In a 6-3 rebuke of Hawaii’s attempt to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s NRA-backed Bruen (2022) decision, the Court ruled in Wolford v. Lopez that “Hawaii’s law prohibiting licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public without the property owner’s express authorization violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.”
If we define mature whitetail bucks as those that are 3½-years old or older, then there are a significantly higher percentage of mature bucks being harvested today than at any time in modern hunting history.
Animal-rights activists in Oregon have surpassed the required 117,000 signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot by submitting more than 126,000 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office in support of Initiative Petition 28 (the PEACE Act), which would ban all hunting and fishing in the state—not to mention ranching and so much more.
As a part of your summertime scouting, make sure to look out for signs of EHD among your local deer herd. Frank Miniter has spotted some on his own scouting tips, and gives some information about the disease.
This year, both Florida and Louisiana are expanding or introducing new opportunities for alligator hunts. For decades, Florida has estimated that there are over one million in the state—it is, of course, hard to count alligators. Louisiana now says its alligator population exceeds three million. The two states have managed their alligator populations very differently over the last half century, but now both are expanding hunting opportunities to help manage alligator populations.
Nearly half of the states—24 to be precise—have some form of constitutional protections for hunting. When you consider that all 50 states have hunting seasons, just under half sounds low. This could change this year, as Ohio’s Senate is considering a proposal to establish a constitutional right to fish and hunt.
State game managers have come up with an array of walk-in access programs for private lands. These state-led initiatives partner with willing landowners to open thousands—sometimes millions—of acres of land to the public at little or no extra cost. Read on for some of the best options in the country.