Drones used for scouting/hunting/game recovery

[txfireguy2003]

So, I did a search, and find a thread from a couple years ago, and thought I'd ask my own question, rather than resurrecting that old one.

For scouting, I think they have incredible potential, and they might just make the helicopter deer counts on managed lands obsolete since they're so much cheaper to operate and less disturbing to the deer....of course, you might need some disturbance to push the deer around so you can see them I'd think.

I know we all have our reservations about using drones while actually hunting. The risk of guys using then to drive deer toward the hunter would seem pretty high. I can see people using then to "spot" game, then try to stalk in, which I'm not fond of. With all that in mind, how do you feel about a two person hunting team, with the spotter operating the drone for the sole purpose of videoing the shot and impact, and following the deer if it runs off. Would seem to increase the odds of recovering the game, and get some awesome videos of the shot from a forward position. Think of rifle hunting. You could fly the drone out and hover over that deer at 200 yards and watch while your partner shoots. You can see the impact, where the bullet hits, and where the deer runs off to if he runs. For bow hunting, the spotter would fly the drone well above the deer, and when the hunter arrows the deer, the drone can watch where it goes to help with the teaching job.

As far as pigs go....I'm a no holds barred kinda guy. If you can hunt them from a helicopter, why not use the drone to push them into a kill zone, or a trap for that matter? My landowner would probably pay somebody to herd the hogs off the place with a drone as long as it didn't disturb the cattle.

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[mdmorrow]

I'm working on another drone application for pigs. I've got a 3D Robotics solo drone and I'm waiting on some more parts but in the near future it'll have a Flir Vue 640 thermal on it that'll feed the video back to my iPad.


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[Playa]

I like the idea of using them to replace helicopter herd counts, especially on small tracts of land (less than 1000 ac). But you will need some sort of noise to roust the deer up.

The rest of it, I'm not a fan of

[kyle1974]

I'm waiting for public available weaponized drones for hogs. Kill them all.

[Troup]

My cousin has a nice drone to fly over and check cows. The horses freak out and have nearly ran threw fences. Scares every deer off. He hasnt done it again. There noisey, it was not a cheap one 3k.

[Richard M.]

I'm working on another drone application for pigs. I've got a 3D Robotics solo drone and I'm waiting on some more parts but in the near future it'll have a Flir Vue 640 thermal on it that'll feed the video back to my iPad.


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That's gonna be cool!

[TUCO]

Drones used for deer survey

For scouting, I think they have incredible potential, and they might just make the helicopter deer counts on managed lands obsolete since they're so much cheaper to operate and less disturbing to the deer....

I would think that the drones limited camera capabilities would make it an ineffective tool as far as surveys were concerned Luke.

Relatively short battery life, and remote transmitter limitations would also pose a problem.

It’s going to be hard to beat a good helicopter pilot, and a few sharp sets of eyes.

[mdmorrow]

^^^
True. Spotting deer from one is incredibly difficult due to the limited camera quality. The thermal though should be great as far as spotting critters.

[txfireguy2003]

All good points. My buddy bought one recently and he's bringing it to the lease this weekend. We were going to try it out and see what it's capabilities were. Again, of course not to try and spook game to us (other than maybe hogs) just to do recon and maybe see if we could video a shot. Hopefully we'll see some pigs to test it on first.

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[yaqui]

A DJI Pahntom 4 costs about a grand. Extra batteries are about a hundred a piece. Flight time is about 25 minutes and range can be a couple of miles. You are limited to 400 feet max altitude by law. Resolution is 4k too.
I have one, but have not had the opportunity to try it out for scouting. We lost our lease, no hunting for me.

[35remington]

Sounds like a cool idea on paper. In the field I think it's going to be very difficult to execute.

The first time your target animal runs under a tree, you're done.

[El General]

My cousin is a wildlife biologist and we have tried to do herd counts at our lease in Robert Lee several times. It has not worked mainly due to thickness of cover and wind severely limiting range.

He has had some success using them on smaller and more open properties in the hill country.

[Drycreek3189]

Many states have laws against harrassing wildlife. Texas needs one. Just to be clear, hogs are not considered wildlife in Texas, but how are you going to harrass hogs without harrassing other animals. How would you feel about running deer, even unintentionally, into fences, etc. ? I think there will be some unintended consequences to operating drones around wildlife, and no good ones come to mind. My two cents.

[txfireguy2003]

More good points, I thought for sure the battery would last more than 25 minutes! Our place is fairly open, but it does have some thick areas, hence the desire to use the drone for scouting....is it even worth my time to cut a trail through this, or is it this thick all the way to the property line? Of course, I know Google Earth works, but I feel like some closer, more detailed images could be useful. We have a section of our lease that nobody has actually seen the boundaries of, in fact, because it's so thick, you can't move through it very easily and every single plant either pokes, sticks, or grabs you, you come out looking like you got in a fight with Edward Scissor Hands. That's also where I have seen the biggest deer. Would be nice to be able to fly over and see just what's over there.

Wonder how it would work to run cows off the feeder....

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[coachwhip]

How is using a drone harassing wildlife any more harmful than than a helicopter doing the same but louder and larger? Both look to be the same problem but drones are more accessible to a property owner.