Drone deer recovery

[BTLowry]

Listed under illegal activities: use aircraft (including drones, except by activity-specific permit) to hunt, locate (including wounded animals), manage, harass, drive, trap or photograph any wild animal.
hunt

Ridiculous that you can't use drone or dog to find wounded deer.

But some idiot screwed it up for the honest folks somewhere in the past I can gurantee

Then you have the idiots doing recon to poach and claiming "looking for a wounded deer" bunch too

[kyle1974]

I'll just say this plainly.

texas parks and wildlife are the laziest government group in existence.

what's the redfish and flounder limit? oh... it's basically the same for the entire texas coast... 3300 miles of shoreline, and it's EXACTLY the same redfish and flounder limits state wide.

what's the deer limits? oh, you can shoot like 5, or maybe a couple depending on the massive area we draw a line around that you hunt in. we all know shooting spikes is poor management, but one time there was a government funded study in kerrville so like... yeah, go ahead and whack em

what about javelina? oh, you can shoot like.... 2 a year? but yeah, don't worry about tagging. but ONLY 2!!!!

what if I want to hire a helicopter, go catch a bunch of wild deer and stick them in a 5 acre pen to stack my odds? that's fine, but ya gotta buy our permit for that, at a nominal fee.

what if my kid shoots a deer that we can't find and we want to use the drone he got for christmas to find it?

tpw - "straight to prison"

[sierracharlie338]

I'll just say this plainly.

texas parks and wildlife are the laziest government group in existence.

what's the redfish and flounder limit? oh... it's basically the same for the entire texas coast... 3300 miles of shoreline, and it's EXACTLY the same redfish and flounder limits state wide.

what's the deer limits? oh, you can shoot like 5, or maybe a couple depending on the massive area we draw a line around that you hunt in. we all know shooting spikes is poor management, but one time there was a government funded study in kerrville so like... yeah, go ahead and whack em

what about javelina? oh, you can shoot like.... 2 a year? but yeah, don't worry about tagging. but ONLY 2!!!!

what if my kid shoots a deer that we can't find and we want to use the drone he got for christmas to find it?

tpw - "straight to prison"

This made me literally LOL!!


Sierracharlie out....

[kyle1974]

Ridiculous that you can't use drone or dog to find wounded deer.

But some idiot screwed it up for the honest folks somewhere in the past I can gurantee

Then you have the idiots doing recon to poach and claiming "looking for a wounded deer" bunch too

you can use dogs, unless you're in one of the forbidden counties that had a legacy of hunting deer with dogs years ago. then, straight to prison!

perfectly legal to track your wounded deer in Liberty, Trinity, Houston, Liberty, Cherokee, Panola, rusk,..... and on and on, but if you're in Angelina, Hardin, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby or Tyler.. GET A ROPE!!!

[Slingingsticks]

Drones/UAVs

Frequently Asked Questions About Drones / Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Hunting
Except with permits issued by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the use of drones to hunt, drive, capture, take, count or photograph any wildlife is unlawful. This includes locating wounded animals as well.

Permits required from our department are an Aerial Management Permit (AMP) and a Land Owner Authorization (LOA). Department rules are adopted under the framework and guidelines of the Federal Airborne Hunting Act.

Under federal law it is a violation to use an aircraft for any of these activities unless a permit is issued by the respective state. Federal guidelines specify the states may only issue these permits for the management of wildlife such as Trap Transport and Transplant (TTT) or depredation species and certain predator species. At no time would recreational or sport hunting be lawful and violation of these rules is a Parks And Wildlife Class A misdemeanor and under certain instances a Federal Lacy Act Violation.

Some useful definitions include, from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Code, include:

"Hunt" means capture, trap, take, or kill, or an attempt to capture, trap, take, or kill.
"Catch" means take or kill and includes an attempt to take or kill.
"Take," except as otherwise provided by this code, means collect, hook, hunt, net, shoot, or snare, by any means or device, and includes an attempt to take or to pursue in order to take.
The relevant definition from the Texas Administrative Code is:

“Aircraft” means a mechanical or other device used for flight in the air (TAC §65.151)
And the offense itself as listed in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC §65.152) is:

A person (which includes a pilot, applicant, gunner, observer, or Subagent) commits an offense if:..the person counts, photographs, relocates, captures, hunts, or takes or attempts to count, photograph, relocate, capture, hunt, or take from an aircraft any wildlife or exotic animals other than wildlife or exotic animals authorized by the AMP and LOA.
Biennial Report for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Usage
This document below is meant to satisfy the reporting requirements as listed in Texas Government Code Sec. 423.008, relating to the reporting of unmanned aircraft systems operations by Texas law enforcement agencies.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Division Game Wardens and State Parks Division Police Officers operate Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). All operators are FAA-licensed remote pilots. The TPWD UAS Program uses unmanned aircraft to accomplish TPWD Department and Division missions and goals of the conservation of natural resources and protection of human life and property.

Per current Texas Government Code Sec. 423.008a) Not earlier than January 1 and not later than January 15 of each odd-numbered year, each state law enforcement agency and each county or municipal law enforcement agency located in a county or municipality, as applicable, with a population greater than 150,000, that used or operated an unmanned aircraft during the preceding 24 months shall issue a written report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and each member of the legislature and shall:

(1) retain the report for public viewing; and

(2) post the report on the law enforcement agency's publicly accessible website, if one exists.

(b) The report must include:

(1) the number of times an unmanned aircraft was used, organized by date, time, location, and the types of incidents and types of justification for the use;

(2) the number of criminal investigations aided using an unmanned aircraft and a description of how the unmanned aircraft aided each investigation;

(3) the number of times an unmanned aircraft was used for a law enforcement operation other than a criminal investigation, the dates and locations of those operations, and a description of how the unmanned aircraft aided each operation;

(4) the type of information collected on an individual, residence, property, or area that was not the subject of a law enforcement operation and the frequency of the collection of this information; and

(5) the total cost of acquiring, maintaining, repairing, and operating or otherwise using each unmanned aircraft for the preceding 24 months.

The following document and table contain the required information, as logged and entered by each TPWD UAS pilot, from all 2017-2018 TPWD law enforcement UAS operations, followed by the total cost of acquiring, maintaining, repairing, and operating or otherwise using each unmanned aircraft for the preceding 24 months.

2019 2020 UAS Report in Adobe PDF format


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[red-fin]

I'll just say this plainly.

texas parks and wildlife are the laziest government group in existence.

what's the redfish and flounder limit? oh... it's basically the same for the entire texas coast... 3300 miles of shoreline, and it's EXACTLY the same redfish and flounder limits state wide.

what's the deer limits? oh, you can shoot like 5, or maybe a couple depending on the massive area we draw a line around that you hunt in. we all know shooting spikes is poor management, but one time there was a government funded study in kerrville so like... yeah, go ahead and whack em

what about javelina? oh, you can shoot like.... 2 a year? but yeah, don't worry about tagging. but ONLY 2!!!!

what if I want to hire a helicopter, go catch a bunch of wild deer and stick them in a 5 acre pen to stack my odds? that's fine, but ya gotta buy our permit for that, at a nominal fee.

what if my kid shoots a deer that we can't find and we want to use the drone he got for christmas to find it?

tpw - "straight to prison"

This is sad but sooooo True!!!

[OldRiverRat]

Really??

i'm not sure what you are asking "really" about? that it is, in fact, illegal or that a game warden would not be able to determine what a user may be doing with a drone.

[deep n the heat]

Look up JC Wildlife consulting. He is a biologist friend of mine that is pioneering drone surveying here in Texas. It is incredible what he can count with his drones. No disturbing or stressing the deer. You can get great pics and video for determining sex ratios. The precision of the grid patterns are crazy. His drones are $$$.

[sharpstick35]

for recovery, I don't see it being much different than the way dogs are used.

[Deer Tracks]

Look up JC Wildlife consulting. He is a biologist friend of mine that is pioneering drone surveying here in Texas. It is incredible what he can count with his drones. No disturbing or stressing the deer. You can get great pics and video for determining sex ratios. The precision of the grid patterns are crazy. His drones are $$$.

That’s really interesting but, at least in the brush country, during a helicopter survey, if deer don’t jump you won’t see them. The helicopter makes them leave their cover. We miss a lot of smart deer they stay in the cover. I would think something quiet like a drone would miss a lot of animals.
Maybe not if you’re flying just extremely low and slow?


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[louieagarcia]

Interesting

[kyle1974]

That’s really interesting but, at least in the brush country, during a helicopter survey, if deer don’t jump you won’t see them. The helicopter makes them leave their cover. We miss a lot of smart deer they stay in the cover. I would think something quiet like a drone would miss a lot of animals.
Maybe not if you’re flying just extremely low and slow?


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with a thermal drone, you see WAY more than you do with a conventional helicopter. you can get a drone with a fairly high quality thermal camera on it for 7-9K that has a range of around 4-6 miles... they go 30-40 MPH. all around, a better system.

unless the deer learn how to burrow, it's hard for them to hide.

not that I'd advocate doing something as horribly illegal as looking at deer with a drone though.....

[Dale Moser]

You can’t see antlers on thermal.


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[kyle1974]

You can’t see antlers on thermal.


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You can when they’re in velvet


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[Deer Tracks]

with a thermal drone, you see WAY more than you do with a conventional helicopter. you can get a drone with a fairly high quality thermal camera on it for 7-9K that has a range of around 4-6 miles... they go 30-40 MPH. all around, a better system.

unless the deer learn how to burrow, it's hard for them to hide.

not that I'd advocate doing something as horribly illegal as looking at deer with a drone though.....

Gotcha, that makes sense. Fwiw, I think helicopter surveys are really fun but they undercount way more than most people realize. I am pretty sure we only count 60% of our deer.
I can't find a statute that would make it unlawful to use a drone to look for a carcass.