Thread: Thermal for daytime

Hi. Looking at getting a thermal monocular for spotting animals in the scrub, (briar/matagouri etc) more for daytime than night hunting. Any advice or experience in this area appreciated...... Cheers

Welcome to the forum.

Originally Posted by The_bbb

Hi. Looking at getting a thermal monocular for spotting animals in the scrub, (briar/matagouri etc) more for daytime than night hunting. Any advice or experience in this area appreciated...... Cheers

It's a solution that will only be helpful in early morning etc. Once the sun hits the face, you will struggle to notice them in the brush.

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What’s the world coming too ….. how about binoculars?

If looking in briar/matagouri then the multitude of rocks in that terrain will bugger up your ability to spot animals during the daytime with thermal. Sometimes not but most of the time yes the rocks will be a similar temp to animals. Those $$ will be better spent on some quality binos.

Thermal cannot "see through" stuff like people talk about. But can, in the right conditions, give your the ability to see a significant difference in temperature. They will help you in the right conditions, but might be better to dump the money into good glass binos or even a spotter if the distance is significant

I'm a central South Island pest control contractor and spent a few nights per week behind Thermal scopes and monoculars.

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And it will take a lot of time using a thermal on real targets before you get an eye for hot spots during daytime unless it is very cold and shady

probably going to work all day in the middle of winter after a cold spell esp with snow or frozen ground but not on normal days where frost lifts and sun shines

Forget about a thermal in summer round cental mate

Originally Posted by Nathan F

What’s the world coming too ….. how about binoculars?

Naaah, well beyond that....
An some of the Justifications make you wonder if He/She is getting out of bed on their own let alone dressing His/her self also...

Majority of large Aussie Sambar are day time thermalled now days....

Hard to Compete with egos and instafame..

Ive noticed NZ magazines promoting an advertising more budget brands which are accessible to the average punter on Kiwi wages... whereas the aussie are top brand Pulsar etc.
So no doubt alot are being used on DoC land for ...Cue the excuses here

I have some mates in the North Island hunting sika and they spy them with a thermal during daylight hours, unsure if they are doing this mid day on a hot day, but can’t see them with binoculars even though it’s openish glassing terrain, they reckon the body heat signatures are clear enough to make out animals during the day. It’s a necessity thing though, if it’s a pressured area and the animals aren’t out feeding comfortably in daylight hours then a thermal will help you spot where they are at

Originally Posted by Jus

I have some mates in the North Island hunting sika and they spy them with a thermal during daylight hours, unsure if they are doing this mid day on a hot day, but can’t see them with binoculars even though it’s openish glassing terrain, they reckon the body heat signatures are clear enough to make out animals during the day. It’s a necessity thing though, if it’s a pressured area and the animals aren’t out feeding comfortably in daylight hours then a thermal will help you spot where they are at

We see deer in steep scrub country if the sun hasn't been on the face...and clearly identify deer that are 100% invisible to binoculars. I reckon they take some of the fun out of the hunting but we get deer we wouldn't have otherwise with the tiny clearing we hunt.

Originally Posted by Padox

Forget about a thermal in summer round cental mate

As said above and never accidently point into the sun.Spent a k on some binoes.

Originally Posted by Trout

As said above and never accidently point into the sun.Spent a k on some binoes.

Trust me I own themals

@The_bbb if you pop across to the 'Introductions' thread and introduce yourself people seem to be a little friendlier on here.

Most questions get met with people voicing there morals on the subject(sometime very strongly) and you will get helpful answers too. This has been asked before so have a look at this https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....hermals-72529/

I don't have a thermal but if I could justify the cost I would definitely buy one. I have looked through one during a sunny day and many things could be mistaken for an animal as the sun has heated them up, in some cases this is even a problem in the early evening. What I did notice using a thermal on a sunny day is I could see my mates dog as a bright heat signature moving through the bush.
On a early-ish morning hunt on a cloudy day where we had two groups looking at one dense bush face, one with a thermal one without. The thermal crew spotted 4 deer using the thermal and the other saw nothing. Rocks were seen using the thermal and discounted when confirmed using the binoculars. Based on that if you don't get out hunting often it seems like a really good tool to help spot animals.