Thermal question

Huffranger

Huffranger

New member
First year hunting with thermal and had a crazy situation tonight.

So couple inches fresh snow with steady flurries. Air temp is 29* and my thermals are not showing the detail or clarity that I’m used to.

MK-2 35mm scanner
MK-3 60mm weapon mounted.

Walked into an epic location on a new ranch. Didn’t make a sound I didn’t want to educate the coyotes I know are there by not being able to see the lay of the land.

I could see deer and the livestock but they were almost floating in space.

I swapped out battery’s and double checked the setting on both units that I hunted with just two nights ago.

Is it possible the temperature was too close to the same for the sensor to interpret the data ??

Thanks in advance
 
Yes, that happens with thermal when rain, snow, etc. make everything approx the same surface temp. You can still see the animals but almost all background is washed out. Very hard to tell distance in such situations.
 
It all depends on humidity, I've found with thermal units 60% and below is your best contrast for viewing, when you get up over 70% you lose a lot of clarity and contrast. Get weatherbug, I view it hourly, especially for recording, a lot of times the humidity spikes within an hour. At least it'll give you a heads up on what to expect when viewing what you're killing.
 

I find that I frequently need to go into the settings and make changes based on ambient conditions. You can adjust brightness, contrast and digital focus to get the best settings for current conditions.

You can also switch between black hot and white hot to see which is giving the best results.
 
This is interesting for someone like me who has been contemplating going thermal for awhile. I would be hunting mostly on cold winter nights over snow covered fields. Am I going to be happy in those conditions most of time? Or is it better suited for bare ground and more moderate temperatures? Sorry if I hijacked the thread.
 
Thanks for the reply’s

I’ve been out quite a bit and this is the first time I noticed this problem. Tonight I would be out but the dang anniversary thing is happenening again today....seems like it just happened last year. Grin

Weather bug is great thanks skinny !

Humidity was probably very high, it’s now something I will pay attention to.

Was talking with a rancher today and he had never looked through a thermal. I set him up with my MK-2 35mm and he was blown away. He was checking out his whole yard and was stoked I was wanting to kill his coyotes.

This problem isn’t a deal breaker on buying a thermal
 
In my experience thermal is very much affected by the moisture that is in the atmosphere. On clear, cold nights thermal works very well.
On nights that there is moisture in the air they do not display a sharp image.
Water removes heat 20X than air. Thermal units have a very hard time detecting heat through water vapor. If there is even a slight mist or drizzle the thermal unit will struggle to detect the heat source. I have owned a 320 core FLIR, a 640 core FLIR, and two 640 core Pulsars and they all displayed a degraded image on wet nights.
We don't have much snow down here but I can imagine that snow might cause a problem too.
 
I have experienced the same thing a handful of times out at night. But it seems on nights like that you can sure see a warm body pretty distinctly. Many times after a sunny day the rocks that absorbed heat from the sun during the day show up pretty well and as the night wears on it gets better when they lose their heat. It then becomes easier to spot a warm body when one shows up. When it's been stormy all day it seems like everything is more the same temp along with the humidity that's when it all seems to blend together.
Sorry I probably repeated what has already been stated
 
Originally Posted By: iowayotehunter76This is interesting for someone like me who has been contemplating going thermal for awhile. I would be hunting mostly on cold winter nights over snow covered fields. Am I going to be happy in those conditions most of time? Or is it better suited for bare ground and more moderate temperatures? Sorry if I hijacked the thread.

Yes, you can contact me anytime for more info regarding thermal in these conditions. Most of the time you won't have issue with snow cover if the humidity is down. Sometimes when the temp is warm and the snow cover is melting off you get a mild haze over the snow cover, which (the haze) raises quite rapidly in most instances.
 
Last night the humidity was around 60% and the thermals were AWESOME we were finding coyotes over a mile away and putting the hurt on them.

I need to get out to the shop and start skinning.

Skinny I hold you entirely to blame for this addiction. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this gear !
 
my thermal showed up today... wife says I don't get to use it till after christmas because she is wrapping it and putting it under the tree... the next 2 weeks is gonna be torture.
 
One thing I have noticed is to watch both temp and humidity....the closer those numbers get to each other the worse your picture gets. Last night was 51 degrees and 61 percent humidity and my picture was pretty hazy.
 
Originally Posted By: cmlOne thing I have noticed is to watch both temp and humidity....the closer those numbers get to each other the worse your picture gets. Last night was 51 degrees and 61 percent humidity and my picture was pretty hazy.

Thermal was pretty crappy last night.
 
Originally Posted By: LittleAndymy thermal showed up today... wife says I don't get to use it till after christmas because she is wrapping it and putting it under the tree... the next 2 weeks is gonna be torture.

Maybe sneak it out for a hunt and then rewrap it!?

Be sure to update us on what Santa brought you and your review of it.
 
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