Thermal Imaging for hunting

While I was born and raised in Missouri, it was only a quarter mile from the Arkansas line. We farmed in Arkansas, went to church in Arkansas and did most of our shopping in Arkansas. I might as well say I'm from Arkansas.

Actually, I've never sat in a tree with anyone else there. In order to stay legal I'd have to make the trip back to the truck to get the imager. That won't be a problem, though. Most places I hunt I can be to the truck and back in less than 30 minutes.

 

If the cover is too thick then it might not help you that much, but if any part of the animal is unobstructed the heat signature will show up very well, especially if you're close.

It's been a great piece of equipment to have. It has only helped me locate two does that I've shot since I bought it, but the peace of mind it gives me knowing it's there if I need it helps me head out alone even though I'm colorblind.

One of the does that I made a "less than stellar" shot on last year at last light (with a muzzleloader) ran a long way out into a picked cornfield. She went over a ridge and I had no idea how far she'd gone or which direction she went after she topped the ridge. It was totally dark when I got down. I was alone and couldn't find blood (of course), so I went to the truck, got the thermal imager, went back to the shot location, turned it on and started walking. I crested the ridge and scanned and there she was off to my right about 100 yards away.

I can give you one example of where it worked well in pretty thick timber that had been cut over a few years before. It didn't help recover the deer in this particular case, but it worked well.

Last November my son in law took a shot on a stud of a buck in Missouri, but he made a bad shot - a pure gut shot. I tried my best to convince him to let it lay overnight but he insisted on going to check after letting it lay for four hours. We went to where the blood trail crossed the road and I powered the thermal imager up. He walked blood while I scanned. We hadn't gone 40 yards off the road when I picked up the heat signature of the buck at about 60 to 80 yards away. The detail was good enough that I could see the buck was lying down and his head was up. I tried to whisper to stop my son in law, but he didn't hear me, so I raised my voice a little. He heard me and stopped, but the buck heard me too. I watched the heat signature of that buck get up and run down the hill. We backed out and my son in law went back the next morning but he couldn't find it. We ended up finding him almost a week later, so in this case it didn't help recover the buck, but if I'd been able to reach out and quietly grab my son it law and if we could have backed out quietly he might have been able to recover that buck the next morning. Of course, if he'd waited until the next morning it would have turned out differently, but that's in the past and he learned a valuable lesson.

I'll also tell you that the range of these things is sick. I've scanned many things since I've had it, and I can pick up the heat signature of a dog at well over a quarter mile away. Granted, at that distance you can't tell it's a dog, but you know it's an animal. I've also driven around at night and just scanned out the truck window. It's amazing what you can see out in the fields at night and you don't have to use a spotlight and scare the crap out of the animals. If you do that, MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE you don't have a weapon of any kind with you.

It's just a really nice piece of equipment to have available, especially if you're colorblind, and it works equally well during the day.

 

That is awesome, but I don't even want to know what those things cost.

 

Incidentally, here's a pic of the rack from the buck we tried to recover that night that we ended up finding later.