you are allowed to hunt raccoons and coyotes and stuff at night with spot lights. so if you did have a gun for some reason, could you just say you were hunting them?
Thats what people around here do. If a gamewarden pulls them over, all they say is that they are hunting for hogs.
Down here you can spotlight and hunt hogs, varmits, rabbits, and exotics at night. Your not suppose to spotlight deer, but if you do there is not much they can say about it. Some wardens might give you a ticket for harassing wildlife, but as long as you dont have a dead deer in the back of your truck they cant take any of your weapons etc. or give you any major tickets.
During the months of sept and oct. we do spotlight surveys on the ranch. Some times we call the warden to tell him what were doing, they never have a problem with it.
But shooting deer at night in Texas can get you into alot of trouble. Poaching down here is a felony, especially if your tresspassing on somebody else land while your doing it.