Here are 11 of the strangest hunting laws ever passed.
From California to Texas, and from Pennsylvania to Tennessee hunting laws come and go, but when it comes to big game hunting or anything else for that matter sometimes those in charge may have gotten a hit on the head right before they signed it.
Game laws are there for everyone as hunting regulations to be abided by deer hunters from New Jersey to Minnesota but sometimes dumb laws just transform into weird laws and that's when we all take notice. Here are a few you may have heard, and a couple that aren't so obvious. In either event you can take the time to refresh your memory and have a little laugh while you run through the strangest hunting laws ever passed.
NOTE: Some of these rules have since been modified or stricken from the regulations. However, that does not change the fact that they were law at one time or another. Let's start with a couple you may have heard of:
1. In Arizona you may not hunt camels
As odd as it sounds if you've never heard this one before, it always comes up on a list similar to this. We didn't know there WERE camels running around Arizona, but let's move on.
2. It is legal for a blind individual to hunt in Texas
Obviously with some help—and we're all for our disabled brothers and sisters getting the chance to hunt—but it just doesn't sound quite right.
3. In Georgia, you can't shoot deer in any lake, stream, or pond
Not sporting? Or do they just not want someone getting hurt trying to retrieve one?
Okay here are a few that are known by the folks that live there, but it doesn't make them all that happy:
4. Bowhunters in New Hampshire must put their name and address on all of their arrows
If they say it, then we do it, but we don't have to like it.
5. You may not use trail cameras during the season in Montana
From what we now understand, this rule has been modified somewhat to only apply to cellular cameras that are sending out real-time information about what's walking past the camera. Still, the Treasure State is not exactly small nor easily accessible so the school of thought that trail cams create an unfair advantage is lost on some.
6. You need written permission from the state wildlife director to take a piebald or an albino deer in Oklahoma
If it's brown it's down, but if it's white, you better write! Joke aside, this one has since been changed to get rid of the state wildlife director permission requirement and anyone can shoot an albino or piebald without fear of breaking the law. It's just unfortunate it took a former legislator getting slapped with a fine for breaking the law for someone to realize what a dumb law it was.
Now for some of the oddball stuff:
7. In Florida it is illegal to molest a Key Deer
Well, it's written that way, making it pretty odd in itself. But yeah, don't harass them, mess with them, or push them around.
8. It is illegal to shoot a buffalo from a second story hotel window in Texas
Certainly an ode to the old days when they had a "home where the buffalo roam."
9. Connecticut states that you may not "hunt grey squirrel, rabbit, or other fur bearing creatures with dynamite, fire, smoke, brimstone, sulfur, gas or chemical."
What's left of a squirrel or rabbit after dynamite?
10. Bigfoot hunting is legal in Texas
Would you try Bigfoot BBQ? Maybe in Texas.
11. You may not take a picture of a rabbit from January to April in Wyoming
No means no in Wyoming.
While there is a shout-out to Sasquatch here, there are still a few that could be listed such as no lighted nocks in some states, no moth hunting under a streetlamp, and things such as no Sunday hunting to be sure, the fact remains that some of these are newer laws that need to be observed, and some are from a by-gone day when, say, there were actually camels roaming around in Arizona.
From Washington and Oregon to Wisconsin the United States is replete with dumb hunting laws that have their shot placement right on our hunting license, and should we forget them in the field? You may force some poor Environmental Cop to give you a ticket for taking a picture out of season!
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