New season started. A few videos. Hogs down, hogs missed.

The new season started and I managed to hunt a few hogs and missed a few more. I am not very happy with my Trail XP50 since I'm having POI issues every other day. I have zeroed it twice in two weeks, last time two days ago and last night missed another hog (well aimed but I do not know if I am going to be able to show it to you because Youtube removed the video and gave me one strike. I do not know if I will upload more videos there).

The thing is, I am trying to find a new mount (Zero Delta is recommended in a Thermal forum I am on Facebook, or the Pulsar QD mount), but if the problem goes on I think I will sell it (my dealer says everything with the Trail is correct and does not want to know anything about POI issues), and buy a night vision devise.

Anyway, I could hunt a few hogs. I seems like the ones shot closer (POI moves but not enough to miss so close). The moment I shoot farther than 100 yards the thing changes. I have to drive around 150 miles every time I want to hunt, spend several nights out to have a chance, and then I miss and realise zero is off again...it's really frustrating.

First and second hog did not have a chance. Heard them, saw them with my helion XQ38, took my Trail and..bang!

Hog 3 was a strange mixture of wild hog and pig. Meat was delicious. Sorry the first shot was not recorded (the auto record function of the Trail did not work).

So far so good, but in hog 4 I noticed all shots were low. First shot was aimed at the neck and hit a leg. Second hit the belly. Checked zero and it was low in fact.

Zeroed it and went hunting again. Saw a sounder. Missed the first shot (forgot my shooting sticks...), but shots 2 and 3 were hits. 2 hogs recovered. I could have killed more but here we are only allowed to have 4 bullets in our rifles.

Later found another sounder. Let my friend shoot first (bad idea, we should have done a count down but it was our first time hunting at night together, both with our rifles...no communication). Apparently I missed all my shots.

Tried with another hog a few days later with the same result. Checked and zero was off. Zeroed it again 2cm high at 100 yards. This was 4 days ago.

And finally last night, saw a lonely hog, good shot but it looks like I missed. Attached you can find the frame of the video just before the shot.

And well, just a few lucky deer I have seen during my hunting nights.

I hope the new mount brings you results. If not, I'd be dumping the optic too. When a guy pays that much for a piece of equipment, it should function well/consistently. I share your frustration.

My hunting friend and I had trouble with the Pulsar mount in the past. What worked was using blue locktite on the screws that hold the scope to the mount. May want to give that a try. I haven't had experience with the mount you mentioned but the reviews are pretty good.
http://www.ultimatenightvision.com/Pulsar-Thermal-QD-Mount-p/dloc-ptm.htm

Happy hunting! I maybe in Seville, Spain this December!

Ratdog68 said:

I hope the new mount brings you results. If not, I'd be dumping the optic too. When a guy pays that much for a piece of equipment, it should function well/consistently. I share your frustration.

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Thank you for your reply, and yes, you are absolutely right, it's a lot of money so they should offer some kind of solution. What I find strange is the fact that there weren't any issues of this kind on the previous models ('old' Apex 38 and 50). If I had known...

gshock said:

My hunting friend and I had trouble with the Pulsar mount in the past. What worked was using blue locktite on the screws that hold the scope to the mount. May want to give that a try. I haven't had experience with the mount you mentioned but the reviews are pretty good.
http://www.ultimatenightvision.com/Pulsar-Thermal-QD-Mount-p/dloc-ptm.htm

Happy hunting! I maybe in Seville, Spain this December!

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Thank you very much for the information! I'll ask them if they send it to Spain...it's hard to find a dealer who has/does it.
By the way, if you come to Seville in December and feel like meeting, I'll be 'near' (around 200 miles lol) for a few days. We might have the chance to go hunting something...and have a few tapas! ;)