Thread: Thermalling deer

1justin, you seem to be of the impression that you eyes cannot lie to you but an electronically generated image can. Unfortunately you are far from correct. Perhaps you should do some reading on how your brain interprets the images detected by your eyes.

It is very common for your brain to "fill in" parts of the picture with what it expects to see based on past experience, so what you think you are seeing is not necessarily what is there. I work in an industry where this phenomenon has unfortunately killed a lot of people over the years.

You cannot shoot through the Pulsar XQ50 - it is a handheld monocular device, and not rifle mounted. At some stage you need to put it down, locate and identify your target and then shoot it with your rifle.

I doubt you could ever be 100% certain there is not someone in the bush behind the animal you are shooting at without walking over and taking a look, but this is not how the majority of hunters get shot. Predominantly they are shot by another member of their own party after having separated during a hunt. For this reason my son and I NEVER separate, and we only carry one rifle between us.

Despite how topical it seems to be, I have never heard of anyone being shot by mis-identification through a thermal imager. The same cannot be said for mis-identification via your supposedly infallible eyesight.

Yes your right sauer humans do have a big problem with our brain inpereting images and seeing things ect but thats what we have and we have chosen to still let people shoot rifles on public land with these limatations,

Im just talkimg about thermal and making refrences to human sight to ilastrate times when it could be dangrous not trying to say that human sight is perfect and safe far from it as you point out

257 weatherby

You obvoaly didnt read all the posts...
Nor did you state what gear you have and if it is better than the q50

I have a flir 320x240

Then someone refrenced there pulsar q50 to say its a very clear image so i looked on you tube to see its still not nearly at a level of detail where i would feel safe that nothing can be hiding in the background nor does a thermal of any quilty solve the problem, things of the same tempreture in the background can still hide in plain sight but congradulations on taking an uninformed dig and makeing a comment that did not add any point to the conversation

Originally Posted by 1justin

Then someone refrenced there pulsar q50 to say its a very clear image so i looked on you tube to see its still not nearly at a level of detail where i would feel safe that nothing can be hiding in the background nor does a thermal of any quilty solve the problem, things of the same tempreture in the background can still hide in plain sight but congradulations on taking an uninformed dig and makeing a comment that did not add any point to the conversation

I have a pulsar HD-38.

It has sufficient levels of detail that I can identify deer at a 600 yards. It also has sufficient levels of detail that I can distinguish deer from sheep at 600 yards.

Due to the gradients of temperature, things which are further away than the object of interest, but at the same temperature as the object of interest, will appear dimmer in brightness.

I think thermal optics should be viewed as a companion to binoculars for animal location, but not as a standalone implement for animal location and identification.

To clarify for people, I do not have experience with any systems which mount directly to a firearm and act as a sighting system. Nor do I have any interest in these systems.

1justin

I do believe it was me that said I had a clear image of a hind walking back to the bush that was raising her head and looking around.

I must apologise for my petulance, I don't know what came over me to make such an uninformed comment and not add any point to the conversation.

After all, I have only taken the Pulsar XQ50 out hunting and used it to observe real animals under hunting conditions.

You on the other hand have obviously done extensive research, having watched a few low quality videos on YouTube. I must admit that as a result of your research you are much better placed to comment on the units' capabilities than I am, and I will therefore try to refrain from making any further pointless, uninformed comments.

You do seem to be somewhat missing the point though, that a thermal imager is only an aid to locate an animal, and does not play any part in the act of shooting. From time to time I locate animals with my binoculars, but I have never shot one with my binos.

[QUOTE=Daggers_187;524715]I have a pulsar HD-38.

Hey Daggers_187 I'm looking at getting one of those how do you find it in the bush?
Cheers S

[QUOTE=Sideshow;524898]

Originally Posted by Daggers_187

I have a pulsar HD-38.

Hey Daggers_187 I'm looking at getting one of those how do you find it in the bush?
Cheers S

Shit! don't get one of them! they shoot people when you aren't looking............ Putting mine on a leash just in case

Originally Posted by 1justin

Yes your right sauer humans do have a big problem with our brain inpereting images and seeing things ect but thats what we have and we have chosen to still let people shoot rifles on public land with these limatations,

Im just talkimg about thermal and making refrences to human sight to ilastrate times when it could be dangrous not trying to say that human sight is perfect and safe far from it as you point out

257 weatherby

You obvoaly didnt read all the posts...
Nor did you state what gear you have and if it is better than the q50

I have a flir 320x240

Then someone refrenced there pulsar q50 to say its a very clear image so i looked on you tube to see its still not nearly at a level of detail where i would feel safe that nothing can be hiding in the background nor does a thermal of any quilty solve the problem, things of the same tempreture in the background can still hide in plain sight but congradulations on taking an uninformed dig and makeing a comment that did not add any point to the conversation

You have a flir........ hahahahahahahahah choke, gasp, hahahahaha! there's your problem right there!

[QUOTE=Sideshow;524898]

Originally Posted by Daggers_187

I have a pulsar HD-38.

Hey Daggers_187 I'm looking at getting one of those how do you find it in the bush?
Cheers S

I would highly recommend you give one a burn before you buy. Because they take abit of actual skill to use properly in the bush. It's hard to describe. But yes, very useful. But far more useful for scanning faces and slips.

Lol sorry saum that comment was to 257 weatherby should have used the quote function properly

Yea your right again saum an imager has never shot someone and the question of the thread is "hpw long before someone gets shot with one" so there talking about thermal scopes not imagers in the question,(well least thats what i assumed) im very pro people useing minoculars and have one myself, and as i have posted before i think thermal scopes break the identify ur target/ firezone rule, my point about quilty and resolution is that by the time we get up to around 1080p quility would be so hard for something to be missed in the background that it would probly comply with indemtify your fireing zone, and think i have said before as well that imagwrs when used in combanation increase safty.

I only refrence imagers cause they work by the same means as the scope and lots of people have them if this thread was just for people with scopes and not imagers to comment would be a short list of people commenting,

At the end of the day, whether you use eyes, bino's scope thermal or IR , or whatever the next great thing is, it still comes down to a shooter using the information that he has at hand to decide if he has identified a target beyond all doubt before he fires a shot. The wrong decision will be made sometime no matter how much people use. Hopefully it becomes rarer and occurs far less often (hopefully never) but due to people being human, thought processes and decisions are made and I believe it will never truly go away.

In saying that, anything that adds more information to people trying to make that call can only help. It is no longer about fair chase and probably has not been truly "fair chase" since man invented the bow and arrow or arguably the spear. It is about safety for you as a hunter and those around you in the environment.

I had the opportunity to look through some of Yukon Pulsar gear about 6 months ago. We scanned a paddock with a powerful torch looking for rabbits and stock just to see how many we could see. We then scanned the same paddock with a Thermal scope as well as an infra red one. The thermal showed us that we were seeing less than half the rabbits that were in the paddock, highlighted stock that we missed with the torch and the infrared gave a similar but different perspective of the same information. All the additional animals were within the same range as the torch and were not further away. Definition was impressive and details could be made out as easily as a black and white TV as a comparison. If looking at a black and TV you can tell the difference between people and animals very easily as it is more than just shapes.While the definition was not as clear as a photo, it was certainly clear enough to tell the difference between rabbits and a stoat, or cat, sheep, dogs, person and deer. And I can only see this technology getting better.

Daggers you are quite right in saying they take quite a bit of skill to use properly, and I certainly don't have it with the short amount of time I have spent using it thus far. In fact the problems I have had old probably give a few a bit of a chuckle.

The first night I was away hunting I spent a bit of time in the dark watching a hare near the hut, trying to learn to use it a bit better, but mustn't have switched it off properly because the next morning I started scanning the opposite river bank before we crossed (again in the dark) and I noticed a small symbol flashing on the screen - turned out to be the low battery warning, and the unit went dead.

Didn't want to muck around in the dark trying to change batteries, so put it away in my day pack, crossed the river and as it got light we watched four hinds we had spooked disappear off into the bush.

Next morning with new batteries, I again scanned across the river, saw nothing but was having a bit of trouble focusing the unit, crossed the river, and watched probably the same four hinds again disappear off into the bush.

Back at the hut later in the day I had a good look to see why I couldn't focus properly to find the whole lens mechanism had come loose, so instead of turning the focusing ring I was unscrewing the whole lens.

As I have said before on this thread, I found it was set a bit bright and looking through it spoiled my night vision - for probably 30 seconds or so after looking through it all I could see with my right eye was a bright spot, and couldn't have shot anything anyway. Playing with the settings will fix this.

It is a learning curve and it will take time to become proficient with it, but we only got it for a bit of fun and to see what we had previously been missing.

Originally Posted by Sauer

Daggers you are quite right in saying they take quite a bit of skill to use properly, and I certainly don't have it with the short amount of time I have spent using it thus far. In fact the problems I have had old probably give a few a bit of a chuckle.

The first night I was away hunting I spent a bit of time in the dark watching a hare near the hut, trying to learn to use it a bit better, but mustn't have switched it off properly because the next morning I started scanning the opposite river bank before we crossed (again in the dark) and I noticed a small symbol flashing on the screen - turned out to be the low battery warning, and the unit went dead.

Didn't want to muck around in the dark trying to change batteries, so put it away in my day pack, crossed the river and as it got light we watched four hinds we had spooked disappear off into the bush.

Next morning with new batteries, I again scanned across the river, saw nothing but was having a bit of trouble focusing the unit, crossed the river, and watched probably the same four hinds again disappear off into the bush.

Back at the hut later in the day I had a good look to see why I couldn't focus properly to find the whole lens mechanism had come loose, so instead of turning the focusing ring I was unscrewing the whole lens.

As I have said before on this thread, I found it was set a bit bright and looking through it spoiled my night vision - for probably 30 seconds or so after looking through it all I could see with my right eye was a bright spot, and couldn't have shot anything anyway. Playing with the settings will fix this.

It is a learning curve and it will take time to become proficient with it, but we only got it for a bit of fun and to see what we had previously been missing.

Ok I'll use my left eye and won't screw the lens

Night vision for meat hunting, vari-power scope for head hunting
Used the xd50 (I think that's what it was) we didn't have it rifle mounted, used it to find animals, sneak up under moonlight to under 100 and turn the sun on, was quite effective - private land of coarse


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Heard of a bloke who was given a very tidy sum from his sister overseas who is married into wealth. Bought some thermal binos and is nailing quite a few with a suppressed Sako Quad.His girlfriend is super upset about being the driver at night but the threat of no holiday to Singapore obtained compliance.

Originally Posted by TeRei

Heard of a bloke who was given a very tidy sum from his sister overseas who is married into wealth. Bought some thermal binos and is nailing quite a few with a suppressed Sako Quad.His girlfriend is super upset about being the driver at night but the threat of no holiday to Singapore obtained compliance.

Why am I not that guy?

Sent from my SM-G800Y using Tapatalk