Has anyone used a thermal device to find a deer

shdw633 · Feb 20, 2018

I am thinking about getting either a FLIR Scout or a Seek Compact Pro as I am color blind and really have trouble tracking deer after the shot, especially at night. Has anyone ever used a thermal to track a wounded deer? Has anyone used one of these thermal products and if so what do you think about it.

XIronheadX · Feb 20, 2018

Get some of those color blind glasses I saw advertised. Bring some red blood to your world.

sghoghunter · Feb 20, 2018

I have a thermal,pulsar to be exact. I could see where it could help maybe if you were in a clear cut or real clean woods where you could see a long ways. In the perfect world the thermal should pick up on blood if ya jump on it while it's still warm. One thing you can do is see them still alive. Just got in from looking for hogs and prolly seen 100 deer out feeding

shdw633 · Feb 21, 2018

XIronheadX said:
Get some of those color blind glasses I saw advertised. Bring some red blood to your world.

Those glasses are like sunglasses and difficult to use at night.

Thunder Head · Feb 21, 2018

I shot a roe deer in Germany this summer. I was using my friends gun. He was trying a new type of bullet. The bullet passed clean thru without opening up. The shot was about 1.5 hours before dark. He came to get me after dark. We could not find any blood. He found the deer still alive with a thermal device. You could not see the blood on the ground with it.
Im not sure what kind it was though.

Freeman Hunter · Feb 22, 2018

Thermal Device

I've had a Flir Scout 2 320 for couple years, I've only used it once for helping find down deer. It did help but I really think looking for blood would be pushing it, normally you would want to wait if it runs off for it to lay down and bleed out a little so the blood would diffidently not be hot any more and make the thermal useless. But the deer will retain heat for while, like previous post it depends on terrain how good it will work. Cool tool though and have had lots of fun with it just scouting and checking deer out at night.

shdw633 · Feb 23, 2018

Freeman Hunter said:
I've had a Flir Scout 2 320 for couple years, I've only used it once for helping find down deer. It did help but I really think looking for blood would be pushing it, normally you would want to wait if it runs off for it to lay down and bleed out a little so the blood would diffidently not be hot any more and make the thermal useless. But the deer will retain heat for while, like previous post it depends on terrain how good it will work. Cool tool though and have had lots of fun with it just scouting and checking deer out at night.

If you went to the spot of the shot immediately following the shot, would the blood on the ground be warm enough to be seen by your Flir for at least a little while, like to get an indication of which way a deer might have went after it got out of your direct line of sight?

sghoghunter · Feb 23, 2018

shdw633 said:
If you went to the spot of the shot immediately following the shot, would the blood on the ground be warm enough to be seen by your Flir for at least a little while, like to get an indication of which way a deer might have went after it got out of your direct line of sight?

I can tell ya this for sure. I was out with mine on night and had to do a #1 and it gave off enough heat to show for a few mins

shdw633 · Feb 23, 2018

sghoghunter said:
I can tell ya this for sure. I was out with mine on night and had to do a #1 and it gave off enough heat to show for a few mins

That will work!!

shdw633 · Feb 23, 2018

sghoghunter said:
I can tell ya this for sure. I was out with mine on night and had to do a #1 and it gave off enough heat to show for a few mins

Your Pulsar might be a little stronger than the Thermals I am looking at as well.....though I look forward to the day they get to be a little more in reach.

sghoghunter · Feb 23, 2018

shdw633 said:
Your Pulsar might be a little stronger than the Thermals I am looking at as well.....though I look forward to the day they get to be a little more in reach.

Pm me on what kind you looking at. I've done a whole pile of looking at thermals before and after I bought mine

DrK · Feb 24, 2018

To the question if the thermal will show the blood if you immediately went to the spot the answer is it depends. They work by noting the thermal gradient or differences in temperature. If the ground is still warm it will be difficult to note the blood from the surrounding.

I have a FLIR and it works best in the morning when the ground is cold and the animal's body temp have a wide contrast. In the evening everything glows red due to heat. It is not ideal for tracking wounded deer.

Where I use it most is when I sneak in the morning while it's still dark and see if there are deer in front of me. If so and it looks like a shooter I just stop and set up on the ground and wait for daylight. Also has helped me in the stand to see the deer before light without having to struggle with the binoculars.

sghoghunter · Feb 24, 2018

QUOTE=DrK;11113405]To the question if the thermal will show the blood if you immediately went to the spot the answer is it depends. They work by noting the thermal gradient or differences in temperature. If the ground is still warm it will be difficult to note the blood from the surrounding.

I have a FLIR and it works best in the morning when the ground is cold and the animal's body temp have a wide contrast. In the evening everything glows red due to heat. It is not ideal for tracking wounded deer.

Where I use it most is when I sneak in the morning while it's still dark and see if there are deer in front of me. If so and it looks like a shooter I just stop and set up on the ground and wait for daylight. Also has helped me in the stand to see the deer before light without having to struggle with the binoculars.[/QUOTE]
How can you tell if it's a shooter?

DrK · Feb 24, 2018

I'm not a horn hunter, if it looks big it's a shooter.

Has anyone used a thermal device to find a deer

shdw633

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