Can You Hunt Coyotes at Night in Michigan? Guns, Lights, Licenses

You can hunt coyotes at night in Michigan throughout the regular season, which runs July 15 through April 15 statewide.¹ Nighttime hours run from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise.² After dark you’re on foot only, your firearm choices are narrower, and you have to be actively working a call, bait, or dogs to carry a loaded gun. Get any of those pieces wrong and you’re looking at a violation.

There is no daily or seasonal bag limit. Check the exact sunset and sunrise times in the DNR’s annual hunting and trapping guide rather than estimating; being off by a few minutes turns a legal hunt into an illegal one.

Firearms You Can Carry After Dark

Night hunting limits you to smaller calibers and specific loads. The full list:¹

Rimfire rifles .22 caliber or smaller.
Centerfire rifles or pistols .269 caliber or smaller.
Shotguns of any gauge, but not loaded with buckshot larger than size 3, slugs, or cut shells.
Bows, crossbows, and pneumatic guns.

Semi-automatic centerfire and rimfire firearms can’t hold more than six shells combined in the barrel and magazine.¹ You cannot hunt from a vehicle, ATV, or any motorized equipment at any point.

One rule catches out-of-state hunters and newer hunters alike: in state parks and recreation areas, centerfire rifles and centerfire pistols cannot be used to take any animal at night.² Shotguns, rimfire, bows, and crossbows are still fair game in those areas.

Lights and Optics

Artificial light is allowed at night, but only if it’s portable and you’re carrying or wearing it. Flashlights, battery-powered spotlights, and headlamps all work.³ Vehicle-mounted lights are out. State law separately prohibits casting artificial light from a vehicle in areas frequented by game while you have a firearm in your possession, and that applies no matter what other permissions you hold.⁴

Optics are more permissive than most hunters expect. Scopes, open sights, thermal sights, infrared sights, and laser sights are all legal for nighttime furbearer hunting as long as you’re following the other night rules.¹ Thermal in particular makes a real difference in open country.

The Active-Hunting Requirement

This is the rule that trips people up. At night you can’t carry a loaded firearm, a cocked crossbow, or a bow with a nocked arrow unless you are actively hunting with the aid of a game call, predator call, bait, or dogs.² Walking a two-track with a loaded rifle and a headlamp is not legal, even during the open season. You need to be set up over a call or bait station, or running dogs to the point of kill. Electronic calls are legal for coyote hunting in Michigan.

Licenses

License requirements are the same day or night. Michigan residents need only a base license, which runs about $11. Nonresidents need a base license (around $151) plus a fur harvester license ($15).⁵ Anyone trapping coyotes, resident or not, needs the fur harvester license.⁶

Buy through the DNR eLicense system or at an authorized retail agent. Carry your license or have it accessible on your phone; conservation officers run field checks at all hours during the season.

Where You Can Hunt

Michigan’s recreational trespass law runs around the clock. You need verbal or written consent from the landowner, lessee, or agent before entering private property to hunt. On farm property and wooded areas connected to farms, that consent is required whether the land is posted or fenced or not. On other private property, consent is required when the land is fenced or posted against entry.⁷

Trespassing to hunt is a misdemeanor. Penalties reach 90 days in jail, a fine of $100 to $500, or both.⁸ At night, boundaries are much harder to read. Walk your ground in daylight before setting up.

National forests generally follow state hunting rules but layer on their own. You cannot discharge a firearm within 150 yards of a developed recreation site, a residence, or any place where people are likely to gather, and you can’t shoot across a body of water or a Forest Service road.⁹ Call the local ranger district for site-specific rules before a night hunt on forest land.

National wildlife refuges each set their own hunt plans. Not every Michigan refuge permits predator hunting, and those that do may restrict nighttime activity.¹⁰ Check the refuge’s plan before you go.

Carcass Disposal

Coyote carcasses have to be used or properly disposed of. Three legal options: bury the carcass completely underground, wrap and landfill it, or compost it on your own private land if local rules allow composting.¹¹ Leaving a carcass on public land or dumping it on someone else’s property is not disposal. If you’re on public land at night and don’t plan to keep the animal, bring a bag.

The Management Season and Year-Round Hunting

Starting in 2026, Michigan added a coyote management season running March 2 through October 14, closing the gap after the regular season ends April 15.¹¹ Between the two seasons, coyote hunting is effectively available year-round, with the same license requirements throughout.

The management season carries its own limits. Hunting coyotes with dogs is prohibited April 16 through July 7. Trapping is off-limits on public lands and commercial forest lands open to general public hunting during the management season. And coyotes cannot be taken in state parks and recreation areas from April 1 through September 14.¹¹ Where the calendars overlap, the same night-hunting equipment and method rules apply.

1
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. 2026 Furbearer Harvest Regulations Summary
2
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Wildlife Conservation Order Amendment No. 2 of 2026
3
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. NRC Approves Year-Round Coyote Hunting Season
4
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 324.40113
5
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Coyote Hunting, Trapping and Management Season
6
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 324.43531
7
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 324.73102
8
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 324.73110
9
U.S. Forest Service. Hunting
10
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hunting on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lands and Waters
11
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Michigan’s New Coyote Management Season Starts March 2