Most of my predator hunting is done in December to March. Living in Wisconsin we pretty much have snow all the time during this. How do night vision and thermal imaging work with snow? Does it obscure the view in any way? I imagine it may help the NV having more light due to the snow and moon. Thanks for any responses
NV and Thermal in Snow
- Thread starter randry
- Start date
I can speak for thermal - it works great with snow on the ground! I live in IA, and love hunting with snow on the ground at night. Only time thermal is hindered is when its actually snowing. It still works, but depending on the amount of precipitation coming down, it can gray wash your back grounds.
Both would work well with a snowy backdrop. I took my new to me AN/PVS7D out last night for deer culling work with a buddy. He wore the NVG and I carried an older ATN Thor 1-4x 240x320 scope. He wasn't able to locate animals nearly as well as I could with the thermal- no snow here in Ohio. He had my ATN Thor HD 640 2.5-25x mounted on his rifle, so he'd switch over to thermal for shooting and target confirmation. The critters didn't have much contrast with their surroundings. Being able to see something requires that the object be a color that contrasts with the background, or that the object be moving relative to the background. Thermal is very sensitive to temperature differences, so living creatures (and recently dead ones) will put off enough heat to be easily noticeable in the scope. This contrast makes identifying animals very simple. The night vision simply increases light. So, an animal that's well camouflaged in the daytime, will be equally camouflaged at night. So, night vision will be an excellent tool in the snow for hunting coyote and fox- they contrast well with white and will stand out very distinctly. Night vision gives you advantage for navigating at night. You'll find that grass and twigs are very nearly air temperature at night, so they don't stand out when walking with thermal. You'll be tripping over things everywhere you go. Night vision goggles are truly amazing for moving around at night- you'll see every blade of grass. Always pros and cons to everything! I have an IR laser coming in a couple days for aiming with the night vision. It's only 4 oz and puts a beam out 400 yards. Put the dot on the target and you'll hit it (if you use the correct holdover for distance), whether your rifle is shouldered or you're shooting from the hip.
Shaun Simma
New member
living and hunting in Wisconsin I have two night hunting rigs setup. One with an IR MKII 35mm thermal scope and the other is a d750 night vision scope. I normally scan with a IR-Patrol, then ID and shoot with my NV rig. when my son hunts with me he scans and shoots with the thermal rig.
since we are not allowed to scan with a light OR an IR illuminator in Wisconsin, snow on the ground makes NV scopes shine. With snow on the ground I never need the IR illuminator. Even on moonless nights the snow still enhances the NV. The perfect situation for me with my NV rig is a couple inches of snow on the ground and a moonless night. I think Its too bright to hunt during a full moon and would rather no moon.
Thermal on the other hand works very well with snow cover. In fact snow cover does not really impact the qualify of the thermal picture. Extreme cold is what degrades the thermal picture. When everything is cold the background is very washed out. especially if the sky was over cast during the day.
with thermal in snow and cold you really need to pay attention to what you are looking at when scanning with a thermal device. I find that a coyote that is just meandering around without little exertion will not show up as well as one running into the call at mach I. Their coats seem to be super efficient at retaining the heat especially when its cold out.
Hope this helps.
since we are not allowed to scan with a light OR an IR illuminator in Wisconsin, snow on the ground makes NV scopes shine. With snow on the ground I never need the IR illuminator. Even on moonless nights the snow still enhances the NV. The perfect situation for me with my NV rig is a couple inches of snow on the ground and a moonless night. I think Its too bright to hunt during a full moon and would rather no moon.
Thermal on the other hand works very well with snow cover. In fact snow cover does not really impact the qualify of the thermal picture. Extreme cold is what degrades the thermal picture. When everything is cold the background is very washed out. especially if the sky was over cast during the day.
with thermal in snow and cold you really need to pay attention to what you are looking at when scanning with a thermal device. I find that a coyote that is just meandering around without little exertion will not show up as well as one running into the call at mach I. Their coats seem to be super efficient at retaining the heat especially when its cold out.
Hope this helps.