The Night-Hunting Statute
Assumes the Hunting Primer. New here? Start there first.
Your objective
By the end, you'll be able to state the two conditions that make artificial lights legal for raccoon hunting in SC, and name the weapon restrictions that apply to all night raccoon hunts.
It’s 11 p.m. on a cold November night. Your hound opens up across the creek and shortly gives tree — that sharp, chopping bark that means the coon is up. You push through the brush, headlamp in hand. When can you legally turn it on? And when you pull out the gun, is your .22 Magnum legal? The answers are in SC Code, and they’re simple enough to memorize right now, before they matter.
Quick recall
From the season lesson — raccoon may be taken at night during the guns-and-dogs season. What additional constraint does SC law place on the use of artificial lights?
The light rule: treed or cornered with dogs
The core of SC’s night-hunting statute for raccoon (and opossum, fox, mink, and skunk) is this: artificial lights may only be used when the animal is treed or cornered with dogs. That language does real legal work.
What it allows: Once your hound has put a raccoon up a tree or cornered it, you may illuminate the tree with a headlamp, handheld light, or spotlight to identify the animal and take the shot.
What it prohibits: Spotlighting from a road or field looking for eye-shine, walking the woods with a light hoping to stumble onto raccoon, or using a light to locate raccoon before the dogs have done their job — all of these are prohibited. The dogs must make first contact; the light follows.
Night vision and infrared are “artificial light”
SC regulations explicitly include devices that amplify light using any power source — including night vision scopes and infrared devices — in the definition of artificial light. These tools are subject to the exact same restriction: legal only on a treed or cornered animal.
This catches hunters who assume thermal or IR optics bypass the light rule because they don’t emit a visible beam. They do not bypass it.
Edge case What about a headlamp for walking the woods?
The statute targets using a light to locate or take game. Using a headlamp for safe navigation — to see where you are walking, to avoid stumbling — is not the same as using it to hunt. In practice, if your dogs are not on a trail and you are using a light to walk from the truck to the woods, that is navigation. Once dogs open and you are moving toward them, keep the light pointed at the ground and your feet until the tree bark confirms the coon is up. Then turn the light on the tree. The bright-line rule: no shining for eyes before the tree.
The weapon ceiling
SC law imposes a weapon ceiling for all night hunting of raccoon. Both restrictions apply simultaneously:
- Shotgun loads: No shot larger than #4 shot. Buckshot and any larger shot size are prohibited.
- Rifles: No cartridge larger than .22 rimfire. That rules out .22 WMR (Magnum), .17 HMR, .22 Hornet, and all centerfire cartridges.
The .22 LR is the legal standard. A standard .22 LR rifle is the most common tool for taking treed raccoon in SC, and it is legal. A .22 Magnum or any centerfire — even a small one — is not.
Putting it together: the legal night-hunt sequence
A legal SC night raccoon hunt follows this sequence every time:
- Dogs cast — hunting begins.
- Dog strikes a track and trails.
- Dog trees or corners the raccoon.
- Hunters move to the dog.
- At the tree: turn on the light, positively identify the animal, confirm it is a legal raccoon (not an opossum you’ve chosen to release, not an owl, not the dog), confirm a safe backstop.
- Take the shot with a legal weapon (.22 LR or #4 shot / smaller).
Steps 5 and 6 cannot be reversed. The light — and the gun — come up only after the dog has done the work.
What’s legal?
Knowledge check
After your hound trees a raccoon, you arrive at the base of the tree with your headlamp on. Is this legal under SC night-hunting rules?
Knowledge check
A hunter arrives at a night hunt with a .22 WMR (Magnum) rifle. Is this weapon legal for SC night raccoon hunting?
Knowledge check
A hunter uses a thermal scope to scan a field at night, spots raccoon eyes, and calls the dogs over. Is the thermal scope use legal at that point?
Take it to the woods
Night-hunt legal checklist
Sources
- SCDNR General Rules and Regulations (eRegulations): https://www.eregulations.com/southcarolina/hunting/general-rules-regulations (verify current SCDNR regulations before you hunt — these change yearly)
- SC Code of Laws Title 50 (Wildlife and Marine Resources): https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t50c016.php
- SCDNR Raccoon Species Page: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/wildlife/species/raccoon.html
- SCDNR Hunting Home: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/hunting.html (current-year regulations)
If you remember nothing else
- Artificial lights (including headlamps, spotlights, night vision, and infrared devices) are only legal on raccoon when the animal is TREED OR CORNERED WITH DOGS.
- You may not spotlight or walk around shining a light looking for raccoon eyes — that is illegal under the night-hunting statute.
- Weapon ceiling: no shot larger than #4 shot, and no rifle cartridge larger than .22 rimfire.
- Night vision and infrared devices are treated as artificial light under SC law — subject to the same treed/cornered restriction.
- Always verify current SCDNR night-hunting rules before the season — statutes and interpretations can change.
How ready do you feel?
How ready are you to explain to a new hunting partner exactly when you can turn on a light during a raccoon hunt, and what gun you can legally carry?
Before you go — a quick look back
Distributed practice: one fast recall from an earlier lesson keeps it from fading.
Quick recall
From Licenses and the Fur-Harvest Permit — if a hunter plans to sell even one raccoon pelt this season, what license must be added to the basic hunting license?
Done with this lesson?
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