Change in hunting rules
New hunting rules for TN will go into effect next season. One of those rules is that:
All centerfire rifles for hunting of deer, bear and boar. The current rules only allow .24 caliber and larger.
So, you’ll be able to hunt with 5.56Nato and your AR-15.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Given that the 5.56 NATO round has a hard time stopping people, I think I’d be afraid to shoot a bear with it. That might be one of the days when the bear eats you 😉
June 30th, 2006 at 8:40 am
It’s been legal in GA and AL all along.
June 30th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Don’t close your mind off here, there are plenty of .22-.24 caliber rounds that would work wonderfully on our little deer that are not allowed under current rules. .22 doesn’t always mean 5.56 Nato 🙂
.22 rem mag
.22 WSSM
.22-250
There’s a long, long list. Yes, some are marginal but there’s a good few that are acceptable, and there’s no reason to ban their use from hunting medium game like deer.
Just because you *shouldn’t* do something, doesn’t mean it should be illegal.
June 30th, 2006 at 11:38 am
…and the .204 Ruger and the .17 Remington!
As it happens, the introduction of the .17 rimfires made them legal for deer in a bunch of states. Seems they wrote the laws to state that “.22 rimfire” is illegal for such. I have an acquaintance that has been present when deer were taken with .17’s.
Not what I would suggest.
June 30th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
The Utah DWR tried to put in a ban like that in the early ’90s. They prohibited anything smaller than .24 cal and any rifle that could carry more than 6 rounds. (Yeah, it was a back-door AW ban). The Legislature forced them to rescind it the next year and go back to the “all centerfire rifles” standard.
The .220 Swift is used by some hunters. From what I understand it’s not that good for mule deer but it’s murder on antelope.