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17HMR, Coyote, Night hunt, legal?

msdamato

msdamato

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This has been discussed a bunch of times but I couldn't find a thread dedicated to the question.

Is 17hmr legal in MA for night hunting coyotes?

(b) during the hours from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise, handguns are restricted to those chambered not larger than .38 caliber, and rifles to those chambered not larger than .22 long rifle;

If I remember correctly there really is no clear answer but I'm interested in a consensus.
 
Tweed is correct, as far as Mass Wildlife is concerned (as I remember it). I asked Hunter Ed Instructor Instructors for clarification as to this (and a couple other odd twists). At one time the only specification was the caliber, so .17 was OK; they've since filled in that loophole.

On the flip side, .357 mag is still less that .38 cal.
 
MisterHappy said:
Tweed is correct, as far as Mass Wildlife is concerned (as I remember it). I asked Hunter Ed Instructor Instructors for clarification as to this (and a couple other odd twists). At one time the only specification was the caliber, so .17 was OK; they've since filled in that loophole.

On the flip side, .357 mag is still less that .38 cal.
Click to expand...
If chambered is the key word, if 357 is less than 38 special try chambering a 357 in a 38.[hmmm]
 
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So W.E.C. figured out where I was going. I've heard the same statement multiple times and it just doesn't make sense to me. How is 357 equal to or less than 38 but 17 is not less than 22LR.

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One more time....

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIX/Chapter131/Section67

"Section 67. A person shall not use or possess, where birds or mammals may be found, any rifle chambered to take larger than twenty-two long rifle ammunition, or any revolver or pistol chambered to take larger than thirty-eight caliber ammunition between the hours of one half hour after sunset to one half hour before sunrise of any day throughout the year. "
 
msdamato said:
And now for a little more, what about the 17m2
http://m.hornady.com/store/17-Mach-2


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Click to expand...


Legal, yes. Still has the same "effective" range as a 22LR which is an argument but lets agree on 60 yards. Boils you back to the shotgun, which has that same "effective" range of 60 yards but with 50X the amount of projectiles.

Can you hit one at further than 60 yards with a 22LR or 17HM2? Definitely.

Really their's no argument on which ones more effective and makes more sense to field. Only real place for the rimfire as the law is written is to keep the noise down, you get that small crack and not the BOOM of the 12GA.
 
sig shooter said:
I would send masswildlife an email to confirm the question, then carry a copy of the email on you, if they say 17 HMR is good to go.
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They won't. They have a generic email that says examples of what cannot be used... 5mm Rem, 22 mag, 17 HMR, 17 WSM, 17 centerfire.
 
msdamato said:
So now what about shotguns? Seems to be unregulated for night hunting coyotes?


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The dont specify night vs day because the shot size regulation is for all hours. No shot size larger than .230 (FF). I use BB because its what I have, and I'm not spending the money on Dead Coyote (T shot). The shot/caliber size regulations is not as ridiculous as the artificial light regulation. You can use decoys, dogs, bait, e-calls, whatever caliber you want during the day (aside from shot being regulated still), but you cant use a light on your rifle to identify your target. I get that they dont want people spot lighting deer. Regulate it during the shotgun deer season. After deer season, I see no reason to not use light. If Im hunting at the farm... its not my fault if the farmer decides to put his flood lights on while Im hunting. I didnt want him to.
 
StevieP said:
I even went so far as to ask if 'fire' is artificial light. It is. NO tiki torches or other sources of light are allowed at all.

Seems un-safe to me.
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Yup. Ive even seen that the use of NV and IR is considered artificial light. Seems the light thats allowed is moonlight. You can see them in a clear sky with a bright moon just fine, but I've found that its still enough light to see through a scope, or even line up iron sights. I can't justify spending money on night sights just for this purpose. I dont see these regs changing though. If they could be changed, they would have by now.
 
Infrared Radiation is not visible, and therefore does not meet the definition of "light," that which is visible.
 
BearClaw500 said:
Yup. Ive even seen that the use of NV and IR is considered artificial light. Seems the light thats allowed is moonlight. You can see them in a clear sky with a bright moon just fine, but I've found that its still enough light to see through a scope, or even line up iron sights. I can't justify spending money on night sights just for this purpose. I dont see these regs changing though. If they could be changed, they would have by now.
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Could you please give us a cite for this. Possibly a link to a regulation or law or where you found this in the abstracts.
 
BearClaw500 said:
No site. I saw it mentioned in a thread about this issue. Purely anecdotal, not to be taken as fact.


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We have plenty of bad laws and crappy regulations. It's hard to keep it all straight and we have an Atty. Gen. The changes the meaning of laws almost everyday.

That being said a thermal scope uses heat not light and a night vision scope is a light gathering device I'm not sure how they would look at an infrared light on a scope. I would guess an infrared light source is still is artificial light.
 
pupchow said:
One more time....

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIX/Chapter131/Section67

"Section 67. A person shall not use or possess, where birds or mammals may be found, any rifle chambered to take larger than twenty-two long rifle ammunition, or any revolver or pistol chambered to take larger than thirty-eight caliber ammunition between the hours of one half hour after sunset to one half hour before sunrise of any day throughout the year. "
Click to expand...

I wish they would amend this to read ALL rimfires. Better still, make it be "no larger than .224 caliber and xyz grains gunpowder". In practicality, make .223 or .22 Hornet the max size. There needs to be some combination that makes it slightly quieter and shorter range than the full spectrum of choices, yet be a humane kill. There are plenty of .17 and .22 centerfire rounds which fall under that limit that would work well.
 
Coyote33 said:
I wish they would amend this to read ALL rimfires. Better still, make it be "no larger than .224 caliber and xyz grains gunpowder". In practicality, make .223 or .22 Hornet the max size. There needs to be some combination that makes it slightly quieter and shorter range than the full spectrum of choices, yet be a humane kill. There are plenty of .17 and .22 centerfire rounds which fall under that limit that would work well.
Click to expand...
It's in the MGL. The MA DFW can't do anything about that.
 
Last Hunter Safety class, the Game Warden said that 17 rimfires are "larger the 22LR" thus not usable when it's limited to "22LR"
 

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