How late can you REALLY shoot?

Most of us hunters have hunted at twilight - that time when sunset approaches and the available light fades to darkness

It's a magical time in the outdoors, when the day shift settles in for the night while the nocturnal beings begin to stir.  This is a prime time for animal movement, especially for deer hunters.  Here in Virginia legal hunting ends at sunset.  But how late can we really shoot?  How long before sunset or when "legal" hunting hours end can you see well enough to make a clean, ethical shot?

It depends.
If you are shooting a firearm with a telescopic sight, the scope gathers more ambient light that you eye can, making it clearer to see and aim properly at a game animal.  If you are an archer with a crossbow, your scope sight gives you the same advantage.  Red dot sights with no magnification do not have any light-gathering ability, so your shooting time ends sooner.

Bowhunters have it even tougher; sure, those fiber optic sights gather a lot of light and make those pins glow like a beacon.  But what about that peep sight?  That tiny peep opening that works so well on the target or 3D range may be about impossible to see through once the sun gets low on the horizon. But how much less?

I wanted to know, so I took my bow out just before sunset.  I shot a trio of arrows every 10 minutes to see how long I could see - through my peep sight.  I use a large aperture peep to accommodate my glasses, so I figured I could still see my quarry as long as possible.

I used a block target as a backstop, while my target was a life-sized toy stuffed squirrel.  The intent was to see at what point I could no longer see well enough to use the squirrel's head as an aiming point.  I was surprised to discover that with the sun behind me I could still make clean shots right until 10 mins before sunset.  If the sun was in front of me, I could not tell the head from anything else, so I was done. As soon as the sun dipped below the horizon, I could not discern any specific part of that toy critter through my peep sight regardless of direction.

Now I know how late I can make a clean, ethical shot on game as sunset nears.  How about you?  Try it out sometime; it's a great excuse for some pre-season practice (like you need one)!