r/canadaguns • u/Saltshaker445 • Mar 02 '26
Gun and gear reviews Night Time Activity.
Zulus520R on a Ruger Precision Rifle in 22lr. Scope works great and has some cool features. The rifle is a great shooter too all around great setup.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 02 '26
Zulus Works well and batteries are available on Amazon. The charge lasts a good amount of time. The various reticle types are great too. The image is clear and on a full moon I can see in colour. The rifle is a very good 22lr with a bull barrel. It’s really just an all around superb shooter although the trigger needs a bit of work otherwise it’s ready to plink.
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Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
I thought night shooting was illegal canada wide? where can a guy legally do some night shooting?
edit : not trying to be accusatory or a prick, hoping you tell me im wrong as fuck so I can justify a night sight lmao
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u/Timelesturkie Mar 03 '26
No laws against night shooting in Canada from a federal standpoint, hunting is generally illegal from sunset to sunrise but target shooting on crown land is generally okay as long as you’re being safe. Some provinces and municipalities may have different laws that limit night shooting so it’s best to check with your provinces CFO before going out to shoot at night.
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Mar 03 '26
yeah it seems alberta is no crown land & only on range (so maybe private land too) in which case mommas doing some NV shoppin
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u/DougMacRay617 Mar 03 '26
mommas doing some NV shoppin
Momma better have deep pockets
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u/IPSC_Canuck Mar 03 '26
So, I’m not a lawyer. I’m just some guy on the internet. Take this all with a grain of salt.
We ran into this at my gun club while dealing with the CFO(Onterrible). They wouldn’t approve our range for night operations except for law enforcement training because we didn’t meet the lighting requirements. We were never told what those requirements were and I don’t remember ever finding it in the range construction guidelines, when you could actually access them.
As far as I know, there isn’t a federal, or provincial law prohibiting the discharge of a firearm at night. But they could, in theory, charge you with reckless endangerment if they deemed you didn’t “know your target and beyond”. I think depending on the demeanour of both yourself and any peace officer who catch you doing this, if they really want to charge you with something, they’ll find a blanket charge. It might not get beyond the crown, but it’d be stressful and you may be forced to surrender your firearm at the time.
On the topic of “hunting”, I can only speak for Ontario because that’s the only province I’ve dealt with this… most seasons and jurisdictions prohibit hunting 1/2hr after sunset to 1/2 before sunrise(night). I believe there may be exceptions, but I don’t know well enough to say for sure. In Ontario you are deemed to be “hunting” if you possess an uncased (not covered on 6 sides) firearm in a “game inhabited area”. I used to work closely with conservation officers at work, and would vehemently disagree with them on this point as I’m not a big hunter, but I do carry a firearm at times for predator control in certain places. They all agreed that they would deem me to be hunting, and charge me as such if I were breaking other hunting regs, like lack of blaze orange, lack of a tag, hunting out of season, or hunting more than 1/2 hr after sunset, etc... I wasn’t sure legally what the outcome would be, but the fact of the matter remains that regardless of the outcome, defending yourself against any of those charges would be costly even if you got away scot free. While working with the CO’s it was common place to see hunting charges exceed the $10000 mark, and I would actually see the actual numbers reflected in the paper if the individual was convicted. A good portion of the cases, the fines and charges were pretty close to the amount charged on scene.
The saving grace… if you can somehow prove that you’re target shooting, that can pass as a reasonable excuse to be in possession of an uncased firearm in a game inhabited area. If you have targets, a spotting scope, some sort of log that shows you have a plan, or any other equipment involved in target practice, that might be sufficient to convince a CO that you’re in fact out there shooting. I routinely go do load development in these areas and I don’t worry that I’m going to be charged.
In Ontario, there is, according to conservation officers at least, a reverse onus to prove that you aren’t hunting. I’ve always had my doubts as to the legitimacy of this due to the presumption of innocence within our jurisprudence. But they are adamant that this reverse onus holds up in court. I’ve never really gotten that far into its legitimacy or done much research on it as I take actions to be able to prove I’m shooting targets without a shadow of a doubt.
My thought would be, “why risk it?”. Unless you have an airtight plan and all of your ducks in a row, is it really worth the hassle? If you were playing around with some NVG stuff then I completely get it, but make sure you can prove that you’re not hunting, at least in Ontario.
We do need to flex our rights, but being a martyr doesn’t really help you, and in some cases you could produce case precedent that we really don’t want.
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u/BritBuc-1 Mar 03 '26
I take the dog hunting for raccoons at night during season. It’s a ball ache when someone calls the cops and you gotta show yours and your dogs licenses
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u/IPSC_Canuck Mar 03 '26
Right on that sounds like a blast! Super frustrating when the Karens have to karen.
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u/AresV92 Mar 03 '26
Yup coons for me too and yup got the cops called on me as well. At least the co that showed up yelling for me to come out of the woods just wanted to talk. I think he must have suspected what we were up to because we were on crown land. Ngl it was stressful coming out of the woods to cop cars with flashlights on me. Just as a precaution I cased and slung my shotgun before coming out and leashed my dog and held my hands up.
It sucks that we have to worry about getting shot when we are just hunting and not hurting anyone, but Karen's are definitely a thing. The co said she heard gunshots in the distance and thought a gang war was happening in the ravine a km from her house. The co laughed it off after it became obvious we were good. When he left he said they were gonna go bitch her out for wasting all of our time and explain to the Karen what crown land is etc.
Other than that hunting at night was a really fun experience.
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u/IPSC_Canuck Mar 03 '26
That’s unfortunate, but at least the interaction was overall positive with the CO. Still kinda ruins your hunt though.
There really aughta be a “Karening” charge on the books… i suppose “mischief” would be close enough.
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u/AresV92 Mar 03 '26
I think if someone bothers the police with nuisance reports often enough the officers would probably give a warning and then yeah something like a mischief charge could be given to hopefully prevent further misuse of resources.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
Luckily I’m on reserve and my nation has the right to hunt at night.
Edit: it’s one of the saving graces of being Indigenous, I hope we can continue to keep our SKSs safe.
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u/IPSC_Canuck Mar 03 '26
That must be nice man. That would remove allot of stupidity from the equation for sure!
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
It’s nice to have distance from the Government. Everyone here knows how they are.
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u/goodfleance Mar 03 '26
I thought it was provincial, always assumed some places get to have some fun after dark
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u/dgod40 Mar 03 '26
I don't see anything in the firearms act about nighttime shooting. Hunting laws have restrictions like that. That being said you better be damn sure of what's downrange.
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u/Opening_Pizza Mar 03 '26
I've only heard of Raccoons at night in Ontario, and you gotta be a licensed trapper with a dog https://www.ontario.ca/page/hunt-raccoon-night
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Mar 03 '26
Ive never even seen a raccoon lol
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u/Opening_Pizza Mar 03 '26
Oh you will, they're spreading.... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-raccoon-sighting-urban-wildlife-1.6374980
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u/gnu_gai Mar 03 '26
It's not explicitly illegal in the Firearms Act to shoot at night. It is however illegal to shoot without being able to see the area around and beyond your target, and it's not exactly a challenge for the cops to argue that for any nighttime shooting outside of a well lit range facility
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u/AresV92 Mar 03 '26
Racoon hunting is a thing... At least in PEI. Check your local regs. If you're allowed it's the perfect excuse to buy thermal/nv and tell the wife it's for hunting. I find the hunting stuff goes down better than pure larp (at least with my wife... Ymmv).
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u/RelativeFox1 Mar 03 '26
The way I read the Alberta wildlife act, it’s illegal.
It’s unlawful to-
Hunt any wildlife or discharge a firearm between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise. (See sunrise/sunset table)
So even though target shooting isn’t hunting it still breaches the wildlife act.
https://albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/genregs.html
That’s my opinion
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Mar 03 '26
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
No this is Reserve No. 14.
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Mar 10 '26
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 11 '26
Very “no this is Patrick,” type of response just realized. Apologies if that wasn’t lighter than it should be!
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Mar 11 '26
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 12 '26
If it was up to First Nations we would be able to shoot anywhere; as long as it’s not reckless or endangering others. I’d imagine plenty of ranges like in Switzerland where the rounds travel over highways.
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u/Psyex Mar 04 '26
Except being out at night with a firearm is a good way to have a run in with fish and wildlife. Even walking back to my truck after a hunt I ended up having a talk with them, and I was perfectly legal. It start with you know hunting ends 30 mins before sunset. I was polite and showed on my GPS where I walked back from. Then they double checked my tag and licences and everything was good. Then I asked do people hunt at night a lot? I got the laugh and Ohhh yessss. The guy was just doing his job and all in all it was a ok interaction. Why do I always feel like I am guilty of something? Even/especially when I follow the rules.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 04 '26
Fish and Wildlife, RCMP, and SQ don’t have jurisdiction so I’m perfectly fine. It’s nice having a police force that’s from the community itself because they have a connection with the community and in my experience they don’t act like a-holes. Although there are some drawbacks to it it’s nice to have a local force.
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u/Only-Cap3497 Mar 04 '26
Interestingly enough, BC of all the provinces is the only one that as far as I am aware, does not explicitly ban shooting at night. You cannot hunt, however I do not believe there is anything stating you cannot target shoot. Every other province I am fairly certain does not allow discharging a firearm at night.
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u/Only-Cap3497 Mar 04 '26
Upon further research I believe I am correct about target shooting but I also learned you can hunt coyote (and other pests) at night in most provinces with a couple minor stipulations.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 04 '26
There’s always exceptions when it comes to Canada because simple rules would be too easy! You can get hit with a bunch of different things if you don’t check things out. Unless you are 100% it’s best to stay on the side of caution.
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u/Unfair_Valuable_3816 Mar 05 '26
is this BC? a buddy of mine just got tracers and would be cool to try in a darker setting
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u/SenoraIsl Mar 03 '26
I could be wrong but when i lived in Ontario, we were allowed to hunt racoons at night with a 22. Is that still a thing?
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
I believe the provinces/municipalities have jurisdiction on that one. The use of night vision on big game is prohibited for most people in Quebec: https://www.quebec.ca/en/tourism-recreation-sport/sporting-and-outdoor-activities/sport-hunting/general-rules/hunting-times.
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u/Gunpowder- Mar 03 '26
Bruh why are you creeping around with a 22 at night in canuckistan? We dont do that here😂
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
It’s the rez where we still have some freedoms although the crime ain’t great.
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u/Gunpowder- Mar 03 '26
Id like to take my comment back then, should be able to live however you like if you live there.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
Nah Canuckistan makes sense for the vast majority of places around here unfortunately 😅
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u/OkAbbreviations8669 Mar 03 '26
Is that a mag adapter? If thats a 10/22 mag thought it needed to be pinned .(not hating)
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u/Low_Bar_804 Mar 03 '26
This comment is pure hate bro 🙄😂, that mags pinned with the power of love and friendship, that should be enough for the government.
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u/Saltshaker445 Mar 03 '26
Nah it’s an adapter. It can be a bit finicky but I’d say 60% of the time it works every-time.
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u/Cocoa-nut-Cum Mar 03 '26
These pics convinced me the next fallout season/game should be in Canada.