Night Hunting in Kentucky

Str8Shooter1

New member
Does anyone know, is it legal to hunt coyotes at night in KY?

I know that you can not use lights or night vision or electronic calls at night, but can you hunt at night, such as if there is snow and a full moon?

Any insight?

Str8Shooter1
 
Str8, this was a big topic of discussion at our LBL hunt this past weekend. The only guy I know whose information I would trust is Jimmie in KY, because he's been working on this very question since last summer or earlier. He'll see this and do his best to answer you. The short answer, as best I remember it, is that coyote hunting at night is totally out, at least for now.
 
Check out the night hunting forum. I made a post about what happened to me last week with a CO about night calling in Ky and then I called Frankfort and they told me it was illegal to hunt coyotes at night in Ky. It truns out there is a "SEASON" on coyotes, they told me it is a "year round season", check page 7 in the guide, but still a season and the book says the shooting hours are for seasons that are inclued in the guide which is a1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset.
 
Guys,

I think I just answered my own question. I talked to Leutenant Mike Fields of the KY Dept. of Fish & Wildlife. He said that section 301KAR3.030 says that you can hunt coyotes at night. However, no night vision, no spotlights and no electronic calls, mouth blown calls only.

Str8Shooter1
 
Str8, unless you can get Lt. Fields to send you a signed statement and you carry it on you while afield, you'd better be careful. This question is a real hot potato and Jimmie in KY said the department has done a flop on it (NOT in our favor) just in the past 2-3 weeks.

The rules you just cited are correct for the past few years, but there was a "mistake" or something in this year's published regs and I believe that's what led to the flip-flop in interpretation just in the past few weeks.
 
For anyone interested here is a link to 301KAR3.030 that Str8Shooter1 mentioned:

http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/kar/301/003/030.htm

My interpretation on this KAR is that hunting at night for coyote is legal as long as you are not using an electronic call. If you use mouth or hand calls you are totally legal to hunt at night.

If you do hunt at night I would print the above KAR and have it in your possession.

It doesn't matter what the hunting manual says as long as you are legal in the eyes of the KRS and KAR. These are the laws the judges use to determine if you were legal or not.

According to the law stated above night hunting for coyotes is legal in Kentucky.
 
I again went through all KRS laws that relate to fish and wildlife and no where does it state that it is illegal to hunt coyote at night.

If anyone here has been told by a CO that the hunting of coyote is illegal shoot me an e-mail with more details and I'll try to find out the actual laws. Ask the CO or the Kentucky fish and wildlife rep that told you that coyote hunting at night is illegal for the KRS. I bet they will not be able to give it to you.
 
They may as well take me to jail. The way I read the rules is no lights PERIOD. I called 4 in about 2 weeks ago(full moon snow on ground)Unfortunately, 3 of them spooked and one didn't. The rest is history.I did use mouth blown call though.
 
Aagin it may be one officers attempt to keep people from hunting at night within his jurisdiction.This has happened befroe and will likely happen again as long as the rules are so gray.I should have kept my e-mails sent to me from the kdfr that stated it was legal with the above listed requirements.

I'm going to try and get ahold of Mike Boatwright in person and see what we can do to get the laws more clearly stated one way or another.

Whether officers in the field like it or not this is needed. Jimmie
 
I'm going to leave this up to you guys. I'm not going to pay a lawyer for court time to prove this right or wrong. Besides if I was to lose then I'll lose my hunting licinse in Ky for 3 years plus fines. sorry, i love deer hunting too much.
 
Back
Top