Question About Hunting With Thermals

C

Covtown

Member
Does anyone hunt at night out of the back of their pick up truck using only thermals or night vision? No lights. I am asking because the conventional wisdom seems to be that light keep predators from seeing us at night. That seems right to me, but I wonder if it’s possible to hunt out of your truck at night not using lights. I killed my one and only double on coyotes using only thermals at night out of the back of my truck. Wondering if that was just a fluke.
 
I hunt from the back of my truck 99% of the time. I have a couple surplus MG3 Ring Turrets that spin 360-degrees and are smooth as a baby's bottom. A couple of my coyote friends have the same type set up... problem is all the surplus turrets have dried up. The last three we sourced were directly from a surplus dealer in Germany.









 
Covtown said:
Does anyone hunt at night out of the back of their pick up truck using only thermals or night vision? No lights. I am asking because the conventional wisdom seems to be that light keep predators from seeing us at night. That seems right to me, but I wonder if it’s possible to hunt out of your truck at night not using lights. I killed my one and only double on coyotes using only thermals at night out of the back of my truck. Wondering if that was just a fluke.
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Texans do it on a daily basis!

It's not that it doesn't work, its illegal in about every state in the country so its not real popular, but very very effective in certain circumstances.
 
Yeah, like Kino said, it's not legal in Michigan. I've killed them out of my gun blind over a carcass pile a bunch of times, but not from a vehicle.
 
Kino M said:
Texans do it on a daily basis!

It's not that it doesn't work, its illegal in about every state in the country so its not real popular, but very very effective in certain circumstances.
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Folks need to make sure and actually READ their state's law on the matter to stay out of trouble.

In Florida for example, you can't hunt from any vehicle (boat, truck, etc.) UNLESS the vehicle isn't in motion and the power source is off. Lots of predator videos on line with guys hunting from set ups similar to mine.

Also, the statutes might very well address WHAT is and isn't covered (animal wise) in the law. Terms like "wildlife", "game", "animal", etc. can and often do have certain meanings that differ from a layperson's understanding of the term.

Bottom line... go read your state's law vs. taking someone's word that something is or isn't legal. As a cop, I always jokingly tell people there are three people that will get you into trouble:

I heard
I thought
They said

If you defense or excuse starts off with one of the above three, you're in big doo-doo lol.
 
As far as the turret itself goes, I think one could be fabricated from an old truck or tractor rim pretty easy. It would work good from an elevated blind too.
 
I’m considering building something like a tripod for the back of my truck just to be able to see above the brush. I’ve lip squeaked them from the drivers window in my old White Ford, surely this dark grey Tacoma would be less obvious. For the areas I have access to, vehicles don’t necessarily scare off predators.
 
Covtown said:
Does anyone hunt at night out of the back of their pick up truck using only thermals or night vision? No lights. I am asking because the conventional wisdom seems to be that light keep predators from seeing us at night. That seems right to me, but I wonder if it’s possible to hunt out of your truck at night not using lights. I killed my one and only double on coyotes using only thermals at night out of the back of my truck. Wondering if that was just a fluke.
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I've only killed two yotes, and have had many encounters over the last 1.5 seasons. Every kill and encounter was solely with thermal, no lights. Try breaking up your human outline by standing in front of some brush or trees, play the wind. Your kills definitely weren't a fluke!
 
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