Ohio Deer Hunters

[General Tso]

I am fairly new to centerfire rifles. I was wondering what some opinions are on Ohio's ban on rifles for deer? I mean you can hunt coyotes, hogs, groundhogs or anything else with centerfire rifles; Why not deer?:banghead:

 

[SheepNutz]

You're on the wrong side of the river. Come down to Kentucky, we love our modern firearm season!

 

[hatchetbearer]

Personally I think it has to do with population density and maximum range, north of that line where the glacier plowed everything over, Ohio is pretty small flat state, and rifle cartridges can go 700+ yards, where as a shotgun slug goes 150 yds with a tailwind on a good day. longer wide open ranges = more likely to hit a house, car or person. I wouldnt want to be downrange of that.

Whereas, I'm from southeast Ohio, and it is nothing but hills and valleys, I dont see any reason rifles couldnt work as well as a shotgun.

My guess is someone decided that even though we can have varying bag limits per county, we cant have varying weapons laws. Id say it just makes it easier to enforce.

I hunt with a revolver anyway, so it really doesnt make any difference to me.

 

[General Tso]

I would be happy with different counties allowing it. I just don't get it. It's ok to shoot at coyote with a 308 but not a deer?

 

[highorder]

rifle cartridges can go 700+ yards, where as a shotgun slug goes 150 yds with a tailwind on a good day.

That's just not true. While there are some differences in trajectories between rifles and shotguns, there are enough exceptions to the rule to make legislation pointless. Make sense of this from our neighbor, Indiana:
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-Deer_Hunting_Equipment.pdf

The .458 SOCOM is legal for deer, but the .45-70 isn't.

 

[Grumulkin]

The difference is that there are very few coyote hunters compared to deer hunters. Deer season brings BUNCHES of hunters out many of whom haven't run more than a dozen cartridges through their gun in a year. Shoot with someone who doesn't shoot much and it can be scary.

One year on opening day of gun season, I went down the center fence row of my farm and sat on a bucket waiting for something to happen. From where I was sitting, as it got light I was able to identify 3 or 4 other hunters within 500 yards of me. One of them looked like he had ants in his pants; he was constantly moving. Needless to say, there was no deer stupid enough to show up for the party. I can only imagine what would have happened had a deer happened into the cross fire area of several idiots armed with centerfire rifles.

I personally have no problem with Ohio's shotgun only rule and actually, it's not a shotgun only rule as you can use a muzzle loader or a handgun if they meet certain criteria. If you use one of the latter, you should be good out to 200 yards which is further than many are comfortable shooting.

 

[45Fan]

True enough. I am in Indiana, and the most difficult part of the deer cartridge laws to undersatnd, I can hunt with a handgun in .300 win mag, perfectly OK, but put that in a rifle, and it is a no-go. Wouldnt a rifle in a legal handgun caliber be a safer, more humane alternative? Rifles would make muzzle dicipline a bit easier to maintain, and would also be less likely to wound a deer with a poor shot, thinking that a rifle is a bit easier to become accurate with.

 

[matrem]

My "opinion" is that rifle bullets aren't more dangerous than slugs,handgun bullets, or ML bullets.
I THINK the ODNR's reasoning is:There are just too many that would see a deer from.. several football fields away... and think to themselves.."This ones mine"..