How to Hunt Animals After Dark With an Infrared

Infared spotting scopes for recreational hunting use are not widely used, but come in handy if your hunting activities are primarily concerned with nocturnal prey. Infared is not necessarily night vision, in that you cannot look through the scope in pitch darkness and see amplified light. Instead, infared scopes translate heat into the visible light spectrum, meaning that you will be able to see your prey's body heat through the scope instead of its silhouette.

Instructions

    • 1

      Turn on the rifle scope's thermal imaging system. On most scopes, this is the On/Off switch. The scope will have the traditional focus and range dials, as well.

    • 2

      Relax in a comfortable position either in a tree stand or another area where you have an unobstructed, upwind view of known game trails or large fields where game forages. Your position should not be one where game is likely to stumble over you.

    • 3

      Hold the rifle in a comfortable position so that you can see through the scope. You will see moderate to cool heat signatures ranging from blues to greens and heat signatures as warm as orange.

    • 4

      Locate game animals by watching for heat signatures in the red and yellow range. Where smaller, non-game animals will appear indistinct, game animals will produce enough of an outline that you will be able to identify what they are.

    • 5

      Center the game animal in the cross-hairs you see within the optics of your sight, cock the weapon and fire when ready.