I thought this one was interesting. The deer was shot late in the evening, then it laid up and died overnight, and was subsequently covered in an inch of fresh snow.
It still gave a strong thermal signature the next day.
Thermal for bird pickup?
- Thread starter mikeakc
- Start date
I thought this one was interesting. The deer was shot late in the evening, then it laid up and died overnight, and was subsequently covered in an inch of fresh snow.
It still gave a strong thermal signature the next day.
It started off with looking for pigeons and pheasants in Cornwall now we are in the US looking for lost deer (again) in the snow! you would think the amount of guns they have they could find one to stop it...
Run Luke run.
A lot depends on a lot , blood loss from the cavity etc . I have seen how fast thermals can can stop working when the blood can find a drain hole. Birds where mentioned and that's proper sketchy. high white grass , brambles etc etc Nothing has ever and will ever come even close to a dog and that's why so many nations legislate that a dog and handler needs to be on call within x period. Many experienced stalkers can and should be capable of tracking a way via Paint , pins and slots. Even under thick sitka blocks hands an knees with a head light or torch in their teeth. Been there of course we can find most of our deer but thermal while can be worth a try but cannot replace normal methods' no matter what promotion goes out on U-Tube. To bounce this idea around is imo very likely to give guys who haven't done this a lot false hope.
Sure i have been struggling before now on an odd one or two i have incorrectly marked and have been picked via getting a heat signature but its no place near having a good chance the next day , mostly with a beast that's bled and run into cover your pretty much going to need a dog or a lot of luck . Its more than likely a deer thats bled out and fallen in even medium cover wont give a signal
baguio
Well-Known Member
You really do come out with some stuff. First you claim that the heat signature disappears very quickly after a deer is shot which every man who owns a thermal knows isn’t true. You now claim it depends on blood loss which is also rubbish. A deer is a chunky animal that takes a long time to cool and will not get to ambient for weeks. Sure it won’t stand out like a sore thumb after 24hrs but it will still give off a heat signature. We all know that thermal requires a direct line of sight so all you people stating that it won’t help in thick cover are just insulting everyone’s intelligence. We know that! The OP has never claimed or asked if a thermal would replace or be better than a dog either. Please stop Bowland. I’m left wondering if you have ever used a thermal?
When I had the labs out on the last exercise (poo) of the day I would use the thermal to sweep the area, after they were back in Kennels, picking up any poos which the thermal still showed up to half an hour later.
This also proved very handy in daylight when the ground was covered in brown leaves, poos showed up immediately.
WB
This also proved very handy in daylight when the ground was covered in brown leaves, poos showed up immediately.
WB
StephenToast
Well-Known Member
You are missing one crucial fact. The ambient temperature in Bowland Blades land is 37°C all year round.
Got nothing to do with blood loss from the carcass. The main heat retention is in the muscle masses, and in a deer that takes hours to decay to ambient. There’s a reason forensic investigators use body temperature as a way to determine time of death - it takes time! Carcasses lose between 1 and 2 degrees an hour - look up the Glaister equation, which they use to calculate time since death: (39.6 - current body temp)x6/5.
A deer left in a field will still show clearly in thermal the next morning.
Birds will obviously cool faster, but the issue isn’t heat loss - it’s simply that you need line of sight, and a small bird is easily concealed.
That’s the problem really.
On a golf course you should be able to see geese with a thermal but looking for snipe on a field of maize is another matter.
Not having it based on real first hand experience on how fast the signature has disappeared from downed beasts while culling .
Nothing beats a dog ! Nothing ever will for finding live, dead or injured deer .
baguio
Well-Known Member
That’s odd because in post 43 you claimed “I have seen first hand”. Now you admit that that’s not true. You’re full of something beginning with S!
Eh?
I’ve left deer quite a few times over night (gralloched), and they’ve always shown up clearly in the thermal the next morning.
I’m not arguing that it’s as good as a dog - it isn’t. But to say you can’t pick up a carcass lying in heather or Sitka restock 8 hours later simply isn’t true.
depends , thermal signature is in my experience will fade away fairly fast but then a lot depends on a lot. how much has it bled out of the cavity, where did it fall . a reasonably decedent dog though will make a human with a thermal look daft and it doesn't even need to be pointed in the right place , if the beast rolled into a ditch and laid there overnight an experienced dog would find it . Heck when folks talk of finding shot birds with a thermal !!!
Something you don’t seem to appreciate my friend is that a picking up dog, no matter how good it is, will like us tire during the course of a working day, especially on a commercial shoot and when faced with an impenetrable thicket of bramble 20ft deep it’s good to know that the dog does not have to go in if there’s nothing in there to pick.
Without bullshitting I’ve worked on shoots big, small and massive for the last 40yrs and only just hung up my whistles this year, so I do have a little experience. When thermal spotters arrived they were a game changer, my Pulsar was small, light and just right for the pocket, fetching it out maybe only once or twice during a day to save the dog going into the worst brambles unecessarily.
Willowbank
Polar Lynx
Well-Known Member
Have used thermal as back-up when shooting duck/goose over grass fields a few times. Needs a high seat though to pin point from above. Best with a companion who can be directed. Anyhow, dog is mandatory here for such hunting but things (****) tend to happen ..
With wild boars shot at a hand held terminal can be helpful. Lots of heat profile from a boar and not always they die instantly (lung shots). Also, when seeing a stong white/red profile in the woods (alive ?) it is not recommended to move up too fast.
With wild boars shot at a hand held terminal can be helpful. Lots of heat profile from a boar and not always they die instantly (lung shots). Also, when seeing a stong white/red profile in the woods (alive ?) it is not recommended to move up too fast.
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