Legal Shooting Light

What exactly is the definition of legal shooting light? Seems like a huge gray area based on your ability to see.

30 min before sunrise until sunset I believe.

daylight hours for deer...

So that would have been 6:50 AM until 5:21 PM yesterday for deer? Official sunrise to sunset?

There is no official time. It varies based on weather etc. at 5:21 you're still well within legal time, but Alabama is not like Mississippi in that there's no 30 min rule pre and post sunrise/set. It's a pretty good rule of thumb though.

no

I'm glad this is being addressed because 5:21 in a field looks a whole lot brighter than 5:21 deep in the woods.

Thanks.

I believe it has been said by some (I believe either a GW or a retired GW on this site) - that if you can't clearly read your hunting license without the aid of light, then it is too dark to be hunting.

If I can see.............then.................

I can't read mine at high noon!

I shoot 50mm scopes so from 6am till 5:40 pm im good.

5:40 around Dec 20 is pitch black.

The fact you are using a 50mm versus a smaller objective will only increase the light to your eye by 1-2%, that per a Leupold engineer, your eye can register 1-2%. It's the quality of the glass that does the real work letting light through.

^^^ 2dogs forgot the JK at the end.

So does that mean you can hunt half the night 4 or 5 days before the full moon when the moon is straight overhead at the time it would normally be dark? Because I you can see plain as day at that time on a clear day/night, especially with good optics.

I never understood the "until I can't see argument". Most of the time that is reasonable but there is a week or so every month which that definition won't work.

Bullcrap.

Either set a definitive time or let everyone use common sense and decide on their own. But one person who may be half-blind telling me I have to leave because HE can't read a license ain't worth doodly-squat.

As B'ham Fred said, it says "daylight hours." Use common sense and decide for yourself.

What is so damned hard about understanding "daylight hours only"? Not moonlight or starlight or flashlight or spotlight or headlight. DAYLIGHT hours only! Good grief.

You can, but you shouldn't. Because common sense should tell you that it's nighttime and not "daylight hours" as the regs state.

ticket time at 5:40

Yesterday at 5:40 I could have seen clearly enough on an open field or road with a good scope to pull the trigger. In the woods? No.

I ask an older game warden what time he quit hunting and he said, "when I can't see". He then clarified to say you can't use full moon type light to hunt.

Why not said a SPECIFIC regulation for it? The dang gray areas are what get people in trouble. 30 mins prior thru 30 mins after is pretty cut and dry. Why is this not a reg?

With that said, has anyone reading this been ticketed, or know of anyone ticketed for hunting too early or too late? Not to be confused with hunting with the aid of a light.

So under the current guidelines I could legally hunt in a field while you would be illegal if in the woods at the same time? Makes perfect sense.

3FF, I agree. Clear as mud.

I hunt in woods and when I can't see well enough to feel comfortable w/ bow or gun, I leave. Walking out on the road to my truck, though, it's clear enough to hunt probably a good 10 minutes. If I were hunting the adjacent fields (which aren't ours, but if they were) then I could maybe have 15-20.

But I'd rather Joe Average Hunter use common sense to make that decision to leave than being mandated on a specific time. Have hunted in other states with specific times and it's clear enough to shoot at "ending time," and that sucks.

I will hunt as long as I can resolve objects thru my scope. I'm thankful to live in a state that allows me to make that decision myself

Damn right.

"He who has the biggest scope shall inherit the earth"

IDK why some of yall are bitching about this law. Use common sense and it works out a whole lot better for everyone. I've never heard of anyone getting a ticket unless they were obviously hunting at night....

540 in December and 540 now are two different things.

This section of the Alabama Code sure makes it sound like sunset, which is a defined time, is the cutoff for end of legal shooting time. Is this not true, even if not enforced?

Alabama Code - Section 9-11-235: TAKING, ETC., OF PROTECTED BIRDS OR ANIMALS AT NIGHT; TAKING, ETC., OF RACCOONS OR OPOSSUMS AT NIGHT; TAKING OF FOXES AT NIGHT
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. In any county where the taking, catching, or killing of raccoons and opossums is permitted during nighttime hours by regulations of the commissioner, the animals may only be legally taken with the use of a light and/or a shotgun using shot no larger than number eight, and the person or persons so hunting shall be accompanied by a dog or dogs and, if hunting on the lands of another, shall have the written permission of the landowner.

If I can't make an ethical shot it is time to go to the truck.

Bout 5:15 around December 20 it's dark in the woods, time to go to the truck.

we only do this thread bout five times a season.....

I thought , after the last discuss on this everyone new = ITs basicly Officers Discretion! What ever the GW decides on a case to case basis !

fred

to recieve a ticket for this, would a person just have to be sitting in the stand past the "time". or shoot past the 'time'. what is the criteria a gw would look for in order to write a ticket such as this.
( I know gw are diffrent and the descretion will vary some )
obvisouly shining a field with flashlight would probably do it, but what else

just sitting in the house past time would not of gotten a ticket from me. Add complaints of late shots from that area, loaded rifle, shining field, etc, might make a ticket.