Does a gun need to be encased after 7:00 pm?

[brent]

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.

[finsfurfeathers]

You guys are much more polite than Facebook!

I would thank the mods for that.

[Marker]

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.

[genec]

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.

[tom gobble]

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.

[Marker]

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.

[delmer]

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.

[Larson]

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.