3 ms·

Spotlighting deer is illegal just about everywhere in the US. This shouldn't be a surprise to hunters. In no world does "spotlighting, but with a drone" make

• solardev 3y ago
  My understanding of "spotlighting" (I am not a hunter) is using a bright light source to mesmerize deer to make them easier to kill. That seems fundamentally different to me than using a drone to recover a deer's body (that had previously been shot). Does that matter? Maybe it's the case that it's impossible to enforce a working difference between "using a drone light to mesmerize a deer pre-kill" vs "using a drone light to locate a deer's body", but in that case it seems like the law should just be against drones in hunting seasons/areas, rather than "spotlighting". But as far as I can tell no such law was on the books (and the judge also wanted clearer laws).
  • alistairSH 3y ago
    That's the crux of it. In this case, we can ignore the drone aspect - spotlighting is illegal on its own - and there's no question he used a spotlight. It just happened to be mounted to a drone. And spotlighting is illegal for good reason. Deer hunting (and most game hunting) is supposed to be "sporting" - there should be some challenge - tracking, hit the target, etc. Spotlighting takes away that sporting aspect - it causes the deer to freeze, making it easy to kill. And if "spotlights for recovery" is legal, then "spotlights for hunting" becomes nearly impossible to enforce as a hunter would always claim "the deer was dead, I was just recovering it".