Shooting hours

[walleyeking19]

Why are we only allowed to shoot until sunset? If you hunt pretty much anything else you can shoot till a half hour after sunset, and while we were packing up we had ducks flying past us while it was still light enough to identify them. I guess I just dont understand the reasoning behind that rule.

As we were leaving we could still hear shooting 15 or 20 minutes after sunset, so I guess not everyone follows the laws.

[rbs]

until they get caught. I agree with you tho...always thought that rule was stupid!

[TylerS]

I dunno...I guess it's different strokes for different folks, though. Unless I can 100 percent identify a duck before first light, I typically wait for sunrise anyway. I don't want to risk shooting a hen mallard if I can help it, and sometimes the only way to do that is to wait until the sun is over the horizon.

[leechlake]

they didn't change the deer hunting to 30 minutes past sundown until about ten years ago, if my recollection is accurate, we started duck hunting at noon on opener, then 9am and now 30 minutes prior to sunup. Pheasant hunting is different from MN to So Dak and No Dak. Sometimes you wonder who makes up the rules to some of this stuff.

If there was a truly educated plan that benefitted the hunted and hunter than I'd think most states would follow the same plan, but they don't so it's based on not missing church in South Dakota and in our state we do 9am for roosters. Who knows, five people sit in a room in St Paul and come up with a plan and run with it. At least they have been flexible in the past and have adopted new rules for times.

I think if you changed the time to 30 minutes after sundown the ducks would adapt and fly later potentially.

[Finlander]

At sunset on a clear day you can identify ducks easily, on a cloudy day at sunset not so much. Pretty hard to see colors when it's cloudy during the regular day time shooting hour's!

A friend of mine went fishing last Saturday in the south metro area and he said they were shooting alot on a WMA and he stopped at the access asked the hunters what they were shooting and they said geese!

My friend didn't know the season is closed until the 13th, I would have called TIP's on them!

Some people are just plain ignorant and too lazy to read the regulations!

[candiru]

I believe the Sunset time on waterfowl comes from the Feds. The snow goose conservation order that says 30 minutes after is the only exception. I don't think that we will see this change. Other hunts are regulated by the states.

[KidMoe]

From the subject title I thought this was gonna be about all birds we could've shot if shooting hour was 10 minutes earlier!

I agree with those who mentioned the weather. Some days you can tell exactly what kind of bird it is around sunset, and sometimes if they're in the right spot on the horizon it's impossible even during the day.

[CANOPY SAM]

The not shooting after sunset is almost certainly aimed at 1) proper bird ID and 2) opportunity (or lack thereof) to find downed birds before it gets completely dark.

Let's face it. We all know how they pour back into the slough well after sunset. How many would we lose if we were dropping em' into dark black shadows in tall cattails? That's a rhetorical question.

At least in the early morning you're only minutes from full daylight. 15-20 minutes after sunset it's getting dark fast...and it stays dark.

Yep. It doesn't take the birds long to figure out when they're a bit more safe to fly in low light hours. Good for them! I think they deserve a little break, and a chance to find a safe resting area for the night.