Hunting deer at night, legally

[Alpo]

Maybe.

 

 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Heck, We pay hunters from New Zealand to hunt deer from helicopters using rifles banned from Canadian subjects ownership.

Meanwhile, hunters including those of the First Nation are prevented from hunting them, in a controlled hunt, they would be willing to pay for!

Only in Canada use say?!?*

 

*Left Wing thought(?) process.

[Michigan Slim]

I've never shot a deer at night. I have misjudged legal shooting hours by just a bit, but never at night.

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Heck, We pay hunters from New Zealand to hunt deer from helicopters using rifles banned from Canadian subjects ownership.

Meanwhile, hunters including those of the First Nation are prevented from hunting them, in a controlled hunt, they would be willing to pay for!

Only in Canada use say?!?*

 

*Left Wing thought(?) process.

California and Canada have a lot in common. Beautiful country and scenery.

Friendly people.

Lots of culture

The stupidest, most ignorant and most self absorbed morons in public office.  

[Texas Lizard]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot said:

California and Canada have a lot in common. Beautiful country and scenery.

Friendly people.

Lots of culture

The stupidest, most ignorant and most self absorbed morons in public office.  

Sounds about right....

[Texas Maverick]

I don't think that would fly in court. I do know Axis deer here in Texas are not controlled by game laws since they are not a native deer to Texas so they can be hunted 24x7x365, same as hogs.

 

TM

[Badlands Bob #61228]

I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly in Georgia either.  The DNR take a pretty dim view of hunting the Govenor's deer at night.  Good way to lose your freedom, gun, truck, spotlight and hunting privileges.

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

  The DNR take a pretty dim view of hunting the Govenor's deer at night

Where were you 25 years ago? I got in a massive argument with somebody online. He insisted that the deer that was on his property was his deer.

 

I told him that the cow that is on his property is his cow. And he can kill the cow in the middle of winter or in the middle of summer. He can kill it it three in the afternoon or 11:00 at night. He can kill it by sneaking up on it and slitting his throat or by shooting it with a machine gun. He can kill a boy cow, or a girl cow, or a baby cow. It does not matter. It is his cow.

 

The deer, on the other hand, can only be killed like 3 months out of the year. They can only be killed in a certain time of day. Normally you can't kill girl deer, and I don't think there is any time where you're allowed to shoot baby deer. You are only allowed to kill them certain ways, using certain types of implements. Why is this? Because they're not your deer. The deer belong to the state.

 

 

He just would not believe me.

[Cypress Sun]

 

Borrow someone's truck for a night drive in known deer locales. Just make sure that you don't like the person who owns the truck.

[Alpo]

Logic says that if I don't like Billy Bob, then Billy Bob also don't like me, so why would he let me borrow his truck?

[Rip Snorter]

A whole lot of years ago in upstate NY, Game Wardens would position realistic trophy Deer dummies and stake out the area.  Worked and jacklighting dropped.

[Cypress Sun]

2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Logic says that if I don't like Billy Bob, then Billy Bob also don't like me, so why would he let me borrow his truck?

 

Billy Bob is from the wife's side of the family.

[J-BAR #18287]

9 hours ago, Michigan Slim said:

I've never shot a deer at night. I have misjudged legal shooting hours by just a bit, but never at night.

 

BTDT!  Thank goodness for scopes that gather more light than a human pupil!

[Pat Riot]

3 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

A whole lot of years ago in upstate NY, Game Wardens would position realistic trophy Deer dummies and stake out the area.  Worked and jacklighting dropped.

In PA the DFG would do the same things. 
 

I was driving home from work and a I saw 3 game wardens setting up an elk on a hillside. I thought “This is hilarious! Do they think people will actually shoot that thing?”

So I hooked a left and went up the hill and parked so I could see the road below and the stuffed elk on the hillside on the other side of the road. 
About 10 minutes later I see my idiot brother-in-law in his idiotic looking black truck on the road and it slows down. He sees the elk. He pulls off and gets out of his truck then reaches behind the seat and pulls out his rifle. 
Moral Dilemma: Do I let him shoot and get busted or do I yell at him and tell him the DFG is watching?

I would like to say I took the high road. I did not. 
He fired once. He lowered his rifle and looked at the elk. He fired again then stood there in shock that the deer didn’t move. That’s when the DFG rolled up along with a State Trooper car. 
Idiot brother-in-law arrested. 
 

That show was well worth the price of admission. 
 

I watched them bust two more idiots before going home. 
 

There were no elk in PA in 1989. These guys just could not help themselves. 
 

I did tell my wife about her brother. She laughed and told me I was a bad man. 
I think he paid a $1000 fine for his transgression. 

[Alpo]

What was he charged with? Shooting from the road? I know most places, these days, that is illegal.

 

Shooting a fake deer? Is that illegal?

 

It just seems like that would be easy to beat in court. Be like buying drugs from an undercover cop, but the "drugs" you bought were actually baking soda, not cocaine. I can see getting tried for "attempting to buy drugs", so maybe he was arrested for "attempted poaching"?

[Rye Miles #13621]

In Ohio you can’t hunt 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise.

 

https://ohiodeerhunter.com/can-you-hunt-deer-at-night-in-ohio/

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

Illegal in Colorado to any type of light at night for shooting. When I first moved here (25 years ago) my wife and I were out just after it got dark spotlighting deer and elk from our truck just to look at them. Someone reported us to the local game warden and he was hot on our tail! He stopped us and told us about the law and asked if we had any guns in the truck. If we did we would have got a ticket. I live pretty much in the country and if anyone sees anybody "spotlighting" at night, they call the game warden or the sheriff. 

[Eyesa Horg]

I despise road hunting 

[Texas Maverick]

I never verified it but was told it was legal to hunt pheasants from the road in South Dakota. People would just drive the dirt roads and shoot the pheasants in the ditches along the road.

 

TM

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 7/2/2025 at 8:57 PM, Pat Riot said:

In PA the DFG would do the same things. 
 

I was driving home from work and a I saw 3 game wardens setting up an elk on a hillside. I thought “This is hilarious! Do they think people will actually shoot that thing?”

So I hooked a left and went up the hill and parked so I could see the road below and the stuffed elk on the hillside on the other side of the road. 
About 10 minutes later I see my idiot brother-in-law in his idiotic looking black truck on the road and it slows down. He sees the elk. He pulls off and gets out of his truck then reaches behind the seat and pulls out his rifle. 
Moral Dilemma: Do I let him shoot and get busted or do I yell at him and tell him the DFG is watching?

I would like to say I took the high road. I did not. 
He fired once. He lowered his rifle and looked at the elk. He fired again then stood there in shock that the deer didn’t move. That’s when the DFG rolled up along with a State Trooper car. 
Idiot brother-in-law arrested. 
 

That show was well worth the price of admission. 
 

I watched them bust two more idiots before going home. 
 

There were no elk in PA in 1989. These guys just could not help themselves. 
 

I did tell my wife about her brother. She laughed and told me I was a bad man. 
I think he paid a $1000 fine for his transgression. 

Why would it be illegal to shoot stuffed animals.  My wife worked for an office full of lawyers who would have a field day with that.

[Stump Water]

14 hours ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Why would it be illegal to shoot stuffed animals

 

As the story was told, he was shooting from the road.   In most states it illegal to "hunt" from or within a certain distance from a public road (in Virginia it's 100 yards), and also illegal to shoot across a public road. 

[Sedalia Dave]

On 7/8/2025 at 9:22 PM, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

Why would it be illegal to shoot stuffed animals.  My wife worked for an office full of lawyers who would have a field day with that.

 

On 7/3/2025 at 7:32 AM, Alpo said:

What was he charged with? Shooting from the road? I know most places, these days, that is illegal.

 

Shooting a fake deer? Is that illegal?

 

It just seems like that would be easy to beat in court. Be like buying drugs from an undercover cop, but the "drugs" you bought were actually baking soda, not cocaine. I can see getting tried for "attempting to buy drugs", so maybe he was arrested for "attempted poaching"?

 

Because you are being charged with illegal hunting. Hunting is the act of going after game for food or sport. You do not have to actually kill a live animal to be convicted of illegally hunting. You just have to meet the legal definition of hunting. If you illegally shot a live deer or other game animal, you would be guilty of poaching which is the act of taking game illegally.

 

it is no different than Fishing. You can carry a fishing pole in your truck all day without having a license. However as soon as you put a line into the water you are fishing and if you don't have a license then you are guilty of a crime even if you never catch a fish.  If you do catch a fish then you are also guilty of poaching as the fish was taken illegally. 

[Stump Water]

1 hour ago, Sedalia Dave said:

You do not have to actually kill a live animal to be convicted of illegally hunting. You just have to meet the legal definition of hunting.

 

Spotlighting...

 

First: Someone is gong to call the cops.  Wasn't that way when I was a kid, but people didn't spotlight and shoot deer then.

 

Second: When the cops pull you over, if there is a gun, bow, crossbow in the vehicle it is considered "intent".  You are hunting illegally.

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Looks to me like entrapment and like I said, I know a whole herd of lawyers who would love to take that on.