Fox saw my ir

[Bob57]

Nipped out for an hour before dinner tonight and got set up on a bait spot at 200yds,was watching through the thermal when Charlie steps out of the hedge and trots out to the bait, so fired up the drone, face on stock aiming at spot, turned on ir and there was the fox, just as I got on the trigger it lifted its head, and straight away looked my way and went all alert and ran a few yards, stopping to look at me head up high,all alert again.

Wind was blowing from him to me, and I had a nice row of conifers behind me which I suppose he doesn't normally see the glow from an ir against, I've had quite a few foxes spook from that tiny ir glow now ,which just goes to show how alert foxes are to something slightly different on their patch, even at that range.

 

[Montey]

It's becoming a lot more apparent these last couple of years that they pick up on the ir my answer is the thermal scope from Night vision store uk it's a game changer!

i was out last night showing a friend whose bought a cheap bit of kit and was disappointed in what it could do pulled up and scand the first field of sheep only to see a fox 90yards away laying down we were lucky as I  pulled up making lots of noise he just lay ther I put the 223 with the thermal scope on the bonnet he was looking at us but just not bothered and that was it one shot a very dead Charly.

i had the Digcepter scope out on the 22-250 and at that range the ir might just have spooked him.Thats the third fox this week with the thermal scope not one of them took any notice of me all under 140 yards. 

[OSOK]

I had the same issue using a few IR’s with my Drone but since using a Dragonfly I don’t get foxes being spooked . 

OSOK

[Bob57]

12 hours ago, Montey said:

It's becoming a lot more apparent these last couple of years that they pick up on the ir my answer is the thermal scope from Night vision store uk it's a game changer!

i was out last night showing a friend whose bought a cheap bit of kit and was disappointed in what it could do pulled up and scand the first field of sheep only to see a fox 90yards away laying down we were lucky as I  pulled up making lots of noise he just lay ther I put the 223 with the thermal scope on the bonnet he was looking at us but just not bothered and that was it one shot a very dead Charly.

i had the Digcepter scope out on the 22-250 and at that range the ir might just have spooked him.Thats the third fox this week with the thermal scope not one of them took any notice of me all under 140 yards. 

Hi montey, I was out again last night and shot another 2, neither of them spooked at the ir , so it's just the odd one now and then, the thing that made me pack up was the mist, spotted the second one with the thermal no prob,but couldn't hardly see it with the drone, so yep I will buy a thermal one day, won't have to go home when the mist rolls in aswell

 

[Bob57]

12 hours ago, OSOK said:

I had the same issue using a few IR’s with my Drone but since using a Dragonfly I don’t get foxes being spooked . 

OSOK

Interesting, I've heard that said about lasers being a bit more covert !!

[No i deer]

Maybe they've been shot at and missed and noticed the ir light then it becomes an association thing

[ukhornet]

i had the same issue too so i went got myself one of Ian Sirrell XTL Lasers Now the foxes are not being spooked

and to my amazement The Ian Sirrell XTL Lasers better then my mates Solaris SRX IR Laser

[Montey]

Yep that's what we recon got one permission we're the farmer lets one of his tenants keep chickens so it's a fox magnet the problem is the guy is out with his torch and his dogs or gun he gets a few but misses a few they get really jumpy on that bit it's were I shot the dog fox last night. Pleanty get missed with night vision as well I'm not knocking lamping truth too tell I miss it.

[Bob57]

45 minutes ago, No i deer said:

Maybe they've been shot at and missed and noticed the ir light then it becomes an association thing

None been missed on our farm,and I shoot a lot of ground bordering us. 

I've not shot any foxes on our land for month's too, just been feeding them all the pheasant/partridge etc carcases so I think he has been here stuffing his face for a quite awhile now,they do get well fed while here😀 I just think he was so used to that spot every night the ir stood out at him, or could be the local do as you likeys stiring them up!!

[Bob57]

56 minutes ago, ukhornet said:

i had the same issue too so i went got myself one of Ian Sirrell XTL Lasers Now the foxes are not being spooked

and to my amazement The Ian Sirrell XTL Lasers better then my mates Solaris SRX IR Laser

Sounds good hornet, I have recently been thinking of buying a Solaris after reading good things about them, how does the xtl compare size/weight and what makes the xtl better?

[foxinmad]

Had a couple of foxes spooked with my ir also Bob, it's an armasight one on top of the drone. I just bought a Solaris SRX but not had the chance to get out and test it yet. Going to try to get out Saturday night for a few hours and try the Solaris, will let you know how I get on with it.

ATB

Martin.

[sussexsteve]

foxes see any IR wether its a laser or led. I think they take more notice if the light tracks them, they are in another foxes territory or have been lamped. Of course they could just be a bit smarter than your average fox 😁

[Bob57]

11 hours ago, foxinmad said:

Had a couple of foxes spooked with my ir also Bob, it's an armasight one on top of the drone. I just bought a Solaris SRX but not had the chance to get out and test it yet. Going to try to get out Saturday night for a few hours and try the Solaris, will let you know how I get on with it.

ATB

Martin.

Hi Martin, yeah mines an armasight ir too, that would be good to hear how you get on with the srx👍

 

 

[Bob57]

4 hours ago, sussexsteve said:

foxes see any IR wether its a laser or led. I think they take more notice if the light tracks them, they are in another foxes territory or have been lamped. Of course they could just be a bit smarter than your average fox 😁

Hi Steve, yes I'm sure they'll see led or laser but it sounds like laser might not stand out quite so much, they definately notice the ir when being tracked,that's why when tracking one before the shot I often keep it just in show at bottom of screen,seems to take the ir off them just enough so they tend to not look at you as much, but yep I'm sure there'll always be the odd smarter fox, I've allways said the more technology we have to shoot them with, the smarter they'll get to avoid it!! I'm sure cubs are born lampshy now, but I suppose it's what makes it more of a challenge 😀.

[CliveWard]

Hi All,

This is an interesting one, and it's not something I have personally experienced. I've even got a video of a fox walking right up to me with a big aspheric IR on it at full chat. I've not noticed it either using our Ruby IR which isn't as far into the IR spectrum and has quite a bit of 'glow' from the emitter.

Having said that it must be a problem elsewhere. Especially if foxes have been educated with people using a red lamp on low to scan with and pick up eyes.

Assuming foxes eyesight is the same as a dog then both an IR and dim red lamp will look like a very dim, blurry grey / brown blob.

We've got a couple of new models of IR now. These are laser diode based, have massive performance in a very tiny package and due to the small size of the emitter and lens system emit much less glow than an LED. We also have a variant in 940nm which is almost no signature at all.

Black Sun Dark Engine standard 850nm

Black Sun Dark Engine covert 940nm

Even the 940nm is getting 300-400 yards happily on the Digiceptor so 200 on a Drone shouldn't be a problem.

The 850nm is even better performance and with the Digiceptor is about the best Dedicated NV image I've seen. At 400 yards you can set the beam to completely fill the field of view of the scope and the camera isn't having to do any work at all. It's full illumination.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Clive

 

[Bob57]

Hi Clive, i've had quite a few foxes spook now with my ir, I've also had lots of foxes come in with the ir smack on them and needed a shout, whistle or whatever the stop them,so I think it's mainly what they've been spooked with in the past or where you're parked, standing, sitting etc, foxes see movement more than anything.

I remember a night a couple of years ago I was sitting in a high seat on the side of a grass field in the edge of a wood, I was looking up the side of wood to my left ,when a fox suddenly walked into the bottom of my spotter view about 30yds away, waited for it to get up the field a bit more then quietly fired up drone and got on it watching it walk away, thinking as soon as it smells my bait at 120 yds and turns on it, i'll wack it, well as soon as it turned and before I had chance to squeeze the trigger,in a split second it's head spun my way and it bolted like I've never seen a fox bolt before!!  It was pitch black that night and I had a part of the wood to my right as background, I'm convinced they see more than just a dull grey/brown glow, it was a though it had turned into sunlight, that fox definately didn't suss me, it was the ir.

**Foxes have eyes like a cat(vertical pupil) which open wider in the dark than dogs eyes, they also see the earth's magnetic field and have eyesight designed to see movement better than colour, apparently they see yellow and blue best and I wonder if the way that fox reacted they see red as more distinguishable than dull grey/brown, which may seem odd as lots of people use red filters on their lamps!! **  Anyway I suppose that doesn't matter to much now with thermal being available, just means we will all have to spend a load more money😓 

** Not from me, but a man with a degree 😋😁

[David will]

As you rightly said the fox had been aware of a dim red light in the visible spectrum which to a fox would be a whole lot brighter than you or I would see, but they are not seeing the infrared light being emitted which many people seem to think.

We should also take in to acount that an IR illuminator attached to a gun will have a certain amount of movement as you aquire the target and this moving light source will be very noticeable to Charlie.