Artifical light

[SimpleSimon]

We all know that you can't shoot deer at night, which is to say between an hour after sunset and a hour before sunrise.

I saw a post on Facebook (ugh...) today in which somebody was asking whether they can use an IR illuminator (I.e a lamp) to shoot deer with an IR scope as long as they're within those times. My gut instinct was to say no, as it would be an artifical light source (although fine to use the IR scope without the illuminator). After all, you can't shoot deer under a conventional lamp. However, trawling through the Deer Act to try and find where it says you can't lamp deer... it doesn't! The only references I could find to using artificial light are in the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and make no mention of deer.

Are you therefore, technically, allowed to shoot deer under a lamp as long as you're inside of legal shooting time?

Purely hypothetical scenario.

 

[shakey jake]

I think so

 

[SimpleSimon]

Here's the post in question.

Most people have said yes, my instinct was no... I wonder how many of those same people would have still said yes if the question had been about using a conventional lamp

 

[VSS]

I believe (but I may be wrong), that with regard to deer, a lamp may be used to identify the target for the purpose of determining sex etc, but, in the absence of a night shooting licence, the light mustn't actually be used to assist in taking the shot, even if within legal shooting hours.









(The speed of sound is slower than the speed of light, so by the time someone hears the bang you'll have turned the lamp off.........)

 

[andyk]

Looks as though you can, s11(2)(d)(v) WCA 1982 says you can’t use an ‘illuminating’ device or ‘device for night shooting’ to kill something in Schedule 6. That Schedule doesn’t include deer.

There doesn’t appear to be anything in the Deer Act other than the night shooting prohibition.

 

[Tim.243]

We all know that you can't shoot deer at night, which is to say between an hour after sunset and a hour before sunrise.

I saw a post on Facebook (ugh...) today in which somebody was asking whether they can use an IR illuminator (I.e a lamp) to shoot deer with an IR scope as long as they're within those times. My gut instinct was to say no, as it would be an artifical light source (although fine to use the IR scope without the illuminator). After all, you can't shoot deer under a conventional lamp. However, trawling through the Deer Act to try and find where it says you can't lamp deer... it doesn't! The only references I could find to using artificial light are in the Wildlife and Countryside Act, and make no mention of deer.

Are you therefore, technically, allowed to shoot deer under a lamp as long as you're inside of legal shooting time?

Purely hypothetical scenario.

Did you mean like this?