Legal Shooting Light Explained, State by State

How it is worked out

The rule is written relative to sunrise and sunset, and those change every day and with where you stand. Sunrise comes earlier in the east of a time zone than in the west, so the same rule gives different clock times across a state. To know your window, you need the sunrise and sunset for your spot on that date, read on the clock of the time zone you are in, then the state’s minutes before and after.

Some states publish the result as tables by zone or by date (Washington and Wisconsin, for example), and the tables are what count there. A calculation from sunrise and sunset can differ from a published table by a minute or a few.

Rules differ by species and season. Turkey, waterfowl and other migratory birds, small game, and some public lands, special hunts and opening days often have their own hours. For migratory game birds the federal framework is generally half an hour before sunrise to sunset, and states can be stricter. Always read the current regulations for your species and unit.

General big-game hours by state

These are the general big-game (typically deer) rules from each state’s own regulations or code, last checked on the date at the top of this page. 45 of the 50 states use 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. Follow the link to read the regulation itself.

Regulations change every season. This table is a starting point, not legal advice; the agency’s current regulations are what count.

Shooting light in the map app

In the Cartahaven map app, the Hunting units sheet (Tools, then Hunting units; it is called Hunting regulations where the app has no unit maps for the area) links to the state’s official season dates and rules and shows legal shooting light for the next 7 days, worked out from the sunrise and sunset at the spot and the state’s general rule above. The sun times are calculated on the phone, so they work with no signal, and they read on the clock of the spot’s time zone, not your phone’s. The same sheet shows the game management units, hunt areas or deer zones from the state wildlife agency’s own maps, where the state publishes them.

With Cartahaven Plus, “Shooting-light alerts” in Tools (or “Shooting-light alerts here” when you press and hold a spot) send a notification when legal light starts and ends, and a warning before it ends if you like, for the next 7 days. In the web app they come while the app is open. They follow the same general rule, so check the regulations for your species. Walking in before light? Red-light night mode, the moon button at the top of the map, keeps your eyes used to the dark.

See the hunting unit pages for a unit’s boundary, today’s shooting light and the maps that cover it, or browse hunting maps.