Hogs & the New Pulsar Apex XD50 Thermal Scope

[Double Naught Spy]

I got a chance to test out a Pulsar Apex XD50 thermal scope and take it hunting. This is a scope that is coming out in May (scheduled) and is the higher end of a budget-line of thermal scopes.

You can look up the specifics online, but here are a couple of vids showing actual use in hog hunting. In short, it is a 2x (optical) scope that will zoom to 4x (digital), but also has a neat Picture in Picture mode where the small picture is 4x and the big view is 2x.

In this first video, we were hunting coyotes and had a call and wiggler out at about 70 yards when a hog showed up at the feeder about 220 yards away. There is a tiny + shaped crosshair (does not show well in the video) in this reticle and I had zeroed at the top of the little cross and not where the lines cross. In this way, I could use the height of the tiny cross as a drop reticle. At 220 yards, the shot should still been within the height of the tiny +. Even so, the hog did not drop and the followup shot did not have enough lead. Sadly, the hog was lost, but the video shows about the limits of the capability of the scope.

https://youtu.be/yLurdf917VE

This second video shows a sounder spotted at over 100 yards and between 60-80 when the shooting started and with a short shot at 40 and long shot at about 80 yards. I used the PiP 4x for the first shot and when the hogs started to scatter, used the big picture for the rest of the shooting.

https://youtu.be/AA2ePTCbQcw

As we didn't recover the hog in the first video, I don't know about the terminal ballistics. In the second video, the first hog went down with neck/torso through and through. The second hog was hit in the right shoulder with a quartering shot that broke the leg and was likely terminal, but a follow-up shot through the snout dropped her. The third hog was hit in the armpit with and exited the opposite side of the chest, blowing out a racquetball-sized cavity and hitting and breaking the opposite leg. Even so, the hog ran. The second shot center-punched the hog and slowed her down and the third shot was a through and through across the shoulders that finally dropped her.

All three of the hogs were sows that had produced litters or were about to and the largest was likely several years old.

[NugginFutz]

I find myself a little conflicted about the PiP feature of that XD50. On the one hand, it's nice to have a twice size view for higher precision shots, but on the other hand, I found myself getting annoyed that it was in the field of view after all hell broke loose. I suspect, 00Spy, that your viewpoint behind the eyepiece was different - perhaps even a little tunnel visioned - once the action started. It didn't seem to affect your shooting, as those were some nice on-the-run shots!

You mention the crosshair not showing up well in the video, but how does it look in the eyepiece?

As always, an excellent video. Three more farm vandals taken out!

[Double Naught Spy]

You won't get any argument from me on your opinion. All I can tell you is that I thought it was a silly feature at first and didn't like it, but sort of like having multiple instruments in an instrument cluster on your dash, you learn that when you want to see the speedometer, you see the speedometer and when you want to see the tach or the fuel gauge, then that is what you see, despite all being there close by to each other.

Of course the nice aspect is that you don't have to use it. You can run with it turned off and then it works more like a normal scope in terms of your view (except it is thermal).

In the video, the crosshairs are not sharp. The data bar at the bottom of the screen isn't sharp. When you look through the scope, those features are sharp. So there is some loss of resolution between what you actually see through the scope versus what you get on the video.

[wraith1516]

Love the videos you could crate up a bunch of those porkers and send them to michigan so we can hunt them every day of the year too all we have here is deer and only a 2 week firearm season

[rabiddawg]

Love the videos you could crate up a bunch of those porkers and send them to michigan so we can hunt them every day of the year too all we have here is deer and only a 2 week firearm season

You say that until you see the damage they do and realize there is no controlling them.

I dread the day we see one on our property and they are close. Matter of fact, i am surprised we havent been invaded yet.

[NugginFutz]

you could crate up a bunch of those porkers and send them to michigan so we can hunt them every day of the year too all we have here is deer and only a 2 week firearm season

... said the ignorant sportsman in Australia when they brought a few breeding pairs of coneys for hunting a hundred fifty years ago... Now, the damned rabbits are overrunning the place and displacing all the indigenous species...

[Double Naught Spy]

Move more hogs to Michigan and y'all are going to need thermal scopes as well.

[Variable]

Awesome vids Double Naught. You are the "Ping Meister"!

I love it. Thanks as always for sharing.

[Klem]

... said the ignorant sportsman in Australia when they brought a few breeding pairs of coneys for hunting a hundred fifty years ago... Now, the damned rabbits are overrunning the place and displacing all the indigenous species...

No argument there. Not the only mistake we've made with introduced species. Foxes for hunting, Brumbies in the highlands, Camels let loose in the desert after the gold rush(estimated 1 million now), feral cats, feral dogs, cane toads, feral goats, water buffalo up North, feral deer and of course... feral pigs.

Thanks 'licensed to kill', Always enjoyable watching your videos. Like being in the drivers seat.

[wraith1516]

Hay I don't own land I don't care if they run amuck at least special interest groups cant put apr's on them (antler point restrictions) now I cant shoot any tasty forkhornes or spikes on years I don't get a doe tag (here in michigan there a lottery for them)

[wraith1516]

Thermal scopes in winter cool but our worthless dnr would find a way to ban them just passed a law that that we cant weaponize a drone come on they're taking all the fun out of things

Life,don't take it so seriously you're not making it out alive don't remember who posted that but I give them credit if they happen to read this

[Double Naught Spy]

Thermal scopes in winter cool ...

They are pretty cool in summertime as well.

[wraith1516]

But with cold weather and black as hot all the snow here a mouse fart would show up btw did you catch the blood spray on kills 2&3 wishing I could afford a $6000 + scope but seriously great video

[Double Naught Spy]

Yes, part of the reason for doing the "dramatic" slow motion and during the credits I included the first frame of impact for #2. #2's 2nd hit blew out his cheek teeth on the left side and a lot of her cheek as well. It was pretty significant ballistic tooth extraction. That was a tad too much lead. I am still not sure why that resulted in the hog dropping at that moment, maybe just a combination of insults on the body, don't know. The first shot was undoubtedly fatal (which I could see AFTER examining the body), but he still had a good 20 or 30 seconds of life left before that happened. The shot to the snout just dropped him sooner.

[wraith1516]

had a friend's dad shoot a doe in the nose broke its neck and dropped it right there wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it he shot it with a winchester model 94 30 30 but hey those old timers knew how to shoot not waste lead love the video work I subscribed to your channel also thinking as I wait for tax return TEXAS HUNTING TRIP been trying for a bobcat for 15 years and really want a badger too