Legal hunting for Turkeys is allowed until 7:00;pm.
In your opinion does your gun need to be unloaded and or encased after 7:00 pm ?
This should be interesting!
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Legal hunting for Turkeys is allowed until 7:00;pm.
In your opinion does your gun need to be unloaded and or encased after 7:00 pm ?
This should be interesting!
For me its not a question of legal or not but rather eliminating questions. Having your gun cased after legal hunting eliminates the question "so you hunting after hours?"
CO's have a hard enough time sorting out the bad from the good, for me no big deal to make it a little easier for them...well most times at least.
Can't find anything in the regs - but I'd assume the same rules that exist for "30 minutes after sunset" would apply to 7:00pm for turkey if you are in an area where there are turkeys AND the firearm is a shotgun.Quote:
Originally Posted by JMatthews
If a hunter is still sitting over decoys with an uncased firearm after legal time,charges are a slam-dunk. Having said that,at this time of year,official sunset is around 8:15PM in most areas,therefore,firearms need not be encased until 8:45PM for other species which are open at the same time,specifically,varmint/predator and Bears. The devil will be in the details.Quote:
Originally Posted by JMatthews
Nope just don't shoot a bird past 7pm... :)
personally I will unload at 7 or a little sooner, if I remembered my gun sock I will put it on, but I would think that as long as you are not hunting turkey after 7 you'd be legal so no decoy out no turkey load in gun. You could be just going to resight in your gun with trap load or something. But as stated before, have a CO come up to you just after 7 and have a loaded gun will or could be a lot of questions asked, which is something I don't want. I'd rather have a nice conversation with the CO about how others have been doing.
Depends on the load Id say.
if u have buck shot after 7 PM for coyote, much different than if the shot gun is loaded with #5 long beard rounds.
I hunt in 87, it is my observation that the COs respond to complaints from local residents, and if there has been a complaint of shooting after hours they will be looking for evidence of that. Hence, having your gun unloaded AND cased after legal shooting hours anywhere in the woods would resolve issues before they arise.
You just need to cease turkey hunting at 1900. For those of us that can hunt coyotes, pull in your decoy, quit calling, to remove any question whether you are or are not hunting turkeys. As said earlier, it will depend on the CO you run into !
You guys are much more polite than Facebook!
The legal answer is no. You can legally hunt coyotes while turkey hunting and could still legally shoot a coyote after 7pm. You can even take a rifle with you turkey hunting to shoot coyotes.
I would thank the mods for that. :rolleye::thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by JMatthews
The original question eluded to be in the context of Turkey hunting. If one was to read the question as two seperate parts, then the answer would be different, hence the different answers above.
The 7:00pm turkey ending time has nothing to do with the rule for encasing your gun…you just stop turkey hunting at 7:00!
Your gun doesn’t have to be encased until 1/2 hour after sunset.
I don’t hunt late often but when I do I set a vibrating alarm on my watch five minutes before 7 and unload the gun and pick up my gear. No need to encase.
Page 29 of the regs, firearms incude bows:
If you are in an area usually
inhabited by wildlife during the period from half
an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise
you must unload and encase any firearms in your
possession.
When the original end time of 12:00 noon was the rule, it didn't mean you had to encase your gun and stop all hunting activity for the day. It meant that you could no longer pursue turkeys. No different now except quitting time is later in the day.
Not wanting to weigh in on specific interpretation of the law. But this whole "encasement" requirement has always struck me as pointless and petty. If you are inclined to shoot something illegally, after legal hours, pulling your gun out of a sock to do so takes no more time really than reloading. So what? - 6 seconds or less to get it out of the sock and reload, versus 3 seconds or less to just reload? I can't see it as other than an pointless inconvenience and a way to issue offences based on a technicality.