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I've never hunted before in my life and I only just learned about "Spotlighting" in hunting, so I'm a little confused. I get that using a light makes it easier

• rcurry 3y ago
  I’m a predator hunter and do most of my hunting at night. The reason they don’t want you using lights is that deer are mostly crepuscular creatures and so jacklighting them gives you a huge advantage. I see trophy bucks at night every time I’m out after coyotes - the same animals would be really hard to sneak up on during daylight hours, when their senses are more highly attenuated to avoiding threats.
  • scarface_74 3y ago
    I’m not against hunting - I think it’s hypocritical for anyone who eats meat to tsk tsk at hunting. But doesn’t a hunter with a gun already give you an unfair advantage over a deer?
    • samatman 3y ago
      The unfair advantage is over other hunters. Hunters would prefer to hunt by daylight, for the most part. If light-hunting at night were allowed, that would be the only way to take the best game, because as the comment you're responding to notes, it's much easier. So everyone would be forced to do the thing they don't want to do, if they want to take a deer at all. That's a bad equilibrium, what we call "not sporting".
      • scarface_74 3y ago
        Seriously, your post was the second one talking about an unfair advantage. As a non hunter, I was thinking of hunter vs deer not hunter vs hunter. That makes perfect sense.
      • danlugo92 3y ago
        Makes sense.
    • rcurry 3y ago
      Not trying to be a jerk, believe me, but try it some time. Deer have this mysterious ability to f*cking vanish during hunting season. In one town I lived in 3M had a plant with a little pond that was fenced off. During deer season all the deer would hop the fence and hang out at the factory because they knew nobody was allowed to hunt there. It was hilarious.
      • alephnan 3y ago
        Sounds like natural selection. The ones that had that intuition survived, and the ones that didn’t were removed from the gene pool.
      • ChoGGi 3y ago
        I'm always entertained by how deer will wait at sidewalks for you to stop or drive by (excluding the dead ones). Edit: https://i.imgur.com/IssfH8d.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/IssfH8d.jpeg
      • lobocinza 3y ago
        I would be afraid to eat meat from those animals as they were drinking water from "3M fenced pond".
  • why_at 3y ago
    I get that using lights makes it easier, the part I don't get is why it should be illegal for it to be easier. It would make sense to me if there was a "hunting league" like the NFL or something which had rules on what you're allowed to use, but why should this be a law? It feels like making RVs illegal because they make camping too easy. If you want the challenge, just don't use them?
    • SheepSlapper 3y ago
      Because all hunting laws are (or should) be to either a) keep people safe or b) to give the animals a fighting chance, to keep it more "sporting". There's a lot more to hunting than just killing animals, in fact that's a tiny percentage of what you're out there doing (scouting, tracking, hiking around, sitting still for hours, etc). All of the "sport" part of hunting goes out the window if you can simply spotlight deer after dark and knock em over. And if you wanted to know the REAL reason these laws exist, it's the same reason that gyms over-sell memberships. In many places, including where I live, the state wants your money, but don't want EVERYONE with a license to get an animal, because that wouldn't be sustainable. There are places where more tags are given out, and special hunts are provided to do actual population control, but I'd wager that a lot of states don't have that level of problem, and simply want the cash. So there ya go. It keeps the "sport" of hunting alive, and generates more revenue for states because they can sell a ton of tags that don't get filled.
      • earthling8118 3y ago
        Over-selling tags for profit generation sounds like a problem that needs to be taken care of.
        • SheepSlapper 3y ago
          I'm a hunter, and it's not a problem at all. You shouldn't be successful every time, and there should be some dang rules :) The state is doing exactly what they should be, given the circumstances. In fact, I'd expect a state with a game PROBLEM to do the same damn thing! If I was successful every time, I'm not sure I'd enjoy the game as much. And if you've ever hunted, you'd know that you can do everything right and still walk away with nothing to show from your time. That's how it goes, anything less and you end up with killing and not hunting. I appreciate the meat in my freezer, if/when it comes, but being able to guarantee it isn't what I signed up for. Plus, that "over-selling" is money into outdoor conservation, as long as it's not mismanaged to hell I don't care that they get a little extra. If you start moving that money into other bullshit then sure, we have an issue. But most of us like the outdoors and want to keep it around.
• trhway 3y ago
  >it's too easy or "unsporting" to hunt deer in this way To hunt a defenseless deer with a firearm is unsporting in any way. Anyone wanting real, not pretend, sport of hunting can go to Ukraine. One can use any weapons, cameras, lights and drones there, and it still will be noble and "sporting".
  • alephnan 3y ago
    How about with a crossbow?
    • trhway 3y ago
      My understanding that even with crossbow the hunter is in no danger. Going with a knife against a large deer would probably be something that may start to feel like a small achievement.
    • asadotzler 3y ago
      bare hands or it's unsporting and even then our superior brains make it an edge case.
    • trhway 3y ago
      forgot to mention, that because of its power and thus "un-knightly" character the crossbow was banned in 1096 by the Pope.
• vanattab 3y ago
  > I don't really understand this since you already need a permit/tag/whatever to hunt in the first place, so it's not like you'll get too many deer. This is not how hunting tag systems work or are designed. Not all tags are filled or should be filled. These systems have to balance many many different competing requirements and interests. 1) You might want to write the rules so the maximum number of people are able to participate in hunting and have an opportunity to connect with nature and their place in the circle of life. 2) You might want to write the rules to make sure you have maximum control over the population of a specific animal. (Ether to protect a native species or control an invasive species) 3) You might want to write the rules to protect commercial interests such as agriculture and livestock production 4) You might want to write the rules to protect human life (we don't think of it as hunting per say be we have declared our intention to wipe aedes aegypti off the face of the earth) 5) Maybe you want to maximize the safety of the hunters and the surrounding communities 6) Maybe you want to write the rules so you don't make people you are not fans of hunting don't have to witness the act. (restricting hunting in some parks or areas of parks/forests) 7) Maybe you just don't like hunting and you want to ban it all together When you buy a hunting tag you are not buying a permit to KILL an animal you are buying a permit to HUNT the animal within the rules we as a society have decided to use to balance many competing interests. So for invasive animals or animals with overpopulation issues we might have open year round hunting with very little restrictions on weapon type or hunting techniques and you might not even have to buy a permit/tag (think wild boar in texas/clown fish in florida/asian carp in mississippi). For other animals such as elk, moose, mule deer the amount of people who would like to hunt each season out strips the number of animals that can be taken sustainability. So we add restrictions like season dates to make sure the maximum number of young can make it to adulthood. Restrictions on weapons such as a 4 month archery season and only a 1 week rifle season (You might be able to shoot a rifle 300 yards where as a bow you have to be within around 25-40 yards) allowing far more hunters an opportunity to hunt each animal before it is harvested.