Deer firearms season opens tomorrow in Indiana. Legislation passed last year legalizes certain rifles for deer hunting purposes, and has raised quite a few questions about what equipment is now legal.
DNR officials say the rifle must have a barrel length of at least 16 inches, and the rifle cartridges must be at least 1.16 inches long. The cartridges must fire a bullet with a diameter that is either .243 inches (or 6 mm) or .308 inches (or 7.62 mm). Those are the only two legal bullet diameters that can be used for deer hunting. Additionally, a hunter may not possess more than 10 such cartridges while in the field.
Also the new rifle cartridges may only be used on private land, and full metal jacketed bullets are illegal. Visit Deer Hunting Equipment Questions for more information.
DNR officials note all the cartridges that were previously legal still are on both public and private land. The 2016 deer firearms season runs from Nov. 12-27. All hunters, including those using archery equipment, must meet hunter orange requirements during firearms, muzzleloader (Dec. 3-18) and special antlerless firearm (Dec. 26- Jan. 1, 2017).
