Interactive tool
Sunrise & Legal Shooting Light by ZIP
Enter a ZIP code for a two-week table of sunrise, sunset, civil twilight, and the standard legal shooting light window — all in local time.
Legal shooting hours shown use the common 30-minutes-before-sunrise to 30-minutes-after-sunset rule. Several states publish their own tables or use different windows for turkey and migratory birds — confirm with your state regulations before you hunt.
Use this with the rest of your hunt plan
Shooting light questions
- What is legal shooting light?
- In most states legal shooting hours run from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset. Some states use a different window — Pennsylvania and several others publish their own daily tables, and turkey seasons in some states start at sunrise or half an hour before with a noon closing. Check your state's regulations before you rely on any table.
- How accurate are these times?
- Sunrise and sunset are computed with the standard NOAA solar algorithm from the ZIP code centroid, so they are accurate to about a minute for the middle of that ZIP. Terrain matters more than the math: in a deep canyon or on an east-facing ridge, actual usable light can differ by many minutes.
- Does civil twilight equal legal light?
- Not exactly. Civil twilight is when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon, which at mid latitudes is roughly 25 to 35 minutes before sunrise. That is why the 30-minute rule works as an approximation, but the legal standard in your state is the clock rule, not the twilight definition.
- Which time zone do these times use?
- The local clock time for the state the ZIP is in, including daylight saving. A few states are split between zones; if your ZIP sits near a zone boundary, confirm against a local source.