Coyote hunting at night in Ky is illegal!!!

Deerhunter

New member
I know we've talked about this before on here, in fact the info I got here is what made me go one time a few weeks ago. With it snowing today I was planing to go tonight to the farms to do some hunting. This morning I was at the store down the road and the county CO was there, I've known this man for more than 30 years and he knows what kind of person I am. I told him about my plans for tonight and he told me that's illegal in KY. He went to his truck and got his book and a "guide", the kind we get at Wal-Mart. In the guide he truned to page 7 and pointed out 2 things, one the shooting hours and year-around season.

SHOOTING HOURS
Species for which "SEASONS" are inculded in this guide, except racoons, opossums and frogs, may be taken during the daylight hours only.

YEAR-ROUND SEASON
Coyote, groundhog, wild hog, English sparrow and starling.

He pointed out that the Coyote did have a "SEASON" in KY. It is an open season and not closed with no limits. BUT it says right there in black and white in the guide the word "SEASON" ever if it is an open season. Then he showed me the same thing in his law book, he's right there is a "SEASON" for coyotes.

I came home and had my brother call Frankfort. The lady that answered said they did have a few calls about this in the past and that they looked it up then made a ruling for what the laws says. She said she would have to find it and that we need to call back. A couple hours later we called and she said the CO was right when he told me about what the guide said. As long as it says "SEASON" all rules apply inculing shooting hours except recoons, opossums and frogs.

I'm glad I ran into the CO because I didn't want to get a ticket over some wrong info.
 
I sure should have kept those e-mails for you. I had asked about this last fall when those regs came out. I was told then it was legal and we were still restricted to mouth calls and no lights of any kind.

Also on the fall hunting show of Kentucky Afield the officer stated it was legal as long as shot restrictions were followed and there was enough light to identify the target. That was stated on public tv.

I for one am getting real tired of this half a$$ regulation writing they are doing.As you found out it all depends on the man you run into in the field whether he wants this in his district or not /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif Jimmie
 
Jimmie, you have a right to be mad about getting different answers. I would write a letter requesting something in writing and keep that letter with you.

In defense of the people you talked to by email and phone, these regulations cannot be written to satisfy every loophole. In my opinion, hunting at night without a light is a loophole. I also think it is dangerous, not very productive, and you educate far more coyotes than you kill.

I believe you are calling a lot more coyotes than you will ever see at night. They come in close and either smell the path you walked in or they come down wind. 80% of these coyotes you will never know they were there. It will now be almost impossible to kill that coyote by calling.

Do you hunt during the daylight at all? How many night coyotes have you or your partners killed this year and approximately how many setups have you made.

I agree that night is the best time to get a predator to respond to a call because they are nocturnal hunters, but daylight is the best time to actually see them and kill them. Give the daylight and dark hunts a little time and see what you think.

Send me a private message and we can discuss this over email if you like. I will work up some numbers for you if you respond.
 
It is illegal to hunt protected furbearers(bobcats, racoons, ringtails, badgers, etc) here at night in New Mexico. The only way that you can even hunt coyotes at night is if you are a ranch owner or are an authorized agent of the ranch in which you are hunting, and at that you have to have this in writing. Needless to say I am disapointed. I do not understand this Game and fish MISMANAGEMENT here in New Mexico. I was hoping to get me some night hunting done and taking some bobcats like those guys in Texas are always doing. Oh well, maybe one day I can hunt at night. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Hunt during the day, the bobcats are still there, I will grant you that they are easier to see with the light and I love Texas hunting, but that said, I have shot 7 bobcats here during the day, this year. You just have to get used to looking for them, coyotes and fox are easy to see, but you have to look for cats. You have to train your eyes to see cats, they are there.
 
Kparker, I hunt both day and night. It took a while to learn the tricks to night hunting but your kill ratio does go up at night.Set up is more critical during the night hours.The least thing wrong and you have hung up dogs.We did miss alot of dogs the first winter. We were using stands that would normally work during daylight hours. Shadow is the key to a night stand.They can't see into the shadow at night any better than you or I.

One thing we noted is that they do not exibit the shy traits at night. They charge the calls more often at night than daylight hours. Using a howler to do anything other than locate groups will get you backdoored for certain.

To remove dogs in problem areas there is nothing more effective.

As for the safetey factor there is no one out there but you on a cold winters night.There are five nights each month when there is sufficient light to walk by and identify the target properly.We also use shotguns and not rifles for safetey reasons.Jimmie
 
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