Then I wonder why we hunt coyotes and foxes and racoons at night with a light?

Hmmm.... "thats why we call it hunting"??

Isn't our role as hunters to remove the excess population, that natural predators which no longer exist cannot control? Well thats what I was told when I took my hunter education class. That was the role our instructor layed out, It is the 'service' we provide the state. We want to be viewed as conservationists who 'balance' the populations and we provide that service to the state's residents.

So why not hunt at night for deer? IS it just a paradigm that some hunters think it must be done during the day? Must be, because we shoot coyotes and foxes with high powered rifles at night with lights (in pa we do). And we are just doing the same thing in controlling the coyote pop as we are trying to control the deer population. Right?


The main reason that the origional poster got grief over the comment is because it goes against conventional wisdom. Its a paradigm shift that most sportsman can't comprehend because it would mean a change in what they have done for many years.

As much as DNR's and commissions say they want herd controlled, they don't want hunter success rates to go up too much so they don't allow night hunting for deer, yet they allow it for fox, coyote and raccons. And it is not because some are nocturnal and some are not, deer are just as nocturnal as fox and coyote. Both do a lot of resting in the day and feed after dark. Same - same.

Not a silly suggestion if people were truly interested in controlling populations, but they are not. But some pepole cannot think outside the box, nor can some challenge conventional wisdom.