23:4-24 Hunting, certain, prohibited on Sundays; penalty; exemptions.

389 words·~2 min read·/nj/title-23/chapter-4/23-4-24

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

a. A person shall not hunt with a hound or with firearms or weapons of any kind, or carry a long gun in the woods or fields or on the waters on Sunday, under a penalty of $50 for each offense; except that this section shall not apply to:

(1)any person hunting raccoon between midnight on Saturday and sunrise on Sunday during the season prescribed in R.S.23:4-1;

(2)a person possessing a valid and proper rifle permit licensed to trap fur-bearing animals pursuant to the provisions of R.S.23:3-1 using a .22 caliber rifle and .22 caliber short rimfire cartridges to humanely dispatch legally trapped animals; or

(3)a person using a bow and arrow to hunt deer during any bow and arrow hunting season for deer prescribed by the State Fish and Game Code, provided the person possesses a valid bow and arrow license, or a valid "All Around Sportsman License" if applicable, issued by the division, abides by all applicable provisions of the code, and is hunting on a State wildlife management area or on private property.

b. This section shall not prevent farm land owners, lessees actually occupying or farming the land, members of their immediate families, or their farm employees from hunting and destroying at any time and in any manner crows, woodchuck, fox and vermin on that land.

c. 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 1953, c.402; 1959, c.71; 1996, c.97; 2009, c.48; amended 2023, c.330, s.4.