hello, new member here. Long time visitor but decided to bite the bullet and join! I'm going to need a spreadsheet to keep up with all my forum usernames and passwords!
I hunt hogs in the swamps of Alabama and I have found that my best option for the least cost is to have a thermal monocular and a PVS 14. I have a flir PS 24 that I use. It could be better, yes but for $1700 it works great. I pretty much ride around on ATV or Golf Cart scanning. My forearm does get a little tired, but I can cover more ground. This is the most important factor to me, more ground covered = more hog opportunities. The downfall is that at 400 plus yds, you can't identitfy between a deer and hog. I have learned with practice that I can tell by the body movement if it is worth a closer look. For a cheap option for killing hogs, a flir ps 24 and a green kill lite (I use wicked kill lights) mounted on your rifle will have you killings hogs in no time and it sure beats the old spotlight.
I have a PVS - 14 mounted behind my 3x9 scope using a night optics mount. It is a little long and heavy when you add a good ir illuminator and your eye is really close to the objective but with this setup I now can identify with no problem between a deer and hog at 500 plus yds. The down side is my PVS-14 is only rated for .223 or smaller. This really sucks as I would much rather use a .30 cal for hogs. Then again I'm into eradication so if I get some lead into them, it has been a success.
In the future I plan on getting a dedicated thermal rated for .30. I have been reading up on them awhile and there are so many options. Seems most have a video output which for my use is a waste so it's certainly not something I want to pay for.
Having used a few thermal scopes on hunts, I can saw the #1 advantage over NV is the ability to shoot running pigs.
A good example of occurred with me Oct 24th. I had came upon a group of about 20 sows/shoults/pocket pigs spread out in a string along a 100 yds in cut corn. I walked up and got setup waiting for two sows to line up for the first shot. After the first shot and the pigs scattered I was having a hard time getting on the others due to glow that was coming off the cutt knee high corn stalks from my IR illuminator. I managed to get 6, but I was disgusted with myself for not getting more. If I had a thermal scope, there would still be pigs flopping.