Thermal for scouting deer

[clinto]

I dont Know a whole lot about thermal optics but am considering one for scouting deer. the Deer in my area bed down in playa lake bottoms that we have on farms that get grown up with weeds, it provides great cover for them and Makes it very hard to find them unless they are up moving around. They move from lake bottom to lake bottom staying only a day or 2 in one spot before moving off to another making it hard to locate them during hunting season. My main use for a thermal would be to try and locate deer the night before we hunt.

I guess my question is would it be possible to spot deer up to half a mile away if they were in thick cover, it’s not really trees but tall dead grass and weeds? And any recommendations on what would be best? I am currently looking at pulsar accolade binoculars but also like the idea of a monocular that could also be weapon mounted in case I ever want to varmint hunt with it. how would something like the super hogster work in this situation?

 

[Jigstick]

I’m in a similiar situation. For a thermal monocular you can scan with on a head mount and swap to your gun you could look at the new Nox. A Skeetir would badass but not sure about using it in front a magnified optic.

 

[Choid]

So, straight dope -- you probably aren't going to be able to spot and identify deer from half a mile in deep brush with a thermal that has run of the mill capabilities.

 

[Old Man with Gun]

I think if the deer are not moving around it may be hard to tell a deer from a rock, tree trunk or anything else retaining residential heat from the day.

If things are moving around you will probably know that, and maybe logically believe they are deer. But, based on my Hogster-C thermal and all the research I did before buying it, I think knowing it is deer for sure past 400 yards, gets iffy even with the best units around vegetation.

 

[clinto]

half A mile would be the upper end, most situations I would be able to get closer

 

[TheHorta]

I can’t see a coyote in tall grass at 100-yards with a $20K thermal.

Thermal is awesome, but it ain’t magic.

 

[E-Tool]

Flir scout is the go to hand held you can tell the difference between a cow, deer, and rabbit. You won’t see antlers. A flir RS is the bottom end of money for a clip on.

Two scopes is the ONLY solution, unless you can afford a PSQ-20 dual IR thermal, with IR laser, or a pvs-14 with coti, and laser.

I’ve tried this stuff and spent a lot of money figuring it out the hard way. There isn’t a good one scope to do it all option, and holding a thermal’d rifle up to scan gets heavy very fast.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

I sent this to my tech rep at Pulsar and he replied:

" The Pulsar Accolades 2 XP50 binos would be fantastic for this or the Pulsar Helion 2 XP50. Both being a 640x480 with a sub 40mK sensor (these units were just released by Pulsar in 2020). They would be able to detect at half a mile since they both have detection ranges between 1,600-2,000 meters. Both will have full color pallets, including internal and external recording capability. Our Axion XQ38 models would be very good as well for this if a Helion 2 or Accolade 2 are a bit to high in price.

 

[Nate60x]

i used an xp38 for scanning while bow hunting this year and couldnt believe the number of deer it helped me spot. There were a couple that were within 50 yards in heavy cover, after locating them with thermal i still couldnt see them with binoculars and i knew where they were. I really like it for recovery after a shot.

 

[ma smith]

i used an xp38 for scanning while bow hunting this year and couldnt believe the number of deer it helped me spot. There were a couple that were within 50 yards in heavy cover, after locating them with thermal i still couldnt see them with binoculars and i knew where they were. I really like it for recovery after a shot.

Curious if this out of a stand or elevated position or from a ground level view point?

 

[roostercogburn98]

You need this

 

[Nate60x]

Curious if this out of a stand or elevated position or from a ground level view point?

out of a stand, adjacent to heavy cover, it was really eye opening how many times i randomly scanned a 360 out my tree and saw deer sneaking through the woods i had no idea were there.

 

[Old Man with Gun]

There are places that will do a 3 day rental on a scope. Might be a good way to explore if it helps and get the experience about what kind of sensor, FOV and magnification you want.

 

[Nate60x]

A friend of mine shot a deer at my place while I was working, he said he hit it further back than he wanted, sounded like a liver shot. We waited 7 hours, tracked it for 1000 yards, spotted it with the thermal alive and bedded down, so we backed out without jumping it, we came back 4 hours later and recovered the deer. It was a liver shot with a rage that did open up. Without the thermal we kick that deer up at least once. Bought mine for predator hunting, now i dont leave home without it.

 

[Nate60x]

 

[Crews]

I can’t see anything but the backs of biggest hogs when the soybeans get thigh high on our lease. If a deer is bedded down, it might as well be invisible. And that’s at much closer than a half mile. An elevated position would make a huge difference.