You bring up a good point about ID. Thing is, many of us have more uses for our expensive night optics than just hog hunts... The thermal I use (EoTech X320) would be useless for ID of potential bad guys.

As Tyler mentioned, this is about hog hunting.

For a discussion of thermal and NV advantages and disadvantages for defense and LEO purposes, check out Clasky's thread on NV.

I will say this though, if I were to use the Patrol or Hunter MKII for home defense I could ID every member of my household, and therefore could by default ID an intruder.

JPK

Hey Tyler, I didn't mean to ruffle feathers, if you come to FL for a FL hog hunt I'll do my best to come to Texas as I have family in Austin..

Since you guys are obviously very experienced in both NV and thermal could you please recommend the best options currently available in both formats?  I can't afford either at the moment but, hopefully, that may change in the near future and I would like to research my options now.  Unfortunately I don't have access to anywhere to even hunt hogs but I want to be prepared should that change and I'm already well equipped in the gun department.

Nowadays it's possible to get decent Gen3 PVS-7/14's for under 2K, I personally prefer the -14 for the weight savings and the ability to see shadowing with the unaided eye.
As far as there all well that's all over the board, some of the more affordable stuff with the 320 resolution can be had for around 3500$ and it's pretty useful. But some of the high end stuff with 720 resolution will start at 5500$ and go up from there. For me personally I prefer a handheld thermal to scan and detect as opposed to something that is mounted on a rifle, most of my hunting is active with lots of movement, thus I prefer handheld instead of having to mount my rifle to see, and I also prefer helmet mounted Night vision, be they -14's or dual tube Sentinels.

Thanks, I don't think I'll venture into that really expensive stuff.  It seems like helmet mounted NV combined with NV or thermal on the rifle is the most popular, is that the case?  I can definitely understand the advantage of having NV on a helmet for navigating and finding the hogs but equipping a helmet and a rifle with NV/thermal sounds pretty pricey.

Thermal on the helmet is best for spotting and can be navigated with. If you are talking purely hunting, then get thermal on the helmet and thermal on the rifle. Needs to be 640 units. you can do both from IR Defense for 12,500



I would bypass NV for hunting.



NV is good if you think you might need it for more of a social work type situation.



 

This right here is sort of where I disagree, thermal can be navigated with...baby steps where as I can take of in a dead sprint with dual tube NV and run an obstacle course....ask me how I know. If you're going to get a thermal which it sounds like you aren't, something with the ability to be handheld and weapon mounted is going to,be the best so you don't have to cheek your rifle to look through it until you're ready to make that shot on an animal.

In my limited experience, it seems that if you know your ground you can navigate well with a thermal monocular. Whether that holds true for ground you are unfamiliar with remains to be seen for me. It seems to me that navigating unfamiliar ground will be a challenge with thermal only. On the other hand, I've been navigating both familiar and unfamiliar ground without any light, thermal or NV for decades. It can be slow going and it can be loud though.

One device that will cut it for both scanning - handheld or helmet mounted - and for rifle mounting, is the IR Patrol. I think a fellow equipped with just a Patrol, set up for handheld or, better yet, helmet mounting and for rifle mounting would be well equipped. Add a PVS 14 and he will be very well equipped. Add a dedicated thermal scope and he would be ideally equipped.

With a 640 thermal PID doesn't seem to be an issue. Might have to watch the critter for a bit. With some practice watching critters and tentatively IDing them and then hitting them with a spotlight or using NV and an IR light to confirm ID, it wouldn't take long to be able to tell the difference between a opossum, skunk, raccoon, etc either.

JPK

So, NV seems to be the best option for navigating (helmet mounted). Would thermal or NV be best on the rifle?  Or is it one of those things that nobody agrees on?

The only thing I know about modern NV and thermal being used for hog hunting is what I've seen on video so I'm not biased one way or the other.  I'm just trying to decide what would be best for me should I get into this.  Being disabled with a bad back, I wouldn't be out tromping around but hunting mostly from a stationary position.

While I don't have a lot of experience with either NV or thermal, I have got to think that for more stationary hunting a good thermal would be the clear choice.

With just a Patrol you could do your scanning and then, using the currently available Wilcox QD mount or one of the forthcoming QD mounts, you could weapon mount it for shooting. It has about 1.4 or so native magnification, and digital zoom up to 4x is useable. Alternatively, it can be used as a clip on and QD mounted in front of a day scope, in which case you would rely on the day scope's magnification. I haven't tried that with my Patrol, but videos on line from the Patrol and similar 640 thermal clip ons indicates that the image holds together pretty well through maybe 5x or so, if your day scope is good.

Nothing warm blooded hides from thermal. No IR light needed no matter how dark the night, so no splashback and never any smoke from the rifle obscuring the target, which happens at times with NV without any IR and more often when an IR light is used. Thermal will see through fog, though in high humidity performance is reduced. Even in high humidity though, the target or potential target stands out.

From what I know now, if I had to chose one device for night hunting, it would be a thermal I could use for both scanning and for weapon mounting, even if the mount was a throw lever type. I would block off that portion of the Picatinny where the mount doesn't go so I could find the correct position on the receiver by feel and with the slots blocked, would have a hard time mounting in the wrong position.

FWIW,

JPK

Mighty impressive!!

I missed this video first time around, that's amazing! I'm guessing that kind of thermal is either limited to gov use or is insanely expensive?

6500



 

Close to insanely expensive then.  Although if you were doing a LOT of hog hunting or doing it as a job, it's reasonable enough considering the advantage gained.

 
A year ago similar technology and capabilities were 10k.

Get that down to the $2500 neighborhood and I'd probably Fo.