Is it legal to hunt hogs at night during deer season
with a gun ???

Yes, but you had better be careful. Call the game warden, and let him/her know what you are doing.

yes it is, to add to craige, while it is a good idea to call the GW, u do not have to.

Alright Because we are haveing a huge hog problem right now and on thoes full moon nights we like to go out and see what comes to the feeder and it's been nothing but hogs

If you don't call the game warden.... you are asking for trouble. He's not going to be happy coming out in the middle of the night in deer season to check on someone spotlighting. If you are spotlighting hogs, and shine the light on some eyes, and the eyes are deer, and you have a rifle.... you are deer hunting at that instant.... a lot to risk that a phone call could avoid...

I think its a common courtesy to call the game warden....

Yeah I'll be makeing a phone call
bec i don't really want to deal with the GW

Our GW in Jack co. wants us to contact the Sheriff's office before we hunt at nite he says they usually get the call first and they can tell the person calling it is just some hog hunters

Good Advice. I'm heading out for some duck hunting for a few days on some family property and I have been asked to help out with some coyotes and hogs. I just hung up with the game warden to let him know. He appreciated the courtesy call.

that is not true, by that reasoning, when u are driving down the road, and u have a rifle with u, when ur headlights hit a deer, u are road hunting. or another scenario, u are at ur house, u hear something, u walk outside witha gun, and spotlight, well its a deer in ur back yard.. ur not hunting!!! its not deer hunting unless u take, or attempt to take a deer!! being deer season makes absolutely no difference!

+1

we dont really plan on useing a spot light just the moon we went out last weekend with a full moon and it was like hunting during the day but i guess if people hear gun shots they will call

Landowners will not call sheriffs office on spotlighting but always call on large rifle shooting at night.

+1

So if I wanted to spotlight deer then all I need to do is call the sheriff and tell him I am hog hunting and they will not respond to the calls ???? I believe if they get a call they probably are gonna check it out either way. I have no experience with this it just seems logical to me.

If thats a chance your willing to take go for it. They may show up, or may not show up. If you give them a call ahead of time, they may come out to make sure you are being honest. What does it hurt if the game warden shows up, and you are doing everything legal? They will just tell you thanks for calling, have fun, and good luck.

This is the post I was reffering to. I dont personally night hunt nor do I intend to, just thought this sounded a little off.

You are missing out on a lot of fun not night hunting. That is when most of the varmints are out roaming. Not to mention the rabbits. You can see a lot of nice bucks at night and that helps to maintain your interest in the next day hunt especially if you didn't see much that day.. It is not illegal to hunt nights just don't do something stupid like shoot a deer. When you are in the outdoors enjoy what it can furnish you.

I have solar light around my feeder where i hog hunt and this is legal to hunt hogs so unless i have a deer laying on the ground why would it be a problem.... if the GW comes to check hes only doing what hes paid for ..its his job.....and hes very welcome anytime!!!

We have hunted hog there for over two years now and the GW has been told about us hunting there.... we have three places there and the hogs are so bad that we where very welcome!

I do a lot of my scouting at night while hog hunting, when i hit the light onto a buck, i drop the gun and pick up the binoculars, its how ive located most of the deer that i shot. of course i would just mark the area they were in, and then hunt it the next mornign and evening. and there is absolutely nothing illegal about shining a spotlight on a deer, common misconception! as long as u dont harvest, or attempt to harvest it, then u are in the clear, u can look at it through ur binoculars all night long.

I think you'd have a hard time convincing a game warden you were shining the light at a deer with a rifle laying beside you in the seat......but you are not "hunting". HUnting is taking or attempting to take... shining a light on them could be construed as "attempting to take". I can't afford to take that chance.

Way too much at stake to chance it for me. I guess I am over-reacting, but I will call before we use a light at night. It's requested in the outdoor annual and just seems to me to make sense. Nearly every one has a cell phone, and you should have the Sheriff's Office or game warden's number if you are hunting, what would it hurt to make a 30 second phone call?

We welcome the game wardens where we hunt and where we manage lands for others to hunt. I'll ask the next time I see one.

Or maybe our resident warden will chime in here.

Hey Steel My GW does not want to be bothered by a phone call from the sheriff's office a 3:a.m. because we didn't call the Sheriff's office and tell them what and where we were hunting he knows us and some times he will come out if he is out and about but most times we are never bothered because we made the call, I'm just saying to keep from getting a vist from a grumpy game warden that has been rousted out of bed a 3:00 in the morning to come check on you spotlighting hogs,would not be a very pleasant vist when a thrity second phone call would have let him sleep in peace.

well sig, ill tell u the reason why i dont wanna call the GW, mainly, i dont want the hassle! im not doing anything wrong, but as far as i can tell, that GW doesnt know im hunting there. all that is there is a feeder, and u cant really see it. there is no camphouse or anythign like that. And in all honesty, i dont wanna be getting checked every other time i go out there. just a hassle i can avoid by not calling and telling him that im hunting there. I realize its not the same for everyone. a lot of times, its hard to disguise ur place as where no hutners are, but i have 640 acres all to myself, and i dont want to be checked all the time, simple as that.

To each his own. I actually want the game warden to know where I am hunting, and who else is supposed to be there. And that everyone else is not supposed to be there.

I don't embrace government much, but I like game warden's, and they are more than welcome. Once they know us and trust us, they never bother us in the field. They often come to camp and visit, sometimes check, sometimes just to visit.

I hope they drive by and through our camp every day of the year.

Hey Steel My GW does not want to be bothered by a phone call from the sheriff's office a 3:a.m. because we didn't call the Sheriff's office and tell them what and where we were hunting he knows us and some times he will come out if he is out and about but most times we are never bothered because we made the call, I'm just saying to keep from getting a vist from a grumpy game warden that has been rousted out of bed a 3:00 in the morning to come check on you spotlighting hogs,would not be a very pleasant vist when a thrity second phone call would have let him sleep in peace.





I feel like you are missing my point....I know our game warden here and I personally dont feel like he would go for the sheriff office simply just saying its hog hunters and dont worry about it (especially since the sheriff in our county is a retired game warden that was mean as a snake). Maybe in your neck of the woods its ok but we have way too many poachers here that would definatley take advantage of that situation. Just seems to be a very easy 30 second phone call to make if you were poaching to keep the game warden away.

Brandon, the Gw is more than likely not going to check you unless you are at your gate and he knows you are there that exact day deer hunting. Calling the Gw to spotlight is nice if neighbors are nosey. Half the places we call the GW and half we don't. Most of the time the nearest house is 10 miles away and they know us.