TAKING RESIDENT GAME

METHODS OF TAKING RESIDENT GAME

METHODS OF TAKING RESIDENT GAME BIRDS AND QUADRUPEDS
No person shall take or kill any game bird or wild quadruped with a firearm fitted with any device to deaden or silence the sound of the discharge thereof; or fitted with an infrared sight, electrically operated sight, or device specifically designed to enhance vision at night {R.S. 56:116.1B(3)}.  

It is illegal to intentionally feed, deposit, place, distribute, expose, scatter, or cause to be fed, deposited, placed, distributed, exposed, or scattered, raw sweet potatoes to wild game quadrupeds.

Use of a longbow (including compound bow) and arrow or a shotgun not larger than a 10 gauge fired from the shoulder without a rest shall be legal for taking all resident game birds and quadrupeds.

Also, the use of a handgun, rifle and falconry (special permit required) shall be legal for taking all game species except turkey.  It shall be illegal to hunt or take squirrels or rabbits at any time with a breech-loaded rifle or handgun larger than a .22 caliber rimfire or a muzzleloader rifle larger than a .36 caliber.

During closed deer gun season, it shall be illegal to possess shotgun shells loaded with slugs or shot larger than BB lead or F steel shot while small game hunting.

Still hunting is defined as stalking or stationary stand hunting without the use of dog(s). Pursuing, driving or hunting deer with dogs  is prohibited when or where a still hunting season or area is designated and will be strictly enforced.

Shotguns larger than a 10 gauge or capable of holding more than three shells shall be prohibited. Plugs used in shotguns must be incapable of being removed without disassembly.

Refer to game schedules contained within these regulations for specific restrictions on the use of firearms and other devices.

NUISANCE ANIMALS
Landowners or their designees may remove beaver and nutria causing damage to their property without a special permit. Water set traps and firearms may be used to remove beaver; nutria may be removed by any means EXCEPT that nutria cannot be taken by the use of headlight and gun between the hours of sunset and sunrise.  With a special permit issued by the Department, beavers may be taken between  one-half hour after official sunset to one-half hour before official sunrise for a period of three consecutive calendar evenings from the effective date of the permit. For specific details contact a regional office near you. Any nuisance beaver or nutria trapped or shot outside open trapping season cannot be pelted or sold.  A trapping license is required to sell or pelt nuisance beavers or nutria taken during open trapping season.  Squirrels found destroying commercial crops of pecans may be taken year-round by permit issued by the Department.  This permit shall be valid for 30 days from the date of issuance.  Contact the local regional office for details.

UNREGULATED QUADRUPEDS
Holders of a legal hunting license may take coyotes, unmarked hogs where legal, and armadillos  year round during legal daylight shooting hours. The running of coyotes with dogs is prohibited in all turkey hunting areas during the open turkey season. Coyote hunting is restricted to “chase only” during still hunting segments of the firearm and archery only season for deer.  Foxes  are protected quadrupeds and may be taken only with traps by licensed trappers during the trapping season. Remainder of the year “chase only” allowed by licensed hunters.

HUNTING AND/OR DISCHARGING FIREARMS ON PUBLIC ROADS
Hunting, standing, loitering or shooting game quadrupeds or game birds with a gun during open season while on a public highway or public road right-of-way is prohibited. Hunting or the discharge of firearms on roads or highways located on public levees or within 100 feet from the centerline of such levee roads or highways is prohibited. Spot-lighting or shining from public roads is prohibited by state law. Hunting from all public roads and rights-of-way is prohibited and these provisions will be strictly enforced.

TAGS
Any part of the deer or wild turkey divided shall have affixed thereto the name, date, address and big game license number of the person killing the deer or wild turkey and the sex of that animal. This information shall be legibly written in pen or pencil on any piece of paper or cardboard or any material which is attached or secured to or enclosing the part or parts. On lands enrolled in DMAP, deer management assistance tags must be attached and locked through the hock of the antlerless deer, (including those taken with bow, muzzleloader and those antlerless deer taken on either-sex days) in a manner that it cannot be removed, before the deer is moved from the site of the kill.

SEX IDENTIFICATION
Positive evidence of sex identification, including the head, shall remain on any deer taken or killed within the state of Louisiana, or on all turkey taken or killed during any special gobbler season when killing of turkey hens is prohibited, so long as such deer or turkey is kept in camp or field, or is in route to the domicile of it possessor, or until such deer or turkey has been stored at the domicile of its possessor or divided at a cold storage facility and has thus become identifiable as food rather than as wild game.