Weapons authorized for hunting deer; kinds; caliber; size of shot

23:4-44. A person engaged in hunting for wild deer shall not use a firearm except as may be prescribed by the State Fish and Game Code while engaged in hunting for deer during the open season. It shall be unlawful, unless otherwise prescribed by the State Fish and Game Code, for any person to possess or have under the person's control any long gun at any time while hunting deer with bow and arrow. A person shall not use or possess or have under the person's control while hunting any poison arrow or an arrow with explosive tips. For purposes of this section "long gun" means any rifle, shotgun, machine gun, automatic or semi-automatic rifle, or any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances. It shall also include, without limitation, any firearm which is in the nature of an air gun, spring gun or pistol or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas or vapor, air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force to injure a person. Amended by L.1947, c. 239, p. 911, s. 3; L.1948, c. 448, p. 1816, s. 59; L.1957, c. 193, p. 695, s. 3; amended 2023, c.330, s.1.