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Are drones for hunting like sonar for fishing

Re: Are drones for hunting like airplanes - to locate game?

In Alaska, a person cannot hunt the same day airborne, in general. There is an exception for deer hunting, and there have been exceptions for caribou when the herds exceed the carrying capacity of their habitat.

Guides and private aircraft owners can and do use planes to spot sheep in the mountains. I consider it a huge advantage compared to having to walk into the mountains to learn if there are any legal animals in the area I consider hunting. Yet it is legal, provided the hunters don't pursue the animals they've spotted from the air until the next day.

I suspect that registered, commercial sport hunting guides have something to do with allowing aircraft to be used to spot game animals. Another thing is how does one go about enforcing no use of planes to spot game in rugged wilderness, when fly-in hunters will often like to fly over the area they intend to hunt to get a bird's eye view of the remote wilderness area, before being dropped off for a 7 or 10-day hunt.

Considering these regulations, there's no reason drones should be banned in Alaska for spotting game, provided the hunter doesn't take to the field until the next day, the same as using aircraft for spotting game under the current regulations.

However, if drones ever become cheap and useful enough to be used for such a purpose - flying out several miles in the mountains to video the hillsides for white Dall sheep on the green hillsides and mountain valleys and then returning to the owner so the video can then be viewed to determine whether the area is worth hunting or not - I'm certain that registered guides and private aircraft owners will most likely object. Because they won't want the additional competition from the multitude of hunters that can't afford to own their own airplane, or don't want to hire an air taxi service to fly them over their prospective hunting area, prior to investing their annual hunting season dedicated to that hunting area. They like it the way it is. Too expensive for the majority of hunters to use aircraft to spot sheep in the mountains prior to investing the time and money to hunt that area that looked good on a topographical map. They'll claim that the unmanned drones present a safety hazard to the manned aircraft flying in the area.

Hunting regulations do include the means and methods of legal hunting; such as the length of the season, the timing of the hunting season, the number of permits issues, etc... in order to limit the number of game animals killed. If every sheep hunter in Alaska had cost effective means of scouting the mountains prior to hunting for sheep, it would require reconsideration of the current "no hunting same day airborne regulations" - which allow hunters to spot game from the air the day prior to hunting those animals. And I expect that regulations would be generated to prevent the use of drones to spot for white sheep on green mountainsides, in order to prevent the masses from benefiting from the scouting methods that current only the wealthy benefit from. Those wealthy enough to own their own plane or hire a guide or an air taxi service to scout and find their game for them prior to investing the time and energy to pursue those game animals.

I've seen video of bison hunting in Alaska where aircraft are used to spot the bison in a wilderness area in the winter when the bison will surely be located in the same area the following day for purposes of locating and killing by the hunter. It would be an altogether different proposition to head in hunting without having seen the bison prior to the hunt.
 
I've been buzzed by fixed wing with both a deer and a bear in my scope and of course they took off. Also been buzzed by a helicopter when deer hunting the day before opening elk. I wouldn't want to see drones for recreational hunting.

Write down the tail number of the aircraft. Video if possible.

If your are in Idaho its illegal to interfere with a hunt.

A little noise will go along way with this.

It is also illegal to air spot animals and report locations to people on the ground.

It's okay to fly over and spot stuff, return to airport then go after game. Those that tried this, that I know of, failed.....

If I see a drone over the hunting area and I'm hunting, I'm shooting.....it. well @ it:)
 
Write down the tail number of the aircraft. Video if possible.

If your are in Idaho its illegal to interfere with a hunt.

A little noise will go along way with this.

It is also illegal to air spot animals and report locations to people on the ground.

It's okay to fly over and spot stuff, return to airport then go after game. Those that tried this, that I know of, failed.....

If I see a drone over the hunting area and I'm hunting, I'm shooting.....it. well @ it:)

Yup, can hardly wait till grouse season in the high country................too bad I can't have an extended magazine.:D

Randy
 
How would one safely recover a drone stuck near the top of a 30' public property pine tree? Illegally cut it down? Drones will eventually get stuck in trees. After all, who would need one in the prairie?

Perhaps restricting drones for hunting has just as much to do with protecting trees and safety as with "fair chase?" Although, it would be good entertainment watching a drone hunter trying to recover a drone stuck in a tree. "Hey drone hunter, no you can't cut the tree down and you seem a little too heavy to climb with those light branches. If you would like some help I could try to shoot it out of the tree for you. OK, wait here and I'll get my shotgun."
 
How would one safely recover a drone stuck near the top of a 30' public property pine tree? Illegally cut it down? Drones will eventually get stuck in trees. After all, who would need one in the prairie?

Perhaps restricting drones for hunting has just as much to do with protecting trees and safety as with "fair chase?" Although, it would be good entertainment watching a drone hunter trying to recover a drone stuck in a tree. "Hey drone hunter, no you can't cut the tree down and you seem a little too heavy to climb with those light branches. If you would like some help I could try to shoot it out of the tree for you. OK, wait here and I'll get my shotgun."
Dont you know there will be a drone recovery service.Guy will be running around in the woods with a bunch of monkeys and a backpack full of bananas:D
 
Dont you know there will be a drone recovery service.Guy will be running around in the woods with a bunch of monkeys and a backpack full of bananas:D

Oh I get it now. Shove a banana down the shotgun barrel. Shoot it into the drone. Release the trunk monkey and waaaalaaaa, problem solved!
 
Write down the tail number of the aircraft. Video if possible.

If your are in Idaho its illegal to interfere with a hunt.

A little noise will go along way with this.

It is also illegal to air spot animals and report locations to people on the ground.

It's okay to fly over and spot stuff, return to airport then go after game. Those that tried this, that I know of, failed.....

If I see a drone over the hunting area and I'm hunting, I'm shooting.....it. well @ it:)

I wonder if thee is going to be a daily bag limit on Dron......................:D

Hunting Dwones.jpg

Packrat

Mouse.gif
 
I had an idea a while back, not using a drone for scouting or hunting, but use as an aid to look for wounded animals and recover one we can't find.

Here in Michigan our rifle season starts mid November and all of the leaves are off, but every once in a while, a deer will run into thick grass, bean fields or swamps after being shot and if you don't have much of a blood trail, well, good luck.

But, if you sent a drone up, you could see if a wounded deer(elk, moose, bear, etc.) is bedded down or if its dead and where.

So my opinion, wouldn't use one for scouting or actually hunting, but after the shot for recovery.

After all, ethically speaking, are we not supposed to make every attempt possible to recover any animal we shoot?lightbulb
 
This was printed in the 2014 Montana Hunting Regulations,
Airplane Spotting

Aircraft may not be used to locate big game animals for the purpose of:

• Hunting those animals during the same hunting day after a person has been airborne or;
• Providing information for another person for the purpose of hunting those animals within the same hunting day after being airborne;
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for the purpose of locating, spotting or hunting big game, upland birds or other species under the management authority of FWP during Commission-established hunting seasons is prohibited.
I have my pilots license and I have tried scouting during the off season with out much luck. I think it would be even harder from a small tv monitor with the camera bouncing around on a small drone in the wind. Also there was a Nova called "Spies that Fly", it was said that tracking a target with a Predator or Global Hawk military drone is easy the hard part is finding the target in the first place. They compared it to looking threw a straw. You could also buy a really nice spotting scope for the price of a drone not to mention a lot of ammo.
Some people have said you could use drones to find wounded animals and that would be a little easier if you could find the area where you where hunting in the first place. I have a hard time finding people when I am on the ground because the descriptions of where they are at relate their prospective on the ground. From the air it gets a lot harder to tell what rock pile turn right at.
As to finding a blood trail, forget it unless there is a LOT of snow. Even then it would be better to track on the ground.
I have also talked with the pilot that flies the Fish and Game biologists when they are counting game (Elk, Bear, Wolves.....). He has helped outfitters look for animals that people have shot and lost and he said sometimes the only way to find anything is to see birds circling especially in the trees.

Now with all that said I don't think drones are a good substitute for scouting an area, but I don't hunt on small plots of land and I haven't hunted hogs. Even then I don't think they are worth it.

 
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