NV for hog hunting

[Double Naught Spy]

Guys, Allen is 100% correct. Under the very narrow set of circumstances that he described, he can probably shoot just as well with a cheap $500 NV (Gen 1 or Digital NV) scope. He is right that most hunters shoot within 100 yards.

So looking at his criteria, clear view, open area, stationary hog, short distance, it is the type of shot you see a lot of kids making to take their first night time hog. My 12 year old daughter's first hog was at 85 yards.

Now, add high grass, overhanging vegetation, rain, fog, or snow, for example, and Allen's capabilities are going in the dumpster. Why? He will need to be using an IR illuminator to actually be able to see worth a darn. That IR light will reflect off of anything in the foreground in front of the hog. Imagine shining your flashlight at your bushes at night to try to find a football somebody threw into the bushes. Will you see the football? Nope. You will see the leaves of the bushes because the leaves will be reflecting back shot a greater percentage of the light than whatever light that might be reaching the football is reflecting back.

Now, if it is a nice calm night, he is going to probably only get one shot. That is because the smoke from his shot will hang in the air and the light from his IR illuminator is going to be reflected off the smoke and effectively blind him. If it is a calm and humid night, this 'white out' condition can last up to 4 seconds. Before the smoke clears, he won't know if his hog went down or managed to run away and if it ran, likely won't have a clue as the direction it ran. On this, I speak from experience as I shot hogs and coyotes exclusively with Gen I, Gen II, and Digital Night Vision for a couple of years.

Now, if there is a decent breeze, say close to 10 mph or more, he may not even notice the smoke beyond a quick flash like somebody was taking his photograph.

Another shortfall of night vision is that camo works. A hog that blends with its background will be difficult to see with night vision. For example, a tan hog in tan grass will be much harder to see than a black hog in tan grass. Coyotes are particularly problematic, save for the reflectivity of their eyes.

And sure enough, most hunters shoot within 100 yards. Why? Most hunters really aren't very good shots. They don't practice. They don't maintain their shooting skills. Most don't attempt to improve their shooting skills. Most hunters are hunters like I am a water skier. I get to go a couple of times a year, but the real enjoyment of the outing isn't the brief time I am on skis, but everything else. I am not knocking said hunters. They are good enough to make their kills inside of 100 yards and so that is as good as they need to be. They often plan their hunts so that they won't need to shoot beyond their skill levels.

Allen likened the cheap NV/thermal situation to a cheap Walmart scope/S&B scope for hunting at 60 yards and that he would be just as good with the cheap Walmart scope. My thought on that was that it was only 60 yards. Why do you even need a scope for daylight hunting at that distance for something as big as a deer or hog? A clear view on an open field and a stationary hog and I can kill it just as dead with iron sights as he can with fancy Wal-mart optics.

I won't knock it. Some of today's cheap NV is pretty darned impressive stuff given the cost versus capability. I am all for the notion that if your gear works for you and your needs, then there is no problem. However, the distinction about cheap nv versus thermal isn't about kill success rates, but capability of seeing. That $4K thermal is going to allow you to spot and identify targets sooner and at greater distances than you can with cheap NV. If you are doing spot and stalk, you are going to be able to see and identify targets at greater range, see targets that may be hiding out in the tree line, and see targets that are virtually hidden from NV by obstructions like high grass and with such information, ideally be able to go after more targets. Most of my time hunting with Digital NV was spent also using a thermal for spotting. Even my cheap thermal spotter (a FLIR Scout 320) could spot many things my partner's Gen III PVS14 could not and identify many that his could not.

But yeah, if you got a hog standing out there at 80 yards in a well grazed open pasture, clear view, you can probably shoot it just as well with a $500 NV scope as you could with a $4k thermal scope. If that is the totality of your shooting situation, a thermal will not improve your circumstances.