----- Original Message -----
> Do you hunt at night

I'm not a hunter, but can answer for hunters where I live.

Coon hunting is always done at night.  Hunters wear headlamps, like what
miners use, to better sight their targets.  A lot of these guys have dogs
that cost thousands of dollars.  Many hunters ride small, fast,
specially-bred mules trained to jump fences in order to keep up with the
dogs.  For many hunters, this is mostly sport, though some do eat the coons.
There's a market for coon pelts.  Price fluctuates, so some hunters store
pelts in freezers until the price is right.  Others don't mess with them at
all.  Gillette (have never been there) is a town that's famous for its
annual coon-supper.

Coyote hunting is also a night-time event.  When we moved here in '80, there
were lots of them.  We could hear their yips from all different directions
and would try to count them by their different voices.  Then the
farmer-hunters nearly wiped them out in the mid-80's.  I was always saddened
to see their bodies hung along the sides of roads on fenceposts.  That they
were lined up successively (sometimes numbering in the teens) showed what
pride the hunter-farmers took in their kills.   Young coyote babies were
sometimes kept as pets for awhile until they would prove unsuitable because
of their wildness and would be destroyed.   Following that near-extinction,
the deer population grew larger every year, even though deer hunting is
almost--ahem, if I may use the word--a religious rite around here.  Hood
ornaments became very common.  In '96, we had 3 on 2 different vehicles in
one 2-month period.  Had one car out of the shop less than a week before the
hood and fender were ruined again.  Just in the last few years has a limited
doe season been opened up to deal with this problem.  The coyotes have very,
very slowly been making a comeback.  More often than not, when I hear one
yip, there's not another one to answer him. Once in a great while I'll see a
lone coyote out in the daytime, but night is when they're most active.

Frankly, I hate deer season (though I like venison) because "buck fever"
drives men crazy.  It's illegal to hunt from the road, yet it's commonly
done.  It's illegal to hunt within a certain distance of a dwelling, but
that doesn't deter anyone.  It's illegal to spotlight/headlight deer, but
it's done.  Those cartridges travel a mile or more if they miss their deer
target, but they're gonna finally hit something.  When I walk outside and
hear reports  from this, that, and the other direction, I always hope
there's not one headed for me or my house.  And I really hate it when we
find poachers or evidence of them on our place.

Theola