I have been taking down the numbers of sounder at my club for about 4 months now. Here,I kill 'em and eat 'em. I have actually passed on killing more than one when some of the "less informed" hogs come back in after the shot.
Put out some bait at my club yesterday AM that consisted of dry corn(for the sound)dog food(for the yotes)and bread from the "day old" bread store. Got back to the lease at sunset and set up to stay all night. My shooting houses as so comfortable that staying for long periods of time is quite easy. I have bottles of water in them,they have a pisser,and I take snacks for the long hours if need be.
It was a great night.....FINALLY the heat broke a little and it was 67deg. Had to put on another shirt. Was watching the rabbits feeding in the tall grass off to the side of my plot with my thermal. Then two smallish deer came onto the plot. This is great. It helps me tweak the settings. I pretty much always use the red hot setting and the white or green reticle nowadays but I like to adjust the gain. The deer stayed for quite some time so this gave me the opportunity to play with the sight a bit.
My thermal is a ATN ThOR 320 3X 60hz. It's ability to see and target animals at the longer distances is great. I have shot yotes with this thermal at 200yds. You can tell the difference between a yote and a hog at 400yds also.
Last night the good sized boar with a the limp came onto the plot at 0200. He was quickly chowin' down on the bread when one of the small deer came charging from the side of the plot straight at him and he took off. About 15 minutes later I could see the red hot bits and pieces of something coming back towards the plot thru the tall grass and weeds. It was him sneaking slowly thru the brush. He moved very cautiously and when he got to the edge of the plot he stopped and looked for several minutes.
When he came back onto the plot it took him 10 minutes to present me with a broadside shot. When he did, I put a 85gr Barnes TSX at 3100fps from my 6.8 about midway between his ear and the bottom of his shoulder blade. With the thermal I could see the blood fly and what looked like a red hot balloon hovered over him then quickly vanished. Red/hot mist is all I can figure. He kicked about 7 or 8 times with both back legs and every time he did I could see the blood squirt out of the exit hole. I packed up my stuff and walked out to the hog and even after about 5 minutes I could still see the hotter than the ambient air hogs blood on the ground.
I brought him home and pulled him up on my scales and he weighed 165lbs. Except for the limp he was otherwise healthy. --- pruhdlr
Put out some bait at my club yesterday AM that consisted of dry corn(for the sound)dog food(for the yotes)and bread from the "day old" bread store. Got back to the lease at sunset and set up to stay all night. My shooting houses as so comfortable that staying for long periods of time is quite easy. I have bottles of water in them,they have a pisser,and I take snacks for the long hours if need be.
It was a great night.....FINALLY the heat broke a little and it was 67deg. Had to put on another shirt. Was watching the rabbits feeding in the tall grass off to the side of my plot with my thermal. Then two smallish deer came onto the plot. This is great. It helps me tweak the settings. I pretty much always use the red hot setting and the white or green reticle nowadays but I like to adjust the gain. The deer stayed for quite some time so this gave me the opportunity to play with the sight a bit.
My thermal is a ATN ThOR 320 3X 60hz. It's ability to see and target animals at the longer distances is great. I have shot yotes with this thermal at 200yds. You can tell the difference between a yote and a hog at 400yds also.
Last night the good sized boar with a the limp came onto the plot at 0200. He was quickly chowin' down on the bread when one of the small deer came charging from the side of the plot straight at him and he took off. About 15 minutes later I could see the red hot bits and pieces of something coming back towards the plot thru the tall grass and weeds. It was him sneaking slowly thru the brush. He moved very cautiously and when he got to the edge of the plot he stopped and looked for several minutes.
When he came back onto the plot it took him 10 minutes to present me with a broadside shot. When he did, I put a 85gr Barnes TSX at 3100fps from my 6.8 about midway between his ear and the bottom of his shoulder blade. With the thermal I could see the blood fly and what looked like a red hot balloon hovered over him then quickly vanished. Red/hot mist is all I can figure. He kicked about 7 or 8 times with both back legs and every time he did I could see the blood squirt out of the exit hole. I packed up my stuff and walked out to the hog and even after about 5 minutes I could still see the hotter than the ambient air hogs blood on the ground.
I brought him home and pulled him up on my scales and he weighed 165lbs. Except for the limp he was otherwise healthy. --- pruhdlr
