Night vision and law
- Thread starter redstag01
- Start date
DennisTheMenace
Member
Illegal in Scotland. Not illegal in England i.e. no specific legislation forbidding it. Therefore, use of night vision or thermal is legal in England and Wales during daylight hours. This advice taken from BASC website when I last looked at it a couple of weeks ago.
I use my digital (drone 10 with no IR ) around 25 mins when the z6 goes black....
Not all the time but muntjac don't feed for long or stay still either, so to keep up knocking them over it is used for the late ones.
No long shots just get in sub 80yds
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Substantial numbers are shot at night north of the wall so what difference would NV or thermal make .
Surely legislation has to catch up with tech .
Surely legislation has to catch up with tech .
It might not be illegal, but in the wrong hands it can devastate a population and is morally questionable, i except that there is sometimes good reason and used by good people during daylight, but in the wrong hands it seems that it is too tempting to take deer out of hours and in cover that would not be visible by natural means, which would lead one to conclude that the safety of said shooting was questionable.
really ?
Hard to argue you are shooting foxes with a 270 I suppose. The Deer Act provision where you are guilty of an offence if it is reasonable to assume have committed an offence will catch everything.
Which part of the Deer Act is this ?
Many said that when optical sights became a thing rather than iron sights. And, I shouldn't wonder when rifling became a thing. Or even probably when firearms became a thing over bows and arrows. But what do I know? You could be right.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
For Scotland, the secretary of state has powers to state what equipment is lawful / not lawful. In the Deer (Firearms etc) order of 1985
Section 5 says
It shall be lawful to use a sight which is NOT a light-intensifying, heat sensitive or other special sensitive device for night shooting.
This is reinforced in the Best Practice Guides
bestpracticeguides.org.uk
And
bestpracticeguides.org.uk
Both of which state use of night sights, image intensifying and thermal are prohibited.
And anybody who is on the fit and competent register has confirmed that fully understood and will abide by the best practice guides etc. and only those on the fit and competent register would be authorised to carry night shooting activities by Nature Scot (formerly called SNH).
Section 5 says
It shall be lawful to use a sight which is NOT a light-intensifying, heat sensitive or other special sensitive device for night shooting.
This is reinforced in the Best Practice Guides
Home | Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance
bestpracticeguides.org.uk
And
Home | Wild Deer Best Practice Guidance
bestpracticeguides.org.uk
Both of which state use of night sights, image intensifying and thermal are prohibited.
And anybody who is on the fit and competent register has confirmed that fully understood and will abide by the best practice guides etc. and only those on the fit and competent register would be authorised to carry night shooting activities by Nature Scot (formerly called SNH).
foxdropper
Well-Known Member
Soon to change I’ll wager 
How do you account for the thousands of foxes shot at night with NV ?
Why is the finger only pointed a DEER?
@hoodwink
Last edited:
BenBhoy
Well-Known Member
Bearing in mind majority of day/night scopes (pard008 not included) need to have the ir fitted externally. If no ir torch then won't be shooting at night anyway so I don't see problem using one on deer.
Where Hw is off track is you can't tar all of us with the same brush, 90% of my staking is on site 1 1/2 hrs before last light as that fits in with my days. I tie my stalking in with a text to the land owners " Out on x wood 4 till dusk..."
Often I might get a couple of foxes instead which go for testing so having a hot deer or hot fox in the truck is no different..
@hoodwink
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
For Scotland look at the wording. You may use a scope, but not image-intensifying or thermal - it matters not whether its midnight or midday, if its elecronic vision then its prohibited for deer.
It really is very clear in both the secretary of state order and in the Best Practice Guides which are produced by governmen agencies.
Utectok
Well-Known Member
I believe FLS are testing thermal scopes under special licence and the law will be changed soon as the Scottish executive wants all deer dead asap.
They likely won't have to bother.
The Supreme Leader wishes Scotland cleansed of deer. It will not be long before the currently ongoing trials return a positive result and legislation is changed to allow their use...
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