Carrying a firearm during bow season

Here... they assume that if you are in possession of an archery tag in an area with an open archery season, then that is what you are hunting and thus cannot have a gun... it is a knee jerk law which assume's that everyone that is bowhunting will be tempted to poach their quarry with a rifle and claim it as a bow kill... ridiculous for the most part (not that it hasn't happened).

How would they know you have an archery tag if you don't tell them?
 
No special weapon tags in BC either. Just tags, and you can use whatever weapon you want, according to the season you are hunting. We have only 2 weapon defined seasons- bow and GOS. Bow season you can use only bow for that species, GOS use whatever you want.

But the seasons overlap, too. It might be a 10 day bow only deer season but coyotes and rabbits are open for firearm as well.
 
In Ontario, it is not legal to carry a firearm during bow season, except where bow season overlaps with a firearms season, and your license is valid for both bow and firearm.

For example, during my firearms moose season, it is legal for me to carry a bow for the open Bows only season on whitetails.

But, if the seasons do overlap, you must wear orange, as per the gun season regs, when hunting with a bow.

Regs in Ontario are a PIA. Check your Quebec regs.


BTW carrying both a rifle and a bow is a PIA. See Jays thread on wilderness handgun carry.
 
If you are hunting, you may only have one of the two out of case at one time. Perfectly legal.
So if you are in tree stand or ground blind and shotgun/rifle is cased then fine. If you are walking to your spot to bow hunt and the firearm is in hand and bow is encased that is fine too.
However if both are out of case at same time, then will have a problem.
 
I'm not an expert and I'm saying this pretty much as an assumption but if you were given an ATC then the whole idea of being issued it is for protection from bears.
That being said, I would think that you could have a holstered handgun while hunting with a bow. If approached by an MO you should be able to show you have a bow tag and an atc for protection and the guy should leave you alone.
Maybe I'm giving the MOs too much credit.
 
I'm not an expert and I'm saying this pretty much as an assumption but if you were given an ATC then the whole idea of being issued it is for protection from bears.
That being said, I would think that you could have a holstered handgun while hunting with a bow. If approached by an MO you should be able to show you have a bow tag and an atc for protection and the guy should leave you alone.
Maybe I'm giving the MOs too much credit.

That's an assumption, yes. I don't believe they give out an ATC for any purpose related to recreational activities, where this would fall into, so he would actually be breaking the law.
 
Everytime I'm on the trapline I'm working. Even if I'm not setting traps or prepping sets etc. I'm always scouting and observing which is a huge part of trapping just like hunting. From the issue date till the end of the trapping season(June 30) I'll have my side arm on me whenever I'm on the line.
 
Back
Top Bottom