What do you guys think is the toughest part of night hunting? The cold? Running the light? Identifying critters? Range estimation? Hitting what you're aiming at? Marking downed critters? Something else? For me it was always fatigue. Since most of the places I liked to hunt were a ways from SoCal and travel time takes up a lot of time, you really need a weekend to get in a good hunt. By the end of the weekend I was usually a zombie. It's usually easy to stay alert when you're spotting eyes at most the stands but sometimes you get those hunts when things are slow and determination takes over and you're fighting off sleep.

When I was younger (and I guess dumber) myself and a buddy would get off work on Friday afternoon, rush home, grab our gear and hit the road, usually driving at least 5-6 hours before we got to an area we wanted to hunt. Once there we started hunting, if conditions were good we would hunt all night and through the morning, try to get some sleep midday then hunt the afternoon/evening and through the next night (or as long as we could). Sometimes, when things got slow we would stop and sleep, get up around 3am then hunt till morning. We were pretty determined to get stuff and hunted hard...for me though it was time to rest when I would start seeing things that aint there. The drive home Sunday was usually tough, seemed to take forever and required some large cups of coffee but usually by the next weekend I was ready to do it over again.

Nowadays I enjoy myself much more when I get some sleep. Still really enjoy night hunting but once my eyes start flapping I'm in my sleeping bag.

Townoper, yep you played the game too lol. This is how I usually did a club hunt. Got off work, picked up my hunting partner, checked- out and headed NE past Bishop to Tonopah Nevada. Gas up in Tonopah and head to Round Mt. and hunt the rest of the night.

By first light we'd usually be in Austin heading north looking for RCs or mousers on the way to Battle Mt. Once we got to Battle Mt. we'd stop gas up and eat, then head north on some secret dirt roads.

After hunting all night we had a check-in to make. We'd have to leave about 3 am to make it back to check-in at Cajon pass, the only thing we stopped for were road crossers and gas. No sleep, little food and more then a thousand miles on a weekend just to try to win a trophy.

That was the hard part of night hunting for me and just to think I did it for 25 years in competition and more then 40 for fun. Would I do it all over again? Hell yes.
Like you Townoper I still go hunting. At my age now there is just no way I could do what I use to do, but it's still in my blood.........................Good Hunting :)

I would have to agree on fatigue and finding the downed critters. I still get excited after the shot and usually forget to keep my eyes on a downed animal.

Man Onecoyote, that is some serious driving over a weekend. When I hunted the areas above Austin it was usually over 3 or better yet 4 days. Over a weekend is pretty hardcore.

Yeah SBF, finding down critters can sometimes be tough - especially depending on the terrain. Shoot a coyote in some mid level sage or in an alphalfa field where everything looks the same, take the light off where the critter fell and it's tough to find em. My buddy I used to hunt a lot with had a good idea and bought this cool little spotlight with a magnetic base. We would stick it to the truck at a stand then if we shot something we would aim the light where the critter dropped, lock it in place then turn the light off and keep calling. Worked pretty well for marking stuff and let you keep hunting the stand without stopping to retrieve the animal.

Tawnoper, the longest club hunt I ever made was up to Orovada, I'm not sure but I think that's about 1400 miles round trip.

If you hunted the road between Austin and Battle Mt now called 305, we killed tons of coyotes off that road, but that was years ago. Did you ever hunt the dirt roads north of Battle Mt or Golconda?

Staying up all night in the cold freezing your butt off hunting coyotes without sleep for a couple days is not normal lol.

SBF, it's the lighters job to keep the light on the spot the animal went down and to guide the shooter to the animal. It takes practice, but after some time and a few lost coyotes a team can get good at it. One thing about Nevada, all that sagebrush looks the same at night.

My wife and I are looking into a business in Kingston canyon in central Nevada, it is possible we could be living there in the future. The museum would be there too.

If you've ever went hunting with Jeph on Saturday you would know why! haha!

Well that would be an excellet excuse for my getting by butt over there for my first NV night hunt!

Onecoyote, yeah I've hunted a lot of that area before, nice country, pretty desolate out there.

You're looking at a place in Kingston? That would be cool, you would be right in the middle of some nice hunting country. It's been a few years since I was out that way, we stopped at a little place near there called Smokey Joes I think. Anyway, that Big Smokey Valley area is nice.

Never did like that Smokey Joes place. The guy built the darn place right where I use to make stands and kill coyotes years ago lol.
Big Smokey valley with it's awesome looking mountians is alot like the Owens valley, but with much less people.
Good fishing for browns, brookies and rainbows if you know where to go. Big mule deer, elk, antelope, bighorn sheep, lions, coyote, bobcat, badgers, it's a secert sportsmans paradise. I started hunting that valley 30+ years ago, loved it then love it now. It's the place I want to fade away in.

What are the chances your secret is out and it's full of people now?

I hope everybody moves there, then I can go to my real secert place lol. All the years on the internet I have learned to devert people away from where I don't want them to be and in some cases where I want them to be lol.

You will love Kingston Danny. And fully 20% of the town are callers and they have monthly contests. Big Smokey Valley can still be called but gets hammered so much it isn't easy.
North of Golconda and stuff is great calling still but not like it used to be as there are hundreds of guys all along the northern Nevada towns that call all that country now. I used to really like the Little Owyhe and N.F, Humbolt country but now you see people up there and even that area gets called often now. Just not what it was like years ago when you were basically along with just a handful of other guys that called coyotes the only ones doing it. There are probably without exageration at least a thousand + callers in Nevada alone not to count all the Calif. and Utah and Ore. hunters Lets not forget Idaho also. that come here to call.Hope you get that place in Kingston, I'll drop by and see you on my monthly trips across the state on HWY 50...Walt

I was thinking about the subject " toughest part of night hunting" besides the ones already mentioned. How about finding places to hunt at night that's worth hunting?
Finding a good hunting partner. A good hunting partner means alot when you're hunting the night. Anybody can shine a light, but try doing it right. Shoot a coyote in the Nevada sagebrush at night 150 yards away and see if your partner can put you on it. There is alot more things about a good hunting partner then meets the eye.

NVWalt, I was going to Kingston years ago, before Smokeys Joes, Hadleys. The hot spot in the whole valley was Carvers and a bar up in Manhatten lol.
Do you happen to remember on the southwest side of the corner of 50 and old 8A now 376 a store. Someone lives in a moble home there now, but it use to be a store.
We got to get together some day to hash over the old days of Nevada coyote hunting.

I've never hunted in NV, so correct me if I am wrong. Not all counties allow spot lighting, but those that do are all 12 volts?

I sure agree on a good hunting partner for many reasons. It's also nice when they have an abundance of gear to use. :p Seriously though, a good hunting partner can be tough to find.

SBF, not sure about voltage regs but I always used 12v.

Not sure if you've seen this before. http://www.ndow.org/hunt/seasons/fur/coyote.shtm#night

Great link, thanks! Now, any suggestions on where to get some good NV maps?

I added that website to our LINKS page. It says "Some" ... any idea where to get a complete list?

SBF, the best maps I've seen are the Road and Recreational Atlas you can get at WallMart. I have one of Nevada and its outstanding.