It is illegal now to shine in Florida with or without a gun. Which in my opinion is a good thing. There is alot of deer hunting with hounds done in Florida.

I remember when I was a kid about 40 years there was a club that would shot the nicest bucks. We were just dumbfounded how the hec they managed to kill such nice bucks all the time. One night when I was visiting their camp they all piled into the back of a pickup and off they went shining. I went along for the ride. We spotted a real nice 9 pointer. The next day that buck was hanging on their meat pole.

I quickly figured out that they were shining to find a buck then in the morning they would put their hounds on the bucks fresh tracks sorround the block and shot the deer. I am sure it was not a guaranteed kill, but in my opinion it was not fair.

I told my grandpa about it. And he shrugged his shoulders. He told me, son we are here to hunt not kill. That stuck with me to this day.