Thread: thermal for hunting light shy rabbits and hares ?

g'day fellas,
I do a fair bit of pest control on a couple of local farms mostly consisting of hares, rabbits and the odd possum, feral cat and pigeon.
Most of my pest work is hares and rabbits, and generally I spotlight them from my truck with my 17hmr, now this is a great setup and we do well with it and can take up to 35-40 hares in 4ish hours.
What I have come to notice is that some hares bolt at the first sign of the spot light and some will just try and flatten themselves out.
I generally don't bother chasing the bolters as there are plenty around and I figure I can pick them off when they decide not to be so flighty.
A little while ago I borrowed a pulsar xq38 (I think) thermal for some very light shy rabbits and it was ideal but at over $4k it was a little more than I was willing to commit for just using on rabbits and hares.

What I am getting to in a round about way is....has anyone on here tried some of the cheaper thermals like the Leupold LTO, guide IR501 nano 25mm and Pulsar axion key for this kind of pest control ?
I would still be using the scope mounted maxtoch to light them up and dispatch them once in range, my logic being that it should be easier to get in range without spooking them by long periods scanning with the spotlight and then only light them up long enough to dispatch them.

Are any of these "cheaper" thermals ok for this kind of use ? mostly in paddocks out to maybe 300 yards
some of these units can be had for under $1000 which is certainly do able and I could possibly stretch to the Axion Key if it would do the job.
Please note I have zero intention to use these for finding deer, we can find them easily enough during the day where we hunt, I am only asking in regards to finding hares and rabbits without scanning with my spotlight.
Would be nice to trial a couple of these units for myself, so if you have any of the above mentioned units and would like to come and shoot some hares let me know, or if you have had experience doing this kind of shooting with them I would like to hear your thoughts ?
thanks and hot barrels

Have you tried the red light? The Pard SA has good reviews on the night vision forum UK , well priced
KH

Originally Posted by Kiwi-Hunter

Have you tried the red light? The Pard SA has good reviews on the night vision forum UK , well priced
KH

no, I guess I could try a red filter on my maxtoch.....amazing the things you ponder on night shift

still interested to hear peoples experiences with these entry level thermals

I have played with leopould unit, after using better units it was disappointing. but if you just wanted to be able to find a hare in a paddock before flipping on spotlight it MAY be worth it- I personally went back to red filter (and talked to land owners about educating other hunters about light discipline to avoid training animals to avoid light) as the performance was not ideal.

If there is ever any way to justify buying a good thermal unit for work Ill be doing it.

The Pard 007 unit that attaches to your scope seems to work well from the people I've seen report on it, very popular in the UK.

About 1k max I think.

The Pard SA units look very good, but not necessarily what I would call cheap. Around US $2500, so by the time you have landed it in NZ you would be looking at around $5k

I've been using a Pard NV008 which definitely allows you to get close to rabbits that were previously the bolters when a light hit them. Its high magnification and resulting narrow field of view is not ideal for using in areas that are not wide open. A Pard NV007 which is a clip-on attachment to a regular scope might have been a better option, allowing for a 1-10 power scope to be used with it's resulting wide field of view.

Thermal pulsar monoculars great for finding studs,hot water pipes positions in houses and where the heat is in a house.

I know a couple of guys who use thermal, laser and rifle torch combo. One drives the ute wearing the thermal on a head strap. Ute lights turned off. When driver sees a rabbit he flicks on the thermal's laser pointer so that the shooter knows where it is. Shooter then gets into steady position, often across the bonnet, roughly aims then flicks on the rifle mounted torch. Job done.

Originally Posted by dannyb

no, I guess I could try a red filter on my maxtoch.....amazing the things you ponder on night shift

still interested to hear peoples experiences with these entry level thermals

Those filters make a huge diff - especially on Hare - so I imagine Rabbit be same

Just be aware that you are going to lose a lot of light output with a red filter. If you have some sort of mega light sabre torch, it might be OK, but a red LED torch is better.

Originally Posted by MB

Just be aware that you are going to lose a lot of light output with a red filter. If you have some sort of mega light sabre torch, it might be OK, but a red LED torch is better.

I have a maxtoch 2x it's pretty bright but yeah I imagine it would loose a heap of output.

Originally Posted by dannyb

I have a maxtoch 2x it's pretty bright but yeah I imagine it would loose a heap of output.

Measure up the external on the torch bell, camera lens red filter, length of insulation tape... job done

Works for kiwi spotting, enough grunt to scan area and then drop the level when watching up close. Used the celophane / filter plastic.... it gets a bit warm....

Earlier comments on NV might be a better direction than thermal given the cost limits. They can be dirt cheap these days and solve the "rabbits see the light and bolt" issue, though you don't get the heat signature helping find them like with thermal. It's not a direct answer to the cheap thermal question but it does address the problem.

You've also got the benefit that you can mount a cheap digital IR camera and screen to the back of your scope without needing to resight or have a gun that's limited to night shooting only without resighting with different optics. Digital IR is power hungry but cheap and can run in daylight as well as dark with an IR light source. If you're willing to learn a bit about electronics or modify things you can do a a lot of neat stuff. A lot of the rat shooters go this route - they're on a tight budget so have found cheap options for hunting relatively intelligent quick learning animals.

You can get torches in short wave IR suited for your night vision system, anywhere from 750nm to 950nm that are invisible to rabbits, deer, and us, but light the paddock up like it's day to the IR system.

Used a handheld Seek thermal unit and it was fine for finding rabbits - could even see their droppings from 20-30m away. Downside is that you're walking around in the dark ruining your night vision staring at a bright screen and basically spotlighting yourself. Ended up using my right eye for the thermal unit and scope and left for walking in the dark which isn't ideal, but was also nice being able to ID things without having to point the whole rifle at it to see it through the thermal like you end up having to do with a rifle mounted thermal unit.

For red light the red LED's make a big difference in output like MB says. I started with red tape over a light, then red filters, then eventually just went to red LED when clearing a big farm of rats... went from struggling for enough light to being well lit. The really bright red LED does seem to at least be a bit noticed, but seems like it's more confusing than actually noticed, so as long as you don't get them used to the idea that the odd almost visible light means humans, you're fine. In that case, switching to NIR doesn't give them any hints about what's going on.

anyone specifically had any experience with the guide IR510 nano n2 25mm ?
seems to have slightly better specs than the axion key xm30 like a bigger higher definition viewing screen and a few extra features like wifi streaming for pics and videos etc
The down side to me at least seems to be that it only has an internal battery so you are limited to the run time of that battery where as the pulsar you can buy extra batteries and just swap them out......granted 5 hours is a long time staring down the thermal so possibly not an issue

Originally Posted by dannyb

anyone specifically had any experience with the guide IR510 nano n2 25mm ?

Since no one else has replied, I ended up buying the Guide IR510x 25mm from Marine Deals for a pretty good price. Happy with performance.