What are your thoughts on using drones to assist in dead or wounded game retrieval? In Texas, it's technically illegal to use them, though I haven't heard of game wardens enforcing this law. The only states that have specifically made it legal are Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware (not in state wildlife areas), Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

There is currently a case in Pennsylvania where the local game wardens set up a sting to arrest a guy using his thermal drone to help recover wounded deer. Article is here:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/pennsylvania-man-fined-using-drone-190023116.html

My thoughts? Hunting dog's with deer has been illegal in Texas for decades, but using a blood trailing dog to recover deer is perfectly legal. No difference with drones IMO. As long as you aren't using drones to actively hunt deer (just locate an injured one) it should be allowable.

Drone Game Recovery single choice
	Yes - it's stupid to waste game if technology can help
	No - people would abuse the law and we were fine before drones were invented
	Maybe - (I'm waiting to see what BoBo say's)
Votes accepted starting: 02/26/24 09:27 PM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

lI’m for it. Not sure how practical it is before canopy falls but Id utilize it.

Suxs he got fined but glad he tested it in court so that the bad optics might get the law changed

No different than hiring a tracking dog IMO….

All I can add is I know what the result would be if someone flew a drone over my ranch during deer season.

It would need to be limited to land you are authorized to hunt of course.

Just a FWIW, since we were able to buy them, we have used them here on my ranch to help locate cows that we could not find otherwise. Black brush and guajillo is so thick you can't get thru it otherwise. Nice to have during calving time.

Frio

Like hog dogs?

Drone can be controlled and the operator is 100% responsible.

Dog really cannot be controlled property wise and the owner is 100% responsible.

Meh, you'd miss.

Dogs can be controlled, any good hounds man can call their dogs off and back

here is an idea - to use a drone to track a wounded animal the GW has to be notified first - if someone was going to use the drone for the wrong reasons they would not want to contact the GW

That’s a great idea.

Where does one find these athletic hound men with 100% control of their dogs? On the aisle next to the unicorns? No doubt people on here would like a few references as feral hogs are a big problem? Please provide some endorsements to pass along.

That’s not a chicken stuff post. Many would be happy to know a trusted steward of the land.

Is it? Do the game wardens want to get notified every time somebody breaks out a drone? Nope.

Do any of us want to have to call the GW before using our gear? Nope.

What if you can't reach the game warden? What if the game warden says NO? What proof do you get back for having notified the GW? You don't want to notify one only to be ticketed by another.

And why would this just apply to deer? Why would it not apply to any hunted species? I highly doubt the GWs want a call at 2:00 AM from a hog hunter, notifying the GW he will be looking for a hog, LOL.

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You have confused a couple of issues, dog training and human handlers.

He is right. Dogs can be controlled and be taught to do amazing things (my daughter works at a dog training facility). Some dogs are better than others. That is 10% of the training problem. 90% of the training problem are the trainers and owners. You need a proper trainer. Most of the idiots that train their own dogs to hunt hogs don't actually know how to train dogs properly and end up with poorly trained dogs. Of course, this works to their favor when their dogs end up on the wrong property and they have to go looking for them, right? As my daughter notes, even if you have a properly trained dog, if the dog owner isn't fully up to speed, then the owner can't fully control his/her animal.

You would be amazed in that you don't have to be athletic to control your dogs. You can go with GPS collar and radio signals to control the dogs. They don't run them down on foot. Most everyone uses ATVs, LOL.

The use of thermal drones with quality equiptment is awesome. There is a group "Drone Deer Recovery" that specializes in selling equiptment. This could easily be done by requiring it in non shooting hours, must have license to fly drone, etc. The group not only finds the deer but can zoom in and see if he is wounded and condition of animal. The equiptment they use is in the five digets. I do not agree with flying over daylight hours for many reasons. One last thing they built a drone so big they pucked up a doe and flew it a short distance!!

how do you think bear and lion hounds man get their dogs back. I have sat behind a spotter and watched a bear out run a pack of hounds over the top of a mountain. Handler simply buzzed their collars and they turned around and returned to the exact spot they where let out via their back track. Difference in someone that does it for a living and a kid. It’ up to handler to know boundries, watched him buzz them back when a bear cross onto a big private ranch also.

Hog dogs arent an effect tool in controlling hogs.. Cool you bayed one hog. Regardless if you can call a dog back or off, dont turn them loose.

I have no issue with it.
No different than tracking a injured/downed deer at night while carrying a rifle. Similar to the dogs example in the OP.
I also have no problem with using a thermal scope or binos to find injured/downed deer at night. Airborne thermals would be cool.

As an owner of a company that provides wildlife surveys using thermal drones (which is legal in Texas), I can shed some light on this issue - and why it's allowed in other states but not Texas. Our clients, after seeing the results of their surveys, almost always inquire about our ability to locate dead or wounded animals. So, I've talked with the those at TPWD in charge of aerial wildlife management extensively about this rule.

From their point of view, they are worried that allowing people to use drones in order to recover dead and wounded animals will open up the opportunity for bad actors to exploit this by finding trophy bucks they "thought they wounded" (but never even shot) and then actually shooting the buck because they know its exact location. Essentially, it is an issue of fair chase and the fear that people will abuse technology to make finding the exact trophy animal they want to shoot much easier.

Personally, I'm from the belief that those bad actors who would do this probably don't care about what the rules are and are doing this anyway right now. So, the fact that TPWD prevents everyone else from using a technology that has proven very helpful across other states in locating dead and wounded deer that would otherwise never be found doesn't make a ton of sense to me. I'm hoping that as drones for recovery become more prevalent everywhere else, they will reconsider their stance on the issue.

A few safety guards they could put in place are:
1.) Only allowing companies that hold Aerial Wildlife Management (AWM) permits to conduct this work
2.) If a deer is located and determined to be not wounded, the drone operator is not allowed to disclose the location to the hunter
3.) Like someone mentioned before, notifying game wardens when a flight for this purpose is going to be flown

I would think that any opposition would be what skysendero just posted about what TPWD thought. Right or wrong it will be the prevailing negative thought process. Bad guys have forever messed stuff up for the good guys.

Sadly that's too true

I just called a place and they will do a deer survey on my 100 acres for $500. They stated that the best time of the
year is Jan-Feb. so that the leaves are off the trees but the deer still have antlers.

I'm all for it! A dog/drone team would be very efficient in most all scenarios.

Can someone tell me what the law says if you are using dogs to track/recover a wounded deer at night. If they find it wounded still alive can you shoot it after dark with artificial light?

Definitely!