New state law allows Onondaga County hunters to use rifles for big game

A new law now allows hunters in Onondaga County to hunt big game with rifles, like the Winchester 94 shown here, beginning this season.Mark Folsom

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law last week allowing hunters in Onondaga County to tote a rifle into the field during big game season beginning this fall.

Onondaga is the last Central New York county to allow rifles for big game hunting. The only Upstate counties that still have such a ban are Monroe (Rochester), Erie/Niagara (Buffalo), and a portion of Albany, in addition to two Lower Hudson Valley counties.

The Onondaga County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, which represents around 40 CNY sporting clubs and more than 10,000 active sportsmen and women, has unsuccessfully lobbied state and county legislators for decades to pass a resolution allowing rifles, arguing that it would help control the county’s burgeoning deer population.

“Rifles are more efficient tools for harvesting deer than shotguns or handguns or archery equipment,” said David Simmons, director of OCFSC. “It’ll be easier to make an accurate, longer range harvest humanely and cleanly.”

Assemblyman Al Stirpe (D-Cicero) and Sen. John Mannion (D-Geddes) sponsored the bill, which easily passed in both houses of the state legislature.

“Across many parts of our state, hunters are allowed to use rifles to hunt big game; however, current law prohibits residents of Onondaga County from doing so,” Stirpe said in a statement. “Big game hunting is crucial to helping control the population of deer and bears, a conservation tool that should be available to all New Yorkers no matter what county you live in.”

“We’re certainly happy that Assemblyman Stirpe and Senator Mannion took the time to shepherd these bills through their respective houses,” said Simmons.

“I’m even surprised that the governor signed it as quickly as she did,” he added.

New York’s deer population has swelled to over 1.2 million. Each year, approximately 700,000 New Yorkers take approximately 220,000 deer, according to the state Department of Environmental Conversation.

Opponents of big game rifle hunting in Onondaga County and elsewhere are concerned that rifle bullets, which travel farther and faster than shotgun rounds, might cause more injuries in more densely populated areas. But that concern isn’t reflected in the number of hunting-related shooting incidents in recent years.

The 2022 hunting season tied 2021 for the safest on record, according DEC, which investigated nine hunting-related shooting incidents in 2022, including one fatality.

“As more and more counties have converted to rifle, the safety keeps looking better,” Simmons said. “Fewer incidents, fewer deaths.”

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Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.

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