WY Rules on rifles in vehicles

[Ankeny]

Another point that usually gets overlooked is that you can not use any part of the vehicle as a rest for big game. You are allowed to use the vehicle for a rest for coyotes but prairie dogs and ground squirrels are not allowed??? The couple of game wardens that have caught me shooting prairie dogs off the hood have just commented on it but not cited.

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what constitutes shooting "from" a vehicle. I have been told by wardens and enforcement specialists that "from" is essentially from within the confines of a vehicle. Can't shoot from the bed of a pickup, out of a window, etc. However, one can exit the vehicle and use the vehicle for support. That is also what the G&F folks have been telling the hunter safety classes.

 

[MachV]

Thanks for clearing that point up Ankeny. Maybe a hunters safty class would be a good idealightbulb

 

[HPW]

Some pretty good information shared here already. Just to clarify some things I have experience with. You can still apply for and have a CCW permit, but it is not required to carry concealed in WY as long as you can legally purchase and own firearms.

I have been stopped several times either by state patrol/sheriff or GW and have never even been asked if my gun was loaded. Driving to the hunt area the rifles are usually cased and unloaded, once actually hunting they are stuffed in the seat and mags are loaded.

As to a previous statement regarding bobcats as predators and spotlighting, they may be predators in the biological sense, but they are classified as furbearers by the G&F, not predators, hence the no spotlighting.

 

[Ankeny]

Post 12 contains the requirements for carrying concealed without a permit. Remember folks, carrying without a permit is for residents. If you are a non-resident you still have to possess a permit from a reciprocal state.

 

[Altiman94]

I'm not really worried about shooting from my vehicle, more so about carrying a loaded, uncased rifle during the hunt as we are driving around. I have no plans to shoot from the vehicle.

Sounds like I am OK to have a loaded, uncased rifle. 2 of the 3 guys I am going with all have the carry permit here in IA, which WY does recognize in a reciprocity agreement.

 

[D.Camilleri]

I want to say the concealed carry law only applies to residents. Non residents can carry concealed if they have a valid permit.

As for loaded in the truck, go for it. When I am running the desert/coyote hunting I have my AR15 (short rifle) ready to roll wedged between the seats muzzle down.

Last winter a high school girl ran into the back of my truck infront of my house, when the officer got here I told him I have a Michigan concealed weapons permint, he asked if I had a gun on me, I didnt but told him there were several loaded in the truck. His response was "Son this is Wyoming everyone has a gun in thier truck and next time I see you, you better have your pistol on you or your getting a ticket"

Just dont shoot from the truck, leave beer bottles everywhere, or cross country to much and you will be fine.

Non residents can only conceal carry if the state that issued their permit has a recipricosity agreement with Wyoming. A lot of states do, but CA isn't one of them and there are plenty others that I can't name off the top of my head.

As for carrying a gun in the truck, all my guns have shells in the magazine all the time unless I am cleaning them. Not an issue with game and fish.

Many years ago I was hunting deer in N. California, we had started a drive and one of my friends shot and yelled out he had a cripple. I ran back up to my 4 wheeler and road down the road 100 yards to try and help him out and there stood two game wardens. OOPs I forgot to pull the shell out of the chamber of my model 700 7mm. Game warden came up to me first as a bunch of the other guys in my hunting party showed up and when the game warden asked me to check my gun I said sure until I went to open the bolt, safety on bolt locked. I got a citation for having a loaded weapon in a vehicle and he went so far as to write the license number of my truck on the citation. I was on a 4 wheeler. I had to go to court and the judge asks me how I plead and if I want counsel to represent me. I plead guilty and he warns me that I could be sentenced to 6 months in jail! In CA this is a misdemeanor crime!

Safety dictates you don't have a loaded gun in a truck, but you are safe in Wyoming with shells in the magazine unless you need them in the chamber because you just got chased into your truck by a grizzly( it happened to me)

Keep in mind that Wyoming game and fish changed a specific part of the law as far as shooting off of publicly maintained roads. You now need to be 25 feet on the other side of a right a way fence or twenty five feet from the borrow pit on the edge of the road. This change in law is because a savy hunter beat them in court while shooting from the right a way fence because he claimed the end of the barrel of his rifle was on the other side of the fence. So, they changed the rules.

 

[Ankeny]

You now need to be 25 feet on the other side of a right a way fence or twenty five feet from the borrow pit on the edge of the road.

Can you give me a reference on that change? I just read Title 23 Article 3 and the wording is the same as before. Thanks.

 

[tzabbott]

However, under Prohibited Acts. It is Illegal to: Carry a firearm with a cartridge therein.................?? (This is also in the hunting regulations!!)
Now tell me, how is it possible to hunt/shoot a game animal with an unloaded gun? Some of these laws are very unclear and unfortunately that leaves them open to interpretation, the hunters interpretation vs the game wardens interpretation vs the courts interpretation, ect.


if you read the entire regulation. state statute 23-3-307. No person shall carry a firearm with a cartridge therein, or take any wildlife in Wyoming, while intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance as defined in the wyoming controlled substance act of 1971.

Seems pretty cut and dried to me

as far as carrying your firearms in your vehicle, as long as you are sober they really dont care how you do it

And as for spotlighting bobcats and badgers the law is very clear. They are classified as a furbearing animal. see state staute 23-1-101 section iii, and as a game animal you may not use artificial light extending down range to harvest them

 

[D.Camilleri]

Can you give me a reference on that change? I just read Title 23 Article 3 and the wording is the same as before. Thanks.

I was given the info by a State Trooper friend who got the info from Game and Fish.