I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours watching for people to spotlight deer. Many have found their way into the local jail for the mandatory 10 days and $200.00 fine. Also a persons license are revoked for 2 years. If the magistrate so desires a person's pickup and rifle can be forfeited. In WV you can see it is not a paying proposition. You don't have to have a firearm it is illegal just to shine a light into a field on a deer. Landowners don't put up with people shining lights on their property and have been known to shoot at the lights. I knew a guy that had the spotlight shot out of his hand by an irate farmer when the guy was shining a light in the field on the farmer's cattle.

Interesting, I'll have to check my state laws on it, we have't done it a few years. Got a guy that does it ever night past our house.

in iowa the regulations are similar to those stated by Sarge for wv. plus if you cant get a deer through a fair hunt maybe you need to pick a different quarry

It's illegal in most if not all states.

yeah like nueman23 said its legal here before 10pm. i carry a spotlight in my car all year long (usually use it from the time bucks are in velvet up until season when its not legal) and they come in handy for lots of other stuff to. like working on a broken car.

We can in NH from a certain date, but no guns or even ammo in the vehicle. Remember goin out with dad and grampa when I was little a few times... cool stuff.

im pretty sure you can in MI till like 11 if im not mistaken, i havnet done it so im not to positive on the rules for it.

That's a real question right there...

Deerslayer,
Why don't you stay off this site? You get your name from road hunting?

Only when I want to go to jail. Which isn't very often.

I do need to say that never has a gun or bow been in my vehicle while spotting. Unfortunately people are being arrested all the time for poaching at night while spotting. I have personally been pulled over and had my vehicle checked twice in the last 5 yrs by game commission officers while out in state forest areas. beside the poaching I don't see anything wrong with it. and while there are a lot of people who do it the deer don't really seem to mind and with gas prices the way they have been only "backyard" deer are the ones that get it the most

Ive done it before the season to scout out our area we have a lot of groud thats spread out and spotlighting helps to determind the areas were the big deer are.

Growing up in rural PA that was some fine entertainment on a Saturday night. Pile into a Jeep and drive around and spot deer. Perfectly legal as long as there's no gun in the car and rifle season isn't open.

Sarge, you must have been talking to a cousin of mine. Somebody was shining one of his fields and he knew who it was. He bluntly told them that next time that light came on, he would put it out with his .300 Win mag. No more spotlighting.

BioGuy,
You stated it correctly, While the Officers were spending their time checking "legal" spotlighters illegal spotlighters were in another place. I know from experience that people use decoys(legal spotlighters) to draw officers away from the real violators.

I had a network of contacts that made my job easier. The minute that they say a light they were on the phone calling about illegal spotlighting. I made hundreds of arrests on information from these contacts. These people weren't just looking they were trying to kill a deer. As I said before farmers don't like people shining lights in fields where they have cattle.

i never spotlight a deer but one morning i was out in my bck yard(deer run right by the fence line on my property) and a cop of all people came through spot lighting. needless to say hes very lucky i couldnt see his patrol car number

Fair question - you may not be aware of why spotlighting for deer is so frowned apon which is fine. a few years back in 25 year old female tramper was shot brushing her teeth at a department of conservation campground in New Zealand, a hunter mistook her headlamp for the shine of a deers eyes and fired upon her, hitting her in the head and killing her instantly, he was jailed for manslaughter for a two and a half years. Rimfire and Slug Guns are also banned on Department Of Conservation hunting land in New Zealand so hunters cannot pleed the use of the spotlight was for .22/slug gun small varment hunting at night.