FLIR for self sufficiency in an emergency situation

I recently purchased a FLIR device for "hunter education"
http://www.flir.com/cvs/americas/en/personalvision/view/?id=44756

What I have found is this.

1. There is NOTHING else like it for spotting critters.
We regularly go for drives and look out of an automobile moving at about 10mph and are able to spot MICE on trees 30 feet into the woods and raccoon's in tree tops 40 yards in the woods.

2. Deer think they are invisible in the dark.
You can stop and observe deer standing in fields at distances of 30 yards to up to about 150 yards very reliably in the dark

3. There REALLY aren't as many critters around as you might imagine.

4. If the world changed and you HAD to feed yourself somehow, you wouldn't want to be without one of these.

5. The internal battery in this item scared me at first. I figured it wouldn't hold a charge for a realistic amount of time to use it. I was wrong. I only have to charge it after about 3 full length outings.

6. It is indeed expensive. But may be the best money you could spend in an emergency

7. The potential for poachers to use this for bad things is real.

8. Day or night, winter or summer, this is a real diamond.

9. Yes, you COULD mount this on a firearm, but it is far more useful as a hand-held device

Have you tried to block it with the el cheapo space blankets ?

Look up, you'll be surprised at what is flying at night.

Morgan Morrigan wrote:Have you tried to block it with the el cheapo space blankets ?

Glass certainly works

I used FLIR devices all the time in the Army. When I was in Fallujah Iraq, I routinely used a TOW ITAS system to over-watch large areas during counter IED and mortar missions. I could watch a scorpion walk across a field from a very very long distance with amazing clarity. So yes, FLIR systems can give you a phenomenal advantage at night but I would not call it essential for self sufficiency.

May be not so essential, as our ancesters survived until now!

May be essential for us, so blind compared to our ancesters...
We lack skills in nature.
We lack observation skills.
We lack animal behaviour's knowledge.

When I go with someone with a superior knowledge of this, I feel descapacitated!
And I can usually see others descapacity when they are not as good hehe!
I prefer to feel "bad" so that I know what I have to better