Well they used to close at noon, morning hunts only as the theory was that hens would be on the nest in the morning, it was flawed but it limited the time out in the woods so it saved birds.
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No actually boonies.
Unless nuisance animal coyote example
Long story. Damn tannerite
Interesting theories, sorry for the late response. Been trying to sleep but my parents have renovations going on snd its a nightmare to even get a few hours right now.
I've looked up the states reason and they cut off at noon because the hens go to incubate their eggs at noon apperantly. I dont see how thats a reason to cut off at noon anyhow as you're only allowed to shoot bearded turkeys right now in the spring anyways? But I have seen countless hens walk through fields into bush. And when walking through that bush I have found hatched eggs a couple times. So that theory may hold weight. It still doesn't make sense as you're not allowed to shoot the females anyhow right now lol. The roosting theory may be right I guess!
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The rationale was/is to protect sitting hens. The original thought was that a cutoff time of noon, allowed the hens to get to their nests to lay, or start to incubate eggs unmolested. The biologists discovered the noon cutoff was not benefitting the hens. The 7pm time is there to allow them to get to their nests and incubate them all night, rather than being spooked from their nests after sundown. They felt a lot of hens wouldn’t get back to their nests after dark.
Fair chase........allows them to settle down before they roost for the night. If this rule was not in place you could just hang where they roost and shoot them as they go to bed. That is why I am blown away as to why you can legally shoot a bird on the roost in the morning. Never done it and think it is very unethical but if you want to be that guy you legally can.
interesting ! was always under the impression that wasnt legal, so if i see a bird in a tree before 7pm its fair game ? (curious)
i have another theory for the 7pm cut off,
harder to identify males when the sun is coming down perhaps?
fall hunt doesn't matter because you can take either sex of bird?