Experience with Game Finder anyone?

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mfbekkers

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I am thinking of purchasing an electronic gamefinder (infrared). Are there any THR members out there who have experience with these high tech toys?
 
Better to ensure you take good shots & spend the time to acquire sound tracking skills & knowledge. These will serve you best.
 
i know one person that used one of these. poor hit and it was drizzling. needless to say, it didn't help him find the deer. take the money that you would have spent on it and buy ammo....practice with that ammo and you shouldn't need the gamefinder.
 
I've got one. I'd give it to you for the postage if I could find it. Then again, probably not because I'd be screwing you out of the postage.

I tried to use it the way the directions said. I called the factory and talked to two different guys there. No dice.

Worst $30 I ever spent.
 
Why we need such a device

Let me explain why a gamefinder would come in handy. I live in Europe where a common small deer species called roe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_deer) is hunted.
The problem is that the time of year when the kids are born coincides with the time when farmers mow their pastures for hay. Very often roedeer kids end up in those mowing machines and get killed. Their natural instinct as a kid is to lay down and keep still when danger comes near. So they do not flee for the big mower.
Suggestions anyone?
 
Hire a guy or send one of the kids, to walk in front of the tractor.

I know that won't be done, but I don't really see an alternative.

Wild ideas:

Mount a "woop-woop" horn or siren on the tractor?

It MIGHT be possible to mount a high-quality IR detector out in front of the tractor, wired to an alarm next to the operator.

Art
 
This is just a wild idea from somebody who has never farmed. Can you put something like a cow catcher on the mower? I'm thinking something simple like a cross piece a couple feet in front of the blades with lengths of chain hanging from it.
 
A sickle-blade mower has a bar of roughly eight feet or so in length, with triangular saw-teeth about three inches on a side. The toothed bar slides back and forth, cutting against fixed teeth on the parent bar. It's used for cutting hay for conventional bales.

A shredder pretty much makes mulch of everything in its path; this is what's used along highway rights of way. Don't fall off the tractor seat; it's a one-time event.

Then you have your combine-type, the large rig with the blades like a giant old-timey push-type lawnmower. The wheatfield stuff.

Offhand, I don't see any easy mechanical way to protect whatever critter is in the path...

Art
 
Offer an outdoors-oriented young man/woman the job to walk ahead . . . gives a deserving kid both a job, a positive "I-made-a-difference experience," and future memories.
 
mfbekkers, you need a "shoo roo", it's an ultrasonic noise generator that drives animals away. They are very popular with country drivers here in Australia because our Kangaroos like to feed along the road side at night.
http://www.shuroo.com/
 
Just keep running over them. Eventually they should hopefully adapt :) and not be as stupid.
 
The IR game finders marketed to hunters do not work. The IR units firemen use DO work but they costs thousands compared to the cheaper hunter versions.

The ultrasonic game alert devices also DO NOT work. Several tests published in hunting magazines have shown they DO NOT scare animals away from roadways. Lots of slick ads but that is all you're going to get. State road depts are now looking at IR sensors mounted along highways to flash signs/lights that warn drivers to slow down. The only problem with that design is getting lead footed fools to drop their speed.
 
night vision?

-"The IR game finders marketed to hunters do not work. The IR units firemen use DO work but they costs thousands compared to the cheaper hunter versions."-

But what device WoUld work? I've seen night vision equipment on some milsurp sites. Anyone experience with those?
Look here, that's maybe something:http://www.spyshop.nl/files/nachtzicht.php scroll down to 'warmtebeeldcamera'.
 
Very often roedeer kids end up in those mowing machines and get killed. Their natural instinct as a kid is to lay down and keep still when danger comes near. So they do not flee for the big mower.
Suggestions anyone?
Click to expand...
A good well trained dog - or dogs - to scour the area before mowing.
 
LAK

Beat me to the punch :) Sounds like a purpose trained dog would be the perfect solution.

As I understand it fawns tend to give off very little scent but I have observed dogs locate them in hay fields and along trails on more than one occasion. Those dogs were just average farm hounds, trained for nothing.

The bigger question to me is what the heck does one do with fawns when they are located?
-mow around them?
-move and try to relocate...how does the doe get back in the equation?
-since their cover is about to be carried away where will they go after it goes?

I used to help my Uncle put up hay back in my youth. The number of quail nests destroyed in some fields was just amazing, two to half dozen per acre in some cases. I've been giving this problem some thought for years but, then again, even with a good locator dog, by the time you found all the nests you couldn't mow for them.

About the best fix I could think of was having a bunch of QU volunteers walk right behind the mower and run the undamaged eggs to an incubator ASAP.

S-
 
Personally, I go to a local psychic. She's down on the waterfront near some restaurants, in a grassy area where there are jugglers, mimes, caricature artists, etc.

She offers a money-back guarantee.
 
It seems like this thread got off on an unrelated tangent and now there are two unrelated topics being discussed.
I've used both the infared game finder and the Gerber Carnivore to track blood. Neither has had any value whatsoever and both failed at their job miserably!
Cabela's even went so far as to advertise that they were refunding money to anyone who bought the Gerber Carnivore because of all of the complaints that they got. The Gerber Carnivore uses LED lights to (supposedly) make old blood appear brighter in low light. Fail!!
 
Not sure what you call the device.
Click to expand...
A major breakdown waiting to happen when a chain falls into the header.

My ex-son-in-law had a game finder and it was useless. Save your money.

A good well trained dog - or dogs
Click to expand...

They would have to be VERY well trained. You don't want to know what a dog looks like after they chase a rabbit through a mower.

It is almost impossible to get very young fawns to move completely out of the way of a mower. They usually want to move into the center of the field instead of across the already mowed part. I've mowed around quite a few and the doe doesn't seem to have any problem finding and moving junior that night. Turkeys on the other hand are usually buzzard bait. I've also mowed aroung their nests and those small patches of grass are very interesting to the local coyotes. When I've come back to bale the fields there was a little patch of feathers and broken eggs where the nest used to be.
 
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