FLIR OTM

yoderjac

5 year old buck +
Quite a few years ago, shortly after they came out I got a FLIR Scout PS32. It has been a Godsend for deer recovery. I also use it at the end of the day during archery season to make sure there are no deer around that I could spook before climbing down from my stand. The other application I use it for is out of season night time surveys. Same function as a spotlight survey for QDM purposes. It works great for my purposes, It is only 320x180 resolution. Technology has come a long way since then. I decided to order a FLIR Scion OTM that is 640x480 resolution. I'm not sure if it will help much when it comes to deer recovery. Either you see a hot spot and go investigate it or you don't. It does have some more features. My old scout PS32 did have analog video out. They did not sell a shoe for it, but I crafted one myself and ran it into a video camera for recording during surveys.

The scion OTM has onboard recording and stills to an SD card. It also has geotagging for still pics. I think this and the resolution will shine for surveys. It also has a better refresh rate.

When it comes in and I get a chance to use it, I'll post back here.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Do you see antlers in pretty good with that. I can see antlers in velvet great through my thermal scope. Cant hardly see them when they are hard bone
 
Do you see antlers in pretty good with that. I can see antlers in velvet great through my thermal scope. Cant hardly see them when they are hard bone
Same here with the older Scout PS32. Since antlers don't really produce heat outside velvet, you would not see much. There may be some conduction from the skull or they may heat up in the sun and retain it for a while. I'm not really expecting improvement in that area with the new OTM. I don't use it to hunt, and for surveys I can do summer time when they are in velvet. I'm expecting better results with the higher resolution OTM when they are in velvet. I don't really use it for hunting like one would a thermal scope, but that would be for hunting coyotes and such, not deer.
 
Yes sir - was wondering about using it for deer surveys
 
I have an older Flir TG165 that I want to try out since it's really compact. The Flir E6 works fine though.
 
I have an older Flir TG165 that I want to try out since it's really compact. The Flir E6 works fine though.
Ya, I think those are designed for other applications. I'm not sure how well they would work for deer recovery or surveys. They sure are a lot less expensive.
 
It was supposed to be shipped 2 days ago, but I just found out it is on backorder and will be 4-8 weeks!
 
It was supposed to be shipped 2 days ago, but I just found out it is on backorder and will be 4-8 weeks!
I just got the pulsar heliom xp50pro monocular. It is an awesome unit and I’ll always have it with me in the stand.
 
I went back to FLIR cause they were the only option when I got my first one. Sounds like there may be some competitors. Tell us about and how you like the pulsar helion...
 
I am not too familiar with these, but have always been curious how they work for what you describe. How well do they see through vegetative cover like if a deer went down in a catttail swamp? Also, are there restrictions from a hunting standpoint and using them? I would expect that is the case, but curious what others experience is with these.
 
I am not too familiar with these, but have always been curious how they work for what you describe. How well do they see through vegetative cover like if a deer went down in a catttail swamp? Also, are there restrictions from a hunting standpoint and using them? I would expect that is the case, but curious what others experience is with these.

I can speak to how they work. They have detectors that are heat sensitive. This information is then transferred to a visual image and shown on a screen. They don't look "through" anything. If you watch any of the cop shows that show video of imaging at night from a helicopter, you can get a feel for how the images look. You'll see when the suspect runs under trees and stuff he can't be seen with heavy leaf cover until the helicopter moves to a different angle. If the leaf cover is light, you can see smaller hot spots through gaps in the leaves.

As for regulations, that would be state by state. I don't use my FLIR for hunting itself, but I do use it for deer recovery and surveys. I don't know of any specific regulation in my state prohibiting it, it is just a personal choice I make.

Essentially, you need line of sight between the unit and the heat source you are looking for. The way I use it for recovery is to walks a few yards and look around. If I see nothing that stands out, I repeat. This gives me different angles. When I see a hot spot, I'll move a bit while looking in that direction, again to get different angles.

Hope tis helps,

Jack
 
I can speak to how they work. They have detectors that are heat sensitive. This information is then transferred to a visual image and shown on a screen. They don't look "through" anything. If you watch any of the cop shows that show video of imaging at night from a helicopter, you can get a feel for how the images look. You'll see when the suspect runs under trees and stuff he can't be seen with heavy leaf cover until the helicopter moves to a different angle. If the leaf cover is light, you can see smaller hot spots through gaps in the leaves.

As for regulations, that would be state by state. I don't use my FLIR for hunting itself, but I do use it for deer recovery and surveys. I don't know of any specific regulation in my state prohibiting it, it is just a personal choice I make.

Essentially, you need line of sight between the unit and the heat source you are looking for. The way I use it for recovery is to walks a few yards and look around. If I see nothing that stands out, I repeat. This gives me different angles. When I see a hot spot, I'll move a bit while looking in that direction, again to get different angles.

Hope tis helps,

Jack
Thanks Jack, that is helpful info. That is a key distinction in that they do not look through anything. For some reason I had assumed there was some minimal capability to sense heat even through cover, but sounds like line of sight is key. I can see where this would be a handy tool to use, in the right type of landscape, for what you describe.
 
Thanks Jack, that is helpful info. That is a key distinction in that they do not look through anything. For some reason I had assumed there was some minimal capability to sense heat even through cover, but sounds like line of sight is key. I can see where this would be a handy tool to use, in the right type of landscape, for what you describe.

Sometime folks talk about seeing "through" cover. A better description would be to see things largely occluded by cover. If you look optically at a deer in cover small pieces of the deer would not stand out. You would just perceive a scene of cover. When you look at it with a FLIR in what I described as threshold mode, you would see the cover in varying grey shades. The small parts of the deer would show up as bright white spots, or in threshold mode in red. It may not be identifiable as a deer at all, but it is more than enough to get your attention to investigate what otherwise you would ignore. The density of the cover matters. That is why I move through cover a little, look around , and move a little more and repeat.

If I had cover like tall native warm season grasses or stuff like that, I might consider flying one of then in an octocopter looking down. Cover density is much less looking down. I don't really have that kind of cover. For me it is mostly pine trees with significant undergrowth.

Thanks,

Jack
 
Sometime folks talk about seeing "through" cover. A better description would be to see things largely occluded by cover. If you look optically at a deer in cover small pieces of the deer would not stand out. You would just perceive a scene of cover. When you look at it with a FLIR in what I described as threshold mode, you would see the cover in varying grey shades. The small parts of the deer would show up as bright white spots, or in threshold mode in red. It may not be identifiable as a deer at all, but it is more than enough to get your attention to investigate what otherwise you would ignore. The density of the cover matters. That is why I move through cover a little, look around , and move a little more and repeat.

If I had cover like tall native warm season grasses or stuff like that, I might consider flying one of then in an octocopter looking down. Cover density is much less looking down. I don't really have that kind of cover. For me it is mostly pine trees with significant undergrowth.

Thanks,

Jack
Good to know, thanks Jack.
 
Helion 2 xp50pro an awesome unit so far. Great clarity out 500 yards. Easy to use interface. And the Wi-Fi stream to an iPad is awesome.

I got an older pulsar core rxq30v rifle mount dirt cheap from a buddy. It’s like looking through Vaseline lens compared to the new monocular. Still gets job done though.
 
What else do you use it for? Is it worth he investment? i wonder if it would make sense to get a thermal scope that could be used on and off a rifle?
 
Like Yoder said this is some amazing tech and very useful if ya want it to be.

Here's a short video I took with my phone through a monocular. It's grainy as such but the view through the scope itself nice.

 
What else do you use it for? Is it worth he investment? i wonder if it would make sense to get a thermal scope that could be used on and off a rifle?
I don't hunt coyote and we don't have pigs here (yet), so a thermal scope wouldn't buy me anything. Keep in mind that many "night scopes" are not the same level of technology.
 
It’s a tough call. Depends on your needs. Best option is to get a handheld and rifle mount. If you can only have one then it’s a handheld if for scanning deer and locating and tracking shot deer. If mainly for hog and coyote killing then rifle mount. They do make some that can be mounted and handheld but I haven’t heard many good things about them.
 
I used thermal and night vision for about 10 years when I had a hog hunting business. Best thing to know with these is you definitely get what you pay for. Imo, they are truly buy once ; cry once.

You will be severely disappointed if you buy the cheap stuff.
 
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