Night or infrared scope suggestions

[mvintx]

As soon as you spend the $$$ on thermal/night vision, the hogs will go somewhere else.

[gmsharps]

I bought a couple of motion sensor green lights at academy for about $25 and that can let you know when the pigs are at the feeder. It lights up enough for a shot within 15 ft of the feeder. I have a green light that attaches to the barrel of the rifle by a powerful magnet about 3 inches long that's shaped like a v. That works out to about 100yards. That's the cheap way to go. I also have a PVS 14 that mounts on top of my AR in 300 Blackout that works very well but that device is probably more than you are wanting to spend. I use all 3 together by using the PVS 14 as the spotter an the green lights to shoot as that lets me get on target a bit faster. There are a lot of different ways to get hogs just have to find out what works for you. Oh by the way I use the dead hogs as bait for coyotes and so far has worked for me.

gmsharps

[Earlwb]

Oh yeah, one thing to consider when buying a night scope, is that some scopes if not many of them, will almost instantly burn out the sensitive infrared or thermal sensor, if you accidentally leave it on night and try to use it during the daytime. Also some scopes use a tiny aperture during the daytime thus making for a really small daytime field of view. Some of the earlier scopes were night time only too. So it is worth it to research that with the scopes to make sure it isn't a problem for your needs.

[popper]

Yes, night hog hunting - legal in texas. Friend just uses hand held red light - if he hears something aim in that direction. Red allows us to see in the dark so normal scope works.

[Lloyd Smale]

one thing we noticed is that a light on a gun isn't as effective as a fixed light on all the time. The animals get used to the light on all the time and will spook even with a green or red light on a gun if your moving the gun around which is hard not to do. I doesn't spook them like a white light but they will still see motion and that gets them nervous. If money is not an object then no light is allways the best choice. Thermal is the new wave of night shooting and for good reason. I don't have a thermal scope but do have one of the leupold thermal imagers and I can see deer easily at a 100 yards and even at two or three but at that range you wouldn't know if it was a deer or a pig. Thermals have gotten real reliable. Only down side to them other then price is they do eat batteries. I get about 4-6 hours of constant use out of a battery in my leupold. It would even be a slick set up to have a guy with a handheld thermal unit like mine scanning the area and another guy with a rifle and green light that could be directed close to the target before he hit the light to shoot.