How Far is Too Far? Wyoming Legislature Mulls Shot Distance Restrictions

[daltrix99]

Curious to hear the thoughts and opinions here. My two cents: a 'fair chase' regulation around shot distances could be an effective measure that encourages better shots and decisions in the field. The challenge would be the balance around not over-regulating whatever the details would be, and understanding that it would be more of an 'honor-code' regulation (similar to archery shots outside of shooting light, for example).

In some clicking around I learned that this is already common in many European countries. I can think of pros and cons, and there would be a lot of nuance to consider.

How Far Is Too Far? Wyoming Legislature Mulls Shot Distance Restrictions

How far is too far to take an ethical shot on an animal? However you answer that question, some in Wyoming are calling on lawmakers to step in and decide. Long-distance hunting has become more and more popular over the past several years, and MeatEater has lots of coverage about squeezing the...

www.themeateater.com

 

[Bob-WY]

Distance based will be unenforceable unless you witness it. Equipment restrictions might be doable, everything from CDL dials to magnification to Bluetooth rangefinder will be discussed

All told, most likely very hard to get a clean suggestion

 

[daltrix99]

Distance based will be unenforceable unless you witness it. Equipment restrictions might be doable, everything from CDL dials to magnification to Bluetooth rangefinder will be discussed

All told, most likely very hard to get a clean suggestion

Definitely. I read some European countries have shooting distance laws based on caliber.

 

[brymoore]

Unenforceable

 

[mtmuley]

Unenforceable

Teachable? mtmuley

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Do they seriously have nothing better to talk about ? WTH...this is the world we live in now...it's sad...

 

[Bighorner]

"If a hunter can stay so far away that there’s no chance of a mule deer seeing or hearing anything suspicious, they said, then the interaction that defines hunting eventually breaks down."

I think that's most sysinct argument yet.

 

[Buffs35]

I'll beat the same drum I've been doing for years, we need weapon restrictions. I would prefer to go back to recurve and black powder only, and limit season length. Not going to happen, but we could get more people in the field, and hopefully improve the health of the herd.

 

[rogerthat]

I agree with others weapon restrictions are the only way to address what this is trying to address.

 

[Bighorner]

I would love to see restriction to traditional bows and black powder for mule deer.

I'm a perfect world, limiting each hunter to one bullet per tag would be nice. I bet that would slowdown some of the OK Corral shoot outs.

 

[jimh406]

Good in principle, but people wound animals/lose animals at all distances.

Weapon regulations have similar issues.

 

[okie archer]

I'm not interested in following European protocols.

 

[cgasner1]

Do they seriously have nothing better to talk about ? WTH...this is the world we live in now...it's sad...

Kinda funny with it being Wyoming pushing it this time since it’s kinda were this all started. Also they aren’t the first state to look at this it’s apparently becoming a serious issue

 

[R.K.]

I think a good compromise would be if someone shoots over you in hunter orange, you are legally allowed to return fire in self-defense.

If publicized enough, it might cut out some of the crap.

 

[Forkyfinder]

100 yards is too far for some. 500 isnt far at all for others. Highly situational and weather/skill involved.

Would we legislate how far an animal can be from a road to make more hunters waste less ? 1 mile is too far for some and 5 miles is just getting started hunting.

If the concern is to limit tech to preserve opportunity - great - but id be inclined to think habitat, conservation easements, and migration corridors would do more for that then putting a law in place no one can enforce regarding shot distance.

 

[Bob-WY]

Education is key, this is where many youtubers are influencing in the wrong direction

 

[TOGIE]

It's obviously unenforceable. But, laws help promote ethics. I feel that long range hunting, if you can call it hunting, is in my opinion, without argument, well beyond the boundaries of good fair chase ethics.

Weapons restrictions obviously work better, but the statement of ethics is less clear on this issue.

 

[Forkyfinder]

It's obviously unenforceable. But, laws help promote ethics. I feel that long range hunting, if you can call it hunting, is in my opinion, without argument, well beyond the boundaries of good fair chase ethics.

Weapons restrictions obviously work better, but the statement of ethics is less clear on this issue.

Whats long range to you?

 

[TOGIE]

Whats long range to you?

If i made the law i'd set it around 600 yards.

But it's not entirely relevant to the point. And we're not talking about what we can do now with a 9 power scope on a 300 dollar rifle compared to 80 years ago, we're talking about what people are doing now with 5,000 dollar scopes.

I feel confident the youtube videos would stop getting posted if some sort of yardage restriction was passed. Maybe they still go do it, but the influence is diminished.

 

[Forkyfinder]

If i made the law i'd set it around 600 yards.

But it's not entirely relevant to the point. And we're not talking about what we can do now with a 9 power scope on a 300 dollar rifle compared to 80 years ago, we're talking about what people are doing now with 5,000 dollar scopes.

I feel confident the youtube videos would stop getting posted if some sort of yardage restriction was passed. Maybe they still go do it, but the influence is diminished.

Thats a good point. At least if it were illegal - people might not film themselves.