Night hunting hogs

[avan47]

I need a scope with illuminated reticle for hunting hogs/varmints at night. My cost limit is $300. I like variable power, 1 to 4, 2 to 7, or 3 to 9, or anything in that range. This will be mounted on my Browning BLR, .308, which I plan to work up CB loads for. One inch tube preferred as I already have a mount and rings. 30mm rings add a lot to the cost. I am looking for recommendations. The Burris Fullfield E1 Rifle Scope 3-9x 40mm Illuminated Ballistic Plex E1 Reticle is at the top of my list right now. Anyone have an opinion on that scope? Thanks.

[chutesnreloads]

I assume you will be using a light .I've had no trouble seeing regular crosshairs on an illuminated hog at night.Suggest you try your regular scope and see if it won't work for you.

[starmac]

Yup any scope I have ever tried worked great with a light.
I don't think an illuminated one will have any advantage after after actual dark.

[garym1a2]

I would look at Red dots as they work well at night.

[runfiverun]

nushnell makes a nice thick crosshaired scope that just needs a flash light to recharge.
the flash light even comes with the scope.
it glows red airc.
firelight airc is the name,i had one on my elk rifle just for the thick /thin posts.
the wife commandeered the scope for her deer rifle.

[Jim]

http://floydpics.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dscn1202-e1349546408708.jpg

[avan47]

Light? That was going to be my next question. Any recommendations? Does it need to be red, or green, or will white light do? Does the light spook the hogs?

[chutesnreloads]

I've never had a hog run from a light...any flashlight will do.If you're worried about it, point the light up and bring it down to the hogs slowly.

[blikseme300]

I tried the Burris Fullfield but still had trouble getting a clear sighting at night. I night hunt hogs using a AR-15 in 300blk and lighting is a Cree led powered hunting light that generates 900 lumens. On the recommendation of a fellow hunter I tried the Sightron SII 4-16X42 HHR. All I can say is Wow! Price is not bad either. The quality is on par with Leopold, IMHO.


Bliksem
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[x101airborne]

I have been hunting hogs at nite for a little while now, so I will offer up some of my wit, if you can call it that.
I dont use illuminated reticles much. For some reason, they seem to distract my eye from seeing detail. I much rather prefer a standard reticle scope for that. The only time I use a red dot or anything illuminated is close up and when it is REALLY dark. Now I will say that the Leupold VX-Hog 1.5-5 that I have on my 50 beo is an exception to that rule. It has a setting that is so dim for the reticle you cant hardly tell the difference till you look through the scope for a while. The it becomes ever so faint that the reticle is lit and does not take away from the image.
Also, this is where I feel magnification is your enemy. Since I limit my shots usually to under 200 yards at nite, 1.5-5 power seems to work really well. Both on static and running targets. Also, get a 30mm scope tube if you can. They do seem to gather more light and I can definately tell a difference.
As far as lights go, the hogs around here are used to being spotlighted and when you flick on a light, they start moving right away. I have used red lenses, blue, green, purple and clear. My most successful color is red. I have been using it for quite a while. Now here is the kicker.... I have used the lenses on lights from 4 million candle power to the AA size mini mag lite. My most useful out of all is a S&W LED red light attached to the rifle on a swivel mount. The big spotlights are too big for one person to hold and handle a rifle at the same time. Some of the little ones are a little too weak. I think that S&W light was about 40.00 at academy and really works well. I jimm-rigged a swiveling mount on the side of my rifle that allows me to tilt up the light and turn it on. Once on, I settle on the rifle and slowly lower the light. AS SOON as I can get a shot I shoot with my thumb on the rear pressure switch. The recoil turns the light off immediately and I listen for a second to see if they run or mill around for a second shot. If they are moving off, I will flip on the light and shoot them running. If they are milling around a feeder, I will do the same as before, dropping the light slow. Now another tip on shooting around a feeder, if you want your hogs to hang around a bit after the first shot, shoot the pigs around the perimiter of the feeder area. Dropping one right in the middle can make the others nervous and cause the smarter ones to leave. Also, if you see a herd boar, shoot him first. The boars scare faster than sows and will hook the sows to run them off. My most successful feeder shoot was when I got 7 in about 30 minutes. Be patient and even if you do spook them off, give it at least 15 minutes before you give up. A lot of the time they just go into the brush and will come out again when all is quiet. Neck shots limit the "kickin chicken" effect also.
Good luck!

[HiVelocity]

For what its worth, here is what a friend uses and swears BY it, not at it:

http://bigpiglights.com/

I haven't tried it yet, I do plan on putting one on my AR for hogs after the deer season is over here in SC.

HV

[357maximum]

I so would love to try this killin hogs in the dark thing....wow. Raccoons are fun, but hogs.....wow...just wow.

[Crawdaddy]

There is another way to go about this. I have been quite successful using a standard scope without an illuminated reticle, although one doesn't hurt. I use to subscribe to the philosophy that one was needed but have since changed my mind.

I use a Nd3 laser designator. It works well on coyotes as well as hogs. The ND is close to your price range. Fitted with a pressure switch you can turn it on after you have a rough fix through your scope and shoot rather quickly.

I also take a couple of head lights with red LED's, strap them to the legs of a feeder and point them towards the ground.

They give off enough light to see movement.

I also have used an ATN night vision scope but have moved on from it, the range is severely limited. It is also above the price limit you stated.


http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7081326299_f06f7fe025.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjhollic/7081326299/) Apr 14, 2012-0 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjhollic/7081326299/) by Crawdaddy Mark (http://www.flickr.com/people/cjhollic/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7435098726_d320a1f970.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjhollic/7435098726/) Last Import-0 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjhollic/7435098726/) by Crawdaddy Mark (http://www.flickr.com/people/cjhollic/), on Flickr

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[x101airborne]

I am glad to see someone having luck with the ND-3. I tried mine a couple times and I dont know if I did something wrong, or what, but those hogs all but turned inside out getting away from it. I may have given up on it a little early, but I just wasn't impressed. I may have to re-visit it a little after deer season.

[Crawdaddy]

I'm by no means an expert but the way I do it is to open the beam as wide as I can while still being able to see the target.

I started off by keeping the beam narrow to use it the way you would a laser, but the adjustments were a little too sloppy. It resulted in a couple of misses.

I've been using it about a year and am happy with it.

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[mjwcaster]

All we've ever used was just a regular 12v plug in spotlight run by the driver (hunting from the truck) and regular scopes. Never any trouble seeing the recticle on an illuminated target. Although I love the night sights on my XD45 and really want a gun mounted light for the next time I go back.
We try to get a spotlight with an easy on/off switch.
We've only used white light, but I would like to try a red lens sometime.
Hogs are very smart, if they've been educated. They can hide behind the thinnest of grasses or in a little depression.
We learned that if we thought we saw something we would mark it turn off the light and stop, turn off the truck wait 30 seconds or more, get the gun pointed in the right direction and then turn the light on. Many times the hogs had ducked down when the spotlight hit them and were hiding. When you turned the light back on them you had a few seconds to shoot before they would start running.
Who knows how many hogs we drove past that just hid within 20 yards of the truck before we figured this out.
Heck I had one little porker hide behind a small tuft of grass about 15 yards from the truck during the day. I knew it was a pig there but really didn't believe my eyes until we were right on top of him. We were trying to kick up a larger one that I had just missed a shot at on the other side of the field.

My favorite way to hog hunt is hanging out of the window of the truck as we chase them down in the field, blasting away with a 45. Getting to take running shots while the truck and the hogs are running 20-25 MPH while bouncing across a field is a blast, I was getting good at just focusing on the front sight and squeezing the trigger. Sometimes I could make shots that amazed me and other times I could empty a mag at some stupid pig that kept running in front of use and not hit a thing.
Hog hunting is my favorite thing to do of all times, but I am blessed with access to plenty of private land in TX, when I get a chance to get down there.

And on pointing the light up and then bringing it down, this would be considered bad form where I hunt as it is calling in the game warden. Even though we are doing nothing wrong, nobody wanted to deal with a warden so you'd get yelled at if you lit up the sky with a spotlight. In Tx they like to sit and listen to you with electronic ears and watch with spotting scopes making sure you weren't causing too much trouble.
We prefer to have our private conversations stay private so no sense calling them over to listen.
And yes my friends cousin talked to one that had been listening to him, busted the warden out by catching a reflection off of the wardens truck and drove on over to say hello and have a chat. This is where we got confirmation on the electronic ear thing.

Have fun and be safe.

Matt