Hey all,

Never gone deer hunting before and I am reading the laws for public land. A 6.5 Grendel is not ok to use on public land, correct?

300blk is ok to use but it has to be out of a 16+” barrel?

I would assume a 308 bolt action is perfectly legal on public land, correct?

Thanks for the help and sorry for the noob questions. The PDF they had was all types of confusing or maybe I suck at reading

Nope; must be min .357. Case length between 1.16 and 1.8 inches. None of those are good to use on public land. It's really stupid, hopefully next year this silliness will end and the 5 year trial will become permanent everywhere

That’s just silly. What are some popular cartridges for deer on public land?

There are some that get carried away with wildcats like the 35 Hoosier or cut down 45-70 cases but I'd guess the 44Mag is probably the most common. Some have just stuck with their 12GA or use their muzzleloader. In the AR platform rounds like the 458 SOCOM are seen out there. I would not go spend on a new rifle as I really believe your 308 will be good on public land next season

Isn't 300 BLK ok out of a pistol?

OP, Indiana's cartridge laws are a convoluted mess, especially since they legalized rifles on private property. So now you must know several sets of laws and apply the right set depending on the type of land you're hunting and the type of gun you're using. It boils down to shotgun and pistol rules are the same on public & private land. The difference is only for rifles. Rifles are still legal on public land but they follow the old cartridge rules that state you can only use "pistol calibers" in a rifle. All the while you can use rifle calibers in a pistol...

Private land rifle: case length 1.16-3.00", min caliber .243
Public land rifle: case length 1.16-1.80", min caliber .357
Public or private land shotgun: slugs only, 10 ga, 12 ga, 16 ga, 20 ga, 28 ga, & .410 caliber only.
Public or private land pistol: min barrel 4", min caliber .243, min case length 1.16. Handguns may not be a rifle with a barrel length less than 18".*

*The reason for this roots in the Indiana state definition of a handgun. SBRs are legally handguns in IN and you must have a LTCH to carry one. Because the cartridge requirements are much looser for handguns (you can hunt with a 50 BMG handgun if you so desire) folks were hunting with normal rifle cartridges in registered short-barrelled rifles to circumvent the rule barring rifle caliber rounds in rifles. Legally they were in the clear to use an AR-10 SBR in .308 when a guy that wanted to use grandpa's 30-30 couldn't bc it wasn't a short-barreled rifle. So they changed the law to prevent the use of SBRs to circumvent the cartridge rules.

Common public land rifle cartridges:
AR platform: .450 bushmaster and .458 socom
Wildcats: several variants based on WSSM cases necked up to meet .357 min caliber. 358 Hoosier is one.
Lever guns: 357 mag, 44 mag, 41 mag etc
Or get an AR-15 pistol in 300 BLK!

I wouldn't sink a lot of money into a wildcat at this point. The writing is on the wall for eventually applying the broader private land only rifle rules to public land also. Our lawmakers are a bunch of super conservative scaredy cats so they makes changes like this in small baby steps. The rules for pistol calibers in a rifle used to be even more restrictive but they've slowly loosened that up over time. The is why the rifle legalization was made to only apply to private land as a test case.

He seemed to be asking about rifles. In handgun lots of things can be used.

I understand that but often times bc of the convoluted laws people may set out with one thing in mind until they actually understand the law then they will change up what they want.

IE, as OP understood the law he would be permitted to use a 300 BLK rifle on public land but we've educated him and he now knows he can't.  But he can us an AR-15 pistol with an arm brace in 300 BLK... Giving him the knowledge that it's an option may lead him to go that way instead.

Wow, thanks for all the help everyone. Especially the detailed posts. I do have a 300 blackout pistol AR so I guess that should be good to go. I don’t have any of those other cartridges that were listed, what a mess lol.