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Thermal scope night hunts: yes/no

Who is interested in this type of paid hunts. We're thinking of making it a thing on the Shiloh in the summer! Let's see some feedback.

No

only for world class wolds, at less than 100yds

Personally, I wouldn’t pay to shoot a hog, any hog, but I understand why some folks would. People who don’t think it’s ok to shoot hogs with thermal or night vision don’t have hogs 24/7/365. I do, and they are vermin.

Yes

Ditto on what drycreek said. Those night hunts would be a hoot (and let you pretend you're a Navy Seal snuffing Talibanis).

It may affect your day hunts but they are very fun. Lots of folks ask about night hunting at our family place in Texas. You'll have folks that don't know anything about thermal equipment using expensive stuff, maybe go guided for the night hunts. We also found out folks that don't know your property can get turned around at night and might shoot something other than a hog. Good luck, you will sell those hunts if you go that route, adds lots more late night work to your day as well.

I think it would be like running coon dogs at night and expecting the deer to act normal while hunting them during the day. It is not a good mix of hunting activities.

If I were aware that the thermal hunting was happening at the same time I had planned a day hunt- I would not hunt there. Have you considered running "Summer Special" hunt to draw hunters when pig hunting is traditionally slow?

Overall, my only comment about Shiloh Ranch- the reputation and success the ranch has had is- "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Yes we're just testing the waters. My thoughts were summer only and night only during that time frame. As the temps cool wed

I actually did this hunt with Matt and Cheryl when they were trying it out. It is definitely an interesting hunt. Way different than the bowhunting I've enjoyed there. I'm glad I did it but I probably wouldn't do it again. Just my personal preference. Kind of like folks that only shoot traditional or never take shots over 20 yards. Their personal preference. If you are interested, here's a video of my hunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plVL9nYk8AI

Dang bowdude you really crossed over to the dark side on that one LMAO !!

Bowdude,

Are you a double agent?

I always looked at you as the poster child for Shiloh Ranch !

You never know.

To make it clear, we NEVER hunt hogs at night very close to or during deer season. This is reserved for after the season has closed until around the last of July and only that late if it’s not too hot. I’ve never found anything I like to do if it’s 95* outside and the humidity is the same. Besides that, hog hunting for me is about how many I can kill, and run off of my place. When they find out they aren’t safe even in the dark, they will move somewhere else. Hogs ain’t stupid !

RK, Blame it on Matt! LOL Heck he even talked me in to using a crossbow once. Buffalo1, LOL, I was a big Shiloh fan indeed. Tough to turn away tasty critters.

I also shot a nice boar at Shiloh Ranch with a thermal night sight. It was a pretty cool thing to do. I would do it again without hesitation.

I would use night vision monocular model AGM FOXBAT-LE6 NL1 ( one of these: http://www.agmglobalvision.com/night-vision/night-vision-binoculars ), because it has a great magnification for about 5.6x, and lens system 145 mm. And by having a cool price, it the best choice for me, if we talking about hunting in the dark night. Night vision scopes are better than thermal ones, I think...

I’m very fortunate to hog hunt a private ranch (not a commercial hunting operation) owned by good friends in South Texas every year in late winter/early spring. We have had great fun, and great success, bow hunting hogs at night, and despite the fact that this ranch is relatively small by Texas standards (about 3000 acres) it doesn’t seem to effect our daylight success much. We basically spread corn on senderos late in the day based on the wind and come back around midnight. We use high powered red predator flashlights to spot the pigs, and stalk in, then switch to bow mounted predator lights once we’re close. It’s amazing how close you can get to them in the dark if you have the wind and if you stalk quietly. They really can not see well at all after nightfall. I’ve found my lethal range diminishes in the dark to about 25 yards or less, especially on hogs, which have a very small kill zone, but like I said, you can get very close in the dark. The red lights don’t spook them, and we can routinely get inside 20 yards with no problem. It’s so much fun slipping up on a bunch of corn crunching, grunting/squeeling pigs, in the pitch black, knowing they are so close, coming to full draw and flipping on your bow light above them, then lowering the light expecting them to be 20 yards away, and then realizing a couple are practically chewing on your boots! Personally, I don’t know why a bowhunter would want to blast a hog with a thermal scoped rifle at night when the hogs are so stalkable to within bow range in the dark.

We’re gonna do it out of a helicopter next month(finally found a pilot crazy enough to go along, only catch is he wants to kill some to and we ain’t figured that out yet, lol) I can’t Wait. The thermal stuff is a lot of fun though

Bow hunt?

No interest from me at all, but to each his own.

I would love to do it the way Busta’Ribs is doing it though. I’m just waiting on my invite ;)

—jim

I've done a bit of night hog hunts (shoots) at the BIL's places. He had a night vision scope on a .300 WinMag plus a Vietnam era starlight scope for hand use. We would drive out to one of the ag fields at night in a utv and sit. We would take a scan with the starlight every few minutes and see if anything walked into the field. More often than not we would hear the hogs coming. They are very noisy when not alarmed. Once we see them, we just walk towards them, get within range, turn on the scope and shoot. Prior to the high tech equipment, we would sit on a field on full moon nights with just a normal scope and rifle. Once your eyes night adapt, you can easily see the hogs with out the aid of any artificial light...just moonlight. You can see your cross hairs fairly easy on those full moon nights.

I’ve never done it but put me on the list of want too.

no...

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