Taking the thermal monocular out of its box and removing the lens caps, I turned it on and put it to my eye. I looked out of the kitchen window into the dark morning, expecting to pick a rabbit or other critter out in the garden. To my surprise, all I saw was my own mundane reflection staring back at me. I suppose I’d never really thought about it before, but I didn’t ever consider that the reflection in a glass window would have a heat signature, yet here was the new ZEISS DTI 6/20 picking it up. I’d never seen that in a thermal before; I was impressed.
Wanting to put the machine to the test in a more trying environment than my kitchen, I called up my friend Harry Coups, the agent at Grimsthorpe Castle just up the road.
Grimsthorpe has a deer problem. For the past few years, they have shot over 400 fallow deer annually and are still not even touching the sides. In a recent thermal drone count of the Greater Lincolnshire area, they came out streaks ahead of anywhere else, counting over 1,500 fallow on a single drone pass. Alongside their abundant fallow deer, there’s a herd of 300 reds, and more muntjac than you could point a thermal monocular at. A trip to Grimsthorpe with my new toy was definitely the answer.
When I let the dogs out at 4am, they looked at me with a begrudging glare. It was heaving with rain, lashing down in great globules. While I knew we’d all be grateful for the rain in time, it was unfortunate for my Grimsthorpe outing. Despite this, I chucked the dogs in the boot of the car, put the windscreen wipers on full power and set off on the half-hour drive north to meet Harry.
Denne historien er fra July 12, 2023-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
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Denne historien er fra July 12, 2023-utgaven av Shooting Times & Country.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Serious matters
An old gamebook prompts a contemplation on punt-gunning
Debutant gundogs
There's lots to think about when it comes to making the decision about when to introduce your dog to shooting
When the going gets rough
Al Gabriel returns to the West London Shooting School to brush up on his rough shooting technique
A step too far?
Simon Garnham wonders whether a new dog, a new gun and two different fields in need of protection might have been asking too much for one afternoon's work
Two bucks before breakfast
A journey from old South London to rural Hertfordshire to stalk muntjac suggests that the two aren't as far detached as they might seem
Country Diary
Patrick Leigh-Pemberton presents a beginner's guide to becoming a model houndsman at a new hunt - even if you might be bluffing it
Shooting proving hard to sell as season looms
It will come as no surprise, given the pinch we’re all feeling, that shooting for the forthcoming season is proving hard to sell.
Gamekeeper
Liam Bell says gamekeepers must be realistic about growing game crops without the use of any herbicides or artificial fertilisers
Number of shotgun licence holders is now in decline
New Home Office figures show that shotgun licence holders are down 4% year on year, while there are some worrying age and gender trends
A potter with a gun
Geoffrey Armitage considers the essence of rough shooting, where Guns pit their intuition and powers of observation against wild game