I think about this scenario often ...so I want to put this out and see what other guys think.. NY has a Sunrise to Sunset rule when it comes to deer hunting. As most of you know, you can see VERY good in most cases well past that .... here is the scenario.... You are in a tree and observe that it is 10 minutes to legal shooting light. As you lift your head up, a monster buck, whatever your definition is, has slipped in out of nowhere into your shooting lane and is walking at a good pace as big bucks tend to do...do you stop him and take the shot? You have plenty of light and the shot is a slam dunk 15 yarder... Do you shoot? I was always one of the guys that say, "Don't Shoot" ... but I put myself in that same scenario tomorrow morning with that big 8 .... would I really just watch him go by?
Guess I don't know. Luckily, we are 1/2 hr prior and post here in MN. It's too dark to see you pins within 5-10 min of shooting light usually.
Pretty much the same here, my woods are pretty thick, unless I'm hunting the blind on the field, I can't see my pins until right around sunrise. It would be a tough choice.
If I can clearly see my target, my pin, and be able to see throughbmy peep I'm shooting. Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
Yeah thats a tough one. For me here in MN I usually can't see my pins before legal shooting time ends. If it was the deer of the lifetime and I had the light for it I might take the shot. I have never broken any other regulations, so if it was a couple minutes I wouldn't sweat it. Half an hour after? Thats pushing it.
As long as I am not breaking any laws or regulations hell yeah I would take the shot! But if it's after the shooting time and I can still see, I wouldn't take the shot. That's just me!
I've many times said I won't shoot, luckily both the half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunset are legitimately too dark to see scenarios, especially inside the woods. I had to put not sure what I would do though. IL was once rise to set not all that long ago, but was before I started hunting again. I will say that I keep a constant eye on the time, and while I am in stand well before sunrise I climb down about 10 minutes after sunset and still hunt back to the truck. There's been a full moon where a buck came out and fed for about 5 minutes. I could see his silhouette perfectly and the gleam of his antlers. Thought to myself if I just bumped the sight light on at lowest setting I could make the shot. Was never anything more than a thought and no intention to ever try it. But it makes me wonder given your scenario, would I or wouldn't I. The times are set for safety purposes, so if it's safe does that make it right?
Like already said we have 1/2 hour before and after rule. Most times, this year especially, I'll grab my bow right at sunset time and remove arrow if I haven't seen anything up until that point. Once this year I had to "reload" my bow because something came in shortly after, like as soon as I took the arrow off. Wasn't really anticipating shooting because it was group of does but you never know what's following. After last years thread I did start to pay a little bit more attention to times when it was getting close and for the most part the method I use is pretty much covered by what's deemed legal shooting light. So my answer would be if its light enough for me to feel like I can make a shot then I'm taking it. Sometimes this happens before time as expired and sometimes its a few minutes after. But I don't continually watch the clock, I'll watch it up until whatever time sunrise or set is then I know its getting down to the wire and normally what I would consider adequate light to take a shot is within 5-10 minutes of what's the actual legal time. One more thing to mention that got brought up last year was the meaning of light. Its meaning natural sunlight, not any artificial light source that would aid in seeing when its obviously to dark to be during legal hunting hours that's a completely different topic.
This turned into a mess last year. But, im holding strong. Im shooting. A) Because if i feel its a safe shot, im gonna shoot. And B) I dont look at my phone in the early AM because of the light bothering my already terrible eyesight, so i wouldn't have any idea what time it is anyways. This goes down to the old morale debate...have you ever cheated on a girlfriend? Stole something? Drove a little tipsy? Lied to somebody? Shot a deer 3 minutes early? If i had a dollar for every morale conundrum in my already short life, id be rich.
Its funny how a little bit of antler size makes you completely rethink your morales eh? Welcome to the dark side PT
For the sake of conversation... In MT, and many other states, we can shoot 30 minutes before sunrise. I can often times see my pins at the 30 minute mark. Take PT's scenario of ten minutes prior and add 20 full minutes onto that. Are you still shooting? Why or why not?
I still take the shot. I don't pay much attention to the time. Once I start having a hard time seeing I know it's time to pack up. But like you said we have 30 minutes before and after sunrise and sunset here in Illinois and I'm typically on my way back to the truck before I run out of time. Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2
