Thread: Thermalling deer

In all honesty, Only a matter of time

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Recent? Pretty sure the permit conditions have said "no hunting during the hours of darkness" for at least the last decade or so.

Or more even....

Interesting to know what the official "hours of darkness" are..

Maybe half an hour before sunrise & half an hour after sunset ????

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

Or more even....

Interesting to know what the official "hours of darkness" are..

Maybe half an hour before sunrise & half an hour after sunset ????

Which would make the best hunting times illegal in the south in summer.

Originally Posted by GravelBen

Recent? Pretty sure the permit conditions have said "no hunting during the hours of darkness" for at least the last decade or so.

Or are you talking about using thermal gear in daylight?

Glad you edited your post, because I was referring to the recent (last 12 months) addition:

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

Interesting to know what the official "hours of darkness" are..

Maybe half an hour before sunrise & half an hour after sunset ????

That's the definition of daylight, not darkness, so darkness would be from half hour after sunset until half hour before sunrise. Same thing, worded differently.

Originally Posted by stretch

Glad you edited your post, because I was referring to the recent (last 12 months) addition:

Attachment 50731

So still no change really.

whats ya point @stretch ? Thermal is used extensively during the day, no issue at all using it on DOC land.

Its illegal to hunt doc land at night thermal or no thermal

Originally Posted by stretch

That's the definition of daylight, not darkness, so darkness would be from half hour after sunset until half hour before sunrise. Same thing, worded differently.

You can get 2 hours of twilight easy in the south in summer so I think it is one of those just use your commonsense dark is dark rules or plenty of hunters would be getting charged for hunting dusk and dawn.

Up until late last year, I was knocking round with a guy who was getting into rabbit pest control. He bought a xd50 thermal scope. Started out on his ar15, then onto the 22mag.
It was a bit of an arse to sight in, but a very effective tool.
He started using it on deer in doc land at night which was when we parted company.
Personally, I think if you need one for deer, you are defeating the whole ethos of hunting wild game, and are probably not much of a hunter.
But that's just my thoughts

Originally Posted by Pointer

Where's yours smart-ass? o

To be fair my recent LR + bino purchase cost more

Originally Posted by PerazziSC3

whats ya point @stretch ? Thermal is used extensively during the day, no issue at all using it on DOC land.

Its illegal to hunt doc land at night thermal or no thermal

Ok, I've misunderstood something somewhere. I wrongly assumed TI devices were as sensitive to daylight as NVG gear is, but that's not the case. Happy to admit when I'm wrong. Daytime use is totally valid, and any night hunting on DOC land is illegal, regardless of TI/NVG status.

DOC did make an addition to their permit conditions regarding imaging devices. Here's one from 2014 that I dug out, which makes no mention of TI.

Originally Posted by kidmac42

Up until late last year, I was knocking round with a guy who was getting into rabbit pest control. He bought a xd50 thermal scope. Started out on his ar15, then onto the 22mag.
It was a bit of an arse to sight in, but a very effective tool.
He started using it on deer in doc land at night which was when we parted company.
Personally, I think if you need one for deer, you are defeating the whole ethos of hunting wild game, and are probably not much of a hunter.
But that's just my thoughts

You could use the same argument for using a gun over a knife when hunting wild game.

Originally Posted by stretch

I wrongly assumed TI devices were as sensitive to daylight as NVG gear is, but that's not the case.


Attachment 50733

Hence why everyone is selling NVG and going thermal

Yes, you could. Come down to our own ethics I guess.

Originally Posted by Savage1

You could use the same argument for using a gun over a knife when hunting wild game.

Or helicopters, or drones.