Utah...at night

Coyotes along with racoons are not considered fur bearing animals in the state of utah. In fact to quote the furbearing proclamation a furbearer is defined as "species of bassariscidae, canidae, felidae, mustelidae, and castoridae families except coyote and cougar."

23-13-17. Spotlighting of coyote, red fox, striped skunk, and raccoon -- County ordinances -- Permits.
(1) Spotlighting may be used to hunt coyote, red fox, striped skunk, or raccoon where allowed by a county ordinance enacted pursuant to this section.
(2) The ordinance shall provide that:
(a) any artificial light used to spotlight coyote, red fox, striped skunk, or raccoon must be carried by the hunter;
(b) a motor vehicle headlight or light attached to or powered by a motor vehicle may not be used to spotlight the animal; and
(c) while hunting with the use of an artificial light, the hunter may not occupy or operate any motor vehicle.
(3) For purposes of the county ordinance, "motor vehicle" shall have the meaning as defined in Section 41-6a-102.
(4) The ordinance may specify:
(a) the time of day and seasons when spotlighting is permitted;
(b) areas closed or open to spotlighting within the unincorporated area of the county;
(c) safety zones within which spotlighting is prohibited;
(d) the weapons permitted; and
(e) penalties for violation of the ordinance.
(5) (a) A county may restrict the number of hunters engaging in spotlighting by requiring a permit to spotlight and issuing a limited number of permits.
(b) (i) A fee may be charged for a spotlighting permit.
(ii) Any permit fee shall be established by the county ordinance.
(iii) Revenues generated by the permit fee shall be remitted to the Division of Wildlife Resources for deposit into the Wildlife Resources Account, except the Wildlife Board may allow any county that enacts an ordinance pursuant to this section to retain a reasonable amount to pay for the costs of administering and enforcing the ordinance, provided this use of the permit revenues does not affect federal funds received by the state under 16 U.S.C. Sec. 669 et seq., Wildlife Restoration Act and 16 U.S.C. Sec. 777 et seq., Sport Fish Restoration Act.
(6) A county may require hunters to notify the county sheriff of the time and place they will be engaged in spotlighting.
(7) The requirement that a county ordinance must be enacted before a person may use spotlighting to hunt coyote, red fox, striped skunk, or raccoon does not apply to:
(a) a person or his agent who is lawfully acting to protect his crops or domestic animals from predation by those animals; or
(b) an animal damage control agent acting in his official capacity under a memorandum of agreement with the division
It is up to the individual counties not the fish and game on whether you can hunt at night or not and a coyote is not a furbearing animal according to the state of utah.
 
Last edited:
nosetonose, you are correct, the only way to get away from the legal shooting hours. or to legaly use spotlights is to.
be a the landowner or a paid agent working for the landowner. but any joe will not get away with it!
 
I checked and there are several counties including cache that will actually issue you a permit to hunt at night. Tooele county is a definate no unless you use an airgun for jackrabbits and Uintah County is a with notice to the sheriffs office. but these are the only counties I can find online ordinances for.
 
Last edited:
Box elder county used to, but they had alot of problems so that wonderful sherrif shut it down all together, but guess what, theres a new sheriff in town so maybe some things will change hopefully.
 
Quote:
I checked and there are several counties including cache that will actually issue you a permit to hunt at night. Tooele county is a definate no unless you use an airgun for jackrabbits and Uintah County is a with notice to the sheriffs office. but these are the only counties I can find online ordinances for.



You better call the Cache county sheriff Address: 1225 W. Valley View Logan, Utah 84321 (435) 755-1000 . They do have an ordinance that says the sheriff can issue permits but he does not issue them. I have already talked to him. Just because there is an ordinance does not mean you can do it if the sheriff will not issue the permit.
 
maybe you should talk to the county attorneys office in cache county the cache county ordinance very clearly states the the sheriff "shall issue a permit" not May issue a permit.
cache county code on night hunting:
The Cache County sheriff, or his authorized representative, shall issue permits for nighttime hunting upon request of an applicant. Such permit shall be effective for a period therein specified on the permit. The permittee shall be responsible to notify the sheriff's dispatcher when they are going to be night hunting and designating the area where they will be hunting; and upon return from the hunt will notify the sheriff's dispatcher that they have returned from the night hunt so that the sheriff's office will be aware of areas where night hunting is taking place in Cache County.

for example the utah code that covers domestic violence in the state of utah says upon finding probable cause of domestic violence a police officer "shall" arrest so the discretion is taken from the police if it said may arrest then they still have that discretion. its sad to say but very few county law enforcement officers have ever read the county ordinances they are very versed in the state law which covers just about everything the county code would.
 
Last edited:
Gotchanow--You have already made up your mind about what you have read. We have told you the things that several of us have found out from experience or phone calls. Take the ordinances any way you want.

I know what the Cache and other county ordinances say, I have copies of them. I spent a lot of time contacting different counties and their law enforcement. I actually talked to people, not just read the ordiances. Pick up the phone and call Cache county. If they tell you different than what I posted then you post on here who you talked to and I will call them.

Go ahead and prove me wrong, then come on here and tell us how it is.
 
well Reb I dont care to hunt at night although raccoon hunting used to be a blast when I was young. All Im saying is the ordinance is there especially in Cache County the Sheriff should issue the permit and if he doesnt well thats up to you. You could cause waves goto the county attorney maybe even hire your own attorney. Maybe it will change but probably not the Sheriff will more than likely approach the commission which will change the wording of the ordinance but maybe not. And I have never once said that just to go hunting at night its alright contact the counties because it is perfectly legal in some of them.
 
i think you guys are not able to see the forrest through the trees! i have gone out many of times with my friends & we have never been hasseled! we have been asked what we were shooting & we explain yotes & jacks. they giggle, we giggle & thats that. one time we got warned not to shoot from the side of the road. we apologized & moved on. i think you guys are gettin too caught up on the paper / legal side of it. those small counties are full of good people & they realize your doing them a favor.
 
Last edited:
Quote:
i think you guys are not able to see the forrest through the trees! i have gone out many of times with my friends & we have never been hasseled! we have been asked what we were shooting & we explain yotes & jacks. they giggle, we giggle & thats that. one time we got warned not to shoot from the side of the road. we apologized & moved on. i think you guys are gettin too caught up on the paper / legal side of it. those small counties are full of good people & they realize your doing them a favor.



Now that is the worst advice I have seen. I would not recommend anyone take advice like that and just go do it. I know a couple of sheriffs and if they catch you they will not just giggle and leave. I would like to know what counties you are doing it in.

Being "caught up on the paper / legal side of it" is what will keep you out of court and not losing your truck, guns and what ever else they take.
 
"i would like to know what counties you hunt in?"
(reb8600)
pretty much any county that hosts critters of my liking.
why do you care to know? am i invading on your territory? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Last edited:
Again, I thank you guys for the above input. I definately have gotten some good solid advice and will heed it. However, one reply is concerning to me. cjg beef stated utah hunters are branded as "law breaking and unethical". I have not heard that generality before. cjg, I have read many of your posts and replies previuosly and have always found you to be positive, what gives. Anyhow, thanks again.
 
Quote:
Gotchanow--You have already made up your mind about what you have read. We have told you the things that several of us have found out from experience or phone calls. Take the ordinances any way you want.

I know what the Cache and other county ordinances say, I have copies of them. I spent a lot of time contacting different counties and their law enforcement. I actually talked to people, not just read the ordiances. Pick up the phone and call Cache county. If they tell you different than what I posted then you post on here who you talked to and I will call them.

Go ahead and prove me wrong, then come on here and tell us how it is.


my bad! i read this and only this when i started to type. it was a bit busy here at work. not trying to ruffle any feathers. my bad. as you can see from my previous post no nite time hunting was spoke of. i could not figure out why you guys were jamming on me! very sorry. i should be more aware of the post. after reading it, it now makes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gifsense /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif.
 
makes sense now! I was beginning to wonder if indeed you really did shoot that cow in your avatar by the comments that you made... Man, my gloves were coming off... but I'm glad you caught it. No hard feelings.
 
Each county is different, gotta check with the sherrif's office. I did that recently in Box Elder Co.

I was told by 2 officers that it is only ok IF you have written landowner permission, and call their office to let them know when and where you'll be.

Spotlighting on public ground definately not legal in BE Co. Hunting with no light (full moon, on snow covered ground) gets ruled out by their "after hours" regulation.

Its not worth the effort, or the risk.
 
Box Elder county is a no go for night hunting unless you use only the moon light. I talked to a sherrif last year and he said he had heard of people going out in the moonlight and shooting coyotes and that he felt this was ok but spotlighting of any kind is strikly prohibited. in Box Elder and Cache counties for sure.
 
Last year Leon Jensen was the Sheriff. As of Jan. 1 2007, the new Sheriff is Lynn Yeates and he happens to be a good friend. He's a great guy and is making a lot of changes in Box Elder for the better. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Back
Top