They're off to DNR for study. HF90 and SF163

I'll be highly (but pleasantly) surprised if the squirrel sheriff gestapo signs off on it.

A lot of push back from southern MN folks, so who knows what will happen.

AR-based pistols have essentially made the “shotgun zone” moot. Especially considering the definition of a “pistol” in MN. I’ve been hunting in SE MN with a Grendel pistol for several years now. I guess I don’t understand the opposition. Ignorance???

Yes, Fudds abound.

Everything Ive read points to the safety argument of rifle bullets carrying to far in open country. But, rifle coyote hunting is OK because there is less of it, I guess. Kind of seems like locals protecting their spots by fighting the change and keeping the hoards of rifle hunting folks away.

slug only zones are obsolete and need to go away, I have hunted in southern MN for a decade and never used a shotgun

Ignorance. Stupidity. Fine-line yet confusing distinctions between pistols and rifles. Fudds.

Did I mention stupidity?

I had a carp cop tell me a few years ago that the biggest opponents to allowing scopes on muzzle loaders was the traditionalists.

Easy answer there too... Don't like it, don't mount one on your gun. There, done. Sigh...

I always figured it would go the other way (more shotgun/less rifle) with Iowa to the South requiring Shotgun statewide. One of the reasons they have a better quality of deer herd.

What?  That’s a silly statement.  Tell that to the WI guys.  I can see WI from my deer stand.  They can use rifles and they pull absolute monsters from that side of the river.  MN’s point restriction and abundance of good deer habitat is what makes the herd strong....not method of take.

But 20 ga Saboted slugs can print 300 yards with little trouble, same with modern inline muzzle loaders.  Where the vast majority of MN’s deer herd is...finding an area to shoot 300 yards is a bigger challenge and again method of take has little to do with herd quality...as seen in WI.

Agreed. I`ve been hunting the slug zone my whole life. We have some places where we can easily see and shoot well out of muzzleloader range where a rifle would be a big advantage. Most people do not. I haven't used a shotgun in years, nor has anyone in my family.  Modern muzzleloaders and AR pistols have made the intent obsolete. Not to mention that data shows that there really isn't a safety benefit.

Despite being a bow and smokepole hunter i`d welcome the change (and other needed changes by the DNR) with open arms. Fudds may not.

Yupp, I totally get this. I would do anything to rifle hunt in southern minnesota. And, I think using a small rifle or AR pistol would be a tremendous thing for getting more people into hunting, and would be far more ethical than handing a 5' tall 100lb newbie a shotgun slug.

the unfortunate thing is there are a lot of fudds that don't know anything and don't care to learn and I imagine would take all sorts of terrible shots on animals at range and do stupid things as stupid people like to do.

I'm Libertarian through and through and I want government out of everything we can push them out of. That said... I think I would support a little more and recurring hunter safety class requirements if this went through.

Straight walled rifles have been legal for deer hunting in IA for quite a few years now. Hasn't made one bit of a difference in the deer herd because the calibers they allow really don't have much more range then a slug. You also gain accuracy which I think gets the "if it's brown it's down" crew done quicker with less wounded deer running around.

MN has pretty liberal deer seasons which I think is a big part of the problem with the quality of the deer herd. In IA you can have one regular gun license and one regular bow license(you can get bonus doe tags or landowner tags if you or your area qualifies)and can't party hunt during bow or early muzzleloader season.

In MN you can party hunt during all seasons and I know many people who take full advantage and abuse the privilege, imagine how many trophy bucks get shot by the same guy just because they can get tags from other "hunters". You also have the gun season during the peak of the rut which isn't good if you value large bucks.