Again, thanks for the input. Let me tell you about brothers elk hunt, not a big deal but it illustrates a point. He drew a late bull tag, we went to where we always go. It’s a meat, occasionally we will shoot a bull over 350 but the majority of the bulls we tag in that area on the late hunt are spikes and rag horns. My brother went to one ridge, I started on a ridge that parrelled his ridge. Usually when we walk those two ridges out some action happens. It’s canyon country and you can see for a 1000 yards in some areas, other areas are thick. I had my daughter with me, it was her tag. I heard his truck turn off and gave him a 10 minute head start, we were still using headlamps. As legal light came two shots rang out, I had them pegged in his location. I figured he got lucky and was done. Me and my daughter started our walk, about two hours into our walk a side by side came down to the end of the ridge we were walking. They parked and I could tell they were recovering an elk. We looped around them and head back to our side by side since they were talking and laughing, I knew that area was done for the morning.
When we got back to our side by side my brother was there, no blood. I asked if that was him. No, he said as he was walking up to the point we glass off and two guys were already there, as soon as he noticed them they shot, twice. They never saw him. It was at exactly legal time. Ok, that’s no big deal it happens. A couple hours later they came out with a nice bull, maybe 340. They had it propped up so it was easy to see. They wanted to chat, young guys, excited. I talked to them, I like it when I see young people have success, anyone for that matter. They told me exactly what happened, they were sitting the point an hour early, in the dark. They were using thermal binos and had two bulls spotted, they waited for legal light and made the shot on the bigger of the two bulls. It was a long shot but they knew how to shoot. They didn’t hide the fact they were using thermals, they are legal, no reason to hide the fact. I should clarify thermal binos are legal, thermal optics/scopes are not. They did nothing wrong. That was my first encounter with this thermal big game hunting. I believe I’m correct in the legality statement but I’m not sure, I don’t use them so I never have cared.
Fast forward to our New Mexico deer hunt. We were hunting with a friend who operates a guide service. As we sat one day eating lunch way back in a hell hole I told him the elk story. He said I was about 2 years behind the curve, that just about every big game guide he knew are using them and that they were taking some big elk and deer. We talked quite a bit, he refuses to use them but he also added that he might reconsider because the competition is having a lot of success. He has had multiple big bulls he had scouted taken out using thermal binos in big country.
After that I started paying some attention and asked a couple more friends who work for some big name guides during the fall. They confirmed that they were using them a lot but that they try and keep it quiet so the game and fish doesn’t outlaw them. Since then we had a Coues deer hunt and another guide was way back in horses hunting an area we were hunting, they were on the same out cropping three days in a row, they obviously had something worth the pursuit and they were hunting it hard. No thermals, just the typical Swarovski 15x and a couple big eye set ups. Nice guys, hunting fools and they’ve taken some monster Coues deer. I like and respect that.
Ever since coming home I’ve debated the subject internally. My own feelings are like many of yours, I don’t like it. However, even if they were to outlaw thermals for this use on big game many of these guides would keep using them because of the nature of the business, some would cease I’m sure. Arizona outlawed game cameras a couple years ago, mostly because the guides in the strip area were putting out a lot of cameras, every cattle pond/ tank up there had 20-30 cameras on it. Even though the state outlawed them I know of one big game guide who refuses to pull them and his legal time is ready for a challenge.
One of the fun things about Coues deer is the challenge of spotting them, they are nick named the grey ghost and for good reason. They can simply disappear, anybody who’s hunted them knows this. Use a thermal and you’ll change the “grey ghost” into Rudolph and something about that just seems wrong. I’m not sure what the answer is but I hope this trend dies and comes under scrutiny, it just seems like cheating to me. Sit down scan a canyon or ridge in minutes and move to the next, I don’t like it.
All that being said I highly support thermal optics both scopes and scanners to hunt coyotes, pigs and recover dead or wounded animals. That makes sense.
I have no idea how they would regulate this issue, I’m not sure they can without outlawing thermals in your possession and I dont like that either. Heaven knows we are over regulated as it is. That’s my two cents. I’m sure this topic will be debated heavily in the near future.
