I was at a local gun show and was talking to some fellows that are great advocates of the Black Rifles.

For those of you who do not know of this terminology it is a reference to the popular AR type rifles that have been very popular with younger shooting enthusiasts. Most of the rifles are military looking and are semi-automatic in action. They are also manufactured using composite materials that are generally flat black or camo in color, thus the term black rifles.

Most of the rifles range in caliber from .22 long rifle, .223 Remington, 5.56 NATO and .308 Winchester and range in price from a few hundred dollars up to several thousand dollars. They are often in the news as semi-automatic assault rifles or tactical rifles. I basically believe that many people have a strong opinion on them one way or another as a great firearm or an unnecessary one.

Recently the PA Game Commission brought the semi-auto rifle onto their agenda as a potential new addition to the legal firearms for hunting in Pennsylvania.

The fact is that Pennsylvania was the last state in the union to allow the use of the semi-auto rifle for hunting. On March 27 and 28 there will be a final vote for the use of these rifles for hunting, but long before the Black Rifles there have been semi’s available for hunting.

The Browning BAR and Remington 7400 are two rifles that come to mind pretty quickly as tried and true semi-rifles. The PGC has some public comment periods for the use of the semi and as expected there was plenty of pros and cons. Those opposed envisioned wild shooting hunters spraying Penn’s Woods with bullets. They apparently haven’t been around some of the fellows that use slide action rifles much. Many of those guys can make it seem like they have a semi when they start to fire away at a running deer.

The pro semi-rifle hunters want to modernize the tools of the hunter and allow the use of these rifles. This is when I step into the picture with my friends at the gun show; limitations on caliber offerings and magazine capacities. When I fact checked with the PGC proposal I found that the magazine capacities would be limited to five rounds with one in the chamber of the rifle.

That is not as out of line as many rifles that are manually operated.

Ruger offers a rifle that I have admired for years in the Ruger No. 1-B Standard that is a single shot rifle. I never worried about having lots of shots but rather having one great shot with many great caliber offerings. Many of the Winchester and Marlin lever action rifles carried plenty of cartridges in their tubular magazines which is at the other end of the spectrum.

Pennsylvania never did have a limit for manually operated rifles so what’s the noise all about now? Changes in old practices often bring complaints and concerns primarily just about any change.

I will say that I have no qualm about using a .223 for coyotes or foxes and such but I am not sold on it being a great deer rifle.

Yes, it can kill a deer with a decent shot placement and distance but will it drop a 200-pound buck like a 30-06 or .270 will … I doubt it and hope that the black rifles in the .308 are the caliber of choice for the AR deer hunters. No matter what the new rules turn out to be on Monday let it be in the favor of all hunters using effective hunting tools and with shooting skills honed by practice.

In the meantime, get ready to see some new looks in the wilds of PA this hunting season as the black rifles introduce themselves from the ranges into the hunting world in Pennsylvania.

In other news, the PA Fish and Boat Commission is proposing a hike in the 2018 fishing licenses. The PFBC is reporting inflation of operating expenses, no fee increases in years and the retirement fund of employees has been the base cause of the needed license increases. The PFBC Board of Commissioners will have further dialogue on this proposal and we will all need to keep an eye on the end results for the proposal. The PFBC has continued to do their duty as the annual stocking of area trout streams has begun. The familiar white tankers are delivering trout in earnest for the official trout season opener on April 15th which is the Saturday before Easter Sunday. The good news is that you should have plenty of ham sandwiches and hard boiled eggs for lunches for the whole week! Until we meet again wet a line and get out into the great outdoors.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.