In your example, apparently, you could shine all night and I could then see it being useful. But, in WI, I believe the latest any county will let you shine is 10pm.
One thing to keep in mind Dan is you can only shine till 10:00pm in Wisconsin. This prevents some yahoo from shining at 3:00am and able to more easily get away with poaching.
Yep, knew that. So, that brings up another point.....in areas that are heavily shined until 10pm, can it make the deer even more nocturnal?
I am sure you will have poachers no matter what rules are in place and yes they should be busted. I would never give up my hunting rights for doing something that would get me in trouble. I dont ask nothing else from my family but some time in the woods by myself. That is my time to relax and enjoy what the good lord gave us. My daughter wants to hunt and can not wait untill she gets enough patients to enjoy it with me.
This is only part correct! During the hunting season, you can only shine until 10pm, otherwise you can shine all night long if you so desire! I shine well into the early AM hours, then other times just before sun up as well. This gives me an idea where deer are just before sun up, same as just after dark, what fields they are hitting first!
I like it. I finally got a place where I can spotlight without anyone around. No houses or traffic. As a matter of fact, I just shined 37 deer on my way home from the bar tonight, about 4 miles. I saw 3-4 real nice bucks. I do it more for fun than scouting.
Curious as to why your glad or anyone for that matter, as to why you/they're glad its illegal in any state? I tell ya, it sure is fun to load up all the kids in the back of the truck and go out for a few hours, they can't wait for it to get dark to go shining, we sure do enjoy it! I would hate to see that taken away from them!
Many of you made the same points as to why I am in favor of shinning. Wisconsin bow season starts Saturday, Sept 18th and for that day you should be out of the woods 07:15. Lets say I go spot light a public spot at 8:00 pm and I see some deer there you can bet those deer were pretty much bedding near by and I can setup between the bedding area and that spot and see them during daylight. Now lets take the same scenario and I dont see any deer but I come back around 09:30PM and now they are there this tells me they are probably bedding farther back and it takes them a bit to get to this spot. I now know that I need to put a stand farther back to catch them at daylight. As the season progresses and hunting pressure kicks in ive noticed that these deer are coming out way much later in my public hunting spots and more then likely coming from the swampy areas due to this pressure. I definitly like this spot lighting for early season success. I would just like to add when I take my son Cole A.K.A. Frog slayer on BHC shinning after football practice he just loves seeing deer and it keeps him interested in hunting for sure. Starting next month im going to start sharing my spot lighting ventures with you all, stay tuned. Just like baiting I can see spot lighting is not for everyone but I do see poaching mentioned in this thread. So we should make it illegal because of illegal activity? Thats like saying take away our guns because of the idiots out there who miss use them. Everyone has their opinion and I respect that and thank you for your responses. T P.S.- Some of you that don't like it can you state why if you don't mind? T
Illegal down here in Arkansas too. Had a dentist acquaintance, that tried it and the G&F and pilot, tracked his travel from the air and followed his vehicle, then landed their small contract plane in his back yard, and gave him a nice ticket Being a real dummy, for one reason or another. He did also have a loaded pistol in his vehicle. He got a couple more nice fines for that dumb act too. For the record, I don't hunt with this person, or claim him as a friend either. He is just someone I met at my uncles house.
Can't speak for anyone else or another state, but here in Arkansas we are full up with spotlighting poachers. I personally know a few, that kill 3 - 5 deer a week and only cut hams and tenderloin. G & F knows about them too, but nothing is ever done about it.
Spotlighting is a great scouting tool... I locate all the buck bedding areas in my hunting areas then during the summer and fall when I spotlight I also map out times and locations where certain bucks are seen. Based on time and direction of travel I can make educated guesses on where they are bedding. Yes, it can be used as a poaching tool, but in most areas this is grossly exaggerated. In Wisconsin I think a few deer get poached every year with a spot light, but not many. There are to many home and to many people watching for a rational person to shoot a deer and then go back to pick it up... Not to mention the law is very stiff. You loose your truck, your gun, your hunting rights, they put your name in the paper. everybody hates you, You will likely spend jail time, etc.. It seems like everyone wants to blame poaching with a spotlight for everything... I have seen road killed bucks get there head cut off for the cape and antlers and everybody assumes it was poached from the road... Also hear coon and yote hunters shoot at night and people blame spotlighting.. You really could not get away with it where I am at. I get pulled over and the vehicle searched several times a year. The local warden does fly overs at night to and watches with a plane and follows spotlighting trucks from the sky. Spotlighting is a great past time not just used for scouting, but families go out just to view deer, its no different than taking a ride around in the evening and looking at deer in the fields. Maybe they should out law that too? Because you could be a poacher if you look out your window at a deer, right? The penalty is stiff enough to be a great deterrent. There are enough laws banning our fun past times. They have banned trail cameras in some states now. In some states you can't film hunts on public land without a special filming permit. Pretty soon we will be banned out of doing anything.
Also the most important point here is that making another law to stop law breakers from breaking the existing law will just stop those of us who abide the law. Poachers are going to poach regardless of the law.
Our local conservation officers all wish it was illegal because it is in fact the number one tool used by poachers here. They should know. It is the most effective tool to illegally harvest trophy bucks, bar none. It is very different from riding around during daylight hours and watching deer. Would you also argue that coon hunting can be done just as effectively during the day. No. And so goes it with big bucks. The penalty is tough. But the chance of getting caught in sparsely populated areas is slim to none. I would love to see it outlawed in Iowa.
