BigGameHoundsmen.com

Just wondering when everyone prefers to hunt? Also, if you can only legally hunt days, would you like to be able to hunt nights?

I hunt almost exculsively days anymore. I'm not a night guy and being tired takes a little of the fun out of it. Wading through wet brush with a flashlight takes most of the fun out of it. Where I hunt you can get plenty of starts hunting during the day.

I like night hunting.
The game is out more.
The dogs can smell better.
Don,t have to put up with the public especially after midnight.
Cat hunting, very seldom do u have to walk much.
can hunt in daylight in very cold weather,
if u can find a place away from the public.
Any thing I hate is the no nots running up and down the roads.
Just had a very good dog get hit by a car last week.
She is going to make it, but still can,t get around very good.
To hunt at night u have to be retired, so u can sleep all day.
Wind is our biggest problem,
After midnight wind goes down a lot of nights.

I run my fox hounds strictly in the daylight. Most have never been off the chain or out the pen in the dark. I got a few that if I turn loose before daylight, will not cast until it is light enough to see. Coon hunting at night is ok, but I dont enjoy fox hunting at night, been when my buddies have done it plenty. Some say the chase last longer, some like the smelling better, some just prefer the night. But for me I like being able to move about the woods and see exactly what my hounds are doing. I wanna run to the crossing and see what dog has the game, which has the track, and quickly learn the new voice on my pups, and see how they are stacking up in a chase. Alot of people assume a dog is fast of doing a good job based on the amount he/she opens in a chase, and I seen some dogs that make you think they are catching something by the way they bark and are the last dog in a 30 dog chase or just middle of the pack at best. My old man always taught me that :Daylight and Eyesite dont lie.
I truely feel seeing is believing, and will not hunt at my hounds at night, but to each his own. And where I live fox chase season is 24/7 365.

Perk

Although it is legal here to hunt day or night I don't hunt at night unless it's absalutly necessary. Granted a lion or bobcat in a tree at night is pretty sweet.

Well when I was running bobcats in Oregon I hunted mostly at night during the week (day time job). But the weekends I would go out three to four hours before sundown and go until about 10 to 11:00pm (depending) then sleep until about 3 to 4:00am and start again. To me those seemed to be the best moving times but of course they can do what they want and it is much more enjoyable without a flashlight. Starting a track just before daylight is my favorite but I always take what I can get. I also found a GPS to work wonders in the dark when you just don't have landmarks for guidance. My two cent anyways.

Well can't hunt anything except coon at night in AZ. Atleast thats how I read the hunt rules... I don't realy see why we can't hunt at night in AZ and would rather that choice be up to the hunter instead of forced on us by "big brother". Personaly I doubt I would hunt much at night but it would be nice to be able to let the dogs run into the night if we got on something later in the eveing...

I do think my dogs would catch more fox at night due to the foxes being mostly nocturnal. Bobcats seem to be out all day long although they do most of thier moving around in early mornings and eveings. We do ok catching both during the day but it might be nice to have the option.

I have been out at night a few times when the dogs got over the fence after a fox, bear or bobcat that had been in the orchard. And if it was a longer race it was not all that much fun stumbling around in the dark and getting stabbed by sharp sticks ect. Also the dogs seemed to get beat up abit more just running in the brush, nothing serious but its definatly more dangerous for both people and dogs at night.

Dad likes to hunt in the mornings....he just starts late the afternoon before.

Again it is the laws in your area and the style that you like that is what you should do.

Dad feels like a Cat struck and jumped early in the night is probably empty and will run better than a Cat struck after daylight who has a rabbit in its belly. His log book from over the last 40+ years bears this out, as the races after Sun up are appreciably shorter than the ones jumped early in the night.

The Catch ratio however is a little better after daylight than at night, when more Cat went up, into Dozier piles, or pulled Houdini's!

Hipshooter is right on the money about scenting usually being better and game likes to move just about dark. Another benifit for us is no Loggers at night. In the Mornings when you have a Cat jumped and runnimg just right and the Harvesters, Skidders Loaders and Log Trucks crank up will ruin your digestion amoung other things!

Just our observations.

CJC