Thermal drone, harvesting for meat

Am I scumbag if I use a thermal drone to scout deer

  • Yes

    Votes: 26 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 25 48.1%
  • See results

    Votes: 1 1.9%

  • Total voters
    52
This was my conclusion after doing some due diligence. The drone specific info sites seem to misrepresent the law, stating illegal to operate over. It’s pretty clear that it’s illegal to land/takeoff, but flyover is a whole different story. Then again I think it’s all moot because I don’t register with FAA and therefor I think technically even flying in my own backyard is illegal, thermals or no.



This was my sense as well.





Thread title was meant as it’s written. I acknowledge that I’m not winning any awards for “best hunter of the year”. For what it’s worth I do aspire to put in the time and effort to learn the skills of true old school hunting. But my goal is simple, to fill my freezer using my legally allotted quota. I’m not doing it for sport or for entertainment, I want to eat, hence the word harvesting.

Knowing where the deer are at one specific instant in time is only a very small part of the puzzle. Woodsmanship and understanding the animal in how they use the landscape and resources available to them over time is a skill that is only learned by boots on the ground. This can only be learned over time.
 
wait til the OP discovers drone assisted fishing ..... there are attachments that will carry your line out from the shore and drop them.

Surf Casting but with looong lines
But that wouldn’t be fair to poor homeless children fishing off the piers!
 
LOL sorry to be a little harsh, but I'd rather you not run afoul of the law nor run afoul of other hunters. Honestly, I think the only way you could do this in a 'clean' manner would be to simply scout during the off season when you will not be hunting. Even that could be troublesome in case an officer thought you might be poaching in the off season. Thermal scouting an hour and even a day before hunting will be a problem if you are caught. None of this applies if it is a survival situation, but as long as we can use technology to put meat on the table via googling "grocery stores near me", it's not a survival situation.

I always thought it would be useful to equip a drone with FLIR capability for security of a rural home. Something goes bump in the night, send one out to see what's going down.
Yeah, the cost of a drone and a flir could have put a ton of meat in the freezer 😂
 
Knowing where the deer are at one specific instant in time is only a very small part of the puzzle. Woodsmanship and understanding the animal in how they use the landscape and resources available to them over time is a skill that is only learned by boots on the ground. This can only be learned over time.

This is precisely what makes me feel like it’s not poaching if I only use it for efficient scouting. If I generate some intel that says “location X, Y and Z had deer a few hours ago” that is miles away from me successfully getting a deer in my sights, and taking a responsible shot. The majority of the on the ground skills are still required and I can still easily screw them up. It’s really just replacing all the time in the field that I should be putting in next time around to scout and learn the area and the habits of the local population.

Yeah, the cost of a drone and a flir could have put a ton of meat in the freezer 😂

Already had the drone for other reasons and the FLIR I’m borrowing from work.
 
Legal, ethical...I'll leave that to hunters...

Once again, however...yea, post that $#!t online and ask the masses...

JFC, do it or don't, but don't advertise it...

My humble Happy Thanksgiving $0.02. 🦃
 
Legal, ethical...I'll leave that to hunters...

Once again, however...yea, post that $#!t online and ask the masses...

JFC, do it or don't, but don't advertise it...

My humble Happy Thanksgiving $0.02. 🦃

You aren’t wrong. I was about 80% sure where I stood, but I am realistic enough to admit that sometimes I swear I’m in the right when really I’m dead wrong. I figured if this thread was a clear and overwhelming “hell no don’t do it” I would accept that I’m not seeing the big picture and let it be. If it was down the middle like it seems to be, it confirms to me that it’s a grey area and IRL I should attempt to fill my freezer to the legal limit and not say a word about it because it’s clearly nothing to be bragging about.
 
Hunting is not a spectator sport. There's no such thing as cheating or unethical If you're doing it to feed your family or yourself. That said, nobody really has to hunt to survive anymore. If you are then you either really live in the wilderness or have had some hard times fall on you. We only do this because it's something we enjoy and it's a tradition that's been passed down through the generations. For me hunting is recreating the past. That's not for everybody though. I do think there is a point where too much technology removes the true nature of hunting.
This
 
There's no such thing as cheating or unethical If you're doing it to feed your family or yourself.
No?

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I think a piece of this puzzle is how the quota system is actually designed. If they give out 2000 tags but statistically/traditionally only 1000 get filled, then I can see an argument that drones may change the equation in a way that harms the population. But if they give out 2000 tags and generally 2000 get filled, then what’s the difference other than a traditional hunter being more skilled and a drone operator being more efficient?

I guess my point is, if I don’t negatively impact the population of the herd and make other hunters have a more difficult experience, then it’s not really relevant if they do or do not have a drone.
I'll just say this and this is just me. I dont hunt to be efficient. I hunt because I enjoy it. If I dont get a deer this year I wont view it as a failure. There's still food at the stores. I learned some new things and I got to be outdoors away from people. And when I do finally bag one it will be that much sweeter because of the hard work I put in. I'm personally only willing to let technology go so far. I'm seeing red dots for bows now. At first I thought maybe but now I'm thinking no. I'll stick with ranging my area and relying on my pins and my accuracy through training. Again that's me. As long as you're not breaking the rules and interfering with someone elses hunt do what you feel is necessary.
 
I'll just say this and this is just me. I dont hunt to be efficient. I hunt because I enjoy it. If I dont get a deer this year I wont view it as a failure. There's still food at the stores. I learned some new things and I got to be outdoors away from people. And when I do finally bag one it will be that much sweeter because of the hard work I put in. I'm personally only willing to let technology go so far. I'm seeing red dots for bows now. At first I thought maybe but now I'm thinking no. I'll stick with ranging my area and relying on my pins and my accuracy through training. Again that's me. As long as you're not breaking the rules and interfering with someone elses hunt do what you feel is necessary.

Same here.

I’m a “you do you and I will do me“ when it comes to hunting, and most everything else, as long as it‘s legal.

Human beings spend way too much time worrying about what other people are doing and expecting people to do things “their way” because it is the “right way“
 
I haven't been around too many drones, but the ones I have seen I heard first overhead. How low would you be flying it to be effective? I know if I were in a tree stand and the drone was buzzing around making enough noise to maybe spook the deer in the area I wouldn't be too happy.

I agree with many others. I'm out there for the enjoyment of being in the woods, not so much to fill a freezer...thank God because that damn freezer is pretty low! If I were you, I'd take this season to learn as much about hunting and deer behavior, then once the season is actually over, go out and get in the woods to do some scouting. There's nothing like using the knowledge you've gained about deer behavior and the characteristics from a topo to go out and find a spot with deer activity. And even then, you still have to get them to cooperate with you.

In reality, spotting deer using a drone with a thermal is doing just that. You still have to get out to that area undetected to be able to harvest one.
 
You should donate it to Ukraine, if it really is a thermal camera that works on a drone. They could really put it to good use hunting for real.


 
I haven't been around too many drones, but the ones I have seen I heard first overhead. How low would you be flying it to be effective? I know if I were in a tree stand and the drone was buzzing around making enough noise to maybe spook the deer in the area I wouldn't be too happy.
Is it more sporting to shoot down a drone with a deer slug than buckshot? Asking for a friend.
 
This is precisely what makes me feel like it’s not poaching if I only use it for efficient scouting. If I generate some intel that says “location X, Y and Z had deer a few hours ago” that is miles away from me successfully getting a deer in my sights, and taking a responsible shot. The majority of the on the ground skills are still required and I can still easily screw them up. It’s really just replacing all the time in the field that I should be putting in next time around to scout and learn the area and the habits of the local population.



Already had the drone for other reasons and the FLIR I’m borrowing from work.
Borrowing… mmk I’d say go all in and strap a Mac10 to that drone 😂
 
As far as a skill development… I would definitely build out a setup to have it in the toolkit. I would not use said toolkit unless it was life or death, and would still want to build solid hunting fundamentals first. Hypothetically speaking
 
Ya I'm gonna go with a few others here. You reach a point where its not hunting anymore. Why bother.
Thats not fishing imo. Just go to the grocery store if that what you're going to do. Same goes for the drone. Just my opinion. The larger point that someone else mentioned is what about the other hunters/fishers who dont have the luxury of flying drones or planes. Its not fair to them and creates an unequal field. We're supposed to be in this together. This reminds me of the steroid era of baseball. Hunting requires a skill you develop over time. Drones are a shortcut to me doesnt allow you to develop those skills and doesn't make you a complete hunter.
Sounds like you should probably make a spear or atlatal with some sticks and sharpened rocks you source yourself. Otherwise it’s an artificial unfair advantage.

Even if someone uses a drone to locate a deer, you still need to stalk it, watch out for smells/wind, not spook it, etc. As long as you’re respectful to the animal, and not over-hunting, then I think there’s nothing ethically wrong to use technology to source free range food.
 
Ya I'm gonna go with a few others here. You reach a point where its not hunting anymore. Why bother.
You missed the part where hes doing some weird flint thing and not hunting for sport, his motivations are likely different from yours
 
Do what the rest of us have all done; read/learn the subject, ask advice and spend a lot of time in the woods.

It is amazing how much good information is available at our finger tips compared to the dark ages (before Al Gore invented the Internet) when I started hunting.

As far as a skill development… I would definitely build out a setup to have it in the toolkit. I would not use said toolkit unless it was life or death, and would still want to build solid hunting fundamentals first. Hypothetically speaking

If it was life or death and I needed the meat I wouldn’t be futzing around with a drone. I would be hanging snares.
 
Sounds like you should probably make a spear or atlatal with some sticks and sharpened rocks you source yourself. Otherwise it’s an artificial unfair advantage.

Even if someone uses a drone to locate a deer, you still need to stalk it, watch out for smells/wind, not spook it, etc. As long as you’re respectful to the animal, and not over-hunting, then I think there’s nothing ethically wrong to use technology to source free range food.
Nope I'll just fish with a pole, hook and worm.
As far as the drone goes we will have to agree to disagree. Its just not worth my time and not what I want to be part of when I hunt. I wont even participate in drives. Even though they are legal in MA I just dont see the need for a few guys driving deer out into the open so a bunch can take pot shots at them. Not my thing. I'll take it one step further and @appraiser can correct me if I'm wrong, if op is using a drone he is not to supposed to legally lose visual sight of it. Would be pretty hard to not do that if scouting over a large area.
 
It is amazing how much good information is available at our finger tips compared to the dark ages (before Al Gore invented the Internet) when I started hunting.



If it was life or death and I needed the meat I wouldn’t be futzing around with a drone. I would be hanging snares.

If it’s a tool in the toolbox that helps, then have fun clinging to principles
 
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