@RyanSabalow: Should Indiana deer hunters be allowed to use high-powered rifles.

http://t.co/rkyzSCxaim

seems to present both sides.....

Yep....Ryan Sabalow is a GREAT "journalist" there are never factual inaccuracies or instances of playing loose with the truth with his articles

Well I can tell ya now.... a .308 is NOT a "banned cartridge"!!

In a rifle... for use now ???

The article only states that it is a banned cartridge.... which it is not! It is a legal cartridge in a pistol.
It may be a "banned rifle".

yeah...the wording is off in the pic it seems....word "Rifle" need inserted

every one of these "banned cartridges" is legal in a pistol for deer hunting in Indiana right now. But not a rifle?? Come on Indiana DNR!!

Hmmm, how many semi auto pistols are there shooting those rounds ...... Still not needed in Indiana for deer management ..... we can go round and round over this forever..... While not a done deal...its a done deal....

I have a 30-06 that I use regularly to take caribou on the Alaska tundra. It is a great gun, fun to shoot, and fun to hunt with. I have taken caribou out to 400 yards with it. It is capable of a lot more in the right hands.

As much as I like to use this gun in Alaska, I'm not a fan of expanding the capability to Indiana. It would be really easy to make a mistake with that gun that would haunt me my entire life.

I think the popularity of that .358 rounds with speeds up close to 3000fps have started this.

Honestly I do not think that we should just make it real easy and go back to shotgun and muzzleloaders.

Most modern muzzleloaders are capable of 300 yard shots and shot guns with rifled barrels and scopes shooting the modern "bullet" type slugs are capable easily out to and beyond 200 yards.

How much further do we need ?

yes some areas you could shoot rifles, but what about in most areas ?

I think its a can of worms/problems

Not to start trouble, but the notion that muzzle loaders are 300 yard guns and shotguns are 200 yard guns is BS. There isn't one in a hundred hunters that could make those kind of shots.

I hear "my muzzle loader shoots like a high powered rifle" all the time from friends and acquaintences. News flash ... It's is nowhere close.

You don't see guys going on hunting trips out west where they can use a 30-06 electing to take their slug gun or muzzle loader very often for good reason.

Totally agree, my CVA wolf off the shelf of Cabelas bargain cave is a 100-150 yard gun, period

Now if you have the money, you can get a legitimate 300+yd muzzleloader. I bet they have not sold many to Indiana hunters though...

http://www.badbullmuzzleloaders.com/models.htm

76chevy - 150 Yds is about all I can get out of my TC also, and I've played around with a bunch of different kinds of bullets and loads.

I've got a slug gun that is about as good as you can get; Savage bolt action 12ga, fully rifled, sporting a Leupold 3x9 scope and shooting Federal saboted Barnes copper loads. Zeroed at 100 yards, it drops 6" at 150 yards and 18" at 200 yards. Have worked with it extensively.

My Savage 220F is a 200 yard gun. I have shot deer out to 225 yards with it no problem and dropped them. I have it zeroed in at 200 yards. I bought it for long range shooting. Of course I have a 6-24-50 on it I believe it is.

What is the drop from 100 to 200 yards?

Parrot - Curious, what is the bullet drop from 100 yard zero to 200 yards?

I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it. It is 3 inches high at 150 and dead on at 200.

I shoot Remington 3 inch Accutip. I am sure it is on their site.

Looked it up. Looks like 14.5" drop from a 100 yard zero to 200 yards, so not a great deal different than my loads. I shoot 2-3/4" loads and the 12ga is a heavier slug, likely that is the 3.5" difference.

Rainbow trajectory any way you slice it, and pretty well out of gas at distances much beyond that 200 yard mark.

In 2012 I killed a doe at 193 yards with my Remington 870 20 gauge shooting a Copper solid 2 3/4 slug. Granted that gun shot like a rifle

Even have video of the shot

My 20 gauge, which was stolen, was 2" high at 100 yards and 13" low at 200.

It did not start "keyholing" until it was past 275 yards

Made a 3" 3 shot group at 200 yards.

Sounds good thanks for looking.

Uncle Bucky, I have shot it to 250 with no problems. Nest year wont matter with our HPRs

yeah... they shoot further then people realize.

The comment section here is interesting....

One commented suggested they be legal in northern IN only as it has much more open flat terrain and open farm land

^^^^ and sadly your not joking about that...

There's a reason that the 30-06 has been so popular for over 100 years. It is tremendously accurate at long ranges. The modified rounds 300 Win Mags, WSM, etc don't shoot that much different. All these guns are capable of taking deer at 1000 yards. That is a substantial difference from the current legal guns that people can get out to a couple hundred yards with.
I do like the smaller rifle cartridges for deer. Many have similar ballistics to modern shotguns and muzzleloaders with much less recoil. These are great for kids, women, and anyone else that doesn't enjoy the beating a 12 gauge slug gun can put on you.

I'll take my .270 win. for deer anyday over an '06....I wont use it here, but for Texas and the western States it's a heck of a deer rifle....there are quite a few good calibers out there....just not for this state...I hope ;0)

I shot rifle competition for years and very few people can shoot well enough from field positions to have any business shooting much over 200 yrds.Those who say their slug guns shoot like a rifle may be right,but do they shoo like an accurate rifle?

I shot rifle competition for years and very few people can shoot well enough from field positions to have any business shooting much over 200 yrds.Those who say their slug guns shoot like a rifle may be right,but do they shoot like an accurate rifle?

i think youre being too generous

I would have said 100 yds

I think you guys make the point. Generally speaking, we probably know that a LOT of guys that go deer hunting aren't the most responsible when out there, don't take anywhere near enough time or practicing with their weapon of choice and take unreasonable shots already be it situational or length of shot taken. It could be argued that it's bad enough with the short range weapons in use now and expanding to the high power, longer range weapons is likely to make it even worse.

I agree. In the last couple decades deer-hunting weapons of choice, whether vertical bows, crossbows, shotguns, handguns, rifles, or muzzle loaders (and their associated projectiles) have seen significant increases in the distances at which those projectiles can be launched with acceptable accuracy to ethically make clean kills on deer-sized game. Regardless of which weapon and projectile the hunter chooses he/she is, and always has been, responsible for the results in the field. You need to know the limits of your weapon and its projectile. You need to know your limits in placing that projectile in the right spot. And you need to practice to gain the knowledge and skill to make shots at whatever distance YOU have determined you can make a clean kill a very high percentage of the time (in the field, not just on a target range). Plus, the shot must be taken ethically and safely. This holds true for all weapon types.

Here is a link copied from another hunting website. It contains video of two young men shooting mule deer in Idaho...at 1,082 yards and 960 yards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9A-dvfFD0&list=UUW05Qtde64oWHNG0CvMrdHg

At what point does shooting long distance become target practice instead of hunting? If the quarry has zero chance of using their senses to detect danger...is it really hunting?

its the men holding the guns...not the guns that are the problem there.


does a deer two hundred yards away detect the danger about to be unleashed by a modern shotgun or muzzleloader?

Exactly! Doesn't take much of a hunter to kill at 200 yards with the weapons we already have available. Just takes a good marksman. So why the effort to push that distance out to 1,000 yards for hunting? Give lesser marksmen better odds at 200 yards?

Here is a link copied from another website showing a hunter shooting a deer with a bow at 104 yards.

http://youtu.be/8ri6U74eIvE

Here is a link of a bow hunter shooting a turkey at 200 yards with a bow.

http://youtu.be/1u9ahXrfJ64