Elmer
Well-Known Member
City limits? I just aquired a great farm in the city limits and have permission to muzzleload. I can't find out what the laws are. Any help?
Can you hunt with a muzzy in the Clarksville
- Thread starter Elmer
- Start date
@fulldraw
Well-Known Member
It's my understanding you can. I know several people that do, including a LEO.
yep long as your hunting, just remember you have to have everyones permission if you are within a hundred yards of their house, no matter whos property said house is on.
stik
Well-Known Member
knightrider said:
WRONG!!!! this only applies if you are hunting public land.
Probably be a question to pose in the TWRA forum. I believe it has been posted and answered multiple times there. 
knightrider said:
Completely incorrect.
Headhunter
Well-Known Member
you can hunt with a rifle if you wish. We never knew why, but a landowner (he sold the farm a few years ago) who owned a couple hundred acres inside the city limits who let a few people hunt including myself, out of the blue told us through email we had to hunt with archery only. It was after a muzzleloader weekend that my friend and myself who had permission did not hunt but the "hired hands" hunted. We still do not know if anything did or didn't happen but it went from hunting with any legal weapon to archery only overnight. The landowner claimed a police officer told him it was illegal to hunt with a gun of anykind inside the city limits. I called the chief of police (this was several years ago), talked to him and the next day the chief called me and the landowner (I asked him to) and let us know it was legal to hunt with whatever was legal so long you are being safe.
well my bad i thought it included all landsscn said:
Elmer
Well-Known Member
Just to clarify... I'm all good hunting with black powder?
P@Y said:
Maybe.
If Clarksville has an ordinance making illegal the discharge of firearms inside their city limits, then you could be arrested/cited and convicted of violating that ordinance. A muzzleloader is a firearm under TN statutes. Any ordinance is not a state/TWRA issue, and you would need to research it through the city of Clarksville to see if such an ordinance is on the books.
There is a TN State Attorney General's opinion that city ordinances dealing with the discharge of firearms cannot supercede legal hunting as provided by TN statutes. That opinion is not a "Get Out of Jail Free Card". What it probably ultimiately means is that after you are tried and convicted in Clarksville city court, that you can hire a lawyer and appeal said conviction to a higher court. And, in the AG's opinion, a higher court somewhere up the line should rule that Clarksville exceeded their authority on a legal hunt by you. There is some case law out there that supports the AG's opinion.
If I were attempting to hunt where such a ordinance was in place, I would be in contact with the local police/sherriff's dept. to see what their enforcement guidlines might be. I would decide whether it was worth the potential legal costs based on the the response I got from them.
A very serious "sidebar" issue on this deals with the statute on reckless endangerment. If in the officer's opinion you have discharged your weapon in a reckless and/or negligent manner, even if you are legally hunting, then you can face up to felony charges.
Thanks for that very detailed explanation scn! I've wondered about the particulars of that scenario for some time now.
Headhunter
Well-Known Member
scn, I told the clarksville police chief about the AG opinion after he told me that no gun hunting was allowed inide city limits. He told me he would research and get back with me. When he did call back, he told me hunting inside city limits, of course you needed to be safe, but we could hunt with whatever was legal according to season.
Along those lines, I was on a depredation permit inside the Belle Meade city limits a couple years ago. Before deer season opened, it was specified that we had to use buckshot. The game warden personally told me that was correct, becuase I doubted that when I saw it on the permit I signed. He also told me we could hunt with whatever weapon was legal in the appropiate season.
Seems like if you can hunt with 308 in the middle of Belle Meade (I know of one guy that does, although I do not call it hunting, it is more a deer shooting) most anywhere would be good. I am sure Belle Meade has no gun discharge ordinance of some kind.
I did not kill any deer in Belle Meade though, the landowner almost begged me to, she even asked me if I could use a machine gun, but it did not appeal to me, it is not hunting in any shape, form or fashion. I only went a couple times, and the deer knew that percy warner across the street for sure was a safe place.
One guy also hunted the land beside it and he was an a$$. He told me to hunt but he got mad when I told him it had nothing to do with hunting, it was purely shooting. I may go back a time or two if the landowner ask me again to kill a doe or two, but it does not interest me. I wonder sometimes how many big bucks are killed there and bragged about as being hunted? There are some giants there for sure.
Along those lines, I was on a depredation permit inside the Belle Meade city limits a couple years ago. Before deer season opened, it was specified that we had to use buckshot. The game warden personally told me that was correct, becuase I doubted that when I saw it on the permit I signed. He also told me we could hunt with whatever weapon was legal in the appropiate season.
Seems like if you can hunt with 308 in the middle of Belle Meade (I know of one guy that does, although I do not call it hunting, it is more a deer shooting) most anywhere would be good. I am sure Belle Meade has no gun discharge ordinance of some kind.
I did not kill any deer in Belle Meade though, the landowner almost begged me to, she even asked me if I could use a machine gun, but it did not appeal to me, it is not hunting in any shape, form or fashion. I only went a couple times, and the deer knew that percy warner across the street for sure was a safe place.
One guy also hunted the land beside it and he was an a$$. He told me to hunt but he got mad when I told him it had nothing to do with hunting, it was purely shooting. I may go back a time or two if the landowner ask me again to kill a doe or two, but it does not interest me. I wonder sometimes how many big bucks are killed there and bragged about as being hunted? There are some giants there for sure.
