Some Hunters Question Indiana Allowing High-Powered Rifles

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A new law allowing Indiana hunters to use high-powered rifles is drawing concerns about safety and cutting too deeply into the state's deer herd.

Hunters will be allowed to use such rifles when hunting on privately owned property for the first time when deer firearms season opens for two weeks in November.

Indiana Deer Hunters Association spokesman Doug Allman says high-powered rifles can hit a deer a half-mile away and that the bullet would keep going if it misses.

South Bend deer hunter Dave Holcomb is concerned about safety with Indiana's flat terrain and also that hunters will reduce the deer population too much.

Republican state Rep. Lloyd Arnold, the bill's author, tells the South Bend Tribune that he isn't concerned about safety or overly reducing deer herds.