What time did you hear the first shots today.

[chrisw]

6:21 and 6:27 were the first 2 I heard this morning

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[Pygmy]

Yeah, about 1/2 hour before legal shooting time, as usual...I probably heard between 20 and 30 shots by the time shooting time rolled around.    Normal opening day...

[nybuckboy]

6:25

[Doc]

The afternoon got rained out and it was cold and sloppy and right on the edge of being snow, so I took the afternoon off. I was sitting on the couch and I glanced out the window. About 1/2 hour before the legal end of shooting light, it was really questionable whether there was adequate light to shoot and ascertain all the features of the background behind your target. So sunrise to sunset is a good rule, but there are still certain cloud and rain conditions that would even make that not restrictive enough. I never seen anything like it before. The whole last part of the afternoon was like that, even out in the open. It was absolutely weird! Anybody else notice that or was it just down here in the valley. Of course most of the hunters were gone already because of rain so nobody was in danger of shooting past legal shooting hours.

[CharlieNY]

Like all of the other replies on here, I heard shots both yesterday and today long before legal shooting time. It makes me wonder if there are any hunters out there who are actually obeying the law. It seems to me that if they are willing to break the law and shoot before legal shooting time, then what and how many other laws are they willing to break in order to get a deer? We should all be condemning those "hunters" who don't play by the rules and make it more difficult for those who obey the law.

valoroutdoors.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by CharlieNY
Add

[growalot]

I am

[Nomad]

Without posting the  legal light time in your area the shot time does my mean as much as NYS sunrise can vary by 30 minutes across the state .

From a safety point , I worry far less about a guy taking one shot 20 minutes before legal light , then the guys emptying their guns an hour later .

Perhaps one day NYS will join the majority of states and go 1/2 hour each way . Yesterday at 1/2 hour before sunrise I could tell in an instant that the deer crossing the bean field at 200 yards was a smaller buck , with my naked eyes .

I would guess the majority of deer are taken outside legal hours , today I heard a large number of single shots prior to legal light and  just one after , I sat for two hours past legal opening light .

Edited November 20, 2016 by Larry302

[growalot]

Dang Larry those are some Leupold type eyes you have there...lol Our legal sunrise was at 7:07 yesterday and I sat on the low side of a West facing hill in the woods. I could not tell what the buck that stood 15yrds away was. I could not see the orange bead at the end of my gun barrel at 6:30...See the sun was coming up,  was way over on the east side of the hill.I couldn't even see the actual sun until past 8a.m.

Edited November 20, 2016 by growalot

[Doc]

1 hour ago, Larry302 said:

Without posting the  legal light time in your area the shot time does my mean as much as NYS sunrise can vary by 30 minutes across the state .

From a safety point , I worry far less about a guy taking one shot 20 minutes before legal light , then the guys emptying their guns an hour later .

Perhaps one day NYS will join the majority of states and go 1/2 hour each way . Yesterday at 1/2 hour before sunrise I could tell in an instant that the deer crossing the bean field at 200 yards was a smaller buck , with my naked eyes .

I would guess the majority of deer are taken outside legal hours , today I heard a large number of single shots prior to legal light and  just one after , I sat for two hours past legal opening light .

How about a deer that was down in a dark hemlock woods. Yesterday afternoon was a great display of how crazy it would have been to switch the closing hour to 1/2 hour after sunset. It would have been a challenge to see your crosshairs. When that rain came in, I took a look outside and about 1/2 hour before sunset it would have been impossible to do a decent job of checking out the back-drop behind any animal you intended to shoot......impossible. See the post 5 replies up. The reason that they use sunrise and sunset is because that system is for everywhere regardless of natural available light and regardless of weather conditions. It is not always perfectly clear. Heavy clouds and drizzle or snow can make things a whole lot different from the nice sunny morning out in the middle of a bean field. Not everyone is scoping out a deer in a wide open bean field. And while we are at it I have to mention that all other hunters out there are not using blaze orange.

Because we don't want guys touching off their rifles in the dark, you have to have some kind of universal system of defining the shooting hours. Sunrise to sunset seems to be a practical, easy to use, quite reasonable limit. I would hate to ever see them change it.

[CharlieNY]

Straight from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Definition of poacher

1. 1 :  one that trespasses or steals

2. 2 :  one who kills or takes wild animals (as game or fish) illegally

See words that rhyme with poacher

No ethical hunter should be defending "hunters" who disregard legal shooting times and break the law. Ask yourself this question- Would I tell my young son or daughter who is just learning to hunt that it is o.k. to shoot before legal shooting time?

valoroutdoors.com

 

•  
•  

[growalot]

Careful Charlie...I got myself tore up on here for having such radical ideas a couple of years ago...How dare I use the cell phone and put the daily sun rise and sun sets on my alarms on vibrate..lol

[CharlieNY]

Thank for the support grow. I am not worried or concerned about it. I taught the Hunter Safety Education Course for many years and practice what I preached. Ethics and obedience to hunting rules and regulations are an integral part of hunting, as much as equipment, marksmanship, and the like. You are right- just about everyone carries a cellphone and you can access the sunrise and sunset  tables on your phone. There is also times posted on page 77 of the DEC Hunting Guide, in addition to newspapers, websites, etc. The people who try to justify shooting outside of legal times use the same flawed argument that people who drink and drive use- that they are not affected like everyone else, and can be safe.

valoroutdoors.com

Edited November 20, 2016 by CharlieNY
Add

[Nomad]

Doc I trust you  to decide when it is safe to shoot regardless of the time , btw I was out of the woods at around 3:00 yesterday as it was freaky dark like you said .

Now please list all states that are sunrise to sunset like NYS is , because I could not find any. Not Penn. Ohio,  Tenn, Utah , North Dakota,Montana ,Michigan ,Wisconsin, Iowa , and on and on , all 1/2 hour before and after .

If it's such a safety issue in NY please explain why it isn't in every other state .

[First-light]

Got ya all beat 6:08 first shot when off in the Town of Howard!

[Core]

8 hours ago, Doc said:

The afternoon got rained out and it was cold and sloppy and right on the edge of being snow, so I took the afternoon off. I was sitting on the couch and I glanced out the window. About 1/2 hour before the legal end of shooting light, it was really questionable whether there was adequate light to shoot and ascertain all the features of the background behind your target. So sunrise to sunset is a good rule, but there are still certain cloud and rain conditions that would even make that not restrictive enough. I never seen anything like it before. The whole last part of the afternoon was like that, even out in the open. It was absolutely weird! Anybody else notice that or was it just down here in the valley. Of course most of the hunters were gone already because of rain so nobody was in danger of shooting past legal shooting hours.

Yeah I noticed that. It was really a dark afternoon yesterday.

[Core]

6 hours ago, Larry302 said:

Without posting the  legal light time in your area the shot time does my mean as much as NYS sunrise can vary by 30 minutes across the state .

From a safety point , I worry far less about a guy taking one shot 20 minutes before legal light , then the guys emptying their guns an hour later .

Perhaps one day NYS will join the majority of states and go 1/2 hour each way . Yesterday at 1/2 hour before sunrise I could tell in an instant that the deer crossing the bean field at 200 yards was a smaller buck , with my naked eyes .

I would guess the majority of deer are taken outside legal hours , today I heard a large number of single shots prior to legal light and  just one after , I sat for two hours past legal opening light .

Yesterday at least 25 minutes before legal light to me it was very bright; much brighter and easier to see than right at sunset yesterday. I didn't think anybody taking shots then was stretching it safety wise.

As for today I also heard a shot or too before sunrise but overall way, way less shooting than yesterday. The weather was pretty much horrendous, though, so many probably didn't venture out.

[reeltime]

it may be because ny has no mandatory flo. orange.  most states require orange during firearm season.

its ridiculous the numbers of early and late shots.  5:40 am yesterday morning around beaver dams NY 2 hunters lives changes forever. even though a non fatal shooting likely a life changer, as far as i am concerned should be criminal charges and lifetime revocation for the shooter.

[Chef]

Just went back through my texts with@jmp5008 first shot was at 6:09 and we had 4 by 6:17 Jesus


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Larry]

640am

[Doc]

11 hours ago, Larry302 said:

Doc I trust you  to decide when it is safe to shoot regardless of the time , btw I was out of the woods at around 3:00 yesterday as it was freaky dark like you said .

Now please list all states that are sunrise to sunset like NYS is , because I could not find any. Not Penn. Ohio,  Tenn, Utah , North Dakota,Montana ,Michigan ,Wisconsin, Iowa , and on and on , all 1/2 hour before and after .

If it's such a safety issue in NY please explain why it isn't in every other state .

I wish that all regulations could be left to the discretion of individual hunters, but I think we all know that that would not be wise. If I were to write down all the irresponsible and dangerous things that I have witnessed hunters doing out in the woods, it would fill a couple of volumes of a very large book. So some things need to be regulated. Shooting hours is a huge one that needs some attempt at regulating. We have all heard shots in what would accurately be described as dark or near dark situations, so we know that individual responsibility on that issue cannot be counted on.

Regarding what states do or don't do, I'm not sure that I really even care. Some states voted for Hillary, but that doesn't make them right ...... lol. I can rely pretty much on what I actually observe, and I can say with certainty that what I saw the other afternoon would have people shooting after dark if the law read 1/2 hour after sunset. I have also been in sections of woods with very dense over-story that has a whole different lighting than out in your bean field example. And the fact that people still are eligible to wander through the NYS gun season in full camo also points out the need for full light being the standard, without compromise. Sunrise to sunset ensures a good practical vision to allow for safe shooting. That is based on actual observations and not theory. Perhaps other states break under hunter pressure a lot easier than NYS does, I don't know. I cannot say what makes people in other states do what they do. I do know that safety is not a "majority rules" kind of thing and should not be based on poll results.

 

[virgil]

6:27am on Saturday.

[growalot]

SO Saturday  I  hear the fire alarms go off...don't think much of it I also see what looked like Mercy flight speed bye over head going towards Dansville hospital. That I assumed was hunting related. Mr B  tells me our sons friend  sent him a text message...... a guy on the road Behind us was shot Saturday morning... I can't confirm, I don't watch the news.That is the area I heard the sirens and backup beepers...You guys watching the Rochester news see anything?

Edited November 21, 2016 by growalot

[growalot]

Well did a search...2 dead so far in our area...both reported as tree falls but one confirmed shooting...both under investigation...that's all I found on web.

[chas0218]

Wife sent me a photo of DEC SUV and 4 deer on the hitch rack. 2 Were decent bucks and 2 doe. I would imagine someone managed to get their deer confiscated. They were just south of Corning NY heading towards PA border.

[chas0218]

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk