga rifle (Savage 220) but I was hoping to be able to use a “family” gun, just because. I also have black powder guns that will beat the 150 range easily, but….family…see?

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Yeah, I understand. While I understand the philosophy of handgun calibers for safety, the single shot thing is questionable.

entropy said:

I'll bet Armored farmer has this possibility covered. At least one of those Handi-Rifles has to be in a straight walled round.

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No, but i have my eye on a couple that are.

You are not looking at this issue from the standpoint of the original history of the regulations. These things weren't instantly created. This has been a very gradual loosen of rules on permitted weapons.

Sticking only to firearms, years ago it was shotguns with slugs only. Muzzleloader and later handguns were added. Along the way a lot of emphasis was placed on how these were absolutely not modern high power rifles. It took incremental steps to allow rifles slug barrels and optical sights for shotguns. Had additional steps to allow inline muzzleloader and optical sights. Handguns were limited to revolvers and single-shots in only certain straight wall cartridges to keep out contenders in 30-30 or 40x in 7mag. Each bite at the rules to let in another more efficient gun has started with the argument that they really weren't significant because the comparisons were so close. Of course we have pretty much taken a huge leap (albeit in tiny steps) over 40 years that the last remaining arguments against regular centerfire rifles are looking kind of moot.

Right now the next step is taking those limited handgun rounds and putting them into something a bit larger and more stable while still arguing it's just a 'bigger handgun'. "Gee hey there Mr. Representative, ya know like shouldn't it be okay to put my long contender barrel onto something with a shoulder stock so it's not quite so hard to hold it steady? See it's not a scary rifle, just my old pistol with a little more length."

The process has been very much the same in many states. I cannot knock folks for wanting easier hunting tools and taking the initiative to lobby successfully for them. Not to worry people are already stalking the woods with AR pistols chambered in 450 bushmaster using a "sled" magazine cap to limit it to a single shot, so even if the recent proposal doesn't work out you have a fine option right there.

When I lived in NY, I emailed the conservation dept. about doing that to reduce the magazine capacity of an SKS to the 5 round max allowed for hunting.

I asked if placing a wood block under the magazine follower to restrict capacity would be okay. They answered in the affirmative, and I made sure to be able to access that email reply when I hunted. Also printed it out and kept a copy in my backpack.

Wasn't the work around basically hunting with an AR15 pistol or XP100 pistol? Or was that just Wisconsin?

You really should put moving out of Illinois down as one your life goals. I did and have been enjoying freedom since 2010.

drobs said:

Wasn't the work around basically hunting with an AR15 pistol or XP100 pistol? Or was that just Wisconsin?

You really should put moving out of Illinois down as one your life goals. I did and have been enjoying freedom since 2010.

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Wisconsin has pretty liberal regs when it comes to what calibers are legal for deer. Any caliber that is legal in a handgun, is also legal for use in rifles, and there is no mag restrictions. I have no recollection of them trying to prevent any type of handgun to be used, other than a minimum barrel length of 5.5".

Not everyone has the option to just pack up and move because of what's legal for hunting deer. Illinois has great opportunities for hunting deer, even with their restrictions on legal weapons. While folks do not always agree on what is really "safe", everyone in that area, if they stay legal, has the same restrictions. As I said before, with today's modern rifled shotgun barrels and sabots(and even some standard slugs), and optics, your effective range, accuracy and terminal performance of projectiles, is just as good as most accepted handgun calibers. The only way to increase it is to go with a high powered rifle cartridge and that is what the state is trying to avoid. I have a feeling that because of the many states that are now allowing "handgun' calibers in "shotgun only" areas, we will see development of new straight walled, high pressure calibers, that in a rifle platform, while conforming to the restrictions of handgun case size, will give folks the 300+ yard range they think they need. My son, for a while, had a .460 S&W in a TC Pro-Hunter carbine. While brutal to shoot, it had amazing accuracy at 200 yards with 300 gr bullets.

buck460XVR said:

Not everyone has the option to just pack up and move because of what's legal for hunting deer.

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That's why I said - make it "life goal." You are directly funding those crooks running Illinois with your tax dollars.

drobs said:

That's why I said - make it "life goal." You are directly funding those crooks running Illinois with your tax dollars.

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I'm staying for the election.
My cuz is running for Governor!

ELECT DARREN BAILEY!!

Could the single shot only be accomplished in a way similar to plugging a shotgun for waterfowl? A full plug in a tubular magazine makes a Henry a single shot(or pull the magazine spring and follower)? I can modify my AR in about 15 minutes to be a single shot 350 legend.
BTW Darren Bailey has my vote!

drobs said:

That's why I said - make it "life goal." You are directly funding those crooks running Illinois with your tax dollars.

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Only tax dollars I contribute to Illinois are in the form of gas taxes when driving thru. Unfortunately, I know of very few states, where the government is not run amuck with crooks and liars. Politics is one of the few examples of where the "good" guys, generally finish last.

Wouldn’t a semi or lever be a single shot if one carried only 1 round?

Most States (and the USFW, for waterfowl) require a plug be inserted while hunting, regardless of the amount of ammo carried.

Fyi the bill passed and is pending the governor's signature. Reading the synopsis it's single-shot only rifles, which appears to mean 0 cap magazines since it specifically mentions not have access to a higher capacity one while hunting. So I would imagine if the mag was plugged it would not particularly matter which action type was used.

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/bi...A=102&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=137698&SessionID=110

I still have a 12 ga slug barreled shotgun. A remnant from the gawd awful state I spent the first half of my life in.

I shoot contenders (pistols) and see barrels on Ebay often.

Steve51 said:

I was quite disappointed when I actually read the bill. I had high hopes of using my Henry lever action .44 magnum carbine.

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Once it is signed, I would contact the state to ask for policy clarity to see if plugging the mag tube similar to a shotgun would be acceptable. I'm sure a small diameter dowel rod would work

Aren't you the optimist.