Hunting with a Semiautomatic Firearm in PA? List of approved animals.

Posted on by Adam Kraut, Esq.

pa_game_commission_fall

As many of you know, the PA Game Commission voted on the regulations for hunting with semiautomatic rifles. As Attorney Prince previously reported, the Pennsylvania Game Commission voted against semi-automatic hunting for big game.

Which means the list of animals that people are able to hunt is not as large as it was previously thought to be. The Game Commission cited a survey that it randomly sent to 4,000 hunters in which they received over 2,000 responses.

According to this article, there were 2,002 individuals who responded.

The findings of the survey show clear support for hunting furbearers (55 percent support or strongly support), woodchucks (51 percent support or strongly support) and small game (42 percent support or strongly support, and 12 percent neither support nor oppose) with semiautomatic rifles.

For big game, while 28 percent of survey respondents expressed support or strong support for semiautomatic rifles, 64 percent of respondents said they opposed or strongly opposed semiautomatic rifles for big-game hunting, with 52 percent saying they were strongly opposed.

http://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/Game-Commission-Details.aspx?newsid=113

“Small game is defined as: game birds (brant, bobwhite quail, coot, gallinule, geese, grouse, Hungarian partridge, merganser, mourning and Eurasian collared doves, pheasant, rail, snipe, swan, wild ducks and woodcock) and game animals (cottontail rabbit, squirrels, snowshoe hare and woodchuck).

The term furbearer applies to the badger, beaver, bobcat, coyote, fisher, mink, muskrat, opossum, otter, pine martin, raccoon, red or gray fox, striped skunk and weasel.”

Big game includes: Deer, Elk, Black Bear and Turkey.

If you have not already, be sure to contact the Game Commission to express your disappointment in their decision to not allow for semiautomatic rifles to hunt for big game. The Commission stated that if growing support for hunting big game with semiautomatic rifles emerges at some point in the future, they will give consideration to further regulatory changes.

Featured image photo credit: Gunsamerica.com

 

Published by Adam Kraut, Esq.

Adam Kraut was born and raised in Chester County, PA. Active in scouting since kindergarten, Adam achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in 2004. After graduating high school, Adam attended SUNY Binghamton where he graduated in 2009 with a major in Political Science concentrating in politics and law. After taking a year away from academics, Adam attended Widener Law School at night while maintaining a day job and graduated in 2014. Adam is an avid firearms enthusiast, whose love for firearms began in Boy Scouts at Camp Horseshoe. Adam’s experience in the firearms industry as the general manager of a Federal Firearms Licensee, who is a Class 3 dealer, gives him a working knowledge of the challenges the industry, licensees and individuals face on a daily basis. Having worked with industry leaders, individual licensees and individuals both from behind the counter and in a legal context, Adam is in a unique position to give advice with insight others may not have. In addition to being active in the courtroom, Adam is politically active to ensure that the Second Amendment rights of future generations continue to be protected. He is the host of The Gun Collective‘s show, The Legal Brief, where he dispels the various legal myths and misinformation in the gun world. In his free time, Adam volunteers with his old Boy Scout troop, cranks out ammunition behind the reloading press, can be found at the range training, enjoys hiking through the woods and cares for his small pack of dogs.

4 thoughts on “Hunting with a Semiautomatic Firearm in PA? List of approved animals.”

  1. I like how “hunters” are all about deciding what firearm their fellow sportsman should be allowed to hunt with. The vast majority of states allow the use of semi autos with NO issues at all. This is stupid and their thinking is stupid. People watch too much tv. Do they think their fellow sportsman will be out there spraying the woods with lead? I live in a state where semi autos are legal and always have been. There has never been an issue with them. We do have magazine capacity restrictions for hunting of course. Pennsylvania should also let the “voters” decide on calibers to be used with this mentality. Maybe do a poll on what knife to carry. Put that in the regulations. It makes about as much sense.

    Were these the same poll takers that picked Hillary for the win?

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    1. Pennsylvania needs TWO HUNDRED YEARS to accept semi-autos. It’s all “too fast” for them.
      Too bad we get the law changed and people use the administrative process to basically keep them illegal. Welcome to Pennsylvania.
      Could be worse. We could be in NJ or NY.

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  2. Pingback: Results of a Right to Know Law Request to the PA Game Commission Regarding Their Survey of Hunters and Semi-automatics for Big Game Hunting | Prince Law Offices, P.C.

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