I was wondering about......

[G-Man]

When game is close the overwelming feeling is to shoot fast before it can get away!!!, not look at a watch,check the regs,aim properly,or debate with yourself wether or not its the right thing to do, especially if one is newer to the sport or lacking experiance in harvesting game. Experiance is what would cause you to think about your actions first, the average big buck only gives you 3 seconds or less to make the decision you have to live with...

[arrowflinger]

For all the guys who hunt on state land it's 6:45 am and there it is the biggest buck you have ever seen but it's not 6:49 am the legal hunting time by just 4 minutes do you shoot or not? Be honest.

Dave

Is it legal?

No.

If you would shoot....shame on you.

[nyantler]

I have my wife trained to set my watch ahead 5 minutes the night before for just such an occasion...

[hunter49]

I find this interesting about A.M. shots but lets flip it around. How many guys are out of their stands at legal time in the P.M.?? Say the sun sets at 5:15 & the sun is still bright & you know you will have good light for the next 40 minutes. My local warden says you must be out of the woods/field at sun set time. I am willing te bet most are still in the stand!

[Pat Rockets]

Im on private land..but i dont leave till my fiberoptic pins dont glow anymore..or if i can see the cell towers around me..when the lights go from white to red

[bubba]

your local warden is incorrect according to the regs book.  As long as yout gun is unloaded or your bow either unstrung or incapable of firing, you can sit there as long as you want. If that were the case, you could not walk into the woods in the am until sunrise.  For me it depends on the situation.  If I am in the stand and there are deer around, I wait until dark to sneak out so not to spook them.  If things are quiet, I leave the stand at sunset, with my gun unloaded or my recurve unstrung.  Which raises another point for am.  If you are following the laws, you should not have your gun loaded or your bow ready to use until sunrise.  If it is loaded before then, you are technicaly hunting and breaking the law.  If you are checked in the woods before sunrise or after sunset, you better be able to prove you can not shoot.  I used to carry a compound bow.  I would put a padlock around the string so it can not be pulled, so I could not fire an arrow.  Now I unstring the recurve to go in and out after legal hours.  If yo ufollow the law, you would not have to worry about shooting during illegal hours, as you would not be able to

[hunter49]

  Bubba,I agree with what you are saying .But I am wondering how many guys would shoot the buck of a life time if they saw it at 5:18 pm knowing it was going to be light for another 40 min. some are saying they would not shoot if it was 1 minuite before sun rise. I personally am normally out to my truck by  sun set time, I am not one for stumbleing around in the dark trying to find a deer. I think it s**ks.

[Pat Rockets]

Gonna have to blow off foghorns now all season ???

[G-Man]

I have a neighbor who is a trophy hunter "self proclaimed" except every deer he shoots seems to be so dark he can't find it and he requires help (not that he gets a lot but the last one was within 10 ft of the logging road) i'm halfway thru my dinner when i hear the shot more times than not. He has the money for good optics and says if it s a full moon he could hunt all night. He's old and will be gone sooner than later but its funny to hear him brag at different dinner/banquets about the deer he got..funny he never seems to mention the time..lol!  Maybe a change to the regs to  a half hr before sunrise to half hr after sunset like turkey season should be in order?? I know a lot of hunters don't know what time sunset even is.. not that ignorance is ok, but another example , there are a lot of old timers,and guns that are hand me downs to younger hunters out there with winchester model 12 without plugs in the mag tube and have no idea a law was passed that restricts it to  5.. they don't break the law on purpose but they are braking it...

[bubba]

my other passion is basketball. I coach 8th grade girls and play in a mens league.  When the buzzer goes off at the end of the game, you cant play for another 15 minutes because you might have a chance to win.  Rules are rules and laws are laws.  You pack up and come back another day to play the game.

[bubba]

the reason for the times is safety.  Not only is it harder to identify a safe target, it is easier to shoot the doe when you have a buck tag and vice versa. 

[Dave]

For all the guys who hunt on state land it's 6:45 am and there it is the biggest buck you have ever seen but it's not 6:49 am the legal hunting time by just 4 minutes do you shoot or not? Be honest.

Dave

Is it legal?

No.

If you would shoot....shame on you.

Give me a break, it all sounds good or that's what you would like us to believe.

Dave

[G-Man]

well the same would hold true for turkey hunting then..must be a bearded bird. have to identify it

but its 1/2 hour before and after for that?

[bubba]

it is easier to discern a turkey from a human and they have to be much closer to see a beard.  A deer shot at dark could be a long shot depending on where you hunt.

[G-Man]

ok then what about bow season over gun.. has to be close then...1/2 hr before and after there would work.. don't see errant arrows flying thru the woods as a concern there..

[Lawdwaz]

Good heavens, I wonder how Pennsylvania does it with 1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset.  You'd think they'd be killing all kinds of guys.........................................

[Doc]

I'll bet that if you changed it all to "1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset", the same guys who are not complying now would continue to push the limits beyond that legal requirement.

As far as the scenario of the breaking the law simply because of the quality of the buck, I guess it still boils down to your belief in a system of laws. You either do or you don't. The law doesn't make exceptions for large animals, and there really would be nothing about a large buck that would cause me to feel good about breaking game laws. I am amazed that people are starting to consider game laws a "suggestion". Perhaps they are realizing just how few COs there are out there and how small the odds are that you would actually get caught. I have to admit that I have come to expect to hear some of those first shots during gun season well before any kind of light. Every year there are some shots that make me wonder how in the heck those guys even know it's a deer. So maybe I should not really be all that amazed.....lol.

[bubba]

That isthe point Doc, they do not know.  Then when someone is shot long before or after legal hours the cry goes out for blaze orange.  Last fall here in my area a guy was shot at 7:2PM during early ml season.  Sunset was 6:3 or something like that.  It was mid October.  The other weird part, he was shot by his buddy with a shotgun slug.  He has been charged with criminally negligent homocide. His attorney on th enews the other night thinks that is too much as it was just a hunting accident.  Huntign accident my ass, it was murder.  If you are too tempted to bend no break the laws and want to shoot early or late, stay out of the wood suntil legal hours.  Thatway you will not shoot illegally at me or a deer.  Human movement is quite heavy during these times also people going in and out of the woods

[First-light]

I find this interesting about A.M. shots but lets flip it around. How many guys are out of their stands at legal time in the P.M.?? Say the sun sets at 5:15 & the sun is still bright & you know you will have good light for the next 40 minutes. My local warden says you must be out of the woods/field at sun set time. I am willing te bet most are still in the stand!

Isn't this the true for those big bucks at bow season. Can't tell you how many seasoned bow hunters have told me to stay in your stand to the last bit of shooting light is gone, this is where you catch the big guys starting to move.

[First-light]

I still believe 9/10 guys on the site have or will take a shot within 15 minutes past legal hours.

[bubba]

and shooting them then is illegal.  But it is not my worry. I have shot the majority of my deer between 10am and noon. When others are cming out from the morning hunt, I settle in and wait.  They move after the people they have patterned leave.  OOPS one guy still here. 

[bubba]

I still believe 9/10 guys on the site have or will take a shot within 15 minutes past legal hours.

Burt,

you should not judge others by the set if rules you choose to follow. 

[Lawdwaz]

I still believe 9/10 guys on the site have or will take a shot within 15 minutes past legal hours.

Probably the same guys that do 72 in a 65 zone, roll through a stop sign, talk on the cell while driving,  bend the laws with regard to taxes, NOT tell the  cashier about a miss-priced item at the store or too much change back. 

Just massage the laws a little, don't REALLY break them..............................................

[moose]

Another point about shooting time. They use to let you shoot a 1/2 hr before and after now they changed that time.  Remember they raised a licenses 20$ in a year. So if you add up that hour a day for the whole season  it comes to be a week and a half  you lose for hunting for the year. So aren't you paying more for less and that you are losing that hour at the best time of day.    I DON'T TURKEY HUNT!!!!!

[Dave]

I'll bet that if you changed it all to "1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset", the same guys who are not complying now would continue to push the limits beyond that legal requirement.

As far as the scenario of the breaking the law simply because of the quality of the buck, I guess it still boils down to your belief in a system of laws. You either do or you don't. The law doesn't make exceptions for large animals, and there really would be nothing about a large buck that would cause me to feel good about breaking game laws. I am amazed that people are starting to consider game laws a "suggestion". Perhaps they are realizing just how few COs there are out there and how small the odds are that you would actually get caught. I have to admit that I have come to expect to hear some of those first shots during gun season well before any kind of light. Every year there are some shots that make me wonder how in the heck those guys even know it's a deer. So maybe I should not really be all that amazed.....lol.

Doc there was another thread that was about traditions at deer camp and where I hunt and the surrounding clubs all follow this one.  They get into the woods in the dark, try to be in stand about an hr before it gets light. To me shooting time would be, being able to see clearly at a target either through my scope or be able to line up my pin with a bow. I have never since 1968 looked at my watch before I shot at a deer. You simply don't have the time to fiddle around looking for what time it is. But I have looked at my watch when I hear the first shots on opening day especially if I think it is rather early and I can't make things out in the woods. Those shots to me are dangerous I feel if you have a hard time seeing then you will have a hard time finding the deer. I have had deer under my stand as light was fading and didn't shoot because I couldn't see them through my scope or get the pin on the deer. Though I could count them moving past, so I just sit till they are out of sight then I get out of my stand and head for home.

Dave