Night hunting: why aren’t you doing it?

night hunting
Night hunting is growing in popularity across the Carolinas for numerous reasons.

Why night hunting is gaining in popularity

Night hunting has gained popularity with upgrades in today’s equipment. Those advances have increased the effectiveness of hunters, who have increased harvest numbers on invasive species.

Wildlife departments across the country are seeing the success of night hunting as a tool in helping control populations of coyotes and pigs. The Carolinas, thanks to very loose restrictions on night hunting, as well as growing population of coyote and hog numbers, are great states to try your hand at night hunting.

No closed seasons

Hunters in the Carolinas can hunt invasive species 365 nights a year. As hunters, we have grown up waiting for the first day of a season, only to be disappointed when any season comes to an end. Night hunting in the Carolinas is a year-long for coyotes and hogs. Hunters taking advantage of this fact get more time afield. More opportunities in the field should also increase hunter numbers, which have declined over several decades.

Even during the hottest months of the year, nights offers comfortable hunting with successful harvests.

Animal populations

Coyote and hog populations have been expanding across the Carolinas for years now. The number of available targets also makes hunting after sundown great for taking youth hunters. With such large hog and coyote populations, sportsmen can hunt them more days than all other species’ seasons combined.

Coyotes and hogs replenish their populations quickly. Their resiliency is often seen as a bad thing for the environment and other wildlife. But it gives hunters plenty of opportunities to extend their hunting. The high populations of invasive species makes this the right fit to get youth hunters involved in our sport.

Added Opportunities

Before I night hunted, I would drive an hour or so to my club and scout for turkey/deer, only to leave without having a hunt. Workdays or showing potential members a club meant another trip with no hunt for our problems. Night hunting allows us to throw in a hunt on countless trips we make each year to our properties. I simply throw my night vision or thermal in the truck. And after a day of work on the property, I hunt the night while I am already there at my location.

More properties

Night hunting has opened up properties for me that would never have opened if I had not started night hunting. Success at harvesting invasive species spreads quickly between landowners. And soon, other landowners with problems will contact you.

I have had more land open up because of the help I have given to landowners than any other way here in the Carolinas. Imagine no longer leasing land, but having thousands of acres open for you, if only you remove hogs and coyotes off of a property. Obviously, this will be for those who are committed to helping landowners and hunting often, but this can be a hefty reward for those who put in the time. Farmers and landowners talk often, and helping one leads to  many more.

What’s stopping you?

Many hunters are only one piece of equipment away from becoming successful night hunters. If hogs or coyotes are numerous in your hunting areas, give night hunting a try and reap the rewards. Night hunting is gaining popularity by the day, and is a successful tool to help landowners.

Click here to see plenty of night hunting videos.

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