50 C.F.R. § 20.21

What hunting methods are illegal?

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Link to an amendment published at 91 FR 38558, June 26, 2026.

Migratory birds on which open seasons are prescribed in this part may be taken by any method except those prohibited in this section. No persons shall take migratory game birds:

(a) With a trap, snare, net, rifle, pistol, swivel gun, shotgun larger than 10 gauge, punt gun, battery gun, machinegun, fish hook, poison, drug, explosive, or stupefying substance;

(b) With a shotgun of any description capable of holding more than three shells, unless it is plugged with a one-piece filler, incapable of removal without disassembling the gun, so its total capacity does not exceed three shells. However, this restriction does not apply during:

(1) A light-goose-only season (greater and lesser snow geese and Ross' geese) when all other waterfowl and crane hunting seasons, excluding falconry, are closed.

(2) A Canada goose only season when all other waterfowl and crane hunting seasons, excluding falconry, are closed in the Atlantic, Central, and Mississippi Flyway portions of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, as set forth below:

(i) During the period of September 1 to September 15, when approved in the annual regulatory schedule in subpart K of this part; and

(ii) During the period of September 16 to September 30, when approved in the annual regulatory schedule in subpart K of this part.

(c) From or by means, aid, or use of a sinkbox or any other type of low floating device, having a depression affording the hunter a means of concealment beneath the surface of the water;

(d) From or by means, aid, or use of any motor vehicle, motor-driven land conveyance, or aircraft of any kind, except that paraplegics and persons missing one or both legs may take from any stationary motor vehicle or stationary motor-driven land conveyance;

(e) From or by means of any motorboat or other craft having a motor attached, or any sailboat, unless the motor has been completely shut off and/or the sails furled, and its progress therefrom has ceased: Provided, That a craft under power may be used to retrieve dead or crippled birds; however, crippled birds may not be shot from such craft under power except in the seaduck area as permitted in subpart K of this part;

(f) By the use or aid of live birds as decoys; although not limited to, it shall be a violation of this paragraph for any person to take migratory waterfowl on an area where tame or captive live ducks or geese are present unless such birds are and have been for a period of 10 consecutive days prior to such taking, confined within an enclosure which substantially reduces the audibility of their calls and totally conceals such birds from the sight of wild migratory waterfowl;

(g) By the use or aid of recorded or electrically amplified bird calls or sounds, or recorded or electrically amplified imitations of bird calls or sounds. However, this restriction does not apply during:

(1) A light-goose-only season (greater and lesser snow geese and Ross' geese) when all other waterfowl and crane hunting seasons, excluding falconry, are closed.

(i) During the period of September 1 to September 15, when approved in the annual regulatory schedule in subpart K of this part; and

(ii) During the period of September 16 to September 30, when approved in the annual regulatory schedule in subpart K of this part.

(h) By means or aid of any motordriven land, water, or air conveyance, or any sailboat used for the purpose of or resulting in the concentrating, driving, rallying, or stirring up of any migratory bird;

(i) By the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area, where a person knows or reasonably should know that the area is or has been baited. However, nothing in this paragraph prohibits:

(1) the taking of any migratory game bird, including waterfowl, coots, and cranes, on or over the following lands or areas that are not otherwise baited areas—

(i) Standing crops or flooded standing crops (including aquatics); standing, flooded, or manipulated natural vegetation; flooded harvested croplands; or lands or areas where seeds or grains have been scattered solely as the result of a normal agricultural planting, harvesting, post-harvest manipulation, rice ratooning, post-disaster flooding, or normal soil stabilization practice;

(ii) From a blind or other place of concealment camouflaged with natural vegetation;

(iii) From a blind or other place of concealment camouflaged with vegetation from agricultural crops, as long as such camouflaging does not result in the exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of grain or other feed; or

(iv) Standing or flooded standing agricultural crops where grain is inadvertently scattered solely as a result of a hunter entering or exiting a hunting area, placing decoys, or retrieving downed birds.

(2) The taking of any migratory game bird, except waterfowl, coots and cranes, on or over lands or areas that are not otherwise baited areas, and where grain or other feed has been distributed or scattered solely as the result of manipulation of an agricultural crop or other feed on the land where grown, or solely as the result of a normal agricultural operation.

(j)(1) While possessing loose shot for muzzle loading or shotshells containing other than the following approved shot types.

Approved shot type*	Percent composition by weight	Field testing device**
Bismuth-tin	97 bismuth, and 3 tin	Hot Shot®***
Iron (steel)	iron and carbon	Magnet or Hot Shot®.
Iron-tungsten	any proportion of tungsten, and ≥1 iron	Magnet or Hot Shot®.
Iron-tungsten-nickel	≥1 iron, any proportion of tungsten, and up to 40 nickel	Magnet or Hot Shot®.
Copper-clad iron	84 to 56.59 iron core, with copper cladding up to 44.1 of the shot mass	Magnet or Hot Shot®
Corrosion-inhibited copper	≥99.9 copper with benzotriazole and thermoplastic fluorescent powder coatings	Ultraviolet Light.
Tungsten-bronze	51.1 tungsten, 44.4 copper, 3.9 tin, and 0.6 iron, or 60 tungsten, 35.1 copper, 3.9 tin, and 1 iron	Rare Earth Magnet.
Tungsten-iron-copper-nickel	40-76 tungsten, 10-37 iron, 9-16 copper, and 5-7 nickel	Hot Shot® or Rare Earth Magnet.
Tungsten-matrix	95.9 tungsten, 4.1 polymer	Hot Shot®.
Tungsten-polymer	95.5 tungsten, 4.5 Nylon 6 or 11	Hot Shot®.
Tungsten-tin-iron	any proportions of tungsten and tin, and ≥1 iron	Magnet or Hot Shot®.
Tungsten-tin-bismuth	any proportions of tungsten, tin, and bismuth	Rare Earth Magnet.
Tungsten-tin-iron-nickel	65 tungsten, 21.8 tin, 10.4 iron, and 2.8 nickel	Magnet.
Tungsten-iron-polymer	41.5-95.2 tungsten, 1.5-52.0 iron, and 3.5-8.0 fluoropolymer	Rare Earth Magnet or Hot Shot®.
* Coatings of copper, nickel, tin, zinc, zinc chloride, zinc chrome, fluoropolymers, and fluorescent thermoplastic on approved nontoxic shot types also are approved.
** The information in the “Field Testing Device” column is strictly informational, not regulatory.
*** The “HOT*SHOT” field testing device is from Stream Systems of Concord, CA.

(2) Each approved shot type must contain less than 1 percent residual lead (see § 20.134).

(3) This shot type restriction applies to the taking of ducks, geese (including brant), swans, coots (Fulica americana), and any other species that make up aggregate bag limits with these migratory game birds during concurrent seasons in areas described in § 20.108 as nontoxic shot zones.

[38 FR 22021, Aug. 15, 1973] Editorial Note:For Federal Register citations affecting § 20.21, see the List of CFR Sections Affected, which appears in the Finding Aids section of the printed volume and at www.govinfo.gov.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 45 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1976–2023 · leading case: United States v. Gregory Obendorf, 894 F.3d 1094 (9th Cir. 2018).

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United States v. Gregory Obendorf, 894 F.3d 1094 (9th Cir. 2018). · cites it 13× “OBENDORF SUMMARY* Criminal Law Affirming a conviction for illegally baiting ducks in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and conspiring to do the same, the panel held that an “agricultural practice exception” set forth in 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i)(1) applies to unlawful…”

United States v. Adams, 174 F.3d 571 (5th Cir. 1999). · cites it 5× “§ 2 ; 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i). In support of his appeal, Adams argues that: (1) 16 U.”

United States v. Stephen S. Boynton James R. Booth Bernard Dadds, Jr., 63 F.3d 337 (4th Cir. 1995). · cites it 4× “Two exceptions to this rule are set forth in a regulation promulgated by the Fish and Wildlife Service pursuant to the Act, 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i), as follows: [Njothing in this paragraph shall prohibit: (1) The taking of all migratory game birds, including waterfowl, on or over .”

United States v. Kenneth A. Manning, 787 F.2d 431 (8th Cir. 1986). · cites it 3× “§ 703 , and 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i). For reversal, Manning argues that (1) the evidence was insufficient to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the government should be estopped to prosecute him for an activity which a government agent said was legal; (3) he was…”

United States v. Alexis Javier Angueira, 951 F.2d 12 (1st Cir. 1991). · cites it 2× “See 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i) (1988). Defendants contend that they should have been acquitted because they relied on a temporary restraining order of the Superior Court of Puerto Rico forbidding local game wardens from interfering with their hunt.”

Virginia Duncan v. Rob Bonta, 19 F.4th 1087 (9th Cir. 2021). “, 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (b) (prohibiting the hunting of most migratory game birds “[w]ith a shotgun of any description capable of holding more than three shells, unless it is plugged with a one-piece filler, incapable of removal without disassembling the gun, so its total capacity…”

United States v. Chester Sylvester, Ted Burn Sylvester, Floyd Soileau, Timothy Sylvester, & Jules Ericke, 848 F.2d 520 (5th Cir. 1988). · cites it 2× “, and 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i). Substantial evidence supports, and we thus affirm, these convictions.”

United States v. Santos-Riviera, 183 F.3d 367 (5th Cir. 1999). · cites it 2× “In Adams , we construed 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i), 4 which prohib *372 its hunting certain birds over baited areas pursuant to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 16 U.”

Thunderstik Lodge, Inc. v. Reuer, 1998 SD 110 (S.D. 1998). · cites it 2× “50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i). [4] Thunderstik conceded it pled guilty and paid the fine on the advice of its attorney who claimed a successful challenge was unlikely and the cost would be more than paying the fine.”

United States v. Billy Paul Bullock, Wayne Lester Bullock & Allen Glen Bullock, 579 F.2d 1116 (8th Cir. 1978). · cites it 2× “§ 703 and 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (1976). They take this appeal, alleging (1) that the evidence was insufficient and that the court erred in denying their motion for new trial; (2) that they were entitled to a trial by jury; and (3) that the conviction subjected them to double…”

Yandell v. United States Ex Rel. the Dep't of Interior, United States Fish & Wildlife Serv., 550 F. Supp. 572 (N.D. Miss. 1982). · cites it 4× “nt of the Interior, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Law Enforcement, and the court sitting without a jury makes the following finding of fact and conclusions of law, to-wit: Plaintiff farms 3,000 acres of land in Quitman County, Mississippi, and brings this…”

United States v. Lee, 217 F.3d 284 (5th Cir. 2000). · cites it 6× “50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (I)(2) (1996). 2 northward for approximately 450 yards before a wooded area cuts into what would otherwise be a nearly perfect rectangle.”

Show all 45 citing cases →

— 50 C.F.R. § 20.21(I)(1996) — 2 cases

United States v. Lee, 217 F.3d 284 (5th Cir. 2000). “50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (I)(2) (1996). 2 northward for approximately 450 yards before a wooded area cuts into what would otherwise be a nearly perfect rectangle.”

United States v. Harry Lee, 217 F.3d 284 (5th Cir. 2000).

— 50 C.F.R. § 20.21(i) — 1 case

Yandell v. United States Ex Rel. the Dep't of Interior, United States Fish & Wildlife Serv., 550 F. Supp. 572 (N.D. Miss. 1982). “nt of the Interior, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Law Enforcement, and the court sitting without a jury makes the following finding of fact and conclusions of law, to-wit: Plaintiff farms 3,000 acres of land in Quitman County, Mississippi, and brings this…”

— 50 C.F.R. § 20.21(i)(1) — 1 case

United States v. Gregory Obendorf, 894 F.3d 1094 (9th Cir. 2018). “OBENDORF SUMMARY* Criminal Law Affirming a conviction for illegally baiting ducks in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and conspiring to do the same, the panel held that an “agricultural practice exception” set forth in 50 C.F.R. § 20.21 (i)(1) applies to unlawful…”

— 50 C.F.R. § 20.21(i)(1996) — 1 case

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