Originally Posted by
Shearer
One of the very first times I took a thermal monocular out in the field it was a cool but sunny day in early winter. I got to the top of a spur that overlooked a gully and sat down and began glassing (binoculars). I spent about 15 minutes carefully scanning the gullies below me which were largely broken scrub with a bit of heavier bush near the creeks. I didn't locate anything and then remembered I had the thermal so got it out of my pack and started to scan with that. Within about 30 seconds I had picked up 2 pairs of goats and another lone goat, all in different locations below me. I then picked up the binos again and spent the next 10 (at least) minutes trying to find them again! Two were particularly hard to spot. Black and brown goats in amongst dead bracken at about 250m. Clearly visible in the thermal but near invisible through the 10x binos. I watched the 3 groups for a while (not really being interested in shooting any of them) and then picked up the thermal again. I immediately spotted a black pig in the fern below me. I could tell without doubt it was a pig but again had real trouble finding it in the binos. It looked like a good size so I crept down and got into a shooting position about 150m from where I had last seen it. When it appeared in the scope I was surprised and disappointed at how small it was. It did look a lot bigger in the thermal. Deciding not to shoot it I made my way back up and carried on further along the ridge. Once I had reach the next high point I looked back with the binos and saw 2 pigs, one much bigger than the other, disappearing into the bush. The larger one, the one I had originally seen in the thermal I suspect. This was the first time I had used a thermal in the field and I was impressed. I don't consider myself too shit at spotting game with binoculars but I don't think I would have seen any of these animals without the thermal. This was about a year ago and since then it has proved very effective at locating game quickly everywhere from chamois on the tops to deer in the bush. You can scan kms of country in seconds where using binos would take you half an hour. I can look and area over and then decide if I want to access what I have just spotted there.
I have only ever used it at night on rabbits although I have seen a lot of deer through it at night.
They have there limitations and do take a bit of "reading" but if you have a good quality one it's not hard. If you think it makes it too easy you obviously don't need one and if you have any ethical issues with them then that's up to you. Nobody is going to make you use one but I won't be getting rid of mine any time soon.