Can any of y'all Texans out there tell me where to find what is considered a legal firearm for hunting. On the http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/hunt/means/ site i was only able to find that legal firearms can be used but doesn't say what one is.

Some questions were, is an SKS legal for deer, what about size 7.5 shot in a shotgun for deer? They say no rimfires for deer. But are rimfires legal for game birds (i.e.turkeys?) I always hear of people using 17 hmr and 22 mag for them but i was under the impression that rimfires could not be used for any game animal. I was just wondering (i don't plan on going deer hunting with an SKS)

-9r

hehe stick to the 8 shot skeet loads for deer :P

Game animals and game bird may be hunted with any legal firearm. Illegal firearms are: pellet and other air guns fully automatic firearms firearms equipped with silecers or sound-suppressing devices

Additionally: White-tailed deer mule deer desert bighorn sheep pronghorn antelope may not be hunted with rimfire ammunition of any caliber. Any centerfire legal firearm is okay to use with no restrictions on bullet, caliber, or shot size.

For instance javelina is on the list of Game Animals as is a turkey on the list of Game Birds. They are not rimfire restricted on the list above so it is okay to use your 17 HMR or 22 MAG for them. Feral hogs are not on the Game Animal list so you can use any kind of device you want. Spear, knife, stones, etc. You can't use that stuff on Game Animals.

When I was a young fellow, I killed a 6 X 4 white-tailed deer with #4 shot (12 Gauge). I was walking to an afternoon goose blind and it was hiding in some brush along a barbed wired fence. It spooked but it didn't know exactly what I was. When it stuck it's face around the brush to see just what I was, I shot it in the head... dead. I shot a 200# feral hog with #6 shot the exact same way.

An SKS is fine, I've had a couple of young fellows use them to kill their first deer on my place. It doesn't take much to kill a deer at 30 to 40 yards. Before the SKS were around it was the 30 M1 Carbine. I haven't seen a hunter with one of those in years but I killed a deer with mine at 35 yards. Dropped it like a bad habit. I killed a nilgai with a 222 Rem, now the outfitters want you to use a 300 Win Mag as a minimum. Nothing is about hunting any more.

thanks, cause a friend and I were in a heated debated about what was legal and what wasn't
-9r

Strange rules here in Texas... They are great as long as individuals remain responsible. With the influx of people coming to Texas, I'm sure they will one day become more restricted.

The lease system takes care of some of it. I've seen ranchers and outfitters specify a minimumly acceptable caliber. I've personally seen a rancher that would not allow anything less than .243 caliber size plus your caliber had to produce 1000 FPE performance at 100 yards for deer. For instance; you couldn't hunt with a .223 or a 25-35 or 30 M1 Carbine. I'm hunting with an outfitter that requires 300 Win Mag performance for nilgai, a non-game animal. The law doesn't require a thing.

I had a friend who killed a deer with a large rock. The deer died pretty quick, actually took two shots with a rock he said, but he could have been violated because it is not a legal weapon. He was walking down a creek bed on his way to a bow stand with a 5 gallon bucket of corn. He decided to pee before getting to his stand and knew that deer would be using the creek bed which he wanted to leave as scent free as possible. He went up the bank to take care of business and immediately started to hear corn being crunched down in the creek bed. Low and behold a 6 point buck had his head down in the bucket. He picked up a pretty big stone with both hands and launched it wacking the deer right between the horns. He said he actually had another enroute about the time the first one hit. The deer died with his head in the bucket.

Jimmy was something else, quite a bowhunter, he passed away several years ago... cancer. I remember on one opening morning of archery season he killed a buck, doe, javelina, feral hog and tom turkey. He stacked it in the road, one on top of each other descending in size and waited for us to come by and pick him up. That stack of critters was about 4' high! He was sitting in the brush waiting to see our response from his productive morning. The rest of the crew hadn't had much luck so when we saw the stack we just kept driving and made him walk back to camp.

Michael

Wish I could turkey hunt with my .22mag...here in IL hunting rules are STRICT. You can't hunt a deer with a rifle unless if it is muzzelloading! Slugs are ok with them though, but still.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what are "Nilgai"?

A very large and tough antolope, Afirician game animal. Some ranches in Texas carry this exotic.

aussie... Like CD said nilgai (http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/bosetrag.htm) are a large, very tough antelope that is actually from coastal plain of India and Pakistan where they are referred to as "Blue Bulls" because of their color when view from the distance. That is where you tend to see them from... a distance.

These critters where brought into Texas in the '30s by the King Ranch as they might adapt well to the Tenerias and Sauz pastures in the Norias Division of the Ranch. They did, it was country like there homeland with one major difference... no people.

This is a vast, low fence country that extends from Baffin Bay to the North and the Arroyo Colorado to the South. Just about everything on the coast from Corpus Christi to the North and Rio Grande to the South. Inland, US Highway 77 pretty much marks the western edge of their travels because of their need for the coastal lowlands. If you divide that area, pretty close to 1/2 million acres, into thirds the Armstrong Ranch is on the northern end, the King Ranch is in the center (Armstrong and King were originally partners), and the Yturria Ranch is to the South. I will be hunting on the Yturria Ranch with their outfitter, Wildlife Systems, Inc. (http://www.wildlifesystems.com/nilgai.htm).

Michael

Wish I could turkey hunt with my .22mag...here in IL hunting rules are STRICT. You can't hunt a deer with a rifle unless if it is muzzelloading! Slugs are ok with them though, but still.

Captain...
A lot of folks hunt turkeys here with other than shotguns. Still shooting the same distance as one and many shooters only take head shots. You have to have a lot of birds to work shooting this way but you end up getting pretty good at it. This year I hunted turkeys, the few times I got out, with my 444! A real light load with a 310-grain bullet. My neighbor kills four turkeys every year with his old leveraction 22 Mag. They are all shot in the head or high neck... the fellow is about 83!

Michael

Had an old school chum that was a Park Ranger on the Padre'. He said the exotics would sometime show up on the island. They had to swim the bay to get there. The girl on the King Ranch tour said that she had been run off the beach on the island by cotes before. Pretty wild and vast contry to say the least. Had to go to Corpus on buisness one time a few years back and it was a great trip. Nice place to visit or hunt. I could stand to go back and hunt one day. I really liked the area.

I've seen some pretty good bucks on the Island roughly between Baffin Bay and the Land Cut. One time I saw several standing out in a gentle surf, the wind wasn't blowing as it normally does. It finally dawned on my why they were standing in the Gulf of Mexico... they were trying to get away from the mesquitoes!

I had a friend in college from around Daytona. He said they used to catch hogs and sell to the baebeque places. He said it was not unusual to run them across A1A and catch them on the beach. That was mid 70's. I used to spend a couple weeks every summer during the mid to late 60's fishing on Flagler Beach pier. Those were good times.