imported post
beradcee wrote:
Does anyone know if there is anything about not being able to hunt with a pistol grip shotgun? I thought that I had seen some turkey guns with them tho. Also, folding stocks. Basically I want to know if the Mossberg 500 JIC is legal to hunt with. I realize that they are designed for home defense, short barrel, all that good stuff. Just want to know if I can hunt with it.
The short answer is yes you can hunt with a pistol grip shotgun.
the longer answer is if it holds more than 2 shells in the magazine you cannot hunt migratory game animals such as dove,ducks,geese(for a full list got to VDGIF.gov) there is no shell capacity limit anymore for large and small non migratory game(deer,bear,turkey,rabbits, etc). if you want to hunt migratory game you will need to install a plug in the magazine on the spring side to prevent more than two shells from being loaded at a time. this leaves you with a 2+1 capacity which is legal.
what choke is in the gun?
also as a warning there is not statewide preeemption in place for game laws so in addittion to state game laws each county can have their own rules and regulations. these generally have to do with what you can and cannot hunt with in certain counties, such as shotgun only, shotgun but no slugs, shotgun with slugs but no rifled barrels,rifles allowed but only from elevated stands, shot gun/no slugs/but blackpowder ok year round, no restrictions on what you may use.
in order to navigate this morass of differing county regs download the rulebook from the DGIF website or pick it up at your local sporting goods store when you get your license. there is an entire section in there that is dedicated to listing the additional regs and is broken down by county.
have you had a hunting license before or have you taken a hunter safety course, or are you going to utilize the apprentice hunter license this year?