Shooting after hours

[BLACKJACK]

Last night was the first time that ducks could be taken til dark and I was truly amazed at all the shooting that I heard past sunset. I was out bowhunting - where you can hunt til 1/2 hour after sunset - and I heard shooting right up until I left. And it wasn't just one spot, I could hear shooting coming from all over. Don't people know that its sunset and not 1/2 hour afterwards? Or is it just too tempting when the ducks came floating into their decoys? A lot of ducks got blasted past legal shooting light!!! Wheres a warden when you need one!!

[Duck-o-holic]

On strike???

[fishfearme]

Three years ago I was on a lake in Isanti county. Nobody shot till after sunset. Ducks were coming in like crazy and everyone on the lake was shooting. Needless to say I joined the crowd. Didn't hit anything ,but there was a warden waiting at the access. He let everyone else on the lake go without a ticket. A buddy and I were the only ones to get tickets for shooting late. The other hunters walked by the warden and knew him by name as did he know the hunters. Do you think we were set up, or can the locals shoot late without concequences?
ffm

[GullGuide]

BlackJack,
I know for a fact that some people believe that you can shoot till 1/2 hour after sunrise.
I was working at a resort up near Brainerd one fall and this guest came down to the dock with his son, decoys and guns in their hands, jumped in their boat and motored away. This was with about 10 minutes left of shooting. When he returned about 45 minutes later, I asked him why he went out so late. He had this stupefied look on his face as he said "Late?" I then explained that when he went out he only had about 10 minutes left to shoot. Then he asked, "You can shoot till 1/2 hour after sunset right?" It took me about 20 minutes to convince this guy that he was wrong, which I accomplished by taking out the regs and showing him. It amazes me how people can be so stupid as to not even read the regs and to make it worse take their kids out and teach them bad habits as well. His explanation was that he had heard on the radio that the DNR had expanded hunting time till 1/2 hour after sunset. What he failed to hear was that this was for BOWHUNTING not duck hunting. What made matters worse, there were people banging away as we were speaking! This was almost 45 minutes after sundown! UNBELIEVABLE!!
>"////=<

[Guest]

WHAT? We can't shoot after sunset? Kidding

I always quit right at sunset, and if I didn't, man would it be tough to pick up all those deks in the dark. I have to rush to pick them up before dark as it is! I always hate it when the birds flock to me when I'm picking up, but it is a beautiful sight to see.

I once witnessed 2 guys shooting as I was loading my boat at the launch (in the dark). Not only were they picking up the decoys, but shooting at birds that flew over them, with the boat motor running. As [PoorWordUsage]ed as I was I waited for them at the launch to find them drive up onto shore with uncased, loaded guns. I waited for them to get to their vehicle, got their license plate # and called them in to the local CO. When they were packing up I had a few words with them on how they need to carefully read the rules and regulations on waterfowl hunting.
I never heard back from the CO or anything....do they enforce this kind of stuff when complaints are made by the public or what? I gave all my info to the DNR too.

[Duck-o-holic]

Bravo on your call CD... as Roop put it once before, we need to police our own ranks! Slob hunters make us all look bad-- even to the Non "PETA-Freaks" out there.

My fondest after dark memory took place in a flooded corn field near Mankato. We had hunted it up until sunset, and done well... but the birds really started to move in the fading, post-sunset light. I sat back and cam-corded over a thousand mallards coming into the flooded, standing corn in flocks of three to thirty. The birds literally hovered in place before slowly dropping down into the water between the corn rows. Had birds landing five feet away, and flying even closer than that over my head. Then, we slowly snuck out of there to the sound of whistling wings, and contented feeding chatter. Now THAT'S what it's all about!!!

Good Gunnin'

Duck-o-holic