RE: Who would shoot?
Don't break the law. It is a simple principle of action. I guess I'm more a stickler for the bigger issues -- shooting a buck without a tag -- than about smaller issues -- shooting at ducks 5 minutes before official shooting light, but pretty much the best policy is to follow the letter of the law to the full extent of your understanding. I think sometimes we may be in violation without really understanding it on some of the small niggling details.
For example . . . I figured out from a close reading of Colorado hunting regulations that it would be a violation to be hiking in with a loaded rifle, in the dark, with your headlamp on. The way I read the regulations, this would be viewed by the authorities as hunting for big game with a light and outside of legal shooting hours -- spot lighting game. I do this in Oklahoma while hunting deer all the time -- load up the rifle at the truck, including chambering a round; hiking into my chosen ambush spot in the dark, probably 50 minutes before legal shooting light using a head lamp; and then sitting quietly and motionlessly until legal shooting light. Nothing so explicit in the Oklahoma regulations that forbids this.