Thread: Thermal handhelds - how far can you really spot an animal?

Originally Posted by scottrods

For any thermal users out there, how far away can you really see an animal?

Could you advise of what model you are using, and how far away can you tell its a deer and not a warm rock?

Building up the coin towards buying a handheld.
The idea is to be able to know if I'm going to elminating sitting and watching a bit of barren hillside with the binos, or there are animals way over there on the next valley and its worth tramping round to use the binos.
And I shoot a place in Southland that has thick bush hiding four-legged pests, so need to know if they are there or not when we glass to last light.

Thanks

I use a relatively inexpensive thermal. A HIK Micro Lynx Pro 25mm Lens. It will locate animals over a Kilometer away easy. However the further away the animal the harder its to identify. Experience eventually helps you figure out what the signal is likely to be. For example there is no mistaking cattle they show up as a bloody great hot blob. I reckon that inside of about 600m I could tell you whether the signal was a deer or a sheep, or a hot rock. Some of this has to do with how the animal moves and the general shape of the signal, for example deer have longer necks and legs. Where I hunt there are quite a number of sheep and cattle present and these days I don't get fooled by a false signal too often. The other biggie which you have touched on is false signals from rocks etc, This can be difficult in summer months particularly at and just after sunset. Tree stumps, bare patches of ground and even Toitoi bushes will put off a real glow. You can't do anything about this except wait a while until things cool down. In these situations there can end up being so many false signals it is hard to find deer, the only tell tale is that Rocks and stump don't tend to walk around . Even in daylight if the area you are scanning has not been warmed up too much by sunlight the thermal is way ahead of the Bino's. I only grab them out if there are too many false signals. Its an interesting learning curve but without doubt the thermal is a very efficient way to find game, I doubt you would be disappointing.