Arcaic Small Game Laws, Minnesota

[Jaenak]

What erks me is here in Minnesota only a .22LR or short is legal for small game hunting. Yes shotguns are too but I'm talking rifles here. The industry has come out with a whole slew of .17 caliber rounds but the small game laws haven't been updated. The state decided that a .22WMR is too close to a varmint round as far as capabilities to take out larger critters and they decided it would be a tad bit overkill for a squirrel at 75 yards so you can't use a .22WMR when small game hunting. A .17HMR is the .17 caliber variant of the .22WMR as far as stats seem to indicate and I recently heard of a .17Aguila round that's the .17 caliber variant of the .22LR but you can't use any of those rounds since the laws here haven't ever heard of a .17 caliber round. I would be tempted to use a .17HMR despite it being illegal but common sense gets the better of me every time I think that you can hear quite a difference in the sound of a .22LR and a .22WMR and you can just look at the small critter and know that big wound wasn't caused by any .22LR so I got to thinking about the .17Aguila round instead. It hits a touch harder (not too much to notice on either end of the rifle mind you, just enough to count) and it shoots a bit flatter and I assume a touch faster although I might be wrong on that last one. Besides looking at the round it's self or the stamping on the side of the barrel, is there any way to tell one guy is using a .17Aguila instead of a .22LR? Curiosity for that slim possibility when a DNR officer decides to chat you up in the field. Even if he did catch you, would he even bother doing anything about it since they're almost the same bullet anyways? Don't ask why I'd want to shoot the .17Aguila instead of the .22LR when they're so close to the same because I don't really know, I just like it better.