Pigs at night, what optic?

[Nine Banger]

Does anyone have thermal goggles?

I'm hunting on foot in forest and fields.

I'm losing shot opportunities on targets for 2 primary reasons:
- spotting targets that are moving into thick vegetation.
- losing targets to vegetation or terrain while I transition from spotter to rifle.

I wonder if goggles will help with spotting targets farther away or sooner.

 

[Tom-D]

Woof. I’ve done that before and it sucked. Too often I would miss shot opportunities because of the delay switching from the thermal to a light. Not to mention any foliage between the shooter and the animal will light up so bright it makes it tough to see the animal. It works, but for $2K you can get some really solid thermal scopes these days.

Iv done it that way a bunch of times with mates of mine though i personally dont own one, i havent had an issue. Seems like it would be a pain trying to scan around with a rifle. I had a good mate that was living on a farm shooting pigs every night and had both and he seemed to think the scope wasn't very useful without the spotter. But most of that was from a car so a different style

 

[Zigzag357]

Yeah…. Nope. Not correct.

Not to mention the OP’s got a $2k budget. A weapon mounted thermal is clearly the answer. Your nods and laser is slick, but irrelevant for this conversation.

You can buy a pvs 14 for under if not at 2k and nothing has a faster refresh rate than an intensifier tube it’s legit just glasses

 

[Crews]

You can buy a pvs 14 for under if not at 2k and nothing has a faster refresh rate than an intensifier tube it’s legit just glasses

So the OP maxes out his $2k budget for a PVS-14 and then what? It can’t go on the rifle. Helmet, illumination, laser…. You’re talking double the budget for a tool that doesn’t work half as well as a thermal in the OP’s stated conditions.

 

[Crews]

Does anyone have thermal goggles?

I'm hunting on foot in forest and fields.

I'm losing shot opportunities on targets for 2 primary reasons:
- spotting targets that are moving into thick vegetation.
- losing targets to vegetation or terrain while I transition from spotter to rifle.

I wonder if goggles will help with spotting targets farther away or sooner.

I’ve done a lot of night time hog hunting, and have always said if I could afford a second luxury item aside from my weapon mounted thermal it would be a helmet mounted thermal monocular. The weapon mounted thermal, in my opinion, is #1 priority and trying to switch between handheld and rifle mounted is very problematic.

I’d wonder about binoculars because there is the issue of depth perception to consider.

 

[Boltgun]

Does anyone have thermal goggles?

I'm hunting on foot in forest and fields.

I'm losing shot opportunities on targets for 2 primary reasons:
- spotting targets that are moving into thick vegetation.
- losing targets to vegetation or terrain while I transition from spotter to rifle.

I wonder if goggles will help with spotting targets farther away or sooner.

I hunt similarly, and have found a very lightweight rifle (SBR 11.5” AR with light components) allows for scanning and being ready to shoot quickly. It is fatiguing after 5-7 hours though.

 

[Alpine4x4]

Arken Zulus has been great for me so far.

 

[Nine Banger]

I hunt similarly, and have found a very lightweight rifle (SBR 11.5” AR with light components) allows for scanning and being ready to shoot quickly. It is fatiguing after 5-7 hours though.

We're on the same page. I'm running my Jp-5 w/ 8" barrel and a suppressor. I usually do 1-2 hrs a night.

My current tweak is to stop trying to put the spotter back in its carrier and just hold it and throw the rifle up on my forearm for an offhand shot.

 

[Delta21]

The Rix storm looks enticing. Anyone with experience with these?

 

[Whaledriver]

I have an AGM rattler v2. Sweet setup. QD could work as a scanner and mount to gun to fire. 200 yards would not be a problem with it.

 

[Boltgun]

I think there’s a pretty solid market for a mount manufacturer (AGM are you listening?) to make a Quick Connect mount for thermals, so that they could easily and quickly (and in the dark) be remounted to a rifle in a way that returns to zero.

For $200-300, a mount like that would be a no-brainer for budget thermal owners that want a spotter than can quickly transition to thermal scope.

 

[omicron1792]

I’ve done a lot of night time hog hunting, and have always said if I could afford a second luxury item aside from my weapon mounted thermal it would be a helmet mounted thermal monocular. The weapon mounted thermal, in my opinion, is #1 priority and trying to switch between handheld and rifle mounted is very problematic.

I’d wonder about binoculars because there is the issue of depth perception to consider.

I have binos. I like them way better than the two different monoculars I tried before the binos.

I have th pulsar merger xp50

 

[omicron1792]

The Rix storm looks enticing. Anyone with experience with these?

I’ve demoed the rix. Good quality product.

The new pard multispectral is nice too. Day, night, and thermal. I use it on my AR and crossbow with QD mount.