Okay, we were coyote hunting. Winds were out of the southeast, quarter value toward us, 8-12 mph, but the wiggler and Foxpro in the field 70 yards out, sheltered by a fence line windbreak of trees. The Hessian, my hunting buddy, said he saw what he thought was a coyote coming out of the bottoms. I got on my scope and identified it as a hog. Little did I know, he was seeing a coyote way off to our left and I was seeing a hog straight out. He panned and said, "And there's a hog..." So the hog became the primary target.
When the video starts, you can barely make out our chatter, discussing various factors and who would shoot. As we had watched the hog come in, we could see its butt was towards us and waited for it to turn.
The scope I am using is the new Pulsar Apex XD50 thermal scope.
http://www.pulsar-nv.com/upload/iblock/09e/instr_apex_thermal_sight.pdf
This is an entry level 384x288 resolution 2x (optical) scope that will digitally zoom to 4x or it can be used as in the video with picture in picture where the smaller picture is the zoomed 4x view. I had hunted with it the previous night with no luck, but watched various animals and learned the features of the scope. The PIP took some getting used to, but seems to be a nifty feature. You get both zoom for aiming and a wide field of view as well.
The video is of worse quality than the image seem through the scope. The crosshairs and text bar at the bottom of the screen look sharp through the scope, but as seen in the video, look a tad fuzzy. The hog also looked sharper through the scope, but was still a small target with just 2x or 4x at that distance.
I zeroed the scope with the POI just off of the tiny "+" crosshair vertical line at 1 o'clock at 100 yards. Given that the scope is a loaner, the cost of ammo, and that the zero was less than 1 MOA from center, I did not zero further. Bullet drop at that distance is just over 6" for the Hornady SST 123 gr. ammo.
I did my cleansing breaths waiting for the hog to turn. The hog turned and I fired. My intent was for the bullet to impact below the midline of the shoulder and hopefully come out forward of the opposite shoulder. The hog was calm and not moving much at the time of the shot.
The bullet hit and the hog ran. The followup shot was just plain wrong, no lead.
A search that night and this morning resulted in no recovery.
I have run the ballistics for various wind values and speeds relative to my 100 yard zero for the first shot. I have checked the video frame by frame for flinch and found none. I made what I believed to be a reasonable shot, but no hog.
Rechecked zero after the hunt and zero was same. The scope performed and the bullet hit, so the rest is the wind, the hog, terminal ballistics, and me. Obviously, there was a failure.
With that said, I think the Pulsar Apex XD50 is a pretty nifty entry level thermal scope. I have a Zeus that I am quite happy with, but if I was on a tight budget, this might be a way I would go. The scope I was shooting was a preview scope, loaner to me. I don't know when this model will go for sale in the US. It was offered to me for a few days and I happily took the opportunity.
