Drone thermal imaging

[Gellar]

A friend just sent me this video.

While the grittty toughness of the buck is to be admired, I do not know what to think about drone thermal tracking. I know what I think about drones for spotting and scouting deer, adamantly opposed. As far as drone tracking I think it crosses my personal fair chase ethos, but it seems to be picking up steam as a thing to do if you wound a deer. I can see the benefits, obviously recovering a wounded deer, but I can see the negatives and they outweigh the positives I believe. Over the weekend I taught a hunters safety course and we spent a significant amount of time on fair chase. Kids, the next generation of hunters, are at a tipping point of fair chase hunting. 10 years from now what will be considered fair chase that is not today? What will the new technology be that is making sportsmen and women ponder ethical fair chase?

 

[Nick87]

Opposed. While I hate anyone loosing animals it's about time to stop rewarding marginal ethics/shots. Loosing animals happens learn from it. Not make it easier to repeat. Just my .02

 

[trb]

I am 90% sure I experienced an unlit thermal imaging drone flying above me at night, around 10 pm the night before the Utah general elk opener. There were elk in a canyon I was camped in, and I am almost certain the operator was on the canyon rim. It was fruitlessly reported to the local warden. I know that might seem like a lot of conjecture, but there were a lot if "coincidences" around it that lined up too obviously for the motive not to have been locating elk.

I am vehemently opposed, even if it means losing or not recovering a wounded animal here or there. The people spending the money on those are not doing so to be able to break them out ONLY when they wound an animal. The net outcome is bad for wildlife, and unquestionably outside the realm of fair chase in my opinion.

 

[Gellar]

I am 90% sure I experienced an unlit thermal imaging drone flying above me at night, around 10 pm the night before the Utah general elk opener. There were elk in a canyon I was camped in, and I am almost certain the operator was on the canyon rim. It was fruitlessly reported to the local warden. I know that might seem like a lot of conjecture, but there were a lot if "coincidences" around it that lined up too obviously for the motive not to have been locating elk.

I am vehemently opposed, even if it means losing or not recovering a wounded animal here or there. The people spending the money on those are not doing so to be able to break them out ONLY when they wound an animal. The net outcome is bad for wildlife, and unquestionably outside the realm of fair chase in my opinion.

Your personal experience in Utah is 100% not fair chase and I agree that people who have that equipment may buy it under the disguise of recovering wounded deer but many of them will be tempted to use it in any means necessary to get an animal wounded or not.

 

[Nick87]

I know of a couple people who use there thermal hunting scope/monocular for "coyote hunting" coincidentally they bump into a lot of good bucks. While I'm not at all opposed to thermal for predator hunting. That's just another perfect example of a way to bend the rules. A lot of people don't have the will power not to use it like that anyway. Way too easy for them.

 

[DFS]

Hard no for me.

 

[Gellar]

I know of a couple people who use there thermal hunting scope/monocular for "coyote hunting" coincidentally they bump into a lot of good bucks. While I'm not at all opposed to thermal for predator hunting. That's just another perfect example of a way to bend the rules. A lot of people don't have the will power not to use it like that anyway. Way too easy for them.

A guy just got killed in Iowa last week because his coyote hunting buddy misidentified him through his thermal scope. I think there will be more to the story than has been released and I wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of reckless homicide charge is filed. https://www.iowadnr.gov/About-DNR/D...-County-man-fatally-shot-while-coyote-hunting

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

We already crossed the fair chase line

 

[npaden]

I’ve watched a few of this guys videos and he has a pretty good track record of finding wounded or dead animals with the drone. Animals that sometimes were not recovered by tracking dogs. To me the recovery aspect is good.

Using them for anything else is bad.

 

[Gellar]

We already crossed the fair chase line

I’m curious at what point do you think? Variable power scopes? Range finders? Range finding binoculars? Cell cams?

 

[MTGomer]

I am 90% sure I experienced an unlit thermal imaging drone flying above me at night, around 10 pm the night before the Utah general elk opener. There were elk in a canyon I was camped in, and I am almost certain the operator was on the canyon rim. It was fruitlessly reported to the local warden. I know that might seem like a lot of conjecture, but there were a lot if "coincidences" around it that lined up too obviously for the motive not to have been locating elk.

I am vehemently opposed, even if it means losing or not recovering a wounded animal here or there. The people spending the money on those are not doing so to be able to break them out ONLY when they wound an animal. The net outcome is bad for wildlife, and unquestionably outside the realm of fair chase in my opinion.

I have a commercial part 107 license to operate a drone for my survey business. I don’t recall all the rules as well as I should, but im pretty sure the operator wouldn’t want the FAA to find out that one was being flown unlit in the dark.

 

[DFS]

I’m curious at what point do you think? Variable power scopes? Range finders? Range finding binoculars? Cell cams?

Yes. I’m guilty of every single one of them too.
Edit: not the cell cams. Trail cams yes.

 

[Gellar]

I have a commercial part 107 license to operate a drone for my survey business. I don’t recall all the rules as well as I should, but im pretty sure the operator wouldn’t want the FAA to find out that one was being flown unlit in the dark.

Do all drone operators have to be licensed by the FAA or only because you are using it for commercial applications?

 

[Addicting]

Really surprised that deer wasn’t dead.

 

[Nick87]

Cell cams?

Was putting one up last week, couldn't get the damn thing to sync up after about 20 minutes I thought to myself this is dumb as shit. I've been killing deer without this thing my entire life in this very patch of timber. This is my best spot to hunt. I already know I'm waiting til the first weekend in November slip in here and sit all day what the hell do I care. Carried it back out with me.

 

[Gellar]

Really surprised that deer wasn’t dead.

The shot looked high and forward on the side they were showing but the other side looked like it should have been fatal, quartering too shot. I thought for sure they’d show it fall over while they were filming it or at least dead at the end of the video.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Opposed. While I hate anyone loosing animals it's about time to stop rewarding marginal ethics/shots. Loosing animals happens learn from it. Not make it easier to repeat. Just my .02

I couldn’t agree more. And I wouldn’t have said it so nicely. Lol

 

[Gellar]

Was putting one up last week, couldn't get the damn thing to sync up after about 20 minutes I thought to myself this is dumb as shit. I've been killing deer without this thing my entire life in this very patch of timber. This is my best spot to hunt. I already know I'm waiting til the first weekend in November slip in here and sit all day what the hell do I care. Carried it back out with me.

You just need to bring your boy out with you to teach you how to sync the camera!

 

[Nick87]

You just need to bring your boy out with you to teach you how to sync the camera!

No kidding there.

 

[Nameless Range]

I've been exploring thermal drones lately in my profession. From SAR, to tracking groundwater discharge, to counting birds on a Lek from a distance, to wildfire recon and more, there's a lot of utility to them.

I believe that, though they really could aid in recovery of an animal, and losing an animal is undesirable, it's a Pandora's Box. In the same way that things are getting strange in the world of AI and technology, and that strangeness is accelerating, the same weirdness is going to become true for drone technology. Really, it already is. Just keep em out of hunting, period. In the same way a computer today is not what a computer was in the year 2000, a drone 10 years from now will have far-reaching capabilities at an affordable price-point only currently on offer to militaries if that.

I don't buy the arguments that because we have implemented technology in other realms - GPS, Optics, etc - that it follows we should continue to in other arenas. It doesn't. Thresholds exist. As do real moments where folks should say enough is enough.