I knew that'd git yer attention ya pre-verts. Hehehe.

But really, my little tract of hunting land on the lease is infested with beaver. They're damming up the canals and flooding the high-er ground. State lady sez she'll trap'em, but it'll take months. Sez if I'll shoot a couple of'em, she'll invite me out for the "blowing of the dams". Yee-ha.
Anyways, I slip my carcass out there with the SCAR/REAP and sit for a few hours inna ground blind over where they've been-a-using. An hourish in, I hear big Tail slaps in the creek next to me. Busted! Yet another hour or so, I hear more tail slaps. This time I decide to jump out and catch'em en route. They can only move so fast, right? So here I go out the door with this dude slappin for all he's worth "right there" in the big creek. Mebbe 10-15 yards. I can't see anything hot. I know he's up outta the water some. Nothin'. This went on for a hundred yards or so up the creek before I let it go. Never saw the first heat signature. Was it the narrow FOV that close in? Mebbe. I know I had a "variable" clear view of the water.
Just wondering if any of you guys have hunted beaver in the night and how that worked out for ya. Any tips? (Yeah, I know. Get a friggin flashlight.) d:^)  Jake.

I don't have any thermal right now but I see them just fine with I². I can easily imagine the thermal imager getting confounded by the cool water on the beaver's head. TI is considered the ultimate aid for hunting but you may have found an exception.

...and yes, we have beaver in AZ.

From my experience on our pond, thermals don't work well with beavers in the water.   They present very little area above the water.

Something to consider, having "hunted" humans with dogs and FLIR in my past; since thermal reads heat, crafty humans would try to hide under and/or cover up their radiated heat to avoid detection from overhead FLIR. Now, with the beaver,consider this possibility: beaver fur is waterproof, for the most part, to protect the animal from body heat loss to increase survivability, especially in their natural water environment since water draws heat away from a mammal to the water , hypothermia. Furthermore, since their fur is dense and water repellent to conserve body heat, it is safe to hypothesize that the very nature of their evolutionary design, drastically reduces heat loss=less thermal signature. Now, add in the fact that most of their body is submerged when in the water, even less heat escapes to be detected by thermal. Water is not a great transmitter of heat, therefore, I'll postulate the beaver has very minimal heat loss to detect and they are very adept at avoiding predators, which you are, by avoiding significant body exposure (heat/scent).  Some scent will rise to the water's surface by gassing off (think drowning victims) and some heat transferred to the water by the exposed body (once again i.e.,humans, since we have no fur to protect us and can cause some degree of heating water around the body when the body is alive, recently deceased, or decaying). Therefore, most likely they are radiating very little heat to be detected. Good luck. Keep posting to update your luck at thermal detection.

Maaaaaaybe.  

Sooooo. If I get a wild hair to start some enterprise with a South of the Border "business model" I'd be well served to set up my "mules" and "coyote" with beaver pelt clothing?
Seriously tho', I was wondering how effective beaver hide was t'wards thwarting thermal with this l'il tidbit of experience. Interesting stuff.
And a skosh depressing. $7500 later I still hafta "get the friggin flashlight" or I². Loverly.    d:^) Jake..

Yes you can see their heads swimming around just fine with thermal. I see beavers all the time while out hunting swine and yes they are harder to spot in certain conditions but overall my Reap-IR makes their exposed body glow brighter than the water.

I didn't. I'd have thought I would. But I didn't. And there were 2 of them, actually.
Mebbe I choked somehow.  d:^)  Jake..

Tons of beaver on the ASU campus. ??

One member of this board has some real good ones like this.
Bush.......man........???

 Ohhh, I got this all screwed up. Are you guys talking about albino hairless beaver? I thought the OP had an infestation of castor canadensis. If the OP has an infestation of albino hairless beaver then God save him - those things are murder to get rid of.

Agreed. Unfortunately tho', the current issue is with the brunette variety and not hairless atall (how 70's). Short and round with flat tails. **sigh**
Luckily they mostly come 'round at night.
Got a feelin the red Olight M20's goin on the KSG for this l'il chore.  d:^)  Jake..

You had to be doing something wrong. You can see the heat from their eyes pretty easy.I don't have any video, but I've seen them with my 384 core and 1.25x.

first hit on youtube shows the eyes well also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0I1Ry2P6qo

Well that's a definite stinky pastability. They were swimming away from me. And I don't have that clear of a view.
I could see other stuff in & around the water. Just not my targets.    d:^)

Oh, beavers, not beavers.

Sorry.  Brought back an old memory from 1978.  NCO school at Ft. Knox, KY.  I heard some of the tankers talking about the new thermal gun sights being installed on their M60A3's.

Back in 1978 they said if a man and a woman were standing on a hill (I think they said a mile away, could have been farther) they could tell you which one was the woman because a woman's crotch is several degrees warmer than a man's.  I remember being amazed that a thermal sight (new idea/technology back then) could be that sensitive.  At the time, and ever since, I assumed they were having a serious discussion since they were specifying ranges and distances and settings, etc. that didn't stick with me over the last 40 years.

As for beaver hunting, I suppose you mean with a rifle, my dad used to just go up the creek above the house every so often and break a hole in the dam.  Then he'd back off, sit down and wait.  As the water level dropped the beavers would leave the hut and swim to the dam to repair it (they'd notice the water level dropping where they enter/exit the hut, so they knew they had to make repairs) and he'd shoot them as they began making repairs.

He worried if he didn't keep them thinned out and the dams in disrepair they'd get enough water backed up behind some of those dams to cause real big problems during a heavy summer rain storm.  The creek is just a few feet behind the houses/coal and wood sheds, etc.

I don't know if that's legal where you live or not.

State's lady told me to shoot'em. I'm shootin'em. They're backing up the canal water into the fields and across the roads.  d:^)  Jake..

I like the cut of your jib.

Lucky bastard.   Here in NH you can't shoot beaver.   They are fur-bearing game and you can only trap 'em.

I still can't believe we ain't got but the one picture. Somebody's holdin' out!

PM- I can't begin to tell ya how lucky I am. Almost as lucky as Skypup, wherever that cat ended up.
That said, drag yer carcass down here and I'll drop ya off out there ta freeze on the banks of that creek tryin to shoot a stinkin beaver.  d:^)  Jake..

While swimming, they've always looked like comets to me with the waves radiating out behind them and their heads being hot in the thermal.  Between me and my hunting buddy (both using Zeus 640 75mm 3x) we've shot at least 10 of them out of cattle ponds/ streams and another 6 or 8 on the bank/ edge of fields.  Now I can't see any part of them that are under water.  

Good grief they stink.

pew pew pew

Attached File

You might be better off using i2 NV.

Thermal would be good for spotting, and lots of people have great success with only thermal, but personally, I think I2 is a better tech for water-bourne prey like a beaver. It's just too hard to see them when they're in and out of water like that, especially if you don't have high-res thermal.