Drones

Game hunting and large prey. Deer stalking, hunting with hounds. Boar, pigs etc., large prey, culling, hunting large feral animals.

Drones

Post by Archie » 05 Feb 2018, 9:42 am

What are people's opinions on using drones while hunting? Anyone use them for scouting? Do they work? Is it ethical?
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Re: Drones

Post by Wylie27 » 05 Feb 2018, 10:01 am

We have talked about using it on my brothers farm for pest control.

Using fpv/ video feeds to scout where feral pigs etc are.

Not hunting as such, pest control and i believe there is a difference.

Also use it to see what the cattle are up to.

The DJI mavic pro and air have a 4km+ range with video feed and 20 odd minutes of flight time.
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Re: Drones

Post by Daddybang » 05 Feb 2018, 10:06 am

I don't use one cause I don't own one. I can't see why using modern tech to make pest control or huntin easier/more efficient would be unethical :thumbsup: :drinks:
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Re: Drones

Post by RoginaJack » 05 Feb 2018, 10:26 am

For locating ferals in wheat, cane or corn fields, yeah I can see a use but short air time, regulations might restrict things a bit.

Could you herd the ferals from the fields towards you and what type of armament can the Drones carry (just kidding) :lol:

there's a video of one floating around somewhere on the net too about this - pigs in cane fields, I think.

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Re: Drones

Post by Browning » 05 Feb 2018, 8:05 pm

100% we use them for chasing pigs. Once that sorghum/wheat gets above knee high, send up the drone. In winter, the pigs will camp out in the middle of the fields throughout the day.
One farm we go, the owner has a Phantom 4. We go out on the quads and he uses that “box” function to pick out and follow the biggest one. We sit on the edge of the crop and just follow the drone and are there waiting for them as they run out..... Can be carnage if done right....
The drone has a flight time of 30mins depending on wind and where home base is, and a range of 5km max.
As mentioned, it’s vermin control and I wouldn’t see the point of using it for deer etc.
You’ve still gotta have your wits about you and old mr piggy can be more evasive than a s$&t-house rat but it’s def the way to go for pigs camped up in a crop....
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Re: Drones

Post by Rikta » 05 Feb 2018, 9:13 pm

hunting in australia = pests, using any means to eradicate them = ethical no matter the statutes
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Re: Drones

Post by allthegearandnoidea » 05 Feb 2018, 10:34 pm

Not ethical for true hunting
Imho
Fine for culling pests
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Re: Drones

Post by ebr love » 13 Feb 2018, 2:49 pm

Just another tool, if it does your job use it.

The stuff about ethics, 'honourable' hunting and the like.

Honestly... A deer has horns, you've got a rifle. Any concept of a 'fair fight' went out the window about 200 years ago :lol:
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Re: Drones

Post by Archie » 13 Feb 2018, 8:43 pm

Mate... if you’d seen me shoot offhand, you’d back the animal with the antlers...

More to the point though, and I know it’s silly, I’ll never give a pig a chance (and I’ll take shots on pigs that I wouldn’t on other animals) - but - for some hunts you want it to be a challenge. If you had planned a weeklong backpacking hunt for sambar and you saw one when you got out of the ute at the car park it would kind of take the fun away.
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Re: Drones

Post by Norton » 15 Feb 2018, 1:44 pm

Archie wrote:for some hunts you want it to be a challenge


That's personally preference though, not ethics.

I agree with EBR. If you're culling pests or filling the freezer you're there to do a job, not enter a gentlemen's duel. If a drone makes your job easier why not.
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Re: Drones

Post by stihl88 » 26 Jan 2024, 12:32 pm

Having recently acquired one myself i thought I'd shift some discussion in a recent thread here where it belongs.

Understanding Drones aren't for everyone they clearly have a place in recreational/professional shooting. How far you go comes down to personal preference, you just have to determine your threshold i.e. will you stick to using it for general scoping/scouting on pest animals and humane recovery of game species or will you go further and use it for scouting and herding of game species.

A few videos of such activities as follows:
- Sighting in firearms - Shooting with drone 1000 yards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6AS3Dau3iI
- Recovery of game - Top Ten Drone Deer Recovery Moments from 2022-23 Season https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQ128aoTwA&t=56s
- Scoping the lay of the land - Flying DRONE VS Sambar DEER - DJI Mavic MINI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIlvL_h_dQ

Aside from a shooting aid i can see additional benefits such as;
- Property surveillance
- Monitoring agricultural activities
- General safety i.e. bushfire monitoring or just knowing when you need to clean your gutters!

At this stage I'm not aware of any laws preventing the use of drones for recreational shooting other than the CASA's usual drone rules such as keeping the drone within your line of sight at all times.

This is what i use, range is about 20 kilometers!!!
8.jpg
DJI Mini 4 Pro
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My experience with it so far is nothing but positive. Video quality is great and it virtually flies itself. In future I'll be attaching a Thermal camera to it but as there's no off the shelf options it will be a fairly extensive add-on that will require a mish-mash of parts to accomplish and will end up being something similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTbsvgiypa8

Anyway, i hope this is helpful to anyone hesitant or never paid much thought in pulling the trigger on something like this. I've got mates who refuse to use them, some who are interested in using one for monitoring livestock and some in law enforcement who are keen on using it for remote recovery type operations keeping them safe and increasing chances of recovery of life.
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Re: Drones

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jan 2024, 1:58 pm

I've been considering it.
Do you need line of sight for control? I'd like to be able to send it down into some valleys that I can't see into. I assume you can "fly" it by viewing what it's seeing but can you still control it when it's out of sight behind a hill or a heap of trees?

Regarding thermal, I bought one of those plug-in thermal cameras that connect to your phone. If the drone camera has USB-C input could I simply plug the thermal into it and cable-tie to the drone? The camera is pretty good but doesn't have any zoom. I might be able to spot a rabbit in the grass at 100m by eye (in daylight), but I'm not at all sure I'd pick up the thermal signature in the tiny screen of my phone.

Something else that occurs to me, if you had this with you in the bush and got into difficulty without a phone signal could you potentially use it to let somebody know you were struggling and where you are?


stihl88 wrote:Having recently acquired one myself i thought I'd shift some discussion in a recent thread here where it belongs.

Understanding Drones aren't for everyone they clearly have a place in recreational/professional shooting. How far you go comes down to personal preference, you just have to determine your threshold i.e. will you stick to using it for general scoping/scouting on pest animals and humane recovery of game species or will you go further and use it for scouting and herding of game species.

A few videos of such activities as follows:
- Sighting in firearms - Shooting with drone 1000 yards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6AS3Dau3iI
- Recovery of game - Top Ten Drone Deer Recovery Moments from 2022-23 Season https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTQ128aoTwA&t=56s
- Scoping the lay of the land - Flying DRONE VS Sambar DEER - DJI Mavic MINI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIlvL_h_dQ

Aside from a shooting aid i can see additional benefits such as;
- Property surveillance
- Monitoring agricultural activities
- General safety i.e. bushfire monitoring or just knowing when you need to clean your gutters!

At this stage I'm not aware of any laws preventing the use of drones for recreational shooting other than the CASA's usual drone rules such as keeping the drone within your line of sight at all times.

This is what i use, range is about 20 kilometers!!!
8.jpg

My experience with it so far is nothing but positive. Video quality is great and it virtually flies itself. In future I'll be attaching a Thermal camera to it but as there's no off the shelf options it will be a fairly extensive add-on that will require a mish-mash of parts to accomplish and will end up being something similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTbsvgiypa8

Anyway, i hope this is helpful to anyone hesitant or never paid much thought in pulling the trigger on something like this. I've got mates who refuse to use them, some who are interested in using one for monitoring livestock and some in law enforcement who are keen on using it for remote recovery type operations keeping them safe and increasing chances of recovery of life.
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Re: Drones

Post by animalpest » 26 Jan 2024, 2:11 pm

Archie wrote:Mate... if you’d seen me shoot offhand, you’d back the animal with the antlers...

More to the point though, and I know it’s silly, I’ll never give a pig a chance (and I’ll take shots on pigs that I wouldn’t on other animals) - but - for some hunts you want it to be a challenge. If you had planned a weeklong backpacking hunt for sambar and you saw one when you got out of the ute at the car park it would kind of take the fun away.


And we talk about "ethics" but that doesnt apply to pigs :crazy:
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Re: Drones

Post by bladeracer » 26 Jan 2024, 2:30 pm

animalpest wrote:
Archie wrote:Mate... if you’d seen me shoot offhand, you’d back the animal with the antlers...

More to the point though, and I know it’s silly, I’ll never give a pig a chance (and I’ll take shots on pigs that I wouldn’t on other animals) - but - for some hunts you want it to be a challenge. If you had planned a weeklong backpacking hunt for sambar and you saw one when you got out of the ute at the car park it would kind of take the fun away.


And we talk about "ethics" but that doesnt apply to pigs :crazy:


Ethics are individual rules that we set on our own behaviour, so yes, you can set yourself different ethics for different species. Some people will kill every fox they see but won't shoot a feral dog or a feral cat.
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Re: Drones

Post by stihl88 » 26 Jan 2024, 4:11 pm

bladeracer wrote:I've been considering it.
Do you need line of sight for control? I'd like to be able to send it down into some valleys that I can't see into. I assume you can "fly" it by viewing what it's seeing but can you still control it when it's out of sight behind a hill or a heap of trees?

No, technically you can fly wherever you want, just look at the live feed on the screen to see where you're going. Mine has obstacle avoidance so that will decrease your chance of hitting something you couldn't see as it applies the "brakes" if it thinks it's about to hit something. Having said that the live feed image quality on the DJI drones are amazing so you don't need this extra feature if you're cautious.

Regarding thermal, I bought one of those plug-in thermal cameras that connect to your phone. If the drone camera has USB-C input could I simply plug the thermal into it and cable-tie to the drone? The camera is pretty good but doesn't have any zoom. I might be able to spot a rabbit in the grass at 100m by eye (in daylight), but I'm not at all sure I'd pick up the thermal signature in the tiny screen of my phone.

Unfortunately it will need to be plugged into a Raspberry Pi board which also needs it's own battery-power supply with voltage converter and a video transmitter to send the video signal to a separate screen with a receiver attached to display the feed. All up it needs to be under 100g if you're flying the mini <250g Drones, ideally 50g max! The other away around this is to step up into the DJI drones that have onboard Thermal capability but you're looking at $5-6k +++ which isn't too bad considering a Thermal scope with same image sensor starts around the $4-5k mark!

Something else that occurs to me, if you had this with you in the bush and got into difficulty without a phone signal could you potentially use it to let somebody know you were struggling and where you are?

Absolutely you could, attach a note to the drone with your co-ordinates and fly it to the nearest road junction or populated location and you'll increase your chances of survival.
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Re: Drones

Post by Border_Bloke » 01 Feb 2024, 10:23 am

Legally you are supposed to have the drone in sight at all times, although you can easily fly well beyond this with FPV.
I started mucking around with drones 10 or 12 years.ago but never used mine to find deer, the ones I have would probably scare them off.

I know emu's & cattle tended to run away when mine I got near them - and my partners Whippet that she had at the time used to be terrified of it.
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Re: Drones

Post by Jorlcrin » 07 Feb 2024, 11:46 am

Regarding use of drones on (agricultural) properties:-

Last year, when doing our property insurance renewal(Broadacre grazing property Western QLD), our insurer asked us if we operate drones?

Whilst I've wanted to have one for some years for specific observation roles, we havent taken the plunge yet.

Insurer advised me that IF we start operating a drone, we need to give them a heads up so they can note it on our insurance policy.
Whilst I think it's a bit of a big wank for us(we are 60kms from the nearest airport that has commercial flights operating), it would be something I'll have to consider if any visitors(ie hunters etc) decide to flash up a drone to take a quick look around.

I just thought this might be handy for others to be aware of.
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Re: Drones

Post by stihl88 » 08 Feb 2024, 8:00 pm

@Jorlcrin

Have a look at the following factsheet, if you get a drone below 250g you should be good to go.
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Re: Drones

Post by Blr243 » 09 Feb 2024, 6:05 am

Blade , be mindful that regarding the range , further stated range is only available if u have cell ph coverage in the area. That’s how mine wiorjd anyway. The second drone I have bought has a build in thermal camera but the thermal res specs are so low that you have to be fairly close to the ground to be able to identify the animal , so close in fact that you might scare away the game with the prop noise
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Re: Drones

Post by Blr243 » 09 Feb 2024, 6:08 am

I have not done enough field practice with mine . So not found animals with it. The most amazeing thing about a drone is the sky view you get. So different than trying to look through bush U can see so much and so far. It really is quite impressive
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Re: Drones

Post by Jorlcrin » 10 Feb 2024, 7:29 am

stihl88 wrote:@Jorlcrin

Have a look at the following factsheet, if you get a drone below 250g you should be good to go.


I dont think the insurance company was concerned about my proximity to an airport; I think they have decided to view drones operating as potentially raising our rural propertys' insurance risk.

The sort of drone I'd consider useful for our purposes, will exceed the 250g limit.

Thanks for the fact sheet, though; some handy things to know in there, as far as what the authorities expect..
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Re: Drones

Post by bladeracer » 10 Feb 2024, 9:52 am

Jorlcrin wrote:
stihl88 wrote:@Jorlcrin

Have a look at the following factsheet, if you get a drone below 250g you should be good to go.


I dont think the insurance company was concerned about my proximity to an airport; I think they have decided to view drones operating as potentially raising our rural propertys' insurance risk.

The sort of drone I'd consider useful for our purposes, will exceed the 250g limit.

Thanks for the fact sheet, though; some handy things to know in there, as far as what the authorities expect..


Anybody know of any instances of a drone starting a fire? I would think the likelihood is pretty remote but maybe it happened somewhere and insurance companies have been burned by it before? Significantly more likely with RC aircraft I would think.
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Re: Drones

Post by Flyonline » 10 Feb 2024, 1:22 pm

bladeracer wrote:
Significantly more likely with RC aircraft I would think.


How so? Petrol, sure but battery operated wouldn't be any different. Don't know the stats, but I'm guessing these days most RC planes are now electric

bladeracer wrote:Anybody know of any instances of a drone starting a fire? I would think the likelihood is pretty remote but maybe it happened somewhere and insurance companies have been burned by it before?


I do know of one instance where a glider shorted across powerlines and was burnt out completely. Ironically, the electrics still worked - it was just the carbon that got fried in the airframe :o

Personally, I am cautious with flying with Lipos on hot dry summer days as a crash could cause a runaway battery starting a fire. Probably overkill as I've never had any batteries catch fire (and I've totaled a few planes in my time), but I'd hate to be the cause of a fire.
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Re: Drones

Post by bladeracer » 10 Feb 2024, 4:58 pm

Flyonline wrote:How so? Petrol, sure but battery operated wouldn't be any different. Don't know the stats, but I'm guessing these days most RC planes are now electric

I do know of one instance where a glider shorted across powerlines and was burnt out completely. Ironically, the electrics still worked - it was just the carbon that got fried in the airframe :o

Personally, I am cautious with flying with Lipos on hot dry summer days as a crash could cause a runaway battery starting a fire. Probably overkill as I've never had any batteries catch fire (and I've totaled a few planes in my time), but I'd hate to be the cause of a fire.


I guess the smaller and cheaper aircraft are mostly electric nowadays, anything of any size is still nitro prop or turbine I would think, they're the ones that crash in a ball of flames in the videos. My neighbour is big into RC aircraft and boats, but most of his stuff is electric, just swap one battery pack across a bunch of different models.
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Re: Drones

Post by Flyonline » 11 Feb 2024, 8:25 am

Nitro's do go up in flames quickly if they crash and burn!
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Re: Drones

Post by on_one_wheel » 11 Feb 2024, 8:36 am

I've always wanted a fixed wing UAV for some long range scouting but unfortunately the rules suck when it comes to range, and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority control all airspace even over private property.

https://www.casa.gov.au/knowyourdrone/drone-rules
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