Scouting by plane
- Thread starter CForest
- Start date
Better pick a slow news day and hope...or maybe find some consumer advocate investigative sort of reporter.
Last year I watched a MT rancher use a plane to haze deer off an adjoining ranch towards his ranch and hunters. If I see it again this year, we have permission from the ranch we are on to report it. We'll video and report to both FAA and MT FWP. There is a prominent hi point he flys below and zig zags, all on the adjoining ranch, so the video would be quite telling. Still, I expect zero enforcement. Sad.
Last year I watched a MT rancher use a plane to haze deer off an adjoining ranch towards his ranch and hunters. If I see it again this year, we have permission from the ranch we are on to report it. We'll video and report to both FAA and MT FWP. There is a prominent hi point he flys below and zig zags, all on the adjoining ranch, so the video would be quite telling. Still, I expect zero enforcement. Sad.
There is quite a big difference between a pilot in AK pointing out animals flying to your camp where there may not be another hunter for 100 miles and flying in circles over a hunting area in the breaks.
So when fwp flies over during season they are pretty high. Do they just have high zoom cameras? Or are they looking more for hunters camps and vehicles tryin to find out where all the people are?
As to my original post, as being the one going to hunt it myself I obviously don't want to push any of the elk to private ground. But as most of you have pointed out that is a major risk, especially with most of the elk being on the border of private the way it is.
So maybe the better question is how high can a guy fly and still see what I would want to see?
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As to my original post, as being the one going to hunt it myself I obviously don't want to push any of the elk to private ground. But as most of you have pointed out that is a major risk, especially with most of the elk being on the border of private the way it is.
So maybe the better question is how high can a guy fly and still see what I would want to see?
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JimP
Administrator
You are going to have to be quite low to haze the animals any.
Where I live and hunt there is a airport where the take off route takes them right over the areas that hunt and the animals don't pay the planes or helicopters any attention
Where I live and hunt there is a airport where the take off route takes them right over the areas that hunt and the animals don't pay the planes or helicopters any attention
Colorado Cowboy
Super Moderator
I've seen ranchers flow so low that you could see and recognize the pilot in Wyoming. I knew the rancher and it was pretty easy. He was pushing cows and just happened to see some elk off his ranch and ran them into it. You can bet the outfitter who had a contract for the ranch knew real quick where those elk were.
Put a decent stick in a piper supercub or cub, as well as a number of other craft, and it's not at all difficult to haze animals. I watched a rancher south of Juntura use a cub to gather his cattle in some very rough country, he was often 10-20-40 feet above the ground. After about an hour, he lines up on a two track, gently lands, gets out to relieve himself, hops in and takes off. Later that day his cowboys, where they could use horses, drove about 250 head off the mountain he had moved where they could work. Very effective.
stevevan
Active Member
Flying, whatever is legal in the area you're hunting is OK by me. The key word is legal. The only time I've ever used a plane to scout an area I was going to hunt was quite a few years ago when I drew a Wyoming Area 5 Sheep tag. I flew a month before the hunt started and got a real good birds eye view of where I wanted to hunt. Learned more in an hour of flight time than I could ever get from just researching maps, etc. Mind you this was for the purpose of learning the topography/area and not looking for game. Fact is we flew at a safe altitude where actually seeing animals was difficult. My pilot had safety as a high priority which was great by me.
shootbrownelk
Veteran member
JScams
Member
Seems to me an easy way out by scouting that way. I'm sure it's worth it but just seems unjust to me. Feel like boots on the ground and finding game by signs, maps, you're own instincts etc is what makes hunting as special as it is. Makes me somewhat irritated thinking about scouting via plane/helicopter. But I'm not here to judge, follow the rules and it's all good imo. Best of luck
NDHunter
Veteran member
I don't know that flying in a plane is all that much better than Google Earth. I'd rather spend time on the ground. Actually driving the trails to learn the road network and doing some hiking would be better in my opinion.