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Shining

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When someone shines deer they are most likely shinning private property. This could be viewed the same as tresspassing.


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That's ridiculous. So if I look out in someone's field it is the same as tresspassing? So I am using a light.. or a camera lens, or a spotting scope.. and on and on. WHat if I am turning a corner and my headlights sweep acoross a deer in a field. Now I am trespassing? COME ON! That's the kind of thinking that keeps taking away our rights.

Stopping recreational shining is in no way going to curtail poaching. Poachers do not care if there are laws against shing they are already doing something illegal. It just takes something away from legal people based on what bad people do. It's a bad idea and penalizes people who are doing nothing wrong.

I get pretty riled up when I see laws that penalize good people for what bad people have done.





What he said.

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Well said!
 
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That's ridiculous. So if I look out in someone's field it is the same as tresspassing?

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If you are shining a spotlight out in my fields then yes I would consider it trespassing. Spotlighting can be completely harmless as I'm sure the type of spotlighting that most IowaWhitetailer's are doing, but it can also be used for poaching deer, locating big bucks and then coming back in the daytime to try to hunt them legally, having one vehicle shine while a following vehicle has the rifle, or just giving a normally law-abiding citizen a little too much temptation when they spot that "monster buck" even though they started out with the most honest intentions.

I have talked with Conservation Officers about this problem and they are sick and tired of getting called out to check the "legal spotlighters" and it is interfering with their ability to do the rest of their job. Their view is that anyone spotlighting has to be seen as a possible threat and it can make for some tense moments, even if the subject is not breaking the law. How is the officer to know that the truck they just pulled over for spotlighting is only a family out looking at wildlife while it could easily be a truck full of loaded guns and lawbreaking poachers? For their own safety they have to assume the latter every time.
 
I don't mind being pulled over while I'm out spotlighting, because I know I'm obeying the law and it is good to let the officer know I'm obeying the law. How would the honest law abiding citizen have the temptation to shoot that monster buck when having a gun the vehicle is illegal. If he was law abiding, then it wouldn't be possible to shoot the deer. It is an honest scouting technique. Like many said before... a poacher is going to poach.
 
So, say you are a landowner and you want to take a look out your back window some night. Would this make it illegal for you to shine a light out your own window, onto your own property to look at deer?
 
When you give something like this up... you always give up more than you think, and one group of people gets hurt by it more than you expect. What about trappers that check their traps whith spotlights? I used to do that a lot, it is efficent and often helps out a lot because you do not have to drive up or walk up and disturb the set and leave footprints. When I was doing a lot of fox trapping it was a simpl matter of hitting the set with a spotlight from 100 yards away and looking for eyes. I bet there is a dozen other cases of people who will be giving up a lot just so we can feel like we are doing something about poaching when in fact we are just giving up something we do not have to give up.

If you are not careful, you will be like Minnesota, the land of 10,000 stupid laws; where you can only shine from certain hours on certain days.

Think I'm kidding? Check out the regulations.
 
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT MAKING IT ILLEGAL WOULD DO ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING EXCEPT TAKE AWAY A VALUABLE SCOUTING TOOL AND A GREAT RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY. IF YOU THINK FOR ONE SECOND THAT MAKING SPOTLIGHTING ILLEGAL WILL SLOW DOWN POACHING THAN YOU ARE COMPLETLY CLUELESS. SOMEONE WHO IS SPOTLIGHTING FOR THIS REASON ALREADY HAS EVERY INTENTION OF BREAKING THE LAW SO THIS WILL HAVE NO AFFECT ON THEM, IT WILL ONLY MAKE IT EASIER BECAUSE THERE WILL BE LESS PEOPLE OUT AT THOSE TIMES TO HAVE TO COMPETE WITH OR WORRY ABOUT BEING CAUGHT BY. AND TO SAY I WOULD BE TRESSPASSING BY SPOTLIGHTING YOUR PROPERTY IS PLAIN STUPID, YOU CANT TELL ME THAT YOU AS A LANDOWNER NEVER STOPS TO WATCH DEER ANYWHERE ELSE OTHER THAN YOUR OWN PROPERTY, NOBODY OWNS A DEER THERE OUT THERE FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY REGAURDLESS OF WHERE THEY ARE. I DO BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE A RIGHT NOT TO BE BOTHERED BY LIGHTS FLASHING THROUGH YOUR WINDOWS AND SUCH BUT THATS JUST AN ISSUE OF RESPECT.
 
As far as the private property/ poaching thing. If someone is enough of an a-hole to poach or shine on someone elses property, do you think they're gonna care a whole lot about this "law". As far as I knew, trespassing is illegal, and people don't seem to care a whole lot bout that. I think this law would just be hurting the people who would be using the lights for legitimate purposes, and not effecting "bad guys".
 
Now this is plain crazy. ( SCOUTING WITH A SPOTLIGHTING ). I have never heard these two words in the same sentence before... I guess it might be the way for the lazy. Call me old fashion but scouting to me is to put some leg work in and to do some homework. I will admit that I have spotlight many years ago and I always felt like a criminal doing it, even though I was not doing anything wrong. I still can not see how some can call spotlighting a scouting tool...
 
The poachers around here just shoot them in broad daylight. Its not hard to kill big bucks when you drive around with a rifle in your truck during november. Just think of all the big deer you see in you bow stand during the magical month. It would be pretty easy with a rifle. I dont belive tighter shining regs would reduce poaching. After all only the dumb poachers are going around with a million candle power broadcasting thier location. The poachers doing the real damage work sunrise to sunset. Thier are a coulple in this area that are real bad, in fact they make a living of doing it. One even helps at the deer classic. Sneaky guy he is. Oh yes a real snake in the grass. He may have even handled some of your deer that you took to the classic in past years. I am sure he will be there this year also. If you want to know his name let me know i would be glad to give it to you. As i would love to see him go down.
 
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Now this is plain crazy. ( SCOUTING WITH A SPOTLIGHTING ). I have never heard these two words in the same sentence before... I guess it might be the way for the lazy. Call me old fashion but scouting to me is to put some leg work in and to do some homework. I will admit that I have spotlight many years ago and I always felt like a criminal doing it, even though I was not doing anything wrong. I still can not see how some can call spotlighting a scouting tool...

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How can you say it would nt help with the shining/poaching issue? I realize ignorance is bliss, but come on. So there is a guy shining, someone calls him in. The officer has no problem diving to the other side of the county because it is illegal. He wouldn't be checking out a legal spotlighter because there is none.

In all seriousness, what does shining help you with, besides seeing big deer which is always fun. But there are a lot of other signs to read to know if a big buck is using a certain field. Plus if he's running that field after dark, not really gunna help ya much. (I know that is a worthless argument because I am sure it does help) BUT wouldnt you rather go without it to help catch the Poachers???
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Now this is plain crazy. ( SCOUTING WITH A SPOTLIGHTING ). I have never heard these two words in the same sentence before... I guess it might be the way for the lazy. Call me old fashion but scouting to me is to put some leg work in and to do some homework. I will admit that I have spotlight many years ago and I always felt like a criminal doing it, even though I was not doing anything wrong. I still can not see how some can call spotlighting a scouting tool...

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Using your same logic, how can people call trail camming a scouting tool? If it helps you find out where the deer are, is that not the very definition of scouting...? For that matter, what if you have a trail cam on a field, or near a field... if it uses artifical light to take a photo would that also be considered illegal???
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Crazy thing is, I don't shine and never have, but I don't like laws that negatively affect a majority of law abiding people, in order to potentially catch the few criminals in our midst.

The way I see it, unless they hire more CO's to drive the roads, a law like this is completely useless... and if they hired more CO's in the first place, it would help cut down on poaching period... So how does this really help us? People are already calling the IDNR when they see folks spotlighting, and they are either unable to respond in time, or unable to respond at all because they are stretched thin over too many miles ... I understand that by making shining illegal that anyone engaged in the activity is a criminal, the goal being to limit the number of shiners altogether (mostly law abiding hunters) so that the ones still shining are more likely to be poachers - which would then help the few CO's we have respond to legitimate calls...but once again whenever we pass legislation to restrict the freedom of the many, in order to curb the illegal activity of the few, we walk a slippery slope.

Keep in mind that the determined poacher will poach no matter what laws you pass. The best deterrent is to send them to prison. Enough of these monetary fines, which can be substantial, why not throw poachers into jail for a year? That ought to make them think twice about pulling the trigger on their high power (complete with night vision scope - assuming that shining becomes illegal).

Let's penalize the criminal not the outdoorsman.

JMHO
 
I wouldnt say it was the lazy way out at all, it happens to be the smart way. Low impact is the key, you go ahead and stomp all over every piece of timber you hunt. Ill stick to my way, well if the law permits, yea you still have to put in the leg work but that might not ever tell you what kind of deer you are hunting. It gives you a good idea when and where certain deer are or are not feeding, its no different than trailcams and there arent many people that are against those. It might just be the only way you ever get to see a particular deer, if nothing else it sures gives you a little extra motivation when you see a good one you didnt know was in the area. I would just hate to see myself and others loose the right to enjoy this just because some people dont agree with it, heck not everyone agrees with hunting but you wont hear anyone in here say that needs to be outlawed. Not everyone has to like it, but just because you dont dont take that away from me
 
Scouting with a spotlight IS scouting. Let me explain to you.....

Mature deer can be nocturnal 10 or 11 months of the year. When the rut rolls around there is a greater chance of them being on their feet and moving, so wouldn't you want to know what areas they are using. I know many time I've shined a field in the late summer or early fall, and seen big bucks, but NEVER see them before the sun goes down. It is a useful tool to see the quality bucks on your property and often times what fields they tend to use.

And another thing. Mature deer are very easily interrupted. If you want to see where a big buck is living without dispersing your scent in his home area, spotlighting is useful. Sure, he may not make it to the field until dark.... but what about where he came from? If you can intercept a buck traveling towards a field you will have a good chance of seeing him before dark, so spotlighting could be useful. Don't try and tell me it can't be used for scouting, because I know a ton of people that use it for just that.
 
I have seen trailcams come up several times now. One difference between the two, the trailcam is going to be on the areas you are hunting....not in farmer Joe's field...

I see both sides to the discussion and understand each ones views. I am indifferent to the regulation for the most part but then again, I am not a landowner with fields next to the road.
 
I am beginning to wonder if this is more of a Landowner vs Non-Landowner issue. You don't want me shining a spotlight into your back yard any more than I want you shining out into my fields. What if you had to have permission for each property where you shine your light? In my opinion, if you don't have permission to hunt the land, you should not be shining your light onto it. If I catch someone shining a spotlight over my fields I will do everything I can to get the DNR or Sheriff there as fast as possible and encourage the officer to write you up for every little thing he can find wrong and encourage you never to return. If anyone can explain to me why they should be allowed to shine their spotlight out into my fields where my family and friends are the only allowable hunters, I would love to hear it.
 
Do deer not jump fences? Bucks from one property aren't necessarily going to stay there. Deer change patterns from summer to fall and winter to spring. Not to mention if the deer is simply walking from your property to a property someone else has permission on.

Or how about recreation, enjoyment. It's amazing the deer you can see shining sometimes. I once saw a 24 point, 200+ buck while spotlighting. I couldn't hunt him at the moment, but I sure enjoyed seeing a world class deer on the hoof.
 
I think calling someone lazy for using a spotlight is a little overboard. I am sure everyone of us who shines work just as hard at scouting the timber looking for sign and hanging stands as the next guy. But by using the spotlight we may decrease the number of times we have to enter a deer's core area, we may find out where he is feeding and where he travels to/from and then enter these areas and look for a stand location. No different than driving around your farm in broad daylight and trying to pattern deer. Now if someone used shining as their only scouting method, well that may be considered lazy and I am pretty sure their success rates wouldn't be to great.

As far as helping poaching I don't agree. Again shining is outlawed in IL, yet we find poached deer yearly with their heads cut off in the ditch or laying in the middle of a field. It is going to happen, there are not enough CPOs to respond to illegal activity when they are covering 3 counties. So even if it is illegal the only way to bust people would be for hunters, farmers, etc. to act by getting Car descriptions and plate #s. We can do that now when we see someone doing something illegal like shooting one out the car window.
 
Would make little difference to me if it was banned. I've done it a couple times in my life only. It just seems innapropriate driving all over shining a light onto others property. I know I wouldn't want it done on my property.
 
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So even if it is illegal the only way to bust people would be for hunters, farmers, etc. to act by getting Car descriptions and plate #s. We can do that now when we see someone doing something illegal like shooting one out the car window.


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There are a couple key issues that many of you seem bent on overlooking...mostly because you enjoy recreational shining.

I respect that...I would fight for something I enjoyed as well
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Many...if not all of you are bowhunters which means in November...if your up at 2:00 a.m. shining...you not hunting...

Most of you are good, ethical hunters and your going to spend every minute you can in the woods.

Having said that...please don't insult me with "your clueless" comments because your not out there all night...your in bed.

Our CO's and law enforcement are, including flying a plane to locate spot lighters. They often see the "fire fly" out the window.

Tell those people it's not a problem and you will be left feeling extremely foolish (not to mention selfish).

Any idea how frustrating it is for these people to sort thru who's doing it for fun...and who's not??

Of course you don't...
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Currently calling in every time we see a spotlight proves fruitless....that needs to change.

No one said it will stop ALL poaching...only help control it.

Once again I will remind you all...when our CO's are pleading with our lawmakers to make changes in the law and the majority of sportsmen agree...your arguments for shining will fall on....

deaf ears.....
 
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