How many fars with thermal?

[HawgBonz]

I've got an old original REAP-IR 640 unit I've used for years up close. I know it has the res to see small stuff a long way off. Like a measured mile. But how far do ya think it could be used on hogs? I've got some hog infested NC timber company land that's in a wide flat river bottom that's about due to be cut and there's a nice lil plateau about 800 yards from the river.
Am I dreaming thinkin I may could pull that off? I'm shootin 1000+ during regular bidness hours. But after hours is a different ball 'o' wax.
And if it's feasible, how did ya go about gettin yer dope for the thermal? Easy enough to heat up a steel, but spottin misses might be a bit challenging. :D
I'm wondering if I'll hafta up my game with a newer unit, but really hoping I can avoid it... for now. :cool:

IRT "How many fars?"

 

[Bucklowery]

Gonna be tough unless you set up bait at known distance and dope. Or you can upgrade to new scopes with rangefinders and ballistic compensation built in. The new scopes are very nice. All in unit and quick and easy once set up.

Your set up will get it done for sure set up corn feeder or bait pipe roller and get busy

Thanks

Buck

 

[HawgBonz]

Gonna be tough unless you set up bait at known distance and dope. Or you can upgrade to new scopes with rangefinders and ballistic compensation built in. The new scopes are very nice. All in unit and quick and easy once set up. Your set up will get it done for sure set up corn feeder or bait pipe roller and get busy
Thanks
Buck

I'm sure a more up-to-date unit is forthcoming, but it's gonna be a while cause I'm still re-gathering stuff for "reaching out" a bit more. Easy enough to put a high feeder down there near the river. If I can figure out the reticles on this unit it'd prolly work. But it's from 10 years ago and a different company. Trijicon bought'em out and I have no idea what increments the reticles are marked in.
Prolly just need to apply myself to figuring that out with some known distances and target sizes in the day. I've never really shot anything at night far enough away to need a lot of holdover. But now I have an interest in making that happen. :cool:

 

[Bucklowery]

I'm sure a more up-to-date unit is forthcoming, but it's gonna be a while cause I'm still re-gathering stuff for "reaching out" a bit more. Easy enough to put a high feeder down there near the river. If I can figure out the reticles on this unit it'd prolly work. But it's from 10 years ago and a different company. Trijicon bought'em out and I have no idea what increments the reticles are marked in.
Prolly just need to apply myself to figuring that out with some known distances and target sizes in the day. I've never really shot anything at night far enough away to need a lot of holdover. But now I have an interest in making that happen. :cool:

Just set up in daylight and acquire dope and good to go. I like it. Sounds like something I would be planning out too

Thanks

Buck

 

[Zen Archery]

Some of the newer thermals have built in ballistic drop compensation. Hit the range find button and it moves the reticle to the right drop hold (you'll have to make the wind call). I tested it out to 800 on IPSC targets and was impressed. I'll post video of my first coyote head shot at 200 yards tomorrow. Pretty impressed. Headed out with it this weekend for more play time.

 

[HawgBonz]

Some of the newer thermals have built in ballistic drop compensation. Hit the range find button and it moves the reticle to the right drop hold (you'll have to make the wind call). I tested it out to 800 on IPSC targets and was impressed. I'll post video of my first coyote head shot at 200 yards tomorrow. Pretty impressed. Headed out with it this weekend for more play time.

Excellent! I binged on YT vids when I was figuring out which monocular/spotter I wanted to replace the one I foolishly sold back when I got out of the late gig for a while. Sometimes vids of the Pulsar scopes would pop up in my feed and the way they worked seemed very interesting. Looked pretty slick and I liked the way they would "zoom up" instead of big jumps.
I'll also say that I was impressed with the image quality of the lil Nocpix Lumi I ended up with.. :cool:

 

[RB II]

Frozen milk jugs work good for sighting in thermals. But I am not familiar with that unit, NV or thermal?

 

[HawgBonz]

It's thermal. Originally made by a company called IR Defense back around 2016 they were bought out by Trijicon and I think they still make it. What I don't know is if they changed the reticle designs. They look the same, but there was some janky voodoo in the manual about how they worked that seems like they may have been updated.
I reckon I'll just take it out one morning early before everything else gets heated up and see what's what with it at a lil distance with a familiar load and mebbe use the digiscope setup to spot in case I can't see misses clear enough in the REAP.
I guess what I was askin originally was how far is thermal a viable option for assuming enough resolution? Seems @Zen Archery has used it on out a ways and at a range I was concerned with.
That's very encouraging. :cool:
This is just a lil pet project I'm piddlin with since the gear is already here and I know that beautiful cutover is just around the corner.

 

[HuntingBronco]

I put out a steel plate (8") at various ranges and put a large backer behind it. Shoot, if no "impact" - run down and see if your backer caught your miss. Rinse and repeat at various intended ranges. Thermals I have will have FFP and SFP reticles, just a matter of selecting and then doing your dope. While I haven't tried it, I would think that 8" gong heated for a few seconds with a blow torch would provide a nice target way out there. Here you can see white gong with white cardboard backer clamped to gong frame.

 

[jeep351]

I often shoot with my thermal (an old Armasight Zeus) out to 500yds on pigs weekly, and it could easily shoot well past that if I had more range. Someone mentioned using a corn feeder, which is spot on and exactly what I do. Without a range finding scope, its very hard to range a target with a thermal (there is no depth perception)... unless they are under a feeder at known range.
As for sighting in at range, I use a "hot hands" taped to a 4'X8' election sign. You will need to go down range to spot your shots, but you will get on target very quickly and the hot hands will give you a glowing bullseye for hours.
How far you will be able to see through the thermal is largely dependent on the size of your objective lens. I've got a 50mm objective lens and can spot a rabbit at 600yds. I've tried out a 30mm objective lens thermal and the difference was pretty obvious, I think it would have trouble with anything past the 300yd mark.

 

[HawgBonz]

Good ta hear!
The feeder will prolly be the way to go to get them directed to a point. It's a wide flat area down in that bottom and even with my familiarity with the area trying to range switching from monocular to laser would be at best "iffy". Waitin'em out to see if they get to the feeder would be pure torture.
..I've used all kinda of mess for sighting in a thermal. The Hot Hands are a great option. I've used a lighter on a piece of brass stuffed in an existing hole for a POA @100y as well.
Mine's a 35mm 640 unit and far as the res is concerned I've spotted a critter up in a tree on the edge of a cornfield from my place in Burgaw, NC. It was ~mile according to Google Earth. I dunno bout aiming at anything that far away cause it was just A pixel IIRC, but I did see it. 800 on somethin larger oughtta be doable for a stankin' ol hog.
Thanks for the responses, fellas, They're encouraging. The 500y range is not uncommon at all at my lease.

 

[DougsCamo]

Excellent! I binged on YT vids when I was figuring out which monocular/spotter I wanted to replace the one I foolishly sold back when I got out of the late gig for a while. Sometimes vids of the Pulsar scopes would pop up in my feed and the way they worked seemed very interesting. Looked pretty slick and I liked the way they would "zoom up" instead of big jumps.
I'll also say that I was impressed with the image quality of the lil Nocpix Lumi I ended up with.. :cool:

Try using the thermal spotter during the day if legal where you are. It will amaze you what you can see that is difficult to see through standard optics.

 

[twraska]

I wouldn't dream of using a thermal to identify a hog at 1000+ yards, too easy to kill a deer. Yes, I know they behave differently it a deer grazing in grass and a lone hog in ankle high grass eating are too hard to differentiate.

 

[HawgBonz]

Try using the thermal spotter during the day if legal where you are. It will amaze you what you can see that is difficult to see through standard optics.

It is and I've used it on cold days for locating deer bedded in the broomstraw and other vegetation. Works wonderful until everything else gets heated up. :cool:

I wouldn't dream of using a thermal to identify a hog at 1000+ yards, too easy to kill a deer. Yes, I know they behave differently it a deer grazing in grass and a lone hog in ankle high grass eating are too hard to differentiate.

I'd think it's a given, or should be, that ya don't shoot at anytime w/o a 100% ID, I don't just shoot at a heat signature. Even with my older gear it's pretty easy to tell the difference in pigs n deer a pretty good way out, depending on the coverage. That much I know. Dunno bout 1000+ yards out. But in these new cutovers it's pretty wide open and the first few months the critters still use their established routes even if they look a lot different. I know you guys in Texas get more open places than we do here in NC, but a fresh cutover is a pretty barren landscape. I'll hafta re-apply myself to checkin this out. There's some yuge farmer's fields around the lease area that'r over a mile where I can see deer and pigs.
What say the rest of ya? Is the long thermal shot "ill advised"? :cool: