Legal hunting hours need revising

[WhitetailAddict11]

I walked out of the woods tonight at 4:30 at sunset, the end of legal hunting shooting hours, shaking my head in frustration. There was a solid 15-20 minutes left of shoot-able/safe hunting light left, and I'm leaving the woods during prime time. Good thing I'm a respectful hunter and obey a law that gets bent every season by many of hunters. DEC knows how tough New York hunting is, they could throw us a damn bone and give us at least 15 mins after sunset.

[bubba]

here we go again. This has been debated over and over.

[arrow nocker]

give em 15 they take 30.Wait till saturday morning and saturday night.No one cares about "legal" shooting hours.Banging away at 6:15.and crap.Barely see and banging away.

disclaimer:not everyone but quite a few.More not obeying the law than are.

[Dan92]

not trying to start another debate but at 6:25 i could see just fine thats 20 min before legal hours.. but DEC has their reasons

[ATbuckhunter]

It used to be 30 min before & after so why cant it be again? I think its all the antis that live in the city around me.

[WhitetailAddict11]

That's my point arrow nocker. It never fails that every year on opening day shots ring out all around me and I'm being the good guy and waiting to be legal because NYC does whatever they can to make deer hunting difficult.

[Pygmy]

It used to be 30 min before & after so why cant it be again? I think its all the antis that live in the city around me.

When was it 1/2 hour before until 1/2 hour after ..??... Please enlighten me...

As I recall, 45 years ago, it was 7:00 AM until 5:00 PM... Since then it has been sunrise until sunset..

Must be you were hunting prior to 1965.. How old are you..??..

[josephmrtn]

i think it should be dawn to dusk, this eve dusk was 5:06 pm and i still could see somewhat prob 15 min after that but thats what the official dusk time is.... (i downloaded an app on my phone called times to hunt and it has dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk times)

Edited November 17, 2012 by josephmrtn

[Dan92]

i think it should be dawn to dusk, this eve dusk was 5:06 pm and i still could see somewhat prob 15 min after that but thats what the official dusk time is.... (i downloaded an app on my phone called times to hunt and it has dawn, sunrise, sunset, and dusk times)

i had sunset at 4:35 today.. you must be in western ny

[josephmrtn]

i had sunset at 4:35 today.. you must be in western ny

no im actually up in jefferson county... what i ment was sunset was 4:35 but there was a good 20 min of gr8 shooting light left untill dusk and then a little after dusk it got dark

[13BVET]

Yep. Nothing like looking at your watch, waiting for "sunrise", and just watching the deer go past. Had that happen to me last season. Had 3 bucks come out into the field-they were tailing five does. By the time it was legal shooting light, they were up over the hill getting hammered by other hunters.

[bubba]

most hunting "accidents" happen before and after legal light.

[josephmrtn]

they also usually happen when a guy dont have the brains to look and see what he is shooting at

[nyantler]

Why not just make hunting hours dawn plus an hour then 1 hour before dusk until dark... or better yet lets just skip the daylight hours and just hunt at night so we can catch the deer when they're moving around? Plus wouldn't it be much easier to do away with the guns and just use explosives... then we could just bomb the woods and go pick up deer after the explosion... anything to make it easier. Makes no sense to have to beat the deer at their own game by trying to outsmart them. I think all these rules and regulations are just put in place to make us actually have to hunt deer instead of just be able to shoot on when ever we want... stupid laws!!

[13BVET]

Why not just make hunting hours dawn plus an hour then 1 hour before dusk until dark... or better yet lets just skip the daylight hours and just hunt at night so we can catch the deer when they're moving around? Plus wouldn't it be much easier to do away with the guns and just use explosives... then we could just bomb the woods and go pick up deer after the explosion... anything to make it easier. Makes no sense to have to beat the deer at their own game by trying to outsmart them. I think all these rules and regulations are just put in place to make us actually have to hunt deer instead of just be able to shoot on when ever we want... stupid laws!!

Nah-you don't want to bomb them. We had a deer enter the impact area up at Ft. Drum, while we were doing direct fire with our 105's-there's not much left to salvage at that point. This thing ran right in front of a target just when we pulled the lanyard. The 105 decimated it!

[sits in trees]

are you guys kidding, i hear shots 2:30 in the night around here....

[nyantler]

Nah-you don't want to bomb them. We had a deer enter the impact area up at Ft. Drum, while we were doing direct fire with our 105's-there's not much left to salvage at that point. This thing ran right in front of a target just when we pulled the lanyard. The 105 decimated it!

Kill and processing all in one..lol

[sampotter]

I hunted Ohio earlier this week -and 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset for bow season. It was nice.

[Dan92]

no im actually up in jefferson county... what i ment was sunset was 4:35 but there was a good 20 min of gr8 shooting light left untill dusk and then a little after dusk it got dark

oh ok, i misread your post

[hoythunter]

I counted 62 shots between 610 and 647.sunrise today in 4t was 648 so apparently not many guys care about this law. Makes it difficult to teach the rules when all the shooting starts so early.there was plenty of shooting light by 630.

[Dan92]

I counted 62 shots between 610 and 647.sunrise today in 4t was 648 so apparently not many guys care about this law. Makes it difficult to teach the rules when all the shooting starts so early.there was plenty of shooting light by 630.

6:46 was sunrise here.. started hearing shots at 6:15.. yes it was light enough to shoot but damn they cant wait 15-30 minutes

[WhitetailAddict11]

If NY State is worried about hunter safety then they should require that we where orange, simple as that.

[Marcygirl]

They shoot when they see deer, dark, light don't think it matters, orange, camo does that really matter, safety is up to the individual as always, some follow direction well others don't care, can't stop stupid or outlaws

[Guns&ReligionCop]

I know I'm going to get crushed for saying this but I rarely check the time. This morning I was supprised that I only heard a few shots before I could see because 2 years ago I heard about 30 and couldn't see my hand in front of me. I find deer very hard to see unless they are really close in low light and would not recommnend shooting. That being said I think don't I ever shot a deer before 8:00am. I also wait until its completely dark out to hike out and use my flashlight so I don't look like a giant orange 2 legged deer!

[arrow nocker]

6:28.first shot i heard.It was still pretty dark.I looked thru the scope and i could see but not clearly.Some people are nuts.