Night Vision Busting Pigs With Budget Thermal

[diggler1833]

I know that the trend is to laud the most expensive equipment out there. I get it, one definitely gets what one pays for when it comes to thermal optics. I will be the first to suggest to spend as much as you absolutely can, but it is not necessary to spend $7-9K to find a serviceable optic. I just wanted to share what my meager budget allows me to do. This isn't a hobby for me as much as it is a necessity. Every year, acres of pasture and hay meadows are torn up on my place. Most of the footage is within a few hundred yards of my house, but I do hunt a few friend's places too to try to help them out.

You can tell a definite video quality improvement about halfway through the killing...that would be the firmware update 4.0 for Pulsar's products.

Not much I can do about the production quality...I'm always going to suck at that.

For those on the fence about thermal hunting, but only have a budget of $3-4K, you can do this...

 

[Carlos Danger]

Damn. You are the merchant of death with that thing. I don't even live where there's a pig problem and I despise them just on what I see they do out there. Keep up the good work.

 

[yakstone]

Nice shooting. Wish I lived closer, I gladly help you out.

 

[SDBguy95]

Show this to people who ask why you need an AR for hunting What tripod do you use?

 

[RustyNutz48]

Well played sir! I think we all tip our hats to you.

Cheers!!

 

[rancher5]

Man their like rats, you sir got a problem. Nicely done.

 

[NovaHunter]

Nice. What model scope are you running?

 

[softcock]

Is that a running Coyote in the far treeline after the cow and calf walks by your shot hog ? .. @ 2:50 in Vid. looks your Therm. got more than enough resolution to even pick-up that also .
.

 

[cm1021]

Show this to people who ask why you need an AR for hunting What tripod do you use?

Looks like a trigger stick to me.

 

[cm1021]

Man you are deadly with that combo!! What scope is that?

 

[Burning sensation]

Great shooting man, keep killin’em! Nothing wrong with an XQ38.

 

[diggler1833]

Sorry for the late replies, been moving cows and loading/taking old culls to market.

My thermal optic is a Pulsar Trail XQ38. The tripod is a gen 3 Trigger Stick.

The XQ models of Pulsar have really improved with the firmware 4.0 update. They are still well behind the quality of the Trijicon and N-Vision, but are less than half the cost.

I have a buddy who has the IR Hunter Mk3 60mm...seeing the same shooting scene with both of our setups really brings out the disparity between top quality and budget.

However, 95% of my shooting situations have never left me saying that I needed a better optic in order to do my job. I can only think of two times where it would have been the difference; one time I shot a hog and thought it down in tall grass at about 100 yards, when in reality it got up and ran off...the other time was a 200 yard opening shot that hit, but didn't hit well enough to drop the hog and she made it through the fence.

 

[napt0wnc1ty99]

Awesome video! What was your average distance shooting at?

 

[Geeb]

Nice job!

 

[diggler1833]

Awesome video! What was your average distance shooting at?

My average engagement is right at about 75 yards. Some guys stalk closer, others are more comfortable with longer shots.

 

[Longshot85]

Aweome video

Much respect for getting the best gear you can and being proficient with it

 

[shlouf]

That reminds me I need to update the firmware in my XP38.
I see they added the user mode. I can't wait to install this update. I HATED the bullshit losing your B/C settings when pushing the first button and having to long press for switching between black and white hot.

..I see it's been available for XP models since January. Damn I'm behind

 

[Rerun7]

Good video. I’ve seen on here that anytime someone wants a budget thermal this is one of the top suggestions. I run one as well and have been very pleased with it.

 

[napt0wnc1ty99]

My average engagement is right at about 75 yards. Some guys stalk closer, others are more comfortable with longer shots.

Was going to say the quality is pretty good. Where I’m at in FL that’s about the average range I’d be at. Maybe 150 at most.

Keep up the good work over there and keep posting those videos. Never gets old watching