Even though it is hunting season, there is no rush for Tombstone residents to pack up the shotgun to go shooting.

Despite some Tombstone residents enjoying the sport of hunting, many of these residents no longer participate in the sport due to the town’s elevation and legal limitations.

“There’s no wild turkey to hunt, the elevation’s not right,” said Byron Neubauer, owner of Cochise Trading Post Guns and Ammo. Neubauer said he used to hunt when he lived in Colorado, but doesn’t anymore.

“I’m here now,” Neubauer added.

Chuck Sperry, owner and manager of the future Chuck Wagon’s Eatery located in Helldorado Town, said he hunted “a lot” when he resided in Montana. When he lived there, he said he hunted quail and doves, and that he hunted so often that he ate the meat “like a boiled egg.” Most of the people who do hunt in Arizona go to Flagstaff, he said.

“Deer hunting? Not around here,” Sperry said.

The town’s elevation is not the only hunting problem- City Councilman Steve Troncale said that individuals are hunting within the city limits, which is illegal.

“It’s hazardous to say the least,” he said. “For a town that’s three or four miles wide, a bullet could cover that distance in seconds.”

Troncale said hunting puts those at risk who use Tombstone’s trails and roads-people like motorcyclists, hikers and recreational riders.

Arizona residents and non-residents ages 14 and over are required by law to carry a valid hunting license to hunt in the state. For 2011, Arizona hunting licenses are $32.25 for residents and $151.25 for non-residents, and can be purchased online through the Arizona Fish and Game Department’s website or through more than 300 hunting license dealers statewide.

For residents like David Kantner, a Tombstone car washer, this is not a price worth paying.

“I don’t have one (a permit) with economic times being what they are,” he said. “Everything I do is legal.”

Kantner said that although he used to hunt these types of deer in Northern Arizona, he no longer has a hunting permit due to the cost. Kantner said that Tombstone residents hunt mule and deer that walk “right through the town,” but not high elevation specific types like white tail deer.

Hunters don’t have to put their guns down just yet, however; they just need to research places they are legally allowed to hunt, Troncale said.

Troncale explained that hunters can partake in the sport in state trust lands or national forest lands, as long as they check with various agencies to see which are open to hunting and which aren’t.

“This is the responsibility of the hunters themselves,” he added.