hog hunting

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10 years 7 months ago #37537 by foxhunter
hog hunting was created by foxhunter
So how do you hog hunters out there prefer to hunt them (or want to be hog hunters)?
Lets say you want to put your AR10 to good use. Do you day hunt from a stand over bait or stalk?
Do you night hunt? And if you night hunt which of the options below do you prefer?
1.green or red spotlight
2. Night vision goggles, with red dot scope or IR
3. Thermal scope
4. Thermal sight to scan for hogs, with night vision scope or night vision goggles/with IR

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10 years 7 months ago #37538 by Dabu
Replied by Dabu on topic hog hunting
I've only hunted people, but I'm guessing its the same thing... But when I was doing that we'd always do it at night, cut the power to the city, make sure the moon and stars aren't out, and make sure we had extra batteries for our goggles and IR lasers.
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10 years 7 months ago #37572 by JustMe
Replied by JustMe on topic hog hunting
Hog hunting is a real hoot. I hunt them evenings and nights over bait although I have taken a few during deer hunting in the mornings and middle of the day. I use a light intensification NVS, but would love to be able to afford a thermal NVS. The disadvantage to any light intensification scope is the same limitations to daylight hunting -- animals in the shadows disappear. The shadows at night are caused by the moon and stars. I occasionally use a laser illuminator to light up the shadows but it blooms real bad if a tree or bush is between you and the hog so you can't see the hog. Especially if the tree/bush is at 10 feet and the hog is a 100+ yards. My hunting buddy uses a red laser light which he had to modify with a pin-hole filter to cut down the intensity. He often spooks the hogs away when he illuminates them with his red light. I think the hogs see their own shadows from being illuminated and it spooks them. Thus the more intense the light, the more the hog will spook. I never have that problem with my NVS which is a Gen 3+ scope. A thermal NVS would allow you to see hogs in the shadows although the disadvantage to thermal is it distorts the animal and is sometimes hard to tell which end is the head or what type of animal it is. Especially if the animal is wet or muddy, etc. With a thermal, you get hot and cold spots which are brighter the hotter they are which distorts the picture. Out in an open field, it's not much of a problem, but in the brush the distortion is confusing sometimes.
The following user(s) said Thank You: mlotziii, jtallen83

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10 years 7 months ago - 10 years 7 months ago #37574 by JustMe
Replied by JustMe on topic hog hunting
Here's a few pictures from a few hunts.
Last edit: 10 years 7 months ago by JustMe. Reason: Duplicate picture error.

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10 years 7 months ago #37575 by jtallen83
Replied by jtallen83 on topic hog hunting
Looks like BBQ! :drool:

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10 years 7 months ago - 10 years 7 months ago #37576 by JustMe
Replied by JustMe on topic hog hunting
I gave away over 2000 lbs of pork this year, so lots of folks were BBQing.

At night I use a white flash game camera to alert me to the presence of a hog. When the flash goes off, I turn on my NVS to see what's eating my corn. Sometimes it's raccoons. You can't use an IR flash game camera for this. You can also hear them crunching away on the corn on real still nights at 100 yards or less. I like the challenge of lining up 2 or 3 hogs and getting 2-3 with one shot. Unlike deer, hogs are almost constantly moving so you have to pattern their movements, plan the shot, and be quick on the trigger when it's time to get 3 with one shot. I always wait for head shots also since I'm not fond of following a wounded hog into a swamp at night.
Last edit: 10 years 7 months ago by JustMe.

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10 years 7 months ago #37584 by foxhunter
Replied by foxhunter on topic hog hunting
DAbu,
what do you think your maximum effective range for one shot one kill was with this set up? and do you think a monocular or binocular goggle is better ?

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10 years 7 months ago #37585 by foxhunter
Replied by foxhunter on topic hog hunting
Just Me
sounds like a blast. My daughter recently took a job in Gainesville,Tx at a juvenile correctional facility, and we are in the process of setting up a hunt first week of July in the Lake Texoma area.

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10 years 7 months ago #37593 by Dabu
Replied by Dabu on topic hog hunting

foxhunter wrote: DAbu,
what do you think your maximum effective range for one shot one kill was with this set up? and do you think a monocular or binocular goggle is better ?


Well, we zeroed at 300m. But we could clearly see the laser going beyond 500m. I never used a monocular type NVG so I can't compare the two.

Considering that they do not make lasers (that I know of) that would follow a bullets trajectory, I'm uncerten of the max effective range. So I guess you just have go do some tests. Good luck! :)

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10 years 7 months ago - 10 years 7 months ago #37594 by JustMe
Replied by JustMe on topic hog hunting
Should be fun. Supposedly, TX has more hogs than FL. What doesn't make sense to me is the ranchers are complaining about the hogs tearing up their fields, but then they want you to pay for ridding their fields of hogs. I talked to a few ranchers about that and how it would cost me money for gas, hotels, meals, shells, etc. to rid them of their pests and they didn't care. I guess they have enough people that are willing to pay big bucks to exterminate their pigs. I told them they could count me out.

Maximum range? That's a complicated question based on the accuracy of your rifle/ammo, type of rifle rest, and your shooting ability. The D-740 NVS scope I use I have head shot hogs out to 200 yds. It's only a 4 power scope (available in 6 power) so I'm not sure I could do that consistently much past that. The cross hairs pretty much covers the hog's entire brain area at 200 yds, so any little error or movement of the hog could cause a wound. Plus, my rifle consistently shoots .5-.75 inch groups at 100 yds with my handloads which means a possible error of 2 inches at 200 yds. Also, at those ranges, I have to watch the behavior of the hog and guess when it's going to stand still long enough for a clean kill. On a clear, moonless night I can see clearly to about 500 yds with my D-740 Gen III+, however, at those ranges, I'd have to make a center body shot and hope I take out both lungs or heart.

One thing I can positively tell you is don't waste your time purchasing a $500-600 NVS. None of them will hold up to the 7.62 recoil. I went through 4 each $600 NVS scopes from various manufacturers but thanks to Amazon's return policy, it didn't cost me anything except return shipping. Even my buddy's $500 scope finally failed on his 5.56 and he now uses a red laser light, but also spooks a lot of hogs. He tried the green light and it was much worse at spooking hogs. I haven't any experience using NVGs or the PVS-14s that attach to the front of a regular scope, so I can't comment on those. There's a hog hunting outfit that also sells NVS called JagerPro ( www.jagerpro.com/ ) that I talked to before buying my scope which were very helpful. I went with the D-740 based on cheaper price (still expensive for me) and I thought it would be lighter than having 2 scopes on a rifle which a PVS-14 would require. Never used a NVG to shoot a rifle, but have flown with many.
Last edit: 10 years 7 months ago by JustMe.

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