Drones for bow hunting????

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Terry, I believe he’s talking about thermal imaging ie “thermals”. Thermal binos, scopes and cameras. The deer drone guys advertise they can find deer after 48h by the heat generated by decomposition of the dead animal using the thermal imaging camera with the drone. I guess the horns are still good though…..

R

[ozy clint]

Terry- Yeah what Ryan said above.
People here hunt with thermal imaging monoculars, binos, drones. It just became legal to use thermal imaging on public land in New Zealand. Doesn't include thermal rifle scopes though, only handheld devices.

[ozy clint]

This stuff is going on now in professional bass fishing.  I got out years ago as the writing was on the wall.  All the guys that spent years learning to put the puzzle together are getting out. Why? Forward facing sonar.  Now you just buy the puzzle pre-assembled and now you just buy a frame.

Very soon there will be a generation that cannot live without technology.

Same thing happening here. Guys cruising around watching a screen and throwing lures at fish when they see one. Now they are complaining that they are getting harder to catch because low and behold..........the fish are associating the boat noise with the lures that are dragged past their nose. They are their own worst enemy and now they have educated the fish and made it harder for everyone regardless of whether you use the tech or not.

They won't be happy till there's nothing left.

[Terry Green]

Thanks Ozy!

[Terry Green]

Clint, I am not advocating such at all with this post, just giving my take on the one experience that I've had with a thermal scope....

I was hunting last year with PDK as he had acquired a used thermal scope that he mounted on a wooden 'gun stock' he cut out just for 'aiming'.  He showed it to me one evening as we looked in places that we knew held deer near the ranch house and it was cool to see that.

It was also cool to know, after the fact, that Patrick got to enjoy my stalk and shot even though I never knew he was going to follow me after I got out of his vehicle.  He walked behind me after I got way out in front as he knew exactly where I was going, where the hogs were going to be, and where to set up downwind as not to spook them.  Patrick used that thermal scope to watch me sneak up on the hogs which he could see also. At one point the hogs an I both were in his view. He got to see me draw and hear the hog make its death squeal. I thought that was cool and he was so excited about it that he might as well have killed the hog himself.

Then two nights later, I went with him to look for his hog and we did the normal look, track, look track and blindly busting through thick TX trash to no avail.  We had really given it our all, and if anyone has tracked with me that's the only way I go. I said to Patrick, "why don't you take that scope thing and go up to that tower stand and have a look just for kicks".  Sure enough the hog was still warm enough that he saw it over a 100 yards away.  We were both tickled that the hog had been recovered.

I don't really see any ethical issue with that use.

However, if you shoot an animal and immediately use a thermal scope instead of woodsman ship.... well, that's another story.  Same with lighted nocks, I have been in on two of those and one was a last ditch effort due to total lack of blood, the other, after 3 hours of tracking lead me to the animal only 6-8 yards ahead which I feel I would have found anyway,  but the nock did give way to the arrow, and the arrow was still in the javie.

[Kirkll]

I’ve always been fascinated with drones and the cool photography that can be taken with them. While working in the construction industry as a project superintendent, my project manager had an expensive drone he used on all our projects for aerial photography as the project progressed. It was very cool…. But… they are completely illegal to use for hunting or fishing in Oregon.

Last year my kids got me one for Christmas to play with at home. Granted… it was an inexpensive set up… But I’ll tell ya one thing. These things are much harder to fly than you would think. I spent more time getting the damn thing off the roof of the house and barn, and climbing trees to get it back than I did flying it.

Once it took off over the top of the shop and headed north out of sight,  and it took me two days to find it again way up in the neighbors field. I finally crashed it one too many times and ruined it… it was pretty challenging to control.

I do a lot of fishing too besides hunting, and the electronics are getting more and more advanced for chart plotters and fish finders. They now have what they call a live scope that is so detailed you can actually watch your lure and see the flashers rotating as well as the fish. I believe steps are already being taken to outlaw these in many states as there are fair chase issues being suggested. I actually got to see one of these amazing scopes in action going out on this guys boat fishing for salmon…. It was really strange watching these guys with their eyes glued to a screen at the helm instead of watching their fishing rods. I was back by the rods adjusting depth as they spotted fish higher or lower than the depth we were fishing. That wasn’t really fishing to me…

So I can see the fair chase issue in both fishing and hunting using high tech toys.

But…. I always liked the idea of having a gps tracking chip in an arrow. Trying to find a down animal in the thick brush at night often results in lost animals more than you hear about. I could get behind that tech.    Kirk

[Terry Green]

Yes Kirk I hear you, As far as fishing , I didn't use any electronics. Most people don't know that I am a much better fisherman than I ever will be a bow hunter. If I could have a bow or a fishing rod for survival it would be the fishing rod by far.

[awry]

Very soon there will be a generation that cannot live without technology.

We’re already there unfortunately ….

[Kirkll]

Yes Kirk I hear you, As far as fishing , I didn't use any electronics. Most people don't know that I am a much better fisherman than I ever will be a bow hunter. If I could have a bow or a fishing rod for survival it would be the fishing rod by far.

I didn’t know that Terry…. As I’ve got older I’ve had to limit the amount of intense hunting excursions I take, and have given up elk hunting completely now. Our mountains in Oregon, even the coastal range that I spent hunting elk for 20 years is very intense, very steep terrain that I just cannot climb anymore. I’ll be 69 this fall and do much more fishing than hunting.

A few years ago I bought a bigger boat that can handle big water, and I do a LOT of salmon fishing, but rarely get out in the ocean with it. It’s only 19’ in length, but has two motors, and a deep V hull design that I’ve had out in some pretty rough water, and it handles very well…. Unfortunately it scares the hell out of my wide having water come over the bow in 4-5’ white caps. But… the boat has a full cabin and will handle bigger water than I want to be out in safely. It’s actually kind of sporty sometimes when the wind comes up, and the tide changes…. I’ve had a few white knuckle rides getting back to the landing in the Columbia river….

I’m getting ready to take my son in law out on his first big water adventure on the 12th of August.  If you Google “Buoy 10 salmon fishing” you can get an idea of where we are going. The mouth of the Columbia is huge!  Over  2 miles wide in spots, with sand bars and very dangerous tides. To fish this area safely requires a good chart plotter showing all the hazards, and the skill level to know where to be at what time in the tide exchange… being at the wrong place at the wrong time can be frightening, and even fatal in the wrong boat without experience….

Now I’m not sure which is more adrenaline stimulating…. A 1000# charging bull elk jumping over you, or dealing with a rough bar and huge waves miles from port… but both are pretty intense! Gettin way out there fishing and having a fog bank swallow you definitely adds to the intensity with cargo ships coming into the estuary that are 200 yards long….. So there is good reason to have high tech gear on board a boat that will save your life….  Kirk


Hope I didn’t get too side tracked with my boat story here…. 

[Terry Green]

Kirk, no worries.  I was in a tournament once at Clark.Hill And I pulled into a long narrow cove once.I saw what was going on.  Others were not so smart and tried to ride it out. The caps were coming off of the hulls on those boats(newest craze on the market bs Javalines) trying to get through to get to the weigh in.

One tournament pair swam to an island and lit a fire to warm up and they were rescued standing in the water because the entire island burned up.

[Kirkll]

getting back to electronics and hunting.... i never did use gps or maps on my phone hunting much. i was old school and used a compass and land marks to navigate.... Granted... It would make it easier to use gps, and there were times years ago when i got turned around at sundown, and spent the night in the woods rather than risking sliding off a cliff .  Some of that terrain down there is very dangerous, and the elk love to hang out on the sides of those really steep canyon walls on old overgrown logging roads.  i've had guys that i invited to come hunt with me down there on the coast that only came once...     They told me i was nuts hunting those steep canyons....

But... once you learn how to canyon jump safely. It's a blast! Our hunting party would run up to the ridge tops in ATVs then scatter out along the ridge before going over the edge. We'd put our 30# day packs on and were always prepared to spend the night in the woods, but typically the hunt only lasted until mid day before coming out in the bottom. 2-3 mile hunts were the norm, and yo never saw another hunter besides your own party... 

But.... there were certain places in our 20 square mile area we hunted that you just didn't go into. one such area we called "the frying pan".... That canyon dropped off at 45 degrees with a lot of rim rock cliffs with a vertical height of several hundred feet. Believe it or not, there were elk trails that wound down those steep areas that made it passable, but getting back out with a 1000 pound animal was almost impossible even with portable winches.  Typically when we get an animal down it was all hands on deck, and we would either cut them up and bring them out with pack boards, or use the winch and drag them out whole to the bottom going down hill, but sometimes if they went down close to the rige, we would winch them up in one piece....It was always cleaner to keep them in one piece getting them out.  But... The Frying pan was inaccessible by road and was a 7 mile hike to get to the nearest forest service road, and you had 3 ridges to go over to get there. 

A buddy of mine and I took a full pack one time and dove off into the Frying pan after parking one of our trucks below one time, and it took us two days to get out of there using a compass alone. a GPS unit would have saved us a couple extra miles of hiking.... After that scouting trip, nobody ever shot an elk on the back side of that ridge. If they dropped off into the frying pan, those animals were not pursued. It was frustrating sometimes because those big bulls down there knew we wouldn't chase em down there.  We called many of them that showed themselves, but wouldn't come to the top.

Fun stuff in your younger years! I could write a book of adventures we had down there.... Kirk

[achigan]

This from the IDNR REGS.

[ozy clint]

Clint, I am not advocating such at all with this post, just giving my take on the one experience that I've had with a thermal scope....

I was hunting last year with PDK as he had acquired a used thermal scope that he mounted on a wooden 'gun stock' he cut out just for 'aiming'.  He showed it to me one evening as we looked in places that we knew held deer near the ranch house and it was cool to see that.

It was also cool to know, after the fact, that Patrick got to enjoy my stalk and shot even though I never knew he was going to follow me after I got out of his vehicle.  He walked behind me after I got way out in front as he knew exactly where I was going, where the hogs were going to be, and where to set up downwind as not to spook them.  Patrick used that thermal scope to watch me sneak up on the hogs which he could see also. At one point the hogs an I both were in his view. He got to see me draw and hear the hog make its death squeal. I thought that was cool and he was so excited about it that he might as well have killed the hog himself.

Then two nights later, I went with him to look for his hog and we did the normal look, track, look track and blindly busting through thick TX trash to no avail.  We had really given it our all, and if anyone has tracked with me that's the only way I go. I said to Patrick, "why don't you take that scope thing and go up to that tower stand and have a look just for kicks".  Sure enough the hog was still warm enough that he saw it over a 100 yards away.  We were both tickled that the hog had been recovered.

I don't really see any ethical issue with that use.

However, if you shoot an animal and immediately use a thermal scope instead of woodsman ship.... well, that's another story.  Same with lighted nocks, I have been in on two of those and one was a last ditch effort due to total lack of blood, the other, after 3 hours of tracking lead me to the animal only 6-8 yards ahead which I feel I would have found anyway,  but the nock did give way to the arrow, and the arrow was still in the javie.

They sure have their uses. The 1st time I had seen, let alone looked through one was not long ago. A mate had one and we used it while out spotlighting for rabbits and foxes. We ended up shooting a nice boar that night. We wouldn't have got it without the thermal because we never saw it with the light.
Instead of searching with the light he just pans with the thermal and promptly declares whether or not there is anything out there.
Their use during the day while 'hunting' is not something I'd partake in. They are a pest control tool to me. I'll keep my hunting as I like it.

 

[Terry Green]

Yeah Ozy, he didn't ever hunt with it, just looked through it for kicks coming back to camp one night and he used it to find that one hog.

[Kirkll]

I cant imagine how you could fly one of those things at night without crashing into trees. I mean even in Texas they do have trees...

  I could see using these drones for game retrieval only... but you know that some people would still use them for scouting anyway... Kirk

[JR Chambers]

I would rather use a good tracking dog.