TimSr
Member
What a silly law, why are you limited to just those choices? Is it against the law to fire other calibers and every other animal except deer too?
This is for deer hunting only, when almost every hunter in the state of Ohio is in the field in a seven day period. More people hunt than work that week.
Needs to be looked at in context to understand that it's evolution in progress. Ohio was always a shotgun only state or muzzleloader. In the 1980's they introduced pistol hunting with a specified list of calibers. For a number of years I used my 44 Magnum because my 454 Casull was not on the list. That list eventually evolved to .357 or larger, straight walled cartridge.
Last year they introduced pistol caliber rifles for the FIRST time ever. For the upcoming season they've already added more calibers to the list. I can guarantee the list will expand the following year. I expect it will eventually become simpler and more like the handgun specs. I'd also expect some of the lower powered bottleneck classics such as 30-30 to be added at some point. Eventually, I think it may also go to even less restrictions in some of the mountainous counties in the southeast part of the state. When making big changes to hunting laws, it's always best done incrementally, as each stage proves itself, and the fears are proven unfounded.
Most of Ohio's game laws are established by hunters, who have a huge say in how things are managed here. While on the surface, these limitations may look "stupid", they are actually very smart steps towards a sensible goal. The first few years especially, these restrictions will evolve rapidly, so it would not be wise to make any long term decisions based on today's list, other than to understand that the list of legal calibers will certainly grow, and nothing will likely be removed.
I've used 454 Casull revolver since they were legal in the 90's, and never recovered a bullet from a deer. I'll never get 300 yard accuracy from an open sighted revolver, but I would think that 460, will do everything you want.