A group of us got together to look at thermal scopes and then do a little hog hunting at TLM's secret lair in Limestone County. The first hurdle was actually getting everyone to the location. There was some confusion because as you know from comic book stories, secret lairs are hard to find. There was no address, just GPS coordinates and somewhat challenging directions. We all eventually arrived, got squared away in delux single, double, and triple occupancy suites, and departed for dinner at a local hot spot in town where everyone got to known one another and we made plans for how the weekend would progress.
After dinner, headed back to the house to get the gear together for testing and spent the next several hours. The weather was unseasonably cool, but the humidity was quite high, but it sure beat the heck out of it still being in the upper 90s. Testing was concluded, so back to the house to gear up to hunt.
In all, there were 5 of us going out to hunt, traveling in two vehicles, TLM leading with Mike as he knew the way. We drove blacked-out. On this evening, I was the passenger in hdfireman's vehicle, sitting in the front passenger seat. He was driving with NODs. It was VERY DARK outside, overcast, and humid. Visibility was not good. I was using a thermal spotter and Delta4-3 was seating behind me using both NV and thermal to look out his window. As I was using thermal, I could not see squat through the windshield and basically spent the entire evening (while driving) simply expecting to die in some sort of firey collision with some unseen object. My confidence was not bolstered by hdfireman's repeated rants of not being able to see very well during different parts of our convoluted tour. It was also no help to us that TLM showed a regular liking to stopping short. It was really really dark throughout all of the night.
Barely 10 minutes after leaving the house, we were into a field and TLM has spotted the first target maybe 200-250 yards out along this dirt road bordered by high vegetation that was over waist high in many areas. The target was recognized as a hog not because of all of the technology we were using, but because it was a thermal return in a field where there were no farm animals and its size and behavior were indicative of being hog-like. To make matters worse, the target visibility was ever-changing, blurring in and out as we “stealthily” approached on foot. The issue with visibility stemmed from the high vegetation on each side of the car path and vegetation in the car path.
Okay, so it wasn't a stealthy approach. We were fairly quite, but there were some issues with the long approach to the shooting spot because 5 people, 3 rifles, 3 sets of shooting sticks, 2 others shooting video, getting feet tangled in the high grass, stepping into low spots that turned out to be puddles several inches deep of very slick mud. That all 5 participants arrived on 2 feet, was quite frankly, a bit of a miracle. To make matters worse, the whole group moved in an irregular formation where we tried not to collide with one another in the dark (some had NVDs, others did not) along with the caterpillar action of stopping and starting where the group would bunch up as the leader stopped to get a better visual of the hog and then the group would string out again when the leader restarted.
We came to a stopping point where the hog could be seen well enough on thermal and it was determined that we would do a group shot from this spot. After changing postions a couple of times, I determined that I was not going to be able to get a good shot because I was using digital NV and most of the hog was blocked by grass and such. This was a much better shooting situation for those using thermal scopes.
Everyone got setup and a countdown was made and shots were fired. Mike was using TLM's 6.8 with the W1000, and hdfireman with a 6.8. The hog squealed, thrashed about, and disappeared off of the road. We waited a short amount of before making the approach to find the hog. It had only gotten a few yards of the road, but had been spined and hdfireman deliver the coup de grace shot with a suppressed pistol.
TLM pointed out that we had been headed in this direction to check on one of the pig barrels that was only a short distance further up the road. So we continued out stealthy approach on foot until we reach the shrub-covered fence area that separated us from the field with the pig barrel. By this time, hogs had been spotted through the open gate entry and it was determined that we would get just inside the gate, set up and take our shots. This was a great general plan without all the necessary specific details.
If not for the noise of the local gas well operations, I am certain we would have been noticed sooner as there was a certain amount of clinking from the various gear and shooting sticks as we tried to set up and get situated, not to mention discussions as to how things would proceed. At some point it was noted that the hogs had taken notice of the IR lights being used to film and coming from my rifle. Mike asked who was shooting which hog, but I don't think that was ever resolved.
The group consisted of 4 or 5 hogs (4 seen in the video) of which there was one large one, two mediums, and a small one. Scale is relative.
The countdown was made and shots were fired. Mike's hog went down with the first shot and the only shot he claimed to have made during the event. hdfireman fired at the largest hog. I also fired at the largest hog soon thereafter. At that point, hogs ran in multiple directions.
One smaller wounded hog ran to the right. The smallest unshot hog disappeared (at least as far as I was concerned), and the large boar took off to the left. As I was on the left side of the group I tracked the large hog and fired one shot that I thought was my second and final shot. Somewhere in the process, hdfireman also tracked to large hog and put a shot into it as well, but it disappeared over the top of the hill and out of view.
When everything was settled, Mike was quite happy. His hog was down. We searched for the two wounded hogs with no luck. Pictures were taken and we made the long hike back to the vehicles, again slogging through the high grass and mud, thinking that it was no longer cool that evening as the hike back was largely up hill and it was quite humid.
The next few hours of the evening were spent driving all over the area and finding absolutely no hogs. So we returned to the lair where two of the three videos of the last event were compared. The next day, Delta4-3's video of it was also examined. This is where it gets interesting when folks recollect events.
Mike who was certain that he fired only one shot and down one hog had actually been on the ball. He saw the wounded smaller hog take off to the right, track it, and put a shot through its shoulders before it disappeared into the tree/fence line. The question remained as to who shot the hog because it was not targeted.
Turns out, I apparently shot the small hog as it was slightly blocking the view of the large hog. That shot may have gone through the small hog into the larger hog. Not only had I fired that shot and one followup on the running hog, but a second on the running hog, though I had no recollection of it.
hdfireman is confident that he scored one or two hits on the large running hog as well.
Based on looking at the videos and talking to participants, it would appear that of the two hogs that ran, the smaller one was hit two times and the larger one was hit 3-5 times and both hogs disappeared under their own power.
A followup search the following day revealed no signs of either lost hog, though circling buzzards from the adjoining property indicated the possibility that one of them was deceased not too far away, probably the smaller of the two.
The rest of the day was spent discussing various NV and thermal scopes, re-examining our the thermal scopes under review and looking more closely at specific features, discussing hunting issues, and then the general BS and socializing that comes from having too much free time on the weekend.
After dinner, headed back to the house to get the gear together for testing and spent the next several hours. The weather was unseasonably cool, but the humidity was quite high, but it sure beat the heck out of it still being in the upper 90s. Testing was concluded, so back to the house to gear up to hunt.
In all, there were 5 of us going out to hunt, traveling in two vehicles, TLM leading with Mike as he knew the way. We drove blacked-out. On this evening, I was the passenger in hdfireman's vehicle, sitting in the front passenger seat. He was driving with NODs. It was VERY DARK outside, overcast, and humid. Visibility was not good. I was using a thermal spotter and Delta4-3 was seating behind me using both NV and thermal to look out his window. As I was using thermal, I could not see squat through the windshield and basically spent the entire evening (while driving) simply expecting to die in some sort of firey collision with some unseen object. My confidence was not bolstered by hdfireman's repeated rants of not being able to see very well during different parts of our convoluted tour. It was also no help to us that TLM showed a regular liking to stopping short. It was really really dark throughout all of the night.
Barely 10 minutes after leaving the house, we were into a field and TLM has spotted the first target maybe 200-250 yards out along this dirt road bordered by high vegetation that was over waist high in many areas. The target was recognized as a hog not because of all of the technology we were using, but because it was a thermal return in a field where there were no farm animals and its size and behavior were indicative of being hog-like. To make matters worse, the target visibility was ever-changing, blurring in and out as we “stealthily” approached on foot. The issue with visibility stemmed from the high vegetation on each side of the car path and vegetation in the car path.
Okay, so it wasn't a stealthy approach. We were fairly quite, but there were some issues with the long approach to the shooting spot because 5 people, 3 rifles, 3 sets of shooting sticks, 2 others shooting video, getting feet tangled in the high grass, stepping into low spots that turned out to be puddles several inches deep of very slick mud. That all 5 participants arrived on 2 feet, was quite frankly, a bit of a miracle. To make matters worse, the whole group moved in an irregular formation where we tried not to collide with one another in the dark (some had NVDs, others did not) along with the caterpillar action of stopping and starting where the group would bunch up as the leader stopped to get a better visual of the hog and then the group would string out again when the leader restarted.
We came to a stopping point where the hog could be seen well enough on thermal and it was determined that we would do a group shot from this spot. After changing postions a couple of times, I determined that I was not going to be able to get a good shot because I was using digital NV and most of the hog was blocked by grass and such. This was a much better shooting situation for those using thermal scopes.
Everyone got setup and a countdown was made and shots were fired. Mike was using TLM's 6.8 with the W1000, and hdfireman with a 6.8. The hog squealed, thrashed about, and disappeared off of the road. We waited a short amount of before making the approach to find the hog. It had only gotten a few yards of the road, but had been spined and hdfireman deliver the coup de grace shot with a suppressed pistol.
TLM pointed out that we had been headed in this direction to check on one of the pig barrels that was only a short distance further up the road. So we continued out stealthy approach on foot until we reach the shrub-covered fence area that separated us from the field with the pig barrel. By this time, hogs had been spotted through the open gate entry and it was determined that we would get just inside the gate, set up and take our shots. This was a great general plan without all the necessary specific details.
If not for the noise of the local gas well operations, I am certain we would have been noticed sooner as there was a certain amount of clinking from the various gear and shooting sticks as we tried to set up and get situated, not to mention discussions as to how things would proceed. At some point it was noted that the hogs had taken notice of the IR lights being used to film and coming from my rifle. Mike asked who was shooting which hog, but I don't think that was ever resolved.
The group consisted of 4 or 5 hogs (4 seen in the video) of which there was one large one, two mediums, and a small one. Scale is relative.
The countdown was made and shots were fired. Mike's hog went down with the first shot and the only shot he claimed to have made during the event. hdfireman fired at the largest hog. I also fired at the largest hog soon thereafter. At that point, hogs ran in multiple directions.
One smaller wounded hog ran to the right. The smallest unshot hog disappeared (at least as far as I was concerned), and the large boar took off to the left. As I was on the left side of the group I tracked the large hog and fired one shot that I thought was my second and final shot. Somewhere in the process, hdfireman also tracked to large hog and put a shot into it as well, but it disappeared over the top of the hill and out of view.
When everything was settled, Mike was quite happy. His hog was down. We searched for the two wounded hogs with no luck. Pictures were taken and we made the long hike back to the vehicles, again slogging through the high grass and mud, thinking that it was no longer cool that evening as the hike back was largely up hill and it was quite humid.
The next few hours of the evening were spent driving all over the area and finding absolutely no hogs. So we returned to the lair where two of the three videos of the last event were compared. The next day, Delta4-3's video of it was also examined. This is where it gets interesting when folks recollect events.
Mike who was certain that he fired only one shot and down one hog had actually been on the ball. He saw the wounded smaller hog take off to the right, track it, and put a shot through its shoulders before it disappeared into the tree/fence line. The question remained as to who shot the hog because it was not targeted.
Turns out, I apparently shot the small hog as it was slightly blocking the view of the large hog. That shot may have gone through the small hog into the larger hog. Not only had I fired that shot and one followup on the running hog, but a second on the running hog, though I had no recollection of it.
hdfireman is confident that he scored one or two hits on the large running hog as well.
Based on looking at the videos and talking to participants, it would appear that of the two hogs that ran, the smaller one was hit two times and the larger one was hit 3-5 times and both hogs disappeared under their own power.
A followup search the following day revealed no signs of either lost hog, though circling buzzards from the adjoining property indicated the possibility that one of them was deceased not too far away, probably the smaller of the two.
The rest of the day was spent discussing various NV and thermal scopes, re-examining our the thermal scopes under review and looking more closely at specific features, discussing hunting issues, and then the general BS and socializing that comes from having too much free time on the weekend.
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. Both nights were the darkest I have ever seen, without NV is was jet black. As TLM said the humidity was extremely high friday night so you will get to see the thermals in the worst of conditions which I think is kinda good when doing a comparison.
