RE: nocking arrow
 

i would say everyone including myself knocks an arrow prior to legal shooting light...however if you get down to the nitty gritty its probably illigal to do so. most hunting law language give specific hunting times...ie daylight till dark, from sun up till sun down..etc, etc...and in most states you're considered hunting when you have an arrow knocked. in some states you're considered hunting if you're in your treestand. i have a buddy that was getting out of his treestand in PA years ago just after quiting time. he had lowered his bow right at quiting time, and little did he know it but there was a game warden watching him all evening. the game warden told him that he wanted him at his vehicle at quiting time not coming out of his stand.....pretty lame if you ask me. well needless to say he got a ticket for hunting after hours. had we been locals this may not have happened but who knows.

Edited by - nodose on 01/17/2003 14:08:26

RE: nocking arrow
 

DANG..... lock me up and throw away the key. Last thing I do before I sit down in the dark is hang my quiver, take and arrow and put it on the string, hang the bow and have a seat. That is a really lame CO to go through all that to catch someone sitting in a tree before he can see. He knows, I know, everyone knows he wasn't going to shoot deer in the black out. What a crock. Makes you wonder why he isn't following up on the 150 calls he gets a month about Billy Bob jacklighting deer. I know... Billy Bob is his cousin or he knows Billy only hunts with guns at night and is dangerous. He'd much rather catch old Ralph the bowhunter.

RE: nocking arrow
 

NODOSE.... we had a New York Forest Ranger give us a rash of crap over the same thing a few years back. He started out with this, "I can give you a ticket. You're hunting after dark.... blah blah blah" We listened as he ranted. He checked our guns to see if they were loaded. He had sprung on us in the dark with a flashlight about 20 yards from the road. He had a newbie with him and was wanting to show him who was boss and how tough he was I figure. When given a chance to explain, we explained we hunted until the legal hour but were a mile off the road, 20 feet up when we quit. He gave us the same thing about you have to be "AT YOUR VEHICLE" at quitting time. I said ... beg your pardon... I just came out for some supper. I'm going back up this hill and spend the night in the woods. There is nothing wrong with me being in the woods. It's not against the law. My weapon is unloaded. If I can camp on that hill until the 4th of July I can darn sure walk down to this road 30 minutes after dark. MY buddy is fiesty and at that said something along the lines of, "you've been scolding us like little kids and we've had enough. You want to give us a ticket go ahead, but you know it's legal for me to sleep in that woods. We're leaving if you have nothing else". We got in the car and left. The guy didn't say a word. End of story.

RE: nocking arrow
 

I'm guilty too. In reality. If you are in the woods and possess a weapon before the designated times, that should constitute hunting. I'm most always in stand an hour before daylight. Common sense will not be tolerated! I think a "loaded bow" is when it's drawn, not when it has an arrow nocked. But who am I?

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RE: nocking arrow
 

i think that the wardens get a little over picky if they think you are doing something wrong. A few years back about 10 or so. I got a ticket because i had my son and a friend of his with me to retreive a deer that i had shot the day before.I had the boys drag the deer out and DNR was at the road when we came out .i guess he thought we were hunting on sunday or trespassing or something but the only thing he could find that we were doing wrong was that my son didn't have a hunting license . by having him drag the deer out he participated in the hunt and he had to have a license .cost me $50.00 and some loss of respect for the dnr

RE: nocking arrow
 

Boy thats kind of stiff. Here I HUNT till time to stop. I then get up and walk back to camp. When I am within site of camp I unload. Why? We do not allow loaded guns in camp for safety. Also at night the hogs come out and its for just in case.
Rick

Lifes not about knowing the answers, its about asking the questions.

RE: nocking arrow
 

I sure do. I climb up, get my pack hung up bside me, get my sittin pad on my seat, and then pull my bow up, take and hang my quiver and knock an arrow, hang up my "loaded" bow and put safty belt on and settle in and quiet down.

I cant see to shoot till 30min. untill sunrise anyways(legal light). Ya know, we can sit here and criticise the dnr and the game wardens all we want but I still think that they do a purty good job of upholding the law. I do agree they take it to the extremes, nor am I saying I agree with everything they inact, say, or do but thats the law. They uphold it. I dont agree with not loading your bow till legal light but if its on the books then all we can do is write the dnr and see what happens. I think that some times they get an a**hole in the group every now and then and granted they seem to find the innocent ones but at least theyre not letting everything go and not doing anything. JMHO

&quot;A Country Boy Can Survive&quot; </IMG>