Trump Hunting Executive Order: Lead Ammo and Land Access

Last updated September 2026 · By Nick Hall, tracks federal land-access and ammunition policy for USA Gun Shop readers

Quick take: President Trump signed an executive order on September 17 telling four federal departments to propose changes that open more federal land to hunting and permit traditional lead ammunition and tackle. Nothing changes at the trailhead yet, because the order sets deadlines for proposals rather than rewriting any regulation itself.

• What happened: Executive Order 14429, titled Reinvigorating America’s Hunting Heritage, directs federal agencies to widen hunting access and to permit lead ammunition and tackle on the land they manage.
• Why it matters: The order points four departments at the same lead ammunition and tackle target and gives them a written deadline to propose changes.
• What’s next: The Secretaries of War, the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce have 180 days, which runs into mid-March 2027, to propose the policy and regulation changes.
• Who to watch: The Interior Department, which also has a 90-day deadline to open hunting at two named national monuments and to fix the migratory bird season process.

Most executive orders on guns and hunting are either symbolic (a signing ceremony and a fact sheet) or fragile (a memo the next administration rescinds on day one). This one is a little of both and a little of neither. It names agencies, sets dates, and puts lead ammunition in writing. We pulled the order text so you don’t have to, and here’s what it actually does.

Table of Contents

What the Hunting Heritage Order Actually Says

The order is short, six sections in all, and the hunting meat is in Section 2. Section 2(a) gives the Secretary of the Interior 90 days to allow hunting of species that are not subject to 16 U.S.C. 1533, the federal endangered and threatened species listing section, inside two monuments: Castle Mountains National Monument and Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

Section 2(b) is the broad one. Within 180 days, the Secretaries of War, the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce must, "consistent with applicable law, propose modifications to policies or regulations that prohibit or restrict access to lands under their respective jurisdictions" to meet a list of goals. National parks and national monuments are carved out, apart from the two monuments named in 2(a).

The order lists six goals for those proposals. The last one, Section 2(b)(vi), is the line hunters and anglers will care about most: "permit the use of traditional lead ammunition and tackle." The other five cover more hunting, fishing and shooting access, new roads and trail infrastructure, easements and land swaps for hard-to-reach parcels, qualified volunteers for wildlife and invasive species control, and assistive technology on trails and at hunting spots.

Section 2(b)(i) also sets a default worth reading twice. Outside national parks, hunting is to be allowed unless "a specific closure is justified by local resource conditions" at that spot. Open unless there is a local reason to close. That flips the burden onto the closure.

You can read the full text of Executive Order 14429 on the White House site. It is short, and it is worth ten minutes if you hunt federal ground.

The Lead Ammunition Line, and What It Does Not Do

Here’s the part that gets lost in the headlines. An executive order directs the executive branch. It does not amend the Code of Federal Regulations, and Section 6(b) says the order "shall be implemented consistent with applicable law, including Executive Order 13443, and subject to the availability of appropriations."

So the lead language is an instruction to propose. Any agency rule that limits lead ammo or tackle on its land stays in force until that agency replaces it. A policy memo can move fast. A regulation has to be proposed in the Federal Register under the Administrative Procedure Act before it becomes final.

The order also doesn’t name a single existing rule, refuge regulation or agency order it wants changed. It cites two statutes (16 U.S.C. 1533 and 54 U.S.C. 104909), the monument proclamations and one earlier order, Executive Order 13443, and leaves the specific targets to the departments.

Duck and goose hunters, one more thing before you load up. The federal nontoxic shot requirement at 50 CFR 20.21(j) covers ducks, geese, swans and coots in nontoxic shot zones, and the order doesn’t mention it. Approved nontoxic shot is still the law over the decoys this season.

Section 6(c) adds the standard closing line: the order doesn’t create any right or benefit enforceable at law against the United States. You can’t wave it at a refuge officer.

Every Deadline in the Order, Agency by Agency

Here is the clock, counted from September 17, 2026.

60 days, mid-November 2026: the Secretary of Agriculture reviews high-demand Forest Service river access lotteries and starts reforms that prioritize US citizens, including prior unsuccessful applicants, and ban automatic computer entries.

90 days, mid-December 2026: Interior allows hunting at Castle Mountains and Craters of the Moon, and proposes regulations improving the administrative process for seasonal migratory game bird hunting, keeping the Flyway Councils as "full partners" in the process. The Secretaries of Labor and Education also issue guidance on federal education funding for archery and hunter education in schools.

180 days, mid-March 2027: War, Interior, Agriculture and Commerce propose the access and lead ammunition changes in Section 2(b). Interior also has to identify new ways to help states recruit young hunters and veterans.

365 days, September 2027: Interior encourages state fish and wildlife agencies to promote and expand Sunday hunting on state and federal land.

No deadline: Veterans Affairs prioritizes hunting and fishing in its Adaptive Sports Grant Program, Agriculture issues guidance backing state venison donation programs, and Interior pushes states to use Pittman-Robertson funds on hyperabundant wildlife, especially whitetail deer, including donation of the meat to schools and food banks.

What the Hunting Executive Order Means for Your Season

For this fall, nothing. If your go-to deer load is a lead-core soft point, the rules where you hunt are whatever they were on September 16, and your state’s hunting regulations still apply.

The upside comes later, and it is bigger for someone hunting a Forest Service ridge than for anyone with a private lease. Our guide to public land hunting covers how to find ground today. This order is about how much more of it opens up, and on what terms.

I like the default in 2(b)(i). Land the public already owns should be open unless someone can point to a local reason to close it, and the government should have to write that reason down.

But the lead fight will be won or lost in the comment dockets next spring, not in a signing ceremony, and the hunters who own deer rifles zeroed on lead-core bullets are the people whose comments will carry the most weight when the agencies publish their proposals.

Copper bullets work, and plenty of hunters shoot them by choice. The order is about whether that stays a choice on federal land.

The 180-Day Clock and the Comment Fight

Proposed rules from Interior, Agriculture, War and Commerce will show up in the Federal Register first, each with its own comment window. Policy changes that aren’t regulations can move without one, so watch agency press rooms too.

If the proposals track the order closely, lead ammunition and tackle get a written green light across most federal land outside national parks. If they come back narrow, the order stays a list of good intentions.

The order is a to-do list with dates on it. The real rules come in the spring. Show up for those.

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