Equipment regulations

Yes. You cannot use any of the following types of equipment to hunt migratory birds in Michigan:

• Snares, traps, cages, nets, fishhooks, pitfalls or deadfalls.
• Spears, slingshots, swivel guns, punt guns, battery guns, machine guns, fully automatic firearms, airbows or mechanical devices other than bows, crossbows and firearms.
• Single-projectile shotshells.
• Drugs, poisons, anticoagulants, stupefying substances, smoke, gas or explosives.

Yes. Pneumatic guns, or “air guns,” are considered firearms for hunting purposes. Pneumatic guns must meet firearm requirements for season, species hunted and zone you are hunting in.

Hunter orange

No. If you are hunting waterfowl, you are exempt from the hunter orange requirement.

Elevated platforms and ground blinds

You may only hunt migratory birds from an elevated platform over submerged bottomlands. Elevated platforms constructed over public waters must meet marking and removal requirements.

Yes. You can hunt waterfowl from a ground blind. However, you may not erect or use a hunting blind on any public waters without permanently affixing to the exterior, in waterproof letters not less than 3 inches high, the name and address of the person who placed it there. You also cannot leave any hunting blind or part thereof anchored or affixed to the bottomlands of any public waters within the state of Michigan prior to Aug. 15 or later than Jan. 16. Any unoccupied blind on the Great Lakes or Lake St. Clair may be used by the first person to occupy it each day. Contact the Plainwell DNR office (269-685-6851) regarding blind rules for Allegan County.

No. You cannot hunt from a sinkbox. A sinkbox is a low, floating device with a depression, affording the hunter a means of concealment beneath the surface of the water.

In legible English, you must permanently affix your name and address or Michigan driver’s license number or DNR Sportcard number to the elevated platform or ground blind if it is placed on public lands.

Placing an elevated platform or ground blind on public lands or waters does not guarantee exclusive use of the area. Any unoccupied blind on the Great Lakes or Lake St. Clair may be used by the first person to occupy it each day. You cannot use or occupy an illegal elevated platform or ground blind regardless of who placed it on public lands or waters.

Bows, crossbows and firearms

You can use a bow, a crossbow or a shotgun 10-gauge or smaller.

Mentored hunters licensed under the Mentored Hunting Program can use a bow, a crossbow or a shotgun 10-gauge or smaller. Any hunting device possessed by a mentored hunter must be sized appropriately to fit the physical abilities of the hunter.

A mentor is limited to two hunting devices (shotgun, bow or crossbow) in the field while mentoring, and the mentored hunter must always be within arm’s length of the mentor. The mentor will be held responsible for all actions of the mentored hunter while in the field.

You can only use or possess one firearm per person.

Yes. You cannot hunt with a shotgun that can hold more than three shells. Shotguns capable of holding more than three shells should be plugged with a one-piece filler incapable of removal without disassembling the gun, so that the total capacity of the shotgun does not exceed three shells.

Yes. The use of nontoxic shot is required statewide for all waterfowl hunting. If you are hunting ducks, geese, mergansers, coots, common gallinules, rails or Wilson’s snipe anywhere in Michigan, you cannot possess or use shotshells loaded with a material other than nontoxic steel, bismuth, tungsten-iron, tungsten-polymer, tungsten matrix or other shot determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be nontoxic. Waterfowl hunters using muzzleloaders must also use FWS-approved nontoxic shot.

Transporting bows, crossbows and firearms

Firearms must be unloaded in the barrel and all arrows must be in a quiver when you are afield outside the legal hunting hours.

These rules apply whether your vehicle is parked, stopped or moving. At all times when carried in or on a motor vehicle:

• Shotguns and other firearms must be unloaded in both barrel and magazine and enclosed in a case or carried in the trunk of a vehicle on private or public property.
• Crossbows and bows must be unloaded and uncocked or enclosed in a case or carried in the trunk of a vehicle while that vehicle is operated on public land or on a highway, road or street.
• A person holding a valid permit to hunt from a standing vehicle may transport or possess an uncased firearm with a loaded magazine on a personal assistive mobility device if the action is open.

These rules apply whether your off-road vehicle is parked, stopped or moving. At all times, when carried in or on an off-road vehicle:

• Shotguns and other firearms must be unloaded in both barrel and magazine and enclosed in a case or equipped with and made inoperative by a manufactured, key-locked, trigger-housing mechanism.
• Crossbows and bows must be unloaded and uncocked or enclosed in a case or carried in the trunk of a vehicle while that vehicle is operated on public land or on a highway, road or street.
• A person holding a valid permit to hunt from a standing vehicle may transport or possess an uncased firearm with a loaded magazine on a personal assistive mobility device if the action is open.

These rules apply when the vessel is under power and until forward motion has ceased. Once the vessel is no longer under power and forward motion has ceased, firearms can be loaded. When carried in or on a motor-propelled boat or sailboat, while the vessel is under power or forward motion is occurring:

• Shotguns and all other firearms must be unloaded in both barrel and magazine.

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