Washington State's Night Hunting Rule Changes

[Hochlander]

WDFW's Enforcement Program is proposing some fairly ridiculous night hunting rules explicitly meant to make their job of IDing big game poachers easier while really impacting raccoon hound hunters as well as other under-represented night hunters (bobcat, bullfrog giggers, pigs, etc.).
http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/regulations/de ... #11-24-102
Please send your comments to the WDFW Commission by February 21st; email wildthing@dfw.wa.gov

Nord

[riverrun1986]

Took awhile to find it its crapy

[Diamond 7]

Another BS way further limit hound hunting in Wa. State, coon & coyote hunting is all that is left to legaly run.

[huntfish8]

Another BS way further limit hound hunting in Wa. State, coon & coyote hunting is all that is left to legaly run.

Can't run yotes over there anymore... coons only now...

[riverrun1986]

Yup just coon

[Dave Johnson]

.

[duxtoyz]

doesnt look like much has changed except for the light rules. so now if u want to hot light a coon in a tree u have to be out of ur rig, no biggie just a pain to have to stop and get out now. still, just more ways 'the man' has to put his finger on shit.

[George Streepy]

The way I understand it is if the area is closed to deer and elk hunting you can not use artificial light from Sept 1st through the end of November. We already can't use artificial light during seasons open to firearm deer or elk. It makes many areas around my house out of the question because it has become draw only for elk around here. So it potentially bans spotlighting the first three months of season.

If you use a flashlight to watch your dogs as they start tracks you have to get out of the truck. They don't have a candle power restriction, so you have to make sure you get out of the vehicle before using any type of light. I know that only a few people have lights that shine out the side of the truck to look at tracks but those would also be illegal. The way the law is proposed leaves a lot of simple things illegal.

I don't care that much about spot lighting but the way the law is proposed will leave a lot of us open for a ticket. I vote that the game dept hires competent wardens that can actually obtain convictions when people are out spot lighting big game. Instead of making everyone illegal if the go into the woods at night. They should make the penalties so steep that when someone gets caught spot lighting deer it takes them ten years to pay off the fines. I don't want to bad mouth the game dept because I really believe they have a rough go from time to time. But the last thing we need is more laws restricting honest people to compensate for some of the game wardens incompetence.

[Hochlander]

Amen. Creating new rules to enforce in order to make it easier to enforce the rules that already exist is a fascinating twist of logic and is removing hunting opportunities. WDFW doesn't collect any data on coon hunters so these certainly aren't any kind of conservation based rules. My big beef is with the weapon restrictions (I sometimes hunt with .22/.410 U/O... .410 slugs kill raccoons dead), the 500 yard (that is 162 acres!) around any structure or 'temporary habitation' is ridiculous and no shooting 50 feet from your truck seems hard on folks with good rig dogs, which I don't have.

...the rest of the rules are just redundant.

[houndcrazy93]

those are dumbe rules. especially the 500 yard distance from a structure. seeing is most the area i hunt around old barns and what not out in the coountry.

[sdakotatough]

I moved to South Dakota where we can coon hunt year round, and 3 month bobcat season and lions are becoming a good possiblity to run with hounds this next year.

[Machias]

The proposed night hunting rule changes have been dropped for this three year package. Nothing will change for the time being, but they will be proposing changes in the future. Check out the WA State section for a more detailed description.

[riggingmissdaisy]

This friday and saturday march 9th & 10th is when the public hearing about our hunting season new regulations which will affect our night hunting immensly if it passes. I heard Its been dropped then again i hear Its still up for discussion and of course they are having the meeting in moses lake so there Proboly wont be a big turn out

[George Streepy]

I am most likely going to attend the meeting. According to the agenda for the commission meeting the night hunting rule change has been dropped.

This is the statement from WDFW.

"Thank you for your thoughts. We received a significant amount of comment on this regulation, and as a result, we have modified our recommendation. We are no longer recommending this proposal even though we continue to have significant concerns. It is just too easy for a deer or elk spot-lighter to claim they are hunting something else."

So it looks like we did OK this round. Lets see what happens at the meeting.

[Hochlander]

The Night Hunting Rules are still on the WDFW agenda for the upcoming meeting. The Wildlife staff are not recommending it based on some of the excellent public comments. However since it was in the proposal and since it was introduced by Enforcement, it will still be voted on by the Commission, who can reject, accept or modify the proposal.

Public testimony from those folks who can make it to Moses Lake on Friday morning, March 9, could still help make sure none of the new rules make it through.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/ ... r1012.html

Danke.