Night time hog hunting

[Riesel]

I'll try to keep this short and pass along what I have learned in the past six years or so. I night hunt on my place in south Texas and there is always an abundance of hogs. Summer makes them more nocturnal because of the heat and aren't likely to venture out during daylight or even dusk periods. I bought a Wraith night vision scope from Sightmark about 6 or seven years ago and together we have accounted for probably 200 hogs or better. Problem was watching for hogs thru that scope will wear you out as far as your vision is concerned. Also, even on low power, the field of view is small as I'm shooting from 80 to 100 yards. a couple of hours behind that bright scope will start to give you a headache, What to do?? Problem solved.
Enter the Xinfared T2 Pro Thermal camera. Attaches with its bracket to your Iphone (Android version available) and you can watch the feeders or the whole landscape from your phone. Has a larger field of vision or you can zoom in as you like and if you adjust the camera's focus you will be viewing a nice sharp picture. Watch those hogs come into the feeder, go to your night vision scope and bring home the bacon.
Some particulars on this: as stated I hunt anywhere from 80 yo 100 yards from a blind in very brushy country. I don't chance shooting much farther as I'm assured a good hit at that distance. Started with a 7BR, then a 6.5 X 47 Lapua and now a 280 AI.
You will occasionally run into a big boar pushing 250-300 pounds and they can be tough. I have also used this thermal to locate a hog that was accurately shot but insisted on running into the brush. The brush is thick and maybe snaky but with this thermal and a flashlight location is a snap. also, I vary the blinds based upon wind direction. Good to use a tough bullet.
I know there are night hunters out there, but with this setup you really own the night with out breaking the bank on a good thermal scope. There are plenty of YouTube videos available.
I hope you find this "enlightening"
Robert, AKA Riesel

 

[ZenArchery]

What is break the bank? There are many thermals on the market now in the 1K range.
If you’re just hunting feeders your set up is just fine. If you’re stomping the ground for hours then thermals will be worth the $ invested.

If getting into thermal game I always suggest getting a handheld first to find the bacon. Then use your current set up or even a red light weapon mounted system to blast them. You definitely don’t want to be scanning with a thermal weapon system. Even in light guns it’s tedious.

 

[Mcrider55]

Did you see the new "regulation" proposal for hunting feral hogs in, I believe it was Tennessee? They want to outlaw hunting them because it makes them harder for the bozo's running their state agency to trap. They say the hogs develop a sixth sense about humans and being hunted making them very hard to trap. If you have a problem, call these idiots and they will put you in a book and sometime come out and try to trap your hogs.

PETA bullshit to the core.

 

[Dkk37058]

I believe your talking about Kentucky

 

[mic2377]

Your setup works if hunting short distances, or over a feeder. If you are doing long distance spotting, or longer shots, equipment with better resolution is absolutely necessary. This is not due to inability to spot or engage animals, but for PID (positive identification). You can get it done to some degree with that but night hunting is really a "pay to play" sport.

In terms of banning hog hunting versus trapping, trapping is more effective for actual eradication. So it depends what the goal of the state is. Unless you are shooting lone pigs, or can kill the entire sounder in one engagement, some get away and are disbursed. They do definitely get smart from hunting pressure, same as any other game animal.

Also 100% agree with getting a spotter before a weapon sight, detection and ID is way more important, and using a weapon mounted sight to scan sucks even with a tripod.

 

[Riesel]

What is break the bank? There are many thermals on the market now in the 1K range.
If you’re just hunting feeders your set up is just fine. If you’re stomping the ground for hours then thermals will be worth the $ invested.

If getting into thermal game I always suggest getting a handheld first to find the bacon. Then use your current set up or even a red light weapon mounted system to blast them. You definitely don’t want to be scanning with a thermal weapon system. Even in light guns it’s tedious.

I have seen thermals in the 1K range, I believe it was the AGM Rattler. I only viewed things inside and outside the gun store and was impressed with the scope. It wasn't an extremely large scope, I don't think they need to be, and it would probably be my choice for an under 1000.00 dollar thermal scope.
Roaming in the woods would be a pretty noisy preposition and doing this at night in a rattlesnake world doesn't really have that much appeal. I get nervous just walking from the blind back to the buggy.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

If getting into thermal game I always suggest getting a handheld first to find the bacon. Then use your current set up or even a red light weapon mounted system to blast them. You definitely don’t want to be scanning with a thermal weapon system. Even in light guns it’s tedious.

This is very interesting to me since I have a red light mounted on a regular scope already to hunt coyotes with. After finding them with the handheld thermal, will the red light give you time for a shot with spooking them then?

 

[akajun]

The best invention for hunting hogs at night is the motion activated green feeder lights
No sitting behind a scope all night and frankly you can use a regular scope.

 

[mic2377]

The good thing for the budget hunter is that cheap thermal tech is WAY better than it was even 6-7 years/ago. I had first dabbled in this with a ATN monocular that had a 256 pixel sensor. Frankly it was not very good and had extremely limited detection range and poor PID. I had checked out some of my friend's budget thermal stuff and even the 384 core monoculars are soooo much better it isn't funny.

As for spotting with thermal and engaging with a regular optic and red light... This does work OK but the better option is use a night vision optic of some type to reduce the illumination demand. Even a cheaper digital NV optic will provide much better performance as well as the ability to use IR instead of red light illumination, which is completely undetectable.

Now I will warn you, don't look through a BAE cored thermal with a 640 sensor (Trijicon/N-Vision) unless you are prepared to get the urge to spend some $$$ because they are SO GOOD. Even a 35 mm unit is able to detect hog sized animals out past 1000 yards, with adequate PID inside 500.