RE: If you could hunt at night.....
 

For a popular game animal like Whitetails, NO
I have hunted at night for Raccoons when I was a kid.

RE: If you could hunt at night.....
 

If it were legal I would hunt at night. Take a good pair of binoculars and a good scope and you'd be amazed at how well you can see after your eyes have adjusted to the low light. I don't see how it's any less safe than daytime if you're using common sense, you just have to slow down and be more methodical about what you're doing. Identifying your target goes without saying, same as in the daytime, if you're not absolutely sure of your target then don't shoot. Unfortunately this does seem to get ignored by an awful lot of yahoos during the day.

RE: If you could hunt at night.....
 

Gentlemen,

guite an intresting discussion thread. I am writing from Finland (population 5,2 million, latitude about same as Alaska). We are one of the few European countries blessed with a hefty population of white tailed deer, originally transferred here back in 30'. I have hunted deer for five seasons in the USA, Good Ole Dominion, 20+ seasons here in my native country. Of course moose is the most important big game here, 60-80.000 killed per year. Hunting is mostly organized in hunt clubs with leased land, public State Forests/Government land is mostly in Northern Finland/Lappland, where only reindeer survive.

Out of 10.000+ killed deer I'd guess 90% are shot from tree/platform stands, between 8 pm - 2 am. Season starts in October and ends mid/end of January. No artifical light/spotlights, no infra-red/electronic night vision devices allowed. Scopes usually are make of Zeiss, S&B, Swarowski, Leupold, some with light dot. Rifle caliber 243/308/30-06, 7,62x39 gaining popularity.

Usually we have snow in the ground from late November on, which helps with the contrast. 3/4-full moon, -20 deg F, was condition where I killed my biggest 8 point buck (hopefully so far...).

Our game management authorities give us fairly strict guidelines of mix of bag, meaning the harvested number of bucks, does and fawns. This has something to do with road safety -- deer and moose collisions kill more people here than illegal guns...

So still hunting at nights gives possibility for selective kills, enabling some kind of game/population management.

As with some of the previous comments, hunting at night has some aspects many might find intresting. Of course you have to do all your recon work during daylight, study tracks, game moving patterns, generally understanding game behaviour, habits, and reactions to weather conditions.

Let's say you sneak into your stand at 8 pm., being already quite dark. With all clothing needed, not developing excessive sweat in order not to freeze later, and prepared so you do not need to take a leak in next 6-8 hrs. The village around you starts to quiet down, you hear occasionally dogs barking, car doors slammed, all kinds of human noises, slowly calming down. You hear wind, trees swaying, tree limbs cracking due to cold, all kind of small pieces of noise from surprisingly far away. In the dim light a new world seems to exist, you see a fox crossing the field smoothly like a ghost, jack rabbits hop along, dig for food, an owl dives for a careless field mouse, a "huudaa owl" suddenly opens up in a tree behing you, almost making you **** in your pants...

Sometimes you get a chance to see the Northern Lights to play their amazing show in the sky.

Then you start hearing careful steps from a distance, pausing for moments. First some fawns come out, next some spike bucks, suddenly you see about a dozen gray figures that have stepped away from the woods. All start to scrape for food, you try to control your pulse - about 150 now - and keep your mouth shut the thumping noise would not be heard 100 yds away. Then the Boss steps out from the woods, pushes one of the "consultants" (a spike buck - consultant term used here to describe a male person knowing all 69 positions but not yet the first woman) away from some hay straws sticking from snow.

Well, observing deer and other game at night time has opened me a whole new world. And it is sort of an challenge to bear one's own thoughts in the dark, where you mostly observe your environment with your ears.

This mode of deer hunting is possible to conduct safely due to our clubs and private hunting groups having leased and non-public hunt areas. As some of you said - only in my own property might work.

Just wanted share some thougts, having experienced both dog drive/still hunt Virginia, and Finnish "graveyard shift".

Greetings to all my old hunting buddies nearby the Appomattox Surrender Grounds and Buckinghan State Forest.

-Buckwheat-

RE: If you could hunt at night.....
 

One more on the safety side you have to know yourtarget AND what's beyond I don't see (pun intended) how you can do that at night.

RE: If you could hunt at night.....
 

SakoRifle I live in Fredericksburg Va. so I guess we were almost neighbors for a while. I don't know of any state here that allows hunting at night, so I was glad you replied, very interesting hunting you describe, I have on numerous occasions gone into the woods at night to sit and see what was to be seen, it is as you say a whole different world. Thanks for sharing.

The Tazman