Ohio deer rifles & slug guns

Ohio does not allow ordinary bottleneck rifle cartridges for deer. Gun season here means a slug gun, a muzzleloader, a big-bore handgun or a rifle in a straight-walled cartridge.

Check the current regulations. Seasons, bag limits and legal equipment are set each year by the ODNR Division of Wildlife. What follows reflects the published rules at our last review in September 2026. It is general information, not legal advice, and the annual hunting regulations at ohiodnr.gov are the final word.

The straight-wall rule

For most of the last century Ohio was a shotgun-only deer state. The ground is flat to rolling, farms and houses are close together, and a slug that drops quickly was judged safer than a .30-06 that carries for miles. In 2014 the Division of Wildlife opened gun season to rifles chambered for a list of straight-walled pistol-type cartridges, and it later replaced the list with a simple range: any straight-walled cartridge from .357 caliber minimum to .50 caliber maximum.

"Straight-walled" means the case has no shoulder. A .45-70 case is a plain tapered tube. A .308 necks down to hold a smaller bullet, so it is out. The cartridges you will see most in Ohio deer camps:

• .350 Legend. Light recoil, inexpensive ammunition, available in bolt actions, single shots and AR-pattern rifles. An honest 150 to 200 yard cartridge and the easy choice for young or recoil-shy hunters.
• .450 Bushmaster. A heavier bullet and a lot more thump at both ends. Popular in bolt guns with a muzzle brake.
• .45-70 Government. The lever-action standard since long before the rule existed. Modern loads shoot flatter than its reputation.
• .360 Buckhammer and .400 Legend. Newer rounds built for these seasons; the first is aimed at lever guns, the second sits between the .350 and the .450.
• .44 Magnum, .357 Magnum, .444 Marlin, .454 Casull. Carbine and lever-gun cartridges for thick cover where shots are inside 100 yards.

The three-round limit

While deer hunting in the gun seasons, a shotgun or straight-walled cartridge rifle may hold no more than three rounds in the chamber and magazine combined. For a tube-fed shotgun that means a plug. For an AR in .350 Legend or a bolt gun with a detachable box, it means loading to the limit whatever the magazine could hold. The rule is about what is in the gun in the field, not what you may own.

Slug guns still work

A shotgun of 10 gauge or smaller, firing one ball or rifled slug per barrel, remains legal and remains what a great many Ohio deer are taken with. Buckshot is not allowed. There are two ways to set one up:

• Smoothbore barrel with rifled (Foster) slugs. Cheap, works in the pump you already own, and good to about 75 yards with open sights or a bead.
• Fully rifled barrel with sabot slugs. A cantilever scope mount and a rifled barrel turn a 12 or 20 gauge into a 150-yard gun. A 20-gauge sabot gun kicks noticeably less and gives up little on whitetails.

If you already hunt turkey or waterfowl with a pump, an extra rifled barrel is the least expensive way into deer season.

Muzzleloaders and handguns

Muzzleloading rifles must be .38 caliber or larger, and muzzleloading shotguns 10 gauge or smaller with a single ball per barrel. They are legal in the gun seasons as well as the separate muzzleloader season in early January, when the woods are quieter and the deer are back on a feeding pattern. Handguns are legal with a barrel of five inches or more and a straight-walled cartridge of .357 caliber or larger.

Seasons, tags and orange

The traditional calendar is archery from late September to early February, a youth gun weekend in mid-November, the seven-day gun season opening the Monday after Thanksgiving, a bonus gun weekend in December, and muzzleloader season in early January. You need an Ohio hunting license plus a deer permit, bag limits are set by county, and every deer must be game-checked. Parts of north-central Ohio are in a chronic wasting disease surveillance area with extra rules on carcass movement and testing. Hunter orange, solid or camouflage, is required on a vest, coat, jacket or coveralls during every gun and muzzleloader season.

Which one should you buy?

For farm-country stands in the western half of the state, where a shot across a picked bean field can stretch, a scoped bolt action in .350 Legend or .450 Bushmaster is the practical pick. In the hills and reclaimed strip-mine ground of the southeast, where you see deer at forty yards through greenbrier, a lever gun in .45-70, .360 Buckhammer or .44 Magnum carries better and points faster. If you hunt public land on opening Monday and want one gun for deer, turkey and ducks, keep the 12-gauge and add a rifled barrel.