Muskox
AH legend
BLUF: Thermals are a tool for the hunter, the game agency, the wildlife manager, and the predator or hog hunter.
There are perceived and real ethical thoughts on thermals that create emotion.
Cons:
1. Thermals increase success finding wildlife in the woods. While this sounds like a positive, if you are issuing 100 tags as a wildlife agency and you increase success to 70-80% by allowing thermals, and you traditionally have 40-50% success you will have a hard drop over time in the quantity and quality of wildlife you are producing. Reducing opportunity in the long run, by straining the wildlife resource.
2. Every technology that increases harvest rate (I don't like that word either, but this is the language of wildlife management) is fraught with public opinion outcries. This is no different, as thermals are militaryesque in nature, and it can be perceived by hunters and non hunters alike as providing an unfair advantage.
3. Thermals do not allow for the positive ID 100% on all wildlife including antlers, antlers tend to be invisible with thermal spotters. But you can see body conformation on better quality models, and this can be used to determine if an animal is an adult male or not. Night vision does allow a hunter to see the antlers, but it does not highlight the animal so you can easily find them. There are multi-spectral models that are both thermal and night vision, these are $2500-10,000.
4. There is a significant entry to barrier, as most thermals are $600-10,000. Very good models can be had for under $1800. This may be seen by certain financial groups as a rich man's toy.
5. Species like Mule deer and Coues deer that live there entire lives by hiding during the day and being nocturnal at night, can be more easily found during the day time by scanning a hill, and looking for the small thermal dot of the head. Where many hours or minutes of glassing would be required to break a hill down. Creating a high harvest of mature deer, in a species that requires a soft hand with management.
6. In more open or vertical areas where a safe bullet backstop or kugelfang is not a problem, safety must be very critical to avoid shooting into an inhabited building.
Pros:
1. Thermals allow for expanded wildlife observation and in some cases control both day and night. They also work in fog.
2. Thermal allow for hunters to be more effective, and spend less time working on areas that do not have wildlife.
3. Thermals allow for some level of expanded safety, a thermal signature of a man walking isn't 100% discernible from a deer headed straight on, but over some time of observation it quickly becomes apparent. Me "is that a fox?, no that's a badger", transition to rifle with night vision bang flop. European badger at night in Slovenia. Fantastic!
Absolutes:
1. Thermals are not night vision, they can distort the image and cause you to think that what you are seeing is something else. Especially in the lower financial tier products. So not 100% successful for safety. I feel as though a thermal handheld should always be paired with a night vision rifle scope for predator work at night, not with another thermal rifle scope.
2. Thermals are not cheap!
There are perceived and real ethical thoughts on thermals that create emotion.
Cons:
1. Thermals increase success finding wildlife in the woods. While this sounds like a positive, if you are issuing 100 tags as a wildlife agency and you increase success to 70-80% by allowing thermals, and you traditionally have 40-50% success you will have a hard drop over time in the quantity and quality of wildlife you are producing. Reducing opportunity in the long run, by straining the wildlife resource.
2. Every technology that increases harvest rate (I don't like that word either, but this is the language of wildlife management) is fraught with public opinion outcries. This is no different, as thermals are militaryesque in nature, and it can be perceived by hunters and non hunters alike as providing an unfair advantage.
3. Thermals do not allow for the positive ID 100% on all wildlife including antlers, antlers tend to be invisible with thermal spotters. But you can see body conformation on better quality models, and this can be used to determine if an animal is an adult male or not. Night vision does allow a hunter to see the antlers, but it does not highlight the animal so you can easily find them. There are multi-spectral models that are both thermal and night vision, these are $2500-10,000.
4. There is a significant entry to barrier, as most thermals are $600-10,000. Very good models can be had for under $1800. This may be seen by certain financial groups as a rich man's toy.
5. Species like Mule deer and Coues deer that live there entire lives by hiding during the day and being nocturnal at night, can be more easily found during the day time by scanning a hill, and looking for the small thermal dot of the head. Where many hours or minutes of glassing would be required to break a hill down. Creating a high harvest of mature deer, in a species that requires a soft hand with management.
6. In more open or vertical areas where a safe bullet backstop or kugelfang is not a problem, safety must be very critical to avoid shooting into an inhabited building.
Pros:
1. Thermals allow for expanded wildlife observation and in some cases control both day and night. They also work in fog.
2. Thermal allow for hunters to be more effective, and spend less time working on areas that do not have wildlife.
3. Thermals allow for some level of expanded safety, a thermal signature of a man walking isn't 100% discernible from a deer headed straight on, but over some time of observation it quickly becomes apparent. Me "is that a fox?, no that's a badger", transition to rifle with night vision bang flop. European badger at night in Slovenia. Fantastic!
Absolutes:
1. Thermals are not night vision, they can distort the image and cause you to think that what you are seeing is something else. Especially in the lower financial tier products. So not 100% successful for safety. I feel as though a thermal handheld should always be paired with a night vision rifle scope for predator work at night, not with another thermal rifle scope.
2. Thermals are not cheap!
