Why It Matters: New Hampshire House Bill 211 (HB 211), was passed out of the Senate on April 17, 2025 and enrolled on May 6, 2025, making the bill eligible for Governor Kelly Ayotte’s signature. Along with authorizing airguns for hunting, HB 211 authorizes the New Hampshire Fish and Game Executive Director the ability to bring forth special license and/ or tags for the use of airguns for taking game. This important detail ensures airgunning sportsmen and women are contributing to conservation funding just as all other methods of take currently do through the Pittman-Robertson Act (in which airguns are not currently included). The passage of HB 211 is an excellent way of creating additional opportunities for sportsmen and women afield, further strengthened through its provision of authority to develop a new conservation funding mechanism.
Highlights
- New Hampshire HB 211 is now one step closer to becoming law and eligible for the Governor’s signature.
- The use of air rifles for taking game in the Granite State continues to appeal to New Hampshire’s sporting community.
- The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) worked with our partners at the New Hampshire Fish and Game and our leadership in the New Hampshire Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, providing preferred language and education on airguns and the need for conservation funding participation, as well as facilitating a live fire demonstration in 2024.
After the New Hampshire Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus took a field trip last year to see first-hand the effectiveness and ethical lethality of modern pneumatic air rifles at the Sig Sauer Experience Center in Epping, NH, attendees came away with additional knowledge and experience with air rifle platforms. Many who were initially skeptical now have greater confidence in the technology and seemed to reconsider their stance on air rifles as an ethical and effective means of take for future use in the Granite State. The conversations around the use of air rifles as a method of take has brought about another opportunity to expand opportunities for Granite Staters through HB 211, a bill that allows the use of airguns for hunting.
CSF engaged early on in support of this expanded opportunity in 2024 and was active early in the 2025 session with New Hampshire Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus leadership and New Hampshire Fish and Game partners. CSF supports HB 211and successfully advocated for adjustments to the bill allowing the Executive Director of the agency to bring forward a license or special airgun tag to account for the conservation funding that would be missed during the increased sales of air rifles. Currently, air rifles are not subject to the 11% manufacturer-level excise tax through the Pittman-Robertson Act, which funds conservation efforts, that all other methods of take presently authorized in New Hampshire are subject to.
CSF has worked closely in other states to expand the use of air rifles and air bows while also enhancing conservation funding, most recently in Oklahoma and Utah. In both instances, legislators included a “Conservation Airgun Stamp” that hunters would need to purchase before heading afield with an airgun, which provides both a funding mechanism that allows air rifles to contribute to state conservation funding, as well as an important data point for state fish and wildlife agencies to monitor and evaluate airgun usage through time.
CSF thanks the New Hampshire Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, and Co-Chair Rep. James Spillane for his leadership and sponsoring of HB 211. CSF looks forward to the New Hampshire Secretary of State delivering this win for New Hampshire’s sporting community to the corner office and Governor Ayotte making HB 211 law.
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