Can I hunt from the bed of of my parked truck in OR/WA?

[Bigfoot]

I've been looking at peoples varmint hunting tables and it occured to me that I might be able to keep everything in the bed of the truck and hunt from there. It would get me up higher so I can see better and it would make setting up in a different area easy to say the least. I searched this site and the Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife pages but I couldn't find an answer. I'd want to make sure this was legal in Washington as well.

I've also talked to guys that "truck hunt" elk in eastern Oregon, while I don't expect to be doing this I'd like to know if it's legal also.

 

[Penman]

Don't know if the truck itself might be as much of an issue as its location. Some states stipulate that you may not shoot within a certain distance from a road, so you might have to make sure you're quite a ways off road in your trucki. Best bet would be to call Fish and Game and ask an officer.

 

[Dean C]

Bigfoot,
In the state of WA, you cannot have a loaded rifle in a vehicle, running or not. You can't even lean a loaded rifle against a motor vehicle. CPL is a different story. I knew about the "in the vehicle running or not" but my son had to take the hunter safety class and he told me about the "lean" rule. To learn more, WDFW Hunting Information, is a good place to start. It will even give you the rules or a link to find the rules about roads.
have fun,
dean

 

[JSR]

Beside the loaded firearm in vehicle law,in OR you can't"hunt any wildlife from a motorized vehicle". Also its illegal "to shoot from or across any public road,rightaway,or RR crossing". Many get away with it but I'm not interested in taking a chance of losing my firearms,vehicle,hunting privledges,etc. Also the ODFW guys take special delight in setting up their stuffed and sometimes motorized deer alongside the roads here,and I know of more than a few guys that have bitten. The last few yrs they'v had checkpoints set up for distributing CWD literature and the first thing they do when approaching your rig is look at your rifle to see that bolt is open and not loaded. You can download the regs here http://www.dfw.state.or.us/ or pick up the manual at Bi-Mart or most any sporting goods store.

 

[Bigfoot]

Ok, I checked my service manual and it appears that my truck is in fact motorized. So it looks like I'll need a portable (and comfortable) shooting setup of some kind.

I'll come up with something, thanks all.

 

[c_yeager]

In the state of WA, you cannot have a loaded rifle in a vehicle, running or not. You can't even lean a loaded rifle against a motor vehicle. CPL is a different story.

This is correct. My understanding is that even a CPL doesnt provide an exception to the loaded long-gun rule.

Here is the relevant RCW http://search.leg.wa.gov/wslrcw/RCW 77 TITLE/RCW 77 . 15 CHAPTER/RCW 77 . 15 .460.htm

Nowhere does it indicate that a CPL provides for any exception. Although it does show that one can gain an excpetion if they have a "disabled hunter's permit". It appears that this sections includes rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders that are loaded (even if they are not chambered).

 

[bobby68]

i have been interested to learn more about the exceptions for the disabled.. i have a spine injury but still want to hunt. i need to know what i can do in a vehicle too.

 

[Sunray]

bobby68, talk to your local MNR or whatever it's called where you are. There seems to be more places running special hunts for disabled people. Mind you, with a spinal injury, you may be best to think handgun hunting if it's legal where you are. A rifle's recoil may hurt you more.