Rifle Hunting Statewide?

[Cabin Fever]

With additional counties opening up to rifle hunting, what seems like every year or so, is the states goal to open up the whole state to rifle hunting eventually? I would love to be able to hunt with a rifle in Wayne County.

[Lawdwaz]

I doubt it will come to the pancake flat counties like Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Wayne etc. Same with most of Livingston & Genesee.

I'd LOVE to be wrong on that but..........we'll see.

I'm excited to see that it is back on the table for Ontario, south of Rt 20. Who wants to buy my Ithaca Mod 87? <grin>

Edited May 7, 2012 by Lawdwaz

[Elmo]

I would love to go rifle hunting in Manhattan or Bronx county.

[BizCT]

you can already rifle hunt in all of those counties for coyote/fox/etc (outside of deer seasons)

[Cabin Fever]

you can already rifle hunt in all of those counties for coyote/fox/etc (outside of deer seasons)

Of course you can, but we're talking for deer hunting...

Edited May 7, 2012 by Cabin Fever

[Doc]

This issue can be a very volitile issue. I believe that whether these rifle changes get passed or not depends on how much public attention it gets. Ontario basicly had the thing passed until it was discovered that there was a flaw in the way it was written up. It was on Patterson's desk ready for signing when the Bristol town supervisor had to request that he veto it so they could correct the description of where the rifles would be allowed. Once that happened, it basically went back to the beginning of the process. That glitch got picked up by the Canandaigua Messenger and that was all she wrote. The anti-rifle forces got wind of it all and organized and strong-armed their town supervisors to take up a negative position on the change even after the area description was officially modified to include only areas south of rts 5&20. Apparently a much quieter movement has taken place to silently bring the change back to life and start it through the legislative gauntlet.

I really believed it was a completely dead issue until I read about it in the NYS Outdoor News. So now there is some hope, but only as long as the anti-rifle forces are not alerted. I hope that NYS Outdoor News has not made this info public too early. So now, I guess the message is ..... "Sh-h-h-h-". I'll have more to say about it once the damned bill is finally signed and turned into law.....lol.

[BizCT]

I hope they don't ever allow rifles in Putnam County.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I don't think they should allow the rifles at all. they are unsafe. I think it is much better to allow arms like the 22-250-...30-06...300Win Mag in a pistol...lol.

I can walk out my front door and use my Encore in a pistol configuration but not in a rifle config ...in the same calibers. DOesn't make sense to me.

[Cabin Fever]

I don't think they should allow the rifles at all. they are unsafe. I think it is much better to allow arms like the 22-250-...30-06...300Win Mag in a pistol...lol.

I can walk out my front door and use my Encore in a pistol configuration but not in a rifle config ...in the same calibers. DOesn't make sense to me.

VERY good point!! I never thought of that!!

[Lawdwaz]

VERY good point!! I never thought of that!!

Crazy law.

260Rem. at work................

[fasteddie]

I hope they don't get carried away with allowing rifles in too many counties . Most guys would probably get rid of their shotguns and switch to rifles . I live in Wayne County and hope it stays rifle free for deer .

[Doc]

I have always been back and forth on this issue, depending on whether I have my hunter hat on or my landowner hat on. I have a house that is at the end of a 200+ yard open field on some rather heavily used hunting area. The hedgerow between the field and my house is a few red pine trees. Deer do like to come down the edge of that hedgerow when the hunting pressure starts. The distance is such that nobody shoots the length of the field with a shotgun. With a rifle? ........ who knows?

On the other hand, I have spent decades abusing my shoulder with that old 12 guage mangler. Heaven help me if my 3 or 5 shot pattern needs adjustment at the beginning of the year. Anymore than 5 slugs, and I am likely to be nursing a bruised shoulder and will be flinching like crazy by the 6th shot .... lol. I wouldn't mind retiring that old man-killer and replacing it with something like a .243 or .270, or something of that nature that is a little kinder to my old bones. Also, it would be nice to be able to pick the exact hair on the deer that I want to hit ........ and then actually do it.

I have a theory (and that's all it is) that when a guy goes afield with a very precision kind of weapon that he has spent a lot of time shooting, like a nice scope sighted rifle, he is much more likely to try to use that precision in a careful, deliberate fashion, which automatically makes it a safer shot. That as opposed to the all too typical, spray and pray, 5-shot volleys that I often hear with the shotguns. I think that shotgunners have an awful lot of bird-hunter mentality in their deer hunting. Who knows, maybe while they are carefully settling down for that shot with their rifle, they just might see that gray house just beyond the hedge across the field .....lol.