Luke joined his friend Deryl Markgraf on his hunting least in north Texas along with Terry Tate and Matthew Yates. The group set up what they kiddingly referred to as their "mid-winter rabbit camp". A fajita dinner featuring axis deer steak served as the evening meat, complete with some of Deryl's specialty Chorizo cheese dip.
Rather than "jump shoot" rabbits as the group has done for years, they used Deryl's thermal monocular to locate the rabbits and a .22 caliber semi-automatic air rifle to dispatch them. Thermal imaging picks up the heat signature from the rabbit and the rabbit is then spotted with a red light and dispatched with the rifle.
The hunt produced nine rabbits in a two-hour hunt. There was little doubt that twice that many could have been harvested, but the lure of the fajita dinner drew the hunters out of the brush and back to camp.
As always, make sure and check the game laws before hunting at night and it's always a good idea to let the local game warden know your intentions.
