A survey gives you a total count and buck-to-doe ratio for managing the herd. One thermal flight, flown on a grid, every heat signature identified and counted.
A thermal drone deer survey is a herd count for the whole property — total head and buck-to-doe ratio from a single flight. Landowners and clubs use it to track what the land is holding year to year and to manage the herd off real numbers.
Starts at $250, first 100 acres. Price is set by your acreage and the tier you pick — submit the form and we'll send your number within 12 hours.
Flown on thermal when deer show best — overcast days around midday give the real picture of what's holding and moving on your property; smaller tracts (around 200 acres and under) can be knocked out at night. See a real example — open the demo map and flip on DEER SURVEY.
Total count and buck-to-doe ratio.
The count, plus your choice: GPS bedding areas or buck photos.
Everything. Pinned map of every sighting, bedding areas, and photos attached to the pins.
Thermal deer surveys are provided for herd and land-management purposes only. Survey data is a management tool, not a hunting aid.
BUNDLE A MAP + SURVEY — SAVE $100
Book a hunting property map and a survey on the same trip and the pair gets $100 knocked off.
Helicopter counts are the old standard, and they're built for country most Alabama hunters don't own. Here's the honest comparison.
| Thermal drone | Helicopter | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost structure | Priced per property — your acreage sets it. Starts at $250 for the first 100 acres. | Priced around aircraft and crew time, which is why it's usually reserved for very large ranches. |
| Disturbance | Quiet, high, and brief over any one spot. Deer generally keep doing what they were doing. | Loud and low by design — a helicopter count moves deer, which is part of how it works. |
| Property size that makes sense | Small tracts to full club leases. A 60-acre place is worth flying. | Built for thousands of acres at a time. |
| Scheduling | Local, out of the truck. We fly the night the weather is right. | Books around an aircraft's availability and ferry time to your county. |
| Repeatability | Same flight lines, same altitude, year after year — so your numbers are actually comparable season to season. | Harder to repeat identically, and cost usually limits it to once in a while. |
| What you get back | Counts, ratios, GPS pins, bedding areas, buck photos — on a map you can open on your phone. | Typically counts and observations from the crew. |
Fair's fair: a helicopter covers enormous acreage in a single morning, and on a several-thousand-acre operation that still wins. On a few hundred acres in Baldwin County, a drone is the tool that actually fits.
One of the coolest experiences I’ve had in a long time. Brayden with Closer to Heaven was absolutely awesome and a true professional. I had a deer injured that I was unable to track and Brayden was able to come out and put eyes on the deer and assist with assessing the deers condition. I would 1000% recommend Closer to Heaven to all my friends and will have Brayden out to my place anytime I need a drone.
Definitely recommend Closer to Heaven, awesome guy, professional and is dedicated to each and every call he gets. He goes out of his way and even helped me drag my buck out when it was 17 degrees at 12am. Couldn’t ask for better representation of the hunting and drone service community. A++
Starts at $250, first 100 acres. Price is set by your acreage and the tier you pick — submit the form and we'll send your number within 12 hours.
When deer show best on thermal. Overcast days around midday give the truest picture of what's holding and moving on the property; smaller tracts, roughly 200 acres and under, can be knocked out at night. After the leaves drop is the easiest flying of the year.
Far less than a helicopter or a truck with a spotlight. We fly high enough that deer usually keep doing what they were doing — which is the whole point, because a count that pushes the herd off the place isn't a count.
A total count and a buck-to-doe ratio. Step up and you add GPS-pinned bedding areas, photos of the deer we spot, or the full version: every sighting pinned on a map you open on your phone. Survey data is a management tool, not a hunting aid.
No minimum. Starts at $250 for the first 100 acres, so a small tract is affordable. We've flown single fields and full club leases both.
Yes, and you should — book a hunting property map and a survey on the same trip and $100 comes off the pair. Same flight day, one trip out.
Send your acreage and the tier you want — we'll send your number within 12 hours.
Also for hunters: hunting property maps · thermal drone deer recovery · everything we do for hunters