Wyoming firearm requirements

[Muledeerfanatic]

No idea
Never even put in there because I put in for units that have much better draw odds and way more antelope
I have thought about it before but that was many years ago and there were about 30 times the amount of animals in western Wyoming
Now I don't even consider the western part of state at all

 

[Novashooter]

My interest in western WY is more the change in scenery. Eastern WY has great antelope numbers, but I do just fine in western SD, and it looks about the same.

 

[Thegman]

That's where it can turn into a huge debate, especially when it comes to energy, which means almost nothing. Personally I think Montana has it right. "There is no handgun or rifle caliber limitation".

I'm not a Wyoming resident though, so I don't really feel like my say should have much weight. 10mm auto is not a controversial caliber, and that really needs to be addressed in some way.

Yeah, Alaska is the same; as long as it's a centerfire it's okay (other than bison).

Your basic complaint seemed to be that 38 Special was allowed by their rules, and 10mm wasn't, which admittedly doesn't make much sense. What I'm suggesting would remedy that with something a little more relevant to the intent of their regulations.

The point of bullet weight and an energy number isn't about energy as much as making sure the cartridge can push a given size bullet fast enough to meet their (admittedly arbitrary) minimum standards.

 

[Novashooter]

No, the 38 special example is nothing but to show the hypocrisy in the wording. It's a poorly thought out metric with little concern for handguns.

The problem I have with energy is for very similar reason. So many states will have something like 1000# at the muzzle, unless it's a handgun, then 500# is fine. So which is it? The 200gr bullet at 1100 fps from a handgun is perfectly lethal, but a 200gr bullet at 1400 fps from a rifle isn't? And that's besides the point that it is going to encourage people to use lighter, faster bullets, which is not always a bad thing, but I would argue most of the time it is. 45 acp for example, even plain jane Remington 185gr makes over 500#, but a buffalo bore 255gr +p at 925 fps doesn't. One of those is clearly a better choice, and is actually a very good choice for big game.

Maybe a bit of an extreme example, but my own 223 load of choice is a 60gr at 3000 fps. That's about 1200# at the muzzle. We even shot a black bear with it last year. Yes, it killed the bear, but it's not more effective than a 255gr at 925 fps. It's the same muzzle energy as a standard pressure 45-70 Winchester super-x 405gr at 1150 fps, and again, are they even comparable?

Muzzle energy means nothing. It's all about the bullet. It's all about shot placement. I'm not here to tell anyone what to use, but I am completely against muzzle energy as the metric to decide it.