Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pa. man in trouble using drone for deer recovery

Exactly. From the comments here and on other subjects it seems like woodsmanship is a thing of the past. Drones, long range sniping at game at 900 plus yards, 200 yard plus shooting with muzzleloaders, but let me use a drone when I gut shoot a critter. etc. Have at it, whatever.

I had my very first drone recovery on Thanksgiving evening this year. Never seen a drone fly ever. I hit a very nice ten pointer a tad low. My drop tables (425 yds) were a little off from the real world results. I used the Berger ballistics program and BC supplied by Hammer bullets. After checking and rechecking things numerous times I tend to believe the Hammer supplied BC was way too optimistic.

The guy came out at 10:30 PM and got to work. I was his second client that evening. In ten words or less, I was astonished at what the drone showed us. He told me his rig was right at $20,000 . He flew the entire farm (275 acres) in minutes. His screen on an iPad looking device showed every single living thing with a pulse out there. He had the thermal camera of course. He also had a black and white camera for zooming in and checking things out via spotlight. We spotted possums and armadillos as if we were standing right over them….the camera zoomed in that close and the image was crystal clear. Watched deer in my food plot. None were the least but alarmed! It was hovering 250 feet above them making no noise. He then moved to my swamp to check things out and we counted ducks roosting there. Counted more deer here and there including a huge eight pointer no one had seen before. Just bedded down. Zoomed in for detail…watched his ears twitch, watched him look around. Get up, check out does bedded near him. Bed down again. At that point I felt if the wrong person had wanted to kill that buck it would have been ridiculously easy. Leave the drone hovering over him, sneak to the drone, shoot him at 50-75 yards with a thermal scoped rifle.

We found my buck after about 45 minutes of detailed searching. In a spot I would have never dreamed he had traveled to. The deer were never disturbed. It only took 45 minutes. A dog and a handler would have had to look all night long, buggering up the entire farm and probably never found him. As it was, we hunted the farm the very next day and saw deer. That would probably have not happened if the dog and its handler had walked all over the place.

Heck of an experience. $250

A dog would surprise you.

Bet he would have gone straight to the deer. That is if he was a good experienced dog.

Scenario.

#1- 10 year old kid gut shoots a doe with his bow, first deer ever. Way back above the flank. Deer runs 200 yards and beds up.

Dad sees the shot and confirms bad hit way back in the guts. Arrow indicates the same. Dad is a seasoned hunter and has been in on several hard tracking jobs and a 12 hour or so wait and slow track resulted in a dead deer at the end of the trail.

Dad says let's wait overnight and she will be dead in the AM.

Go in as light permits the next AM to take up the trail, over 12 hours. Start trailing and get to a bed 200 yards up the trail but no deer, look the rest of the day and never find that deer. Kid is disappointed and decides hinting may not be everything dad has said it is.

In this scenario they were hunting a 600 acre farm but are unable to get to neighboring property for whatever reason.

#2- All of the above but they get a drone to find the deer which shows she is alive but from her slow head movements, tries to get up but only moves a few yards then beds up again and other actions that indicate she is very sick that if they wait a few more hours she may be dead.

Wait 4 more hours, fly the drone in and see a dead deer. Recovery is made and the kid while disappointed is still a hunter and has his first deer.

I have been in on some rodeo track jobs and if there would have been a way to speed the process up and end the animals suffering I would have done it.

Some people's egos are outweighing the true respect for the animal.

If we all really want quick death and less suffering or want to make sure more game is recovered from something going wrong at the shot why not use that advantage??

All the woodsmanship in the world won't do any good if an animal leaves no blood along the trail, gets into a cattail swamp or standing cornfield and and/or gets bumped because the supposed 12 hour/overnight wait wasn't enough.

I cannot imagine a harder place to try to bloodtrail a bad shot deer than a huge cattail marsh of several hundred acres.

Tons of equipment we use everyday gives us a huge edge but I don't see many saying it should be illegal. Look at the modern rifle scope with its multi coated lenses and high dollar glass. I bet it gets a guy 15 minutes more shooting light on both sides of the day but we all want it.

More. X on the dial, more sleek bullets for the long range crowd but no chatter of that stuff needing to be outlawed.

Some of you all need to realize it's about the respect for the animals, not your woodsmanship egos. If we didn't allow advances in hunting we would all be using matchlocks and flintlock shooting a PRB or using a longbow with cedar arrows and glue on points.

I am sure there were old timers 75-80 years ago that raised hell at the idea of a telescopic sight on a hunting rifle. Same with lighted rocks on an arrow, helps to see the hit or locate the arrow after the shot to see where an animal may be hit to aid in recovery but some states held on forever not allowing them.

Dad says he remembers back in the '50s hearing old bass fishermen saying the rubber worm was going to ruin bass fishing. Probably the same for using electronics on boats.

I don't like it for reasons already stated. Thermal imaging, etc, nothing can escape detection if used and abused.

That said, many don't have a leg to stand on as far as griping. It's a slippery slope that's been happening for yrs. Range finders that are accurate down to a couple feet, scopes that are dialed to exact yardage. Game camera's that show you most everything that's out there and where and when they're travelling.

Game camera's now you don't even have to get off your butt and pull a card from something that already did your scouting for you. Was hunting last yr with a gang and the one guy left early because he was getting a bunch of pictures sent to his phone from deer that were moving early back home at his one stand. Knew before he left, which stand he was going to, and how he needed to approach it since deer were already out.

It all continues to get more and more ridiculous and cheapens hunting IMO, but have at it. For the record I have yet to own a single game camera. I've thought about it, but at the end of the day I enjoy doing it by learning and I also enjoy seeing a deer coming and having no idea what it is until I look it over. Not immediately saying oh that's so and so deer, that I've already seen 47 times from my living room.

Abuser's will use for hunting and locating an animal to kill whether legal or illegal for recovery of an already shot critter. Making it illegal won't slow the poachers, rule benders one bit.

Main point here is for recovery which we should all strive for 100% recovery. If it takes tech to achieve near that I am all for it if one has the means.

Been on many trailing jobs with good experienced dogs. They are a sight to see indeed. But….you have a dog and its handler, probably a hunter too, moving through the brush, all over the place…it’s just less impact on the property with a drone.

It is indeed effective, but the drone doesn’t bugger up the property like dogs and people can. The last dog trailing job I was in on, the dog was turned loose on the buck and chased it all over the farm. Pushed it into a swamp and then rather than letting it bed up and expire or a finishing shot put in him, pushed it onto another property. 160+” buck lost forever. I don’t fault the dog…I fault the handler for allowing him to run all over hell’s half acre. He wasn’t experienced as you stated. Drone would have negated all that and some taxidermist would have some work.

The drone guy told me he has a greater than 90% record on recoveries. Unreal, but I see how that’s possible.

You’re exactly right. It could certainly be abused by wrong type of hunter. That’s all I could think about looking at that big eight pointer that night. But those guys (and girls) are always looking for the next best trick to spoil our sport.

I live about 10 mins away from where this guy got caught and it doesn’t surprise me one bit. Our warden in this area is a real A**hole.

I couldn't agree more

That's what courts are for.