Can I carry a modern handgun while archery or muzzleloader hunting?
ASK THE DEPARTMENT OF FISH & WILDLIFE
Can I carry a modern handgun while archery or muzzleloader hunting?
Yes. A modern handgun can be carried while archery or muzzleloader hunting, but only for personal protection. Modern handguns cannot be used to hunt big game or to dispatch wounded big game during the big game hunting season for archery or muzzleloaders.
Information for this feature comes from wdfw.wa.gov/help.
HUNTING Deer and elk hunters have until March 31 to enter a drawing for a 2013 multiple-season permit. Winning such a permit can greatly increase the opportunities for success in the field.
Changes are proposed for 2013 hunts in Idaho's Southwest Region, and hunters can chat with wildlife biologists from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 5. Wildlife managers also will be on hand to answer questions and take comments.
For personal use shrimpers, 2013 will be season one of a new age.
Having been granted a new policy mandate by a bigger chunk of the annual non-tribal share of the harvestable part of the spot shrimp population, beginning Saturday, May 4, recreational shrimpers also will get more time to gather their catches.
Heretofore, the non-treaty prawn or spot shrimp allocation was further split roughly 50-50 between commercial harvesters and personal use gatherers.
The entry deadline for Washington's 2013 controlled hunt lotteries is midnight Wednesday, May 22.
Individual and party applicants have 27 drawing pools from which to choose, and may enter as many drawings as their licensing and age or training qualify them for.
Among the special hunt categories are eight for deer, seven for elk, six for moose, four for bighorn sheep and one each for mountain goat and fall turkey permit seekers. Secondarily, pool categories also allocate these special permissions to master hunters, seniors, youth and disabled people.
The deadline for entering Washington's 2013 drawing for spring black bear special hunt permits is Thursday, Feb. 28.
Instituted to achieve specific management objectives rather than provide a general season opportunity, these limited-entry hunts in specific areas have defined numbers of participants and require each participant hunter to have a special permit awarded by lottery.
This year's early season bear hunt lineup again consists of eight game management units in the Blue Mountains (southeast Region 1), six GMUs in the northeast part of the state (Region 1), all on the east side of the Cascades, in addition to five composite (specially designed) hunt areas in Western Washington.
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