New Place, Hogs Down, Part 2

[Double Naught Spy]

https://youtu.be/6MT5nvnN500

Well, the Grendel (and 6.8 SPC) work a lot better if you actually hit your hog. Somehow, we both missed out first shots. dfwroadkill pulled his down and I flinched at the sound of is rifle and my bullet fly by the eye of my hog. We both picked up the runners, him a different hog and me the same hog.

We were fairly severely hampered by a lack of safe directions of fire and the repeated incursions by cattle. I swear, these were some of the most active night cattle I have experienced. They walked through our shots several times.

This video also shows a nice contrast between two of the more common thermal scopes, the IR Defense MKII and Armasight Zeus 3. Each has benefits and drawbacks. Both are good scopes.

[customcutter]

Great video, both of you showed great situational awareness, shooting in safe directions when the opportunities presented themselves.

[jawbone]

sync flinch more than made up for with some excellent running shots. pretty complicated target environment results, too. dead pork, no shot beef.

[am4966]

I like the IR DEF thermal, but both are great tools. 00Spy, if you where getting a new thermal right now what would you get and what is so special about that thermal? Since you have played with a few different brands/models.

[Double Naught Spy]

A sticky wicket question. There are several factors I would consider including hunting distances, cost, scope capabilities, how I hunt, etc.

If I was just trying to get a thermal scope for occasional night hunting typically not out to beyond 150 yards for hogs, I would get a Pulsar Apex XD38a (<$3000) or maybe the slightly more expensive Apex XD50a with a bigger lens and slightly more magnification. It is a good value for the money.

If I hunted like I do, I would likely go with an IR Defense IR Hunter, either a MKII in 2.5x or possibly the new (and I have yet to see) MKIII in 4x. The new MKIII models are 2.5x and 4.0x, but the electronics are the same. The differences in the 2.5x models are in the firmware, reticles, etc., not in performance. As you could see in the video, the IR Hunter scopes give you better situational awareness than the Armasight products. HOWEVER, I would be inclined to go with the Armasight Zeus 3, 640, 75mm lens (which I own) because the Zeus gives you better resolution and slightly more magnification. If you saw in the video where dfwroadkill was said to be waiting for the small pigs to move out of the way, it can be hard to see the difference between stacked hogs like that, but you can make out all the other detail of the environment. Then I switched over to the Zeus view and you could see the stacked pigs quite clearly, but the rest of the environment was pretty washed-out looking.

So each of the units have their benefits and detractions. So a lot comes down to personal opinions on what you like or dislike, need or don't need, how you hunt, how far, how much, and what you are willing to spend in order to get the best value for you.

[customcutter]

Great answer. You might also want to consider what type of hunting you will be doing primarily. Hunting from a blind, or spot and stalk. Magnification (lower) can play a role in what you want or need, it also is essential in follow up shots as you saw when 00Spy has to zoom out on moving targets. My 3x Zeus has a lot wider FOV than the 4x Zeus. There is a very handy feature on the Pulsar's that I almost bought that has a screen withing a screen. You might want to check it out if you haven't seen it.

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, the Picture in Picture on the Pulsar Apex series is really cool. For the two periods I have gotten to use Apex scopes, I have REALLY liked having PiP.