Binos or thermal spotter

rem284

Well-Known Member
This is really for people who are using thermal spotters for locating deer. If you had to make a choice if you were going out stalking in a forest would you take the thermal or binos.
 
Don't use a TI but in answer to your question what would a TI unit tell you other than there's one there. Would it tell you sex ?
Would it tell you if it was one on the cull plan ?
Would it tell you age or condition ?
Would it tell you species ?
All these questions can be answered by using a st of binoculars
Regards
Jimmy
 
Ive been out with a mate and his thermal it shows you alot of stuff you can't see I'd guess unless your just after munties you could waste alot of time stalking In on the wrong sex
 
If your cull plan is to get as many deer as possible regardless of age, sex etc then is the thermal the answer.
 
Don't use a TI but in answer to your question what would a TI unit tell you other than there's one there. Would it tell you sex ?
Would it tell you if it was one on the cull plan ?
Would it tell you age or condition ?
Would it tell you species ?
All these questions can be answered by using a st of binoculars
Regards
Jimmy

Can tell you don't use thermal.

To the OP forget your bins.

They are awesome in the woods. Locate your deer then look through your scope for sex condition etc. Your TI will tell you that your cull plan will be completed much quicker than your mate with bins and you larder will be twice as full!
 
Last edited:
Thermal! The thermal is used 95% of the time to find the deer. The bino is only for the occasional back-up to ID sex/age etc. Others I know now also use their Thermal virtually exclusively when out stalking. Please no comments that this is not sporty! ;)
 
Using your rifle scope for target identification......I'm sure I read a warning about that somewhere?

Here's an image from the FLIR website:

image.png

An idea what's behind those deer? Nope, me neither, but I'm not the one about to point my rifle at them in the course of finding out :eek:

I know, I know, you're in the woods so there won't be any houses, roads, cars, buildings, pylons, telegraph poles......
 
Thermal! The thermal is used 95% of the time to find the deer. The bino is only for the occasional back-up to ID sex/age etc. Others I know now also use their Thermal virtually exclusively when out stalking. Please no comments that this is not sporty! ;)

You've got it Erik.

Using your rifle scope for target identification......I'm sure I read a warning about that somewhere?

Here's an image from the FLIR website:

View attachment 68462

An idea what's behind those deer? Nope, me neither, but I'm not the one about to point my rifle at them in the course of finding out :eek:

I know, I know, you're in the woods so there won't be any houses, roads, cars, buildings, pylons, telegraph poles......

Have you used thermal yet Willie? With respect to back stop etc You've still got eyes in your head haven't you? It helps to know your ground as well. Where did I advocate target ID, I said sex etc, you don't randomly swing your rifle around randomly as has been suggested with NV. You spot the deer...you can tell it's a deer. Bins won't necessarily help you with much of your list in the woods and as for roads and houses you can often see them right through cover that you would never see them with bins day or night.

I don't know about you but much of the woodland stalking I have done you see deer relatively close range, gun on sticks if correct sex , species etc and safe to do so shot taken. If you spot the deer, faffed with bins then gun up the deer would be gone. So why is this different and any less safe. In fact it can give you more time to assess the situation choose an animal, manouver into safe possition or wait for a good back stop etc because you are much less likely to bump into them.

Is it now impossible to go stalking without bins?
 
:-|:-|:mad:It's looking like more and more people are getting so desperate to shoot deer that they are using thermal.....:mad:
 
For the amount of deer on my land I need everything that will help. Lol.
I don't have much woodland and I have used both thermal and binos. The thermal will help you on your way to a highseat in the dark to avoid spooking deer if they are about. It will also help you see a deer that you would never see with binos for what ever reason, Ie, sat in the wood. If you can't carry both then use a thermal and you could get a monocular for looking at the deer. That will sit in your pocket easy.
When I have sat up a highseat I have used both and it was my eyes that spotted the deer, the binos helped identify it as it wandered off in the wrong direction. I have also watched a Roe (probably) wander along the wrong side of a laurel hedge, never got a shot but I knew where it was and watched it wander all the way.
if I had to choose, I would go thermal, spot the animal, get up on sticks ready to shoot it I could identify as a suitable beast.
luckily I don't have to choose, so use both depending on where I am, when I am and how I am etc etc. I am probably 60/40 in favour of the thermal. But a thermal will not always see a roe lying in grass either, isn't it amazing how they disappear?, I think they are related to octopus.
 
:-|:-|:mad:It's looking like more and more people are getting so desperate to shoot deer that they are using thermal.....:mad:

It's funny that, loads on here travel miles all over the world and the country (some up to Scotland regularly) and pay thousands of pounds to shoot deer , I regularly read of those who travel miles to some permision and rarely shoot anything, are they 'desperate'? I just have to walk out my front door and get told to shoot as many fallow as possible , particularly does as there is a problem in the area. This takes alot of effort all winter. Thermal makes this slightly more easy. And it's amazing what else you see out there that you would never normally see and other uses it has.

I can see this turning into the usual SD car crash. The last I will say on the matter is please please those that are about to post who do not have thermal try it out for a week or two then come back and write something. It has many advantages and some limitations that may be personal to your ground and your stalking etc but please come at it from an educated point of view then the OP may learn something.

PS If anyone locally fancies trying it out then send me a PM it I shall do what I can to help.
 
Last edited:
Have you used thermal yet Willie?

As it happens, yes I have - both through the kindness of a site member here and elsewhere - and very useful it was too. I'll admit, though, that I've not used it a lot.

TBH if I could only come up with suitable justification I'd likely buy a set, as for my type of stalking I'd find it a lot more useful than binos with a built-in rangefinder.

But my argument is not against TI itself, it's against using TI as a substitute for binoculars and then using your riflescope to get visual confirmation of what you are going to shoot in the context of its surroundings.

I wasn't aware this disagreement somehow made the discussion "a car crash" :eek:

Where did I advocate target ID, I said sex etc,

I see a deer's sex, age, condition, etc as part of identification, but rather than be pedantic maybe we can settle on "visual confirmation" instead?

You spot the deer...you can tell it's a deer.

Indeed, but the thing about thermal imaging is that the clue is in the name ;)

TI presents you with an image based on thermal energy, not visible light. As you and others have said, TI lets you see lots of things that you can't with binoculars. Of course the opposite is also true - you can see lots of things with binoculars that you can't see with TI. That's why I think the one complements the other, rather than replaces it. The TI manufacturers themselves state that TI does not replace binoculars when it comes to confirming sex, condition, etc.

I don't know about you but much of the woodland stalking I have done you see deer relatively close range, gun on sticks if correct sex , species etc and safe to do so shot taken. If you spot the deer, faffed with bins then gun up the deer would be gone. So why is this different and any less safe.

In my mind it's different and less safe because the shooter is now relying on their riflescope both for the initial visual confirmation of the cull beast and the suitability of its surroundings for a shot to be taken.

So to me rather than:

See the thermal image of the deer - gun on sticks - look through riflescope - gain visual confirmation - take shot

I am suggesting it should be:

See the thermal image of the deer - gain visual confirmation - gun on sticks - look through riflescope - take shot

Of course there are always going to be exceptions where this doesn't happen, but isn't everything on The Stalking Directory the "ideal world scenario" ;)

Oh yes, and in twenty years of stalking and guiding on muntjac and roe I've experienced more than my share of "faffing about" :lol:

Is it now impossible to go stalking without bins?

Your ground, your rules - my ground, my rules.

Turn up here to stalk without binoculars and it would be a very short outing indeed. But that's why I carry a spare set in the car, just in case ;)

Thermal imaging is a great tool, but I just don't see it as a replacement for binoculars. Now if you could get binoculars combined with TI......that really would be something!

PS If anyone locally fancies trying it out then send me a PM it I shall do what I can to help.?

Now that really is a very kind offer :tiphat:
 
This is really for people who are using thermal spotters for locating deer. If you had to make a choice if you were going out stalking in a forest would you take the thermal or binos.
I would take both.
Perhaps the next generation of range-finder binoculars will add thermal capability too!
 
Perhaps the next generation of range-finder binoculars will add thermal capability too!

You are right, just look at the development of electronics over the last 5-10 years... one day (not so far ahead in the future) some clever manufacturer will develop a unit that combines bino's, range-finder, laser-designator and thermal, all in one compact unit. Watch my words!
 
All the talk about safety, and in most youtube videos the first thing you see after shooter getting out of car is putting one up
the spout, why?
 
:-|:-|:mad:It's looking like more and more people are getting so desperate to shoot deer that they are using thermal.....:mad:

Strange reply...

I am licenced to night shoot, Sept-end of March, trust me binos are of no use at night, well, I tell a lie, the range finder is a useful tool on my Swarovski's. The thermal lets you locate deer 100's of meters away, allowing you to get to a suitable position to then use the lamp.

Desperate to shoot deer, I don't think so.......

Recreational use.... Not sure, I will be using my thermal throughout the summer to locate, then stalk into, but I will be using my binos.

If your budget is set on one or the other, buy second hand......Minox BR's Binos are £ for £ up there with top quality makes! I've had a couple of pairs while my Swarovski have been getting serviced.. FLIR Scout prices will be dropping very quickly as the Pulsar HD's are coming down in price making way for the XD series... FLIR's have satisfied most peoples need for the last few years.So for probably £1500-1800 you could get both if you are prepared to shop about.
 
I would definitely say a thermal .

I could live without binoculars but I can't ever see me being without thermal.
 
To the OP forget your bins.

They are awesome in the woods. Locate your deer then look through your scope for sex condition etc. Your TI will tell you that your cull plan will be completed much quicker than your mate with bins and you larder will be twice as full!


I like it! I think you have the same way of thinking. I only had a thermal on demo for 2 days and was convinced that it is a must have tool. I think that it could probably put more deer in the larder than the spotlight. When I used it, I could see a sika hind and calf in some birch woodland. I could clearly tell which one was the hind, which one was the calf using thermal. I shot the hind. Then looked with thermal again and could see the hind was lying dead and that the calf had only went a short distance. After a while another hind appeared with the calf(all seen with thermal. After a long time of trying to see them with binos I finally did and managed to shoot both. Without the thermal I think these 3 would still be tree munchers. I managed to get more deer with the thermal that I dont think I would have seen other wise
 
Back
Top