Flew a thermal drone at my place today.
- Thread starter Howboutthemdawgs
- Start date
hillrunner
5 year old buck +
These things scare the crap out of me not only for the future of hunting but privacy in general.
I bought a dgi drone around 2015. It was fun to take up a few times to get some cool pics but that's about all it did. It would have been way too noisy to use for any hunting purpose and the camera had no zoom. You weren't going to sneak up on anyone with that thing. At that time I thought people were getting worked up about nothing when i heard people complain about there potential misuse.
Then, last year, I stumbled onto drone deer recovery and my eyes were opened to how far the technology had come. There's no hiding from that thing, day or night.
I guess at some point we'll all probably have access to real time satellite images and drones will become a thing of the past. We'll all just sit on the couch looking for the deer/duck/elk etc. that we want to shoot and go ambush it when the time is right. sigh..... sometimes I think I was born a century too late.
I bought a dgi drone around 2015. It was fun to take up a few times to get some cool pics but that's about all it did. It would have been way too noisy to use for any hunting purpose and the camera had no zoom. You weren't going to sneak up on anyone with that thing. At that time I thought people were getting worked up about nothing when i heard people complain about there potential misuse.
Then, last year, I stumbled onto drone deer recovery and my eyes were opened to how far the technology had come. There's no hiding from that thing, day or night.
I guess at some point we'll all probably have access to real time satellite images and drones will become a thing of the past. We'll all just sit on the couch looking for the deer/duck/elk etc. that we want to shoot and go ambush it when the time is right. sigh..... sometimes I think I was born a century too late.
We already have the technology to kill every animal on the place. Between texting cameras and thermal, the hogs and coons exist in a fraction of the numbers they once did on my land. The deer would be easier to kill than the hogs. We have a million deer in my state and about 1.8 million deer tags - plus kids, senior citizens, and lifetime license holders. We could probably legally kill 3 million deer in this state. The reason we have numbers of deer is because many of us hunters allow them to be there - even cultivate them
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Poorly. Everything blocks IR waves. You need a direct line of sight to your target in order to see it. Up North, you can expect to be able to use such a drone effectively on forested land from approximately late October to early May, which is exactly the period I'm interested in. I would like to see what's going on in September, though.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
And if you found a nice buck, I imagine you could use the drone to chase it over to you. We definitely need some updates to the regulations.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Drones are not inherently bad for wildlife management. They probably have more beneficial applications than detrimental applications.
The difference between a drone and a trail camera is drones fly around, while a trail camera is stuck to a tree.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
No reason not to get ahead of it. If you want to see what a hundred dollar drone and a little ingenuity look like, google drone grenade drops in Ukraine. Drones are now terrorizing battlefields. No one can hide day or night.
Obviously two different circumstances, but personal drones are already being used in ways we never dreamed of 5-10 years ago.
I don’t think the concern is drones will wipe out deer. It’s the individual nefarious act that could affect any one of us if an individual decides too. And right now 95% of those acts are legal. Not to mention the insane lack of privacy.
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Telemark
5 year old buck +
I think the simple answer is to enact immediate legislation that says anything below X number of feet above a property is the privacy boundary. I don't know what that number is, but it should be comparable to whatever resolution a satellite image gives. I would say at least 300 feet. And part of the bill should allow people to shoot down drones over their property that are under 150 feet.
Jerry-B-WI
5 year old buck +
In Wisconsin there are laws against harassing hunters. I'd agree with shooting the drones down, but how do I determine what height they are flying at?
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
I disagree some. If there is one piece of deer showing through leaves it will light up like a Christmas tree. Human eyes would never like that up. But thermal would. Then you rotate drone around to find view in. So while not Xray vision. It’s close.
I took these the other day. Thick thick cover. You could not see deer. At all.
Thermal I could identify the antlers and what deer it is.
I’ve been running thermal a while. It’s movie like good these days.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
You’ll go to prison for shooting a drone down. Don’t do it.
No different than shooting up someone’s car. And there are special laws to prosecute shooting at flying planes.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
Agree. How lots of farmers protect crops and livestock. Locate and kill predators. Prob best use is to catch and prosecute poachers.
This is similar to guns. People that buy guns legally are who you want to have them. Good people that train and don’t commit crimes.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
The FAA needs to step in and make violations federal. Additionally states need to makes it trespassing below a certain altitude. Wouldn’t stop the ability to view a neighbors property but maybe it’s a start.
if a person was willing to engage in a nefarious act - there are already adequate ways to kill every buck on your place - even legal acts, like you indicated how easy it would be to kill all your big bucks over a feeder in daylight. We have had almost this same discussion in the past year with texting cameras and they have been around for years and many of us have more big bucks than we ever had.
I do especially agree with the potential for privacy invasion or the potential for harassing wildlife on your neighbor’s place. The problem is going to be coming up with meaningful, enforceable restrictions. A law which prohibits hunting on the same day as flying a drone is not enforceable. I have 15 adjacent landowners - it would be a chore to figure out which one was flying - although, other than the cattlemen, I cant see any of the neighbors owning a personal thermal drone (or any drone) - even if they were way less expensive. The drone regulators are going to have a job coming up with meaningful - and enforceable - regulations.
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Range finder?
Telemark
5 year old buck +
Fair enough. I guess it would depend on your terrain and tree species. Where I hunt there are exposed rocks that play havoc with the gradient. They get surprisingly warm and stay warm into the night, even in winter. In summer it's very difficult to tell a deer from a warm stone if it's not moving. Everything just looks like colored blobs through the trees.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
That’s def true. We noticed that alot. However, you then switch to visible light camera and identify. There is a spotlight so camera works just as well at night. Maybe a little slower but rocks and deer always get sorted out with these modern drones.
He stays about 5 hours doing survey. He covers every square inch and every deer on the property. The kinks have been worked out gentleman. They find every deer on your property.
I know it depends on a lot of variables - but I I wonder what percentage those deer found with a drone make up of the total deer that use your property. My camera survey showed 73 different deer over a ten day period were on my 350 acres. Would really be interesting to see what a thermal drone would find on my property at any given time -33%, 50%, 75% - I am sure it would vary a lot. Might have to get a drone out just for heck of it.
omicron1792
5 year old buck +
Same thoughts exactly. I think a lot of deer I think of as “my own” sleep somewhere else. And vice versa.
This year I saw a ton of bucks while hunting that I never saw on camera. And I run a ton of cameras. The big boy I got I had seen on camera two years ago one time at end of rut. So I was convinced he was a guest. But I harvested him on a totally different part of the property not during rut. Makes me think he was just hiding out.
You and I probably have pretty similar places besides the water. My bucks hang out in the woods not fields. They are just hard to know where they are. I would want the drone to help me find buck bedding areas, or at least what direction they come from for feeding.
