Legal shooting hours

Just wanting to see what are most people's interpretation of legal shooting hours for deer in AL? The regulations say "daylight hours only". Reading through some of the other threads it seems people have varying interpretations. Anyone have any thoughts?

Aren`t the actual "times" 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset? Depending on what kind of woods your in has a lot to do with how good you can see. If I can clearly identify it through the scope then I will shoot, if not I won`t.

That's true in Mississippi but not here. There is no set time that I'm aware of.

That can get you in trouble. I have a couple of scopes that would allow for this all night long with a bright moon.

30 minutes before and after sunset. It is defined in the handbook but less obviously so than it should be.

If sunset is listed as 4:40 pm then you have to 5:10 pm to shoot, correct??

Show us where you found that in the handbook. Sunrise/Sunset can be timed even though it moves a minute or two each day so then plug in the 30 minutes gives a definite time, didn't know Alabama has that one in the regs. In other words the time that legal shooting would be defined to the minute each day and you can't use a German made $2000 Hubble Telescope to go passed it.

Where's Paw Paw Troy?

Seams like Alabama Fish and Game or Outdoors alabama magizine has a published sunset and sunrise time everday for the deer hunting season? Why would this not be thee correct time to start and stop, just ad 30 mins. Sound easy to me!

There is a defined time in the regs for doves and waterfowl but I haven't seen one for deer. If I can see less than 20 yards it's time to come down but I hunt woods not fields.

ya'll just make up this stuff , don't ya'll?????

the sunrise/sunset tables are for waterfowl hunters, not deer hunters. There is no "set" time for start/stop. One part says "daylight, another says sunset.

If you go by 30min before sunrise/30min after sunset you will be safe. My own criteria is what you can see with yer eyes, not some 56mm German scope or binocs.

So it actually officers discreation?

You must think you are a game warden or something

pretty much, and I personally never knew of a ticket for shooting after hours unless it was WAAAAY after hours and with a light.

Thank you, if I take up waterfowl hunting I'll carry the table and a watch. I have gotta get me one of those mini Hubble's where I can deer hunt till after supper time.

I ask a game warden what time he quit hunting and he said "when I can't see".

OK. Good to know. I look everyday before i go if the sunset says 4:30 pm I set my phone alarm to viberate at 5:00 pm, when phone goes off I come down, unless there is deer around me. When deer are around me, I either call a friend to drive in and pick me up or Let my gun to the ground, drop the rope and weight.

no, but I impersonated one once......

Every state that touches Alabama plus LA, ARK, KY, and SC all state one half hour before sunrise / one half hour after sunset. Leave it to Alabama to be basakwards once again.

Seems pretty simple to me. Daylight hours only. That can vary a lot from place to place not only with regards to where you're hunting---fields/woods--- but also how much cloud cover there is. Like Troy said the 30mins before sunrise/after sunset is for migratory birds including DOVES, not deer.

What's the weight for?!

Shooter likes to get in a workout while he is hunting so he can carry that German Hubble telescope on his rifle.

When "daylight hours" end it's still very bright. Next time you're in a field in December at 4:40PM, I challenge you to leave. That's when I kill 95% of my deer, after "daylight" according to weather.com is over.

Woops. That should have been= wait. My rifle is only 11 lbs. Thats with a 5x22x56 Nightforce! So not really that bad to carry! I once carried a 18 lbs, 284 shehane match rifle to a shooting house to shoot a deer!

Thanks for clearing that up ... I wasn't sure myself

I don't go by weather.com as to when daylight ends. I use common sense and that tells me that daylight hasn't ended at 4:40 pm in December only that the sunset has occurred. Just like I don't wait until sunrise to shoot either. Good grief!

This is from the Code of Alabama, although apparently not enforced:

Section 9-11-235

It shall be unlawful, except as to trapping as otherwise provided by law, for a person to take, capture, or kill, or attempt to take, capture, or kill any bird or animal protected by the laws of this state between sunset and daylight of the following day, except that the Commissioner of Conservation and Natural Resources may by a duly promulgated regulation, allow the taking, catching, or killing of raccoons and opossums between sunset and daylight in any county or counties within the state.

I used to get worked up about the fact that they wouldn't just say 1/2 hour before and after sun rise/set. Then I started thinking, you know maybe it's best it's left the way it is, and it's left vague for a reason. What if you field is sloped such that it's oriented south, and atmospheric conditions allow light such that you can shoot at 35 minutes after sunset and at 33 minutes the buck of a lifetime walks out and you get a ticket? Sounds like the current state of affairs allows for sensible behavior without getting a ticket.

Of course if dumbazzes start shooting people, theyll be forced to lock er down and enforce accordingly.

Exactly. I think I've umpired some of their damn baseball games too. They "heard" a rule when they were a kid and assume it's true.

Usually if you feel its questionable you shouldn't be shooting.

I, nor many others, paid big money for binoculars and scopes to get down and go home at 4:40 pm.

Personally, I like Alabama's stance on it a heckuva lot better than the states that define legal shooting hours as 30 minutes before/after sunrise/sunset. If folks don't want to stay longer, there's no one forcing them to.

I like my German Hubble scopes.

If i was going to go home at 4:40, i wouldn't hunt that afternoon. Kill 90% of my afternoon deer after 4:30, probably closer to 5pm.

I don't like the DA on the ajoining property shooting at 5:45 PM when it's pitch black.

Depends on the moon phase.

The rules were changed a few years back, there used to be set times for deer hunting, now it days daylight hours only. I asked a GW about this years back and he said it was up to him. If he felt you could see good enough to identify your target then he sees no problem. They are aware of scope technology today and know that you can sit a few minutes longer which can mean the difference. I'm sure the new technology had a lot to do with the rule changes.

NEVER been any set times for deer hunting..ever. and no changes in the rules over the last 30 years either. Bad info....

I think we have been over the fact that its officers discreation. BhamFred, what would be the charges and fines if someone shot a deer, that in the GW opinion was to late? Would it be a charge of hunting after hours? If so would it be a fine like spotlighting? How much of a fine?

fine would depend on charge...could be hunting at night, could be restricted hours. Couple thousand to a couple of hundred.

The regulation is in fact as specific as "daylight hours." My interpretation is everyone should use common sense. If you question whether it's "daylight" or not then you should not shoot. If you cannot clearly identify your target then it's not "daylight."

Bottom line is that if you are shooting at a time when you know you should not be then you could get a ticket. A warden is not going to write you a ticket because it's so many minutes before or after a certain time found on a data table. They will right you a ticket because you are not using good judgement and could possibly kill somebody.

Anyone know of a case where anyone got an actual citation for sitting in a stand too late or shooting a deer too late? I am not talking about using a light or shooting at 10 pm, but 20, 30, 45 minutes too late. Never heard of it myself. Game warden would have to be watching you in my opinion. Technically under the way the law is written you are hunting walking into your stand in the morning before daylight or walking out at night, doesn't have anything to do with a loaded gun or not either. All of this really doesn't mean anything anyway because as has already been said you will not get a ticket without using a light or hunting well after dark.

you COULD certainly get a ticket for shooting WITHOUT a light. Wide open hayfield, big green patch, no clouds, moon rising as sun sets, full moon, BIGASS German scope=shoot very late. As much as an hour after time...or later. And a GW close by....because he had reports of someone shooting very late on that field.....

Yes, I know someone....

BUT, the field was being watched for illegal activity and the GW was sitting in the woods behind the shooting house and watching. The ticket was written well after dark. But, no artificial light was involved. And, it stuck!

A guy on here posted a few years back that a GW came to his shooting house and checked his and his wife's license. Said the GW wrote him a ticket and told him that if he (the GW) had to use his flashlight to read his license, that it was not daylight hours.

I wasn't there and I have no idea if it was true. We seem to have quite a few people that stretch the truth on aldeer. The hunter was more pissed that the GW showed up at prime time on the only day his wife got to hunt.

There was a GW on here a couple of years ago that said he would write a ticket for anyone shooting more than 30 minutes after sunset. That was his interpretation. I called Montgomery and talked to a Captain who told me it was just "daylight hours" and that could vary depending on whether you were in the woods or on a field. 49er said he was wrong.

One got it last year for shooting some big fields from the road over where we hunt.