Varmints with Thermal

pruhdlr

Cantonment,Fla.
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Varmint hunting using thermal is a "whole different ball game". I have been hunting varmints for some time now,measured in decades. I have done this in several different states with different WX patterns and quite a difference in topography. This,from Quebec to south central Florida. But all of my experience has come using Leupold scopes on top of(mostly)223Rem's.

NOW......a ATN ThOR on top a AR/6.8SPCII. A guns a gun. A loads a load. And a bullet is pretty much a bullet. HOWEVER the targeting of the hunted species is quite a bit different. The difference between hunting with a 223Rem up north and hunting with a 6.8 in Florida are this(IMO):
1. Unless you call/hunt roads there is not allot of long shots down here.
2. At these shorter ranges(<300yds)the ballistics of the two are so close to the same as not to worry. I just use a slightly different sight in.
3. The animals present a much smaller target down south. I killed quite a few yotes in Pa.,Me.,NH.,and Quebec that were >50lbs. Also two wolves in Quebec that were >85lbs. However what it takes to kill these animals is pretty much the same. A 223Rem pushing a well made bullet(60gr NosPart)is what I used on both wolves.
4. ANY CALL WILL DO ! That's right. I used a jackrabbit in distress in Maine and a snowshoe in distress in south central Fla. Works great because(IMO)the yotes and cats had never hear'ed that mournful cry before. Curiosity...plain and simple.
5. Camo clothing for calling varmints during the daylight hours or early AM/PM......everything black at night(except when calling on the snow or frozen lake).

THERMAL ----> Different ? IMO here's why:
1. The darker the clothing the better. Black,dark green,dark brown are my only choices.
2. The NV guys love to have a little moon/star light. I do not. On the nights that the moon is 50% or more you gotta have dark clothing. For me, the darker night,the better. I do not even bother to hunt during the full moon or several days before and after. I have an app on my phone that tells me the sunrise/set,moonrise/set,percent visible,and the predicted cloud cover. This is the varmint with thermal hunters "Bible".
3. IMO,a varmint cannot see any(or much)better than a human if it is a black night. Inject a tiny bit of light into the equation and they have a huge advantage.
4. However........as is true with a human...take away one of their senses and the others get much more acute. Varmints use,and believe, their nose even more, and their ears work even better. Add to this,they are even more skittish than normal. I normally prepare for the longer shot. I always carry my Primos Trigger Stick bipod.

Thermal has an added advantage over NV in that you can target an animal during periods of ambient light. Late afternoon and early AM being the typical. I have used it at 8AM,a full 2 hours after sunrise. Thermal will also allow you to see animals hidden by thin brush that you could not pick out using NV. It will not see "thru" brush and/or tall grass,however if even 1 square inch of the animal is directly visible,you can spot.....something alive(something warm). I have observed deer coming down a trail that leads to a food plot,long before they broke out onto the plot.

I can also see blood on the ground with my thermal. Not forever,but for some minutes after the animal is shot. This, depending on the outside air temp. You can also see a distinct spray of blood upon bullet impact and it is quite easy to track a mortally wounded animal thru the brush before he dies.

During the blackest of nights I have had two or more yotes come in to a call,I killed one,the others ran,them came back in within a minute or so. Just guessing....they might equate the boom and the flash to lightning and thunder.

Maybe this is why they call my thermal....."THOR". (??) ---pruhdlr
 
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Wassman

Houston, Texas
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I usually camp out by the gut pile with the nv when I have a yote itch. They just cannot resist a rotting corpse. Like fish in a barrel.
 

TEXASLAWMAN

Lone Star Boars Owner
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Great write up! Someday I will have a W1000 thermal scope!
 

pruhdlr

Cantonment,Fla.
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Livin' in that target rich environment...you owe it to yourself to get thermal. --- pruhdlr
 

BigRedDog

LSB Active Member
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Which Thor are you using please?

What would you do differently if anything now that you have been using it for a while?
 

TEXASLAWMAN

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My situation is a bit different because I mostly hunt open Texas cattle ranches so you can see a long way. I don't even have to call them just spot and shoot with the thermal.
 

pruhdlr

Cantonment,Fla.
SUS VENATOR CLUB
ATN ThOR 320 3X 60hz . Got some time thru the viewer now and will post my goods and bads,do's and dont's in the near future. A couple of quick thoughts though. (The following is my opinion only.) You DO NOT need any magnification over 4X. You NEED the 60hz. I absolutely love my thermal so far. I would absolutely buy another. If you have used the very best NVD and not thermal .......... you literally don't know what you are missing.

Rain and thick swamp fog will degrade my thermal somewhat. HOWEVER .... it is completely usable at the "normal" night hunting ranges. I can quite easily target a 60lb hog in the peanut fields in a slow/light,drizzle at 200yds.

Good Huntin' To All ---- pruhdlr
 

BigRedDog

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If that unit was stolen or destroyed somehow today, what would you replace it with?

Thanks for your thoughts and for sharing
 

TEXASLAWMAN

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If that unit was stolen or destroyed somehow today, what would you replace it with?

Thanks for your thoughts and for sharing


Unless he has used other units I don't know how he could answer that question. It's like my x50 it was awesome until I used the mtm, the mtm was awesome until I used the w1000 ect ect.

This is just my opinion but I looked at the Thor a lot the only area it beat the w1000 was size. The Thor used to be cheaper but not now so it lost it's only other advantage . So your looking at a milspec fixed optical zoom unit vs a ATN unit. Also the reports of loosing zero while recording were a huge negative. So far under $10000 the w1000 can't be beat.

I'm going to make a video this weekend using the x50, mtm, x320, w1000, and a pvs14 all running at the same time, same target. If I can get my hands on anything else I'll include it.
 

BigRedDog

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VERY TRUE, but sometimes, even though I study this stuff for months trying to make the "right" choice, it seems like as soon as I do I figure out what I would do differently.

Technology advances, prices change, laws change, or maybe I just made a less than perfect choice in the first place.

Then let me ask you, what would you replace your w1000-9 with if it were lost, stolen, or destroyed? (great unit by the way)
 

FrankT

Destin FL
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Big Dog, the worst is most of the time we will not admit our mistakes, or we paid too much, it shows weakness and that we made the less than perfect decision. Few if any of us have used 5-7 of the top models in the field to really have a fair comparison. Your last question and what they actually buy not say they would buy is the real answer.

My problem is the size and weight of some units but in thermal I am not sure you can get the best and it will be light and small.
 
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TEXASLAWMAN

Lone Star Boars Owner
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VERY TRUE, but sometimes, even though I study this stuff for months trying to make the "right" choice, it seems like as soon as I do I figure out what I would do differently.

Technology advances, prices change, laws change, or maybe I just made a less than perfect choice in the first place.

Then let me ask you, what would you replace your w1000-9 with if it were lost, stolen, or destroyed? (great unit by the way)
If money was not an option I would use a LWTS. I've now been fortunate enough to use almost every thermal available to the civilian market the 1000 is the best bang for the buck . Only draw backs I found were size and eye relief. But it did not take long for me to get used to and are non issues for me now. There is a new thermal scope the IR hunter that looks interesting but it's new and do not have enough knowledge about it to make a decision.
 

Brian Shaffer

Hog Hunter
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My problem is the size and weight of some units but in thermal I am not sure you can get the best and it will be light and small.

Like the old saying about you can have it cheap, fast, or done, right - pick any two but you can't have all three. Same goes with a lot of optics. There are just some combinations of traits that you can't have. One nifty option would be the FLIR T70, you get small and light, a really nifty power mgmt concept (AA or 123s, put in up or down, doesn't matter), but on sale for $15K, MSRP $16.6K and no optical magnification. So you can go smaller and lighter for a really good scope, but pay a huge amount for it and it may not be the best option for your needs.

VERY TRUE, but sometimes, even though I study this stuff for months trying to make the "right" choice, it seems like as soon as I do I figure out what I would do differently.
Technology advances, prices change, laws change, or maybe I just made a less than perfect choice in the first place.

Higher $ Ticket items I purchase with the considerations like that of buying a vehicle. I try to buy what is reliable and best suits my needs now and as foreseen in the future that is reasonably within my budget and then I try to find it for the best possible price. It does not matter what may, MAY come out in the future. You can't control that. Quite likely you will always have buyer's remorse if you treat your purchases that way - worrying about the future. In fact, chances are, any purchase you make now will always pale in comparison to what you can get in the future. So that is just no way to live. Instead, just know that you made the best decision that you could given what you could learn and your financial capabilities.
 

pruhdlr

Cantonment,Fla.
SUS VENATOR CLUB
I understand that the units size matters to some. The one that I have is 8 inches long and weighs 30oz. It is somewhat heavy for its size because it is total(looks to be anodized)aluminum. Extremely solid and sturdy. The battery compartment is super thick and takes 3,CR123 batts. It will last for (an honest) 6+ hours even with excessive NUC'ing. --- pruhdlr
 

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