Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
A thermal monocular offers several benefits, some of which you may not initially consider. After having used a thermal monocular for over 2 years, I’d like to share some of the ways I use it to get an edge in the field and some ways you may not have thought about using a thermal monocular before.
As a hunter, I am always looking for ways to gain an edge. It didn’t take me long to appreciate the benefits gained from using a thermal monocular. I primarily hunt deer, hogs, coyotes, and turkey. Finding ways to use a thermal monocular to gain an edge hunting each of these species was easy. Let’s get to it…
No More Spooking Deer on My Way In or Out of the Deerstand One of the first benefits I realized a thermal monocular brought was that it provides me the ability to enter and exit the woods without spooking any deer. That is, when I start out to my stand I scan with my monocular. When approaching the stand if I see any deer on the corn pile I simply stop and lean on a tree or sit on the ground until they leave. Without this ability to see into the dark I wouldn’t have a clue that deer were anywhere around, and I’d be climbing in my stand only to hear the deer blowing and running off – that doesn’t happen to me anymore. Likewise, when the sun sets, I always scan before exiting the stand. There have been plenty nights where I sat in the dark for 10 or 15 minutes until a deer exited my area. Deer are no longer aware of my location simply because I was making noise in the dark and didn’t know they were close by. This is solely because of the thermal monocular giving me vision where I previously didn’t have it.
Track Deer More Efficiently The thermal monocular also comes in very handy when trailing or tracking a deer. If you’ve ever shot a deer right at dark, you know that it can sometimes be challenging to track them. If you made a good shot, then the thermal monocular will likely save you some time. Yes, you should get on the blood trail as you normally would, but also use the thermal monocular to scan the general direction the deer ran in and you may be surprised at how much more efficient your tracking becomes. I’ve got friends who call me to come help them track deer simply because they know I’ve got a thermal monocular.
Locate Turkeys on the Roost More Easily Turkey hunting is also one of my favorite things to do. There’s nothing better than watching a big gobbler strut and there’s nothing more depressing than not being able to locate any birds. If you know the general area where turkeys are roosting, then a thermal monocular may provide you with an edge in this scenario as well. Now days I always take the thermal monocular with me when we go in before dark. I scan the tree tops to see if I can see any turkeys roosting. Admittedly, turkeys are a little more difficult to pinpoint because their heads are usually the only part that shows a sharply contrasting heat signature and during the spring the trees provide them with more cover. Though, the thermal monocular still provides the opportunity to spot them. This again gives me an edge and as you would imagine we take it and use it as much as possible. Locating birds is half the battle and a thermal monocular can help you locate them more easily.
Our Primary Use – Scanning for Hogs & Coyotes The most obvious time when we use the thermal monocular is for coyote and hog hunting at night. We set our guns on tripods and use the monocular for scanning and locating. As soon as we locate then the game we get into the scopes. If you don’t have a scanning monocular you will quickly learn that it saves your back big time because you don’t have to constantly be hunched over scanning in circles in the scope. Also, the monocular is safer to scan with. That is, if we are spinning circles with our guns, we are pointing the guns in all directions which inevitably become close to other hunters and that’s not a good thing. Since the monocular is obviously not attached to a gun it’s the safest route for detecting game.
Want to see footage from thermal monoculars & scopes? Check out our thermal playlist on YouTube
Easily Locate Rabbits For you rabbit hunters, I know it’s all about the dogs but if you want to easily see rabbits that are hiding in the edge of briar patches there’s no better way than with a thermal monocular. We constantly see rabbits in the edge of brush, in straw, and alongside fields while hog and coyote hunting. Want to get your dogs pointed in the right direction… try a thermal monocular.
Something I noticed while looking at all kinds of things with my thermal monocular is that I can use it for surveillance if needed. If a group of cars is parked around a house, I can easily tell which cars have been there the longest (they are cooler) and which ones have just arrived (they are hotter). If you ever have out-of-place individuals lurking in the shadows they are easily picked out with a thermal monocular. There’s not much hide and seek when it comes to thermal technologies. The only area this isn’t 100% effective is in scenarios where there are windows. Thermal detection doesn’t work through glass, other than that it’s awesome to use to see into the night and get whatever info or recon you need.
One of my friends is a home inspector. Sometimes he’s looking for locations where hot or cool air may be escaping a house. A thermal monocular is a great tool for this type of scenario.
Imagine an HVAC system that wasn’t installed correctly or if a pipe was leaking. A thermal monocular is a great tool in these scenarios. Also, one can easily spot the hottest or coldest parts of any machine that could be “running hot”. Wherever temperature matters a thermal monocular could potentially be useful.
Wondering which device you should use is a common question. After all, these devices are not cheap and as such these are decisions that shouldn’t be made lightly. Since the purpose of this blog is to provide insight into ways one can use a thermal monocular, I’m not going to compare all the options out there. A simple Google search will show you the brand leaders and products on the market.
I’ll simply say that I am on the Pulsar Pro-Staff and I use Pulsar products. I’m a fan of the Pulsar Helion XP-50 and it’s what we use on all our hunts. Pulsar recently announced the “Axion” line of monoculars as well. I encourage you to do research and go with the device and manufacturer that is the best tool for your job.
Picture referenced from GunTrader.uk
We are excited to announce that two of our WeHuntSC.com members are now Pulsar Pro-Staff members. Adam Smith and Clint Patterson were recently selected to the Pro-Staff team and we are excited to see what 2019 has in store. As you may have seen in our posts, our team has been doing a lot of night hunting lately and we use Pulsar scopes on our setups. We’ve been putting a lot of time into the images and videos we share from the hunts and Pulsar has recognized.
Adam and I look forward to learning more about Pulsar’s vision for the future of night hunting, thermal optics, and to learning more about Pulsar products. If you are interested in Pulsar’s products and/or want to know more about our setups feel free to reach out.
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