Suppressors now OK on hunting arms, Youth Hunts no longer just youth

Wildlife & Fisheries enforcement agents just enforce laws and rules adopted by others.
For instance, the logic of allowing hunters to use sound suppressors on their rifles and shotguns is not the agents’ concern. Making sure the new law is properly observed is.
St. Landry-based wardens Sgt. Lance Devillier and Agent Brandon Fontenot reviewed some of the new or revised laws at a Rotary Club appearance.
Suppressors, more commonly called silencers though they don’t really silence the weapon, are now legal for hunting all quadrapeds in Louisiana.
Why a deer hunter or a squirrel hunter would need such is debatable. But use them they can, the Legislature has decreed.
Devillier cautioned, however, that proper permitting by ATF, and other rules, must be followed.
Far more likely to be taken advantage of by hunters is the opportunity to have buck shot and/or rifled slugs in possession during closed season for deer.
Heretofore, a hunter could not have such rounds in the woods during closed season. The premise was you don’t need buckshot or slugs to hunt squirrels and rabbits.
But the growing feral hog population, and the random opportunity to shoot one, convinced lawmakers to allow the extra wallop to be available during non-deer days.
Another substantial change that will impact many hunters is the opportunity for honorably discharged veterans to be in the field on days designated by the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission as Youth Hunt Days.
Those days are usually in advance of the regular-season opening days and have in the past been for youth only. Now veterans, providing they have with them the proper discharge documentation, can hunt those days -- on private land, not on wildlife management areas.
Fontenot noted that these and other changes in hunting regulations are outlined in blue in the new edition of the LWFC hunters’ brochure.
The agents also discussed several substantive changes in boating regulations.