After leaving prison many felons start their previous activities such as hunting, fishing. However, after receiving a felony conviction felons are not permitted to own a firearm. As a result, felony hunting is challenging because there is some restriction to use firearms although their crime was not related to that.

Here some questions arise for using a bow for hunting for a felony because a lot of people don’t have proper knowledge about a bow, is it a firearm or not as well as is it restricted or not for them?

This post will answer your question of whether a felon can own a bow for hunting or not and can felons hunt with a bow or crossbow?

What is the definition of a firearm?

A firearm is a mechanical deceived which uses pressures from an explosive source like burning powder and an explosive charge used to projectile through a metal tube.

There are a lot of different types of bow available for hunting. None of them use burning, expanding gas for shooting. They fire an arrow mechanically with a string and power from the archer without any help from explosive devices. So bows are not meeting the requirements of being a firearm. If a felony has the restrictions to use a firearm by federal law, they can use a bow as it is not a firearm. Hence owing, purchasing and shooting with a bow and archery equipment is legal for felons and those without felony conviction but remember it is still a weapon which can be used to attack someone.

Can felons hunt with a bow or crossbow?

The state laws are different from state to state which deals with hunting with a bow. Oregon is the only state where hunting with a compound bow is illegal, for both people with felony convictions or not.

There are differences between the seasons for hunting with the bow and the rifle and most of the states specify the season for those by law. A bow can be used for hunting certain games, a permit is required for owning a firearm but not required for bow, but a hunting license is required to hunt with a firearm or bow for the people both with and without a felony conviction.

If we look for the regulations of some states, we can give the example of  Mississippi.

From October, the season of hunting starts in delta and hill zones there Mississippi, where hunters hunt for black strap and big rocks, many Mississippians are not allowed for hunting with a gun or muzzle loader for their prior felony conviction but they can use bows and crossbows for hunting.

The attorney general of Mississippi issued an opinion to allow convicted felons to possess a bow in 2004. Reference: 2004 WL 555121 (Miss.A.G.) Opinion No. 2004-0043, dated February 13, 2004

If you search the answer to the question Can felons hunt with a bow or crossbow for the taxes, the regulation does not allow a felony to possess or use a firearm to hunt in this state, defined by the penal code  §46.01.

A person with a Felony conviction may use the firearm and bow both for hunting if the state laws allow, so we recommend consulting with a qualified attorney from your state to know the actual information related to using firearms and bows.

A felony can return to his / her daily life and remove the challenge they face if they want to solve their mistakes, the support from family and friends can make it easy for them, and such activity they enjoy such as hunting will help them to recover soon to live an honest life.

So we highly recommend consulting with a qualified attorney before purchasing a bow for hunting. As you know the law can be different from state to state, so if you don’t know the right information may be purchasing a compound bow and hunting with it will break the law which will be the reason for punishment.

We hope this post will help you to determine the difference between the bow and firearm which is prohibited for a felony,  always consult with a qualified attorney to do any activity directly related to the law of your state.