January 3, 2010

Dear Ohio Deer Hunters,

Currently:

Ohio whitetail deer hunting is legal with certain handguns. These handguns must have a barrel not less than 5 inches, use a straight wall case (no shoulder / neck; straight tapered wall is acceptable), must be .357 caliber or larger.

Change Needed!

Allowing Ohio deer hunters to use center fire rifles using the same cartridges that are legal to use with a handgun makes reasonable sense! If you are an Ohio deer hunter, please contact the Ohio Division of Wildlife and your elected Ohio General Assembly politicians in Columbus, Ohio by e-mail, telephone call and or letter. Ask them to allow the use of center fire rifles.

Please spread this information to other Ohio deer hunters!

Ohio General Assembly: Locate your elected officials both House and Senate.

http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/

Ohio Division of Wildlife:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wil...d/18270/Default.aspx

It is likely that the use of high velocity center fire rifles will not be allowed. Allowing the use of the center fire cartridges that can be fired in handguns, including the single shot handguns, would allow the use of many center fire rifles such as the lever action guns for .357 magnum, .44 magnum, .45 Colt, .375 Winchester, 33 Winchester, 40-65 Winchester, 45-70, 45-90, 50-70, 50-90, etc. All of these cartridges produce a muzzle velocity below 2300 feet per second. All of these and some others will meet the requirement of not being high velocity cartridges (2800 FPS +).

Remember there are various muzzle loading rifles that attain a velocity over 2000 feet per second with smokeless powder!

Thanks!

Jim

Your proposal to use straight-walled pistol cartridges in rifles for deer hunting sounds similar to Indiana's deer hunting regulations.

I hope you are successful in getting this proposal passed in Ohio. I would love to see a similar law passed in Iowa. If Ohio is successful, Iowa will have a better chance.

Good luck with this! I had a 20 minute discussion with one of the offiers about this at the Turkey/Deer expo at the state fairgrounds. To say there was little support from the officers would be an understatement. My guess is the only way to get it done is a ballot initiative. If we do that, we might as well go for centerfire rifles .243 and larger in selected counties as Michigan does.

Buckeyeshooter- The key maybe contacting the elected politicians in Columbus. The Ohio Division of Wildlife seldom makes changes without logical pressure being applied. If my memory is correct, a group of handgunners pressed their request for allowing handguns to be allowed for deer hunting 10 + years ago. Their were organized and they prevailed. We can also prevail on this issue if enough of us press our elected officals with this request and quickly point out the range these rifles will shoot using legal pistol cartridges is not being extended over the pistols being used.
Please try and we may gain another type of firearm that will not adversely effect the Ohio deer herd. It will provide enjoyment of using a rifle if hunters chose one, instead of a handgun or shotgun or moderen muzzle loading rifle.
Thanks!
Jim

I think what Ohioans want is to have a similar change in the law to that adopted in Indiana several years ago.

And when dealing with their elected officials and bureaucrats they should mention the current indiana rules

AD

I have no aversion to trying, just stating that this is an issue they are 'dug in' on, they already know about the change in Indiana law. The game warden for Morrow county made the bright statement-- 'next you guys will want to hunt with a 270.' To which I said, 'sitting 12 feet off the ground in a stand, firing down into the ground at 50 yards through the deer, how would that be any different than a 12 guage and slugs? These guys don't get it. Its going to have to be a change mandated by the law. If you can get politicians to do it great. But a ballot referendum is the quickest way I'm thinking.
I also let them know, I buy an out of state license in Kentucky where I own land and do my hunting there. Because I can use a rifle and do not have to go through the nonsense of dragging a deer to a check station. Maybe if some of these bozos lose a job and get funding cut, they will get a bit smarter and listen to the sportsmen who pay for thier salary.

Good luck Jim in Ohio! I am the person who with the help of others & the internet got PCR (Pistol Cartridge Rifles) legal in Indiana, when I lived there. I started back in 1987 when sabot shotgun ammo was starting to be used widely. I wrote the IDNR and "Tried" to point out to them that cartridges like the .44 Magnum were no more safer or dangerous than sabot shotgun loads. I received a letter from them that more or less said "NO WAY" but when computer came in to use with Hunting forums things changed. SO back in 2007 Deer Season in Indiana PCR were legal to use.

Good luck on this. I have never understood what the problem was hunting with a rifle.

If the officer would have made the comment to me about the .270 I would have said no a .300.

I have hunted a lot in Indiana mostly before the change and I asked people there whats up with this law against rifles.

I never really got the same anwear twice but the most common answer was that it is a safty issue. I've heard the same thing from friends in southern Minnasota were the law is the same.

The funny thing is I have hunted all over Europe where population dencities are far greater than anywhere in the midwest and the only thing that is leagle for big game hunting is a rifle. No bow no handguns no muzzel laders just rifles.

In Indiana I still haven't hunted with a rifle because I have handguns that have more power and longer range capeabilities than the rifle cartridges allowed there.

Well I guess I got that off my chest. I'm not a resident there so I guess they can run their state however they want.

Good luck Ohio