Syracuse.com - Cayuga County may be a 'rifle county' as early as this fall

[HuntingNY-News]

Assemblyman Brian Kolb, R- Canandaigua, is the chief sponsor of the bill (A9638). Hunters in Cayuga County may be able to hunt big game (deer and bear) with a rifle as early as this fall under proposed legislation introduced this year.Assemblyman Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, is the chief sponsor of a bill (A9638) that would make Cayuga among those counties where rifles could be used by hunters during the regular firearms season, in addition to shotguns.Rifles are allowed for hunting in the entire Northern Zone of the state, along with various counties in the Southern Tier, the western part of the state and downstate. Central New York counties where rifles are allowed are Oswego, Oneida, Madison, Cortland and Chenango.Critics of rifles say they’re unsafe and should not be allowed near populated areas, noting that bullets travel a lot farther and faster than slugs from a shotgun — in some cases more than a mile. Defenders of rifles, though, say they’re safe if used properly, and in counties where their use has been recently allowed there have been no increase in hunting-related problems or accidents.In a memo attached to the bill, Kolb wrote: “Given the rural nature of Cayuga County and the safety record of hunters in the counties where rifle hunting has been permitted, it would be reasonable to now permit rifle hunters in Cayuga County the same opportunities.”The Cayuga County bill currently sits in the Assembly’s environmental conservation committee. The Senate companion bill is S6801.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog