Ok, so hunting season has been here for a while, and deer firearms opener is fast approaching. Some questions:

1) I can carry while pheasant hunting and use my .45acp to take small game, correct?

2) I can carry while firearm deer hunting, but not use my .45acp pistol to take a deer, correct?

I think so on #1.

They opened up the legal calibers for deer hunting this year to basically allow any centerfire caliber .220 or larger, with no special provisions for handguns. There's a thread about it around here somewhere, maybe on MGT.

In previous years, carrying a .45 (permit or not) while afield could have gotten you in serious trouble with a game warden since it wasn't a legal deer caliber.

So, my reading is that I can carry a .45acp and take a deer with it during firearms season. I thought there was a cartridge length regulation, but I can't find it.


ETA: I forgot to add that it must be HP or soft point ammo, no FMJ.

I think the cartridge length requirement went away with the other changes this year.

correction: wether you use the .45ACP pistol to take deer or not, the DNR recognizes carry permits except in the case of Bow hunting. The only exception for bow hunting is bow hunting bear where they allow a pistol (good idea)

Short form: Firearms season, carry permit allows a pistol. Bow season, ONLY if hunting Bear

...my favorite subject! I love when someone else makes a post about carrying a pistol while hunting so I can stand on my soap-box to pee-and-moan about not be being legally permitted to carry my handgun while bow-hunting deer.

Can the DNR really trump the Permit to Carry law? I've always wondered about this one, not that I would want to be a test case.

It's not an agency trumping a law, it's one law trumping another. For example, the ban on school carry isn't in the permit law, 624.714, but in the dangerous something-or-other law at 609.66.

I didn't know the no pistol while bowhunting was a state law but I guess that makes sense if it is in the regs. Doesn't the carry law trump all other firearm laws unless specifically stated in the carry law? Not sure I understand.

Want to clarify, it is an issue when archery hunting deer during deer archery season. You can carry when archery hunting bear, not a problem, only a problem during the archery deer season.

...the primary reason that this is an issue of contention for me...

3 years ago I was bow hunting (deer) in McGregor, MN. I take my scent control and quiet walking (aka stalking, but my wife laughs at me when I use that word) pretty serious and at about 7:30am walked up on a mama-bear and her 2 cubs about 30 feet down the trail from me. Who knows if she knew I was there (probably?) but she kind of sniffed my way and then took off with cubs in two the other direction.

Scared the s*** out of me - and I have to admit it creeps me out a bit now walking into the woods in the dark of the early morning with my only real protection being the K-Bar strapped to my side - though a lot of good it would really do me.

Oh well, there is me semi-rant for the night.

Yup. And, in fact, the DNR changing its no-carry-in-state-parks signs (after a lot of, well, pestering from Andrew -- which was a good thing) is them acknowledging that their rules don't trump state law.

Where state laws overlap, or may overlap, it can lead to possible test cases. It's pretty clear, under 624.7181 that you can carry a long gun, if you've got a carry permit* -- but at least some of the state authorities are of the opinion that if you've got the long gun in your car, you're under the transportation rules, not the carrying rules.

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* In case anybody is wondering, I'm not advocating that folks carry their .30-30 for personal protection, even though (with proper choice of ammo) it would be far more likely to get you the one shot stop than any handgun.

Follow-up:
.45acp FMJ is an effective round on rabbits.
Southern corn-fed wild rabbit is delicious.

I prefer to think of it as polite persistence.

If Andrew can make government officials toe the line, I as a mere mortal don't want him being "persistant" with me.