I'm just wondering how many of you shine deer at night, and if you do, what purpose does it really serve. I know in some states its illegal, but here in Wisconsin its not and I wish it was. From what I see on our property it tends to get and make deer spooky. From my point of view all it does is promote trespassing and poaching. What are your thoughts?

shine on!! we do it on our private property in ga. to get an idea of what is on the property.not legal on public land i don't think. but if i caught someone shining my place i would be pissed. but it is a good way to get a general head count

Thats just it, you can shine anywhere in this state as long as you are on a public road. Every night I get half a dozen trucks or more shinning my bean field and it really irritates me. I don't have to shine my own land because I know what out there. Thats why I own trail cams.

yeah, that is a law that needs reform. it is legal in fl and i constantly hear many landowners complaining about it. get together with some landowners and try to do something about it.Laws don't get changed without bitchin about it to the right people.

It's illegal here, but some people do it anyway. Most of them are also shooting them at the same time. The closest I came to doing it was a few days ago. A deer came up behind my setup and wound up bedding down behind a tree 30 yards away. It stayed there past legal shooting light, so when I wanted to leave, I shined the stinger in it's eyes until it got tired of it and left. I got away clean without spooking the deer. I had already decocked the xbow, so I wouldn't be tempted.

Although I've always enjoyed going out looking at deer while spotting , I have to agree with you on the poaching issue. It would be interesting to see what kind of statistics if any are kept on poaching in states with and without spotting laws. I'd bet states that allow spotting have much higher poaching numbers than those who don't.