I posted all of these in separate threads throughout the past few weeks, so I thought I would compile them to one thread in case anyone would want to see them in one place.
The
title pretty much says it all. Below are three videos from our recent hunt.
FIRST VIDEOThe thermal footage, is to my knowledge
(unless I am totally mistaken) capturing the very first hogs killed
with the new FLIR T75 that was released a few weeks ago. This took place
12 July in Victoria, Texas at
Wild River Ranch. We had a great time hunting with the guys out there that weekend, and really can't say enough good things about those folks.
The first pig I shot at the 1 minute and 19 second mark
, ran off screen and eventually died to the left of where we were set
up. The second pig was pretty tough as well. He eventually croaked on
the third shot, though. The 77 grain match ammo I was using, was just
punching straight through them, leaving clean entry and exit wounds.
To
my knowledge, these are the first hog kills with the
FLIR T75 since it
was released, a few weeks ago.
*The ambient crickets and gunshot noises
were added to simulate conditions. The DVR I recorded this video with,
does not have an active mic to pick up audio.
My loadout for this was:
5.56 SPR build
77grain match ammunition
FLIR T75 clip-on thermal mounted in front of a Trijicon ACOG
Before this video started, at the distance we are in the video itself,
my spotter called PID on the hogs, with his magnified I^2 (isquared)
device. The distance on the shots, were roughly 100 yards. You may be
able to tell from the footage, but the grass was about knee high where
the hogs were, and they were on somewhat of a gradual downward slope.
This made it pretty challenging to estimate my holds and ensure my
rounds weren't going to plant themselves in the dirt of the slope that
was just between them and I. There are a lot of things I could have done
differently on this stalk/kill, however, overall I'm happy with the
performance.
It's important to note, that around the 52-55 second mark, I was
actually planning on taking them together, as close as I could get them,
HOWEVER, with thermal (which is no fault of its own) I couldn't
identify head from ass. This same thing would apply to a bad guy laying
down. Understanding when to take a shot, and when not to, is the true
key to a good hunt. Patience was never my strong suit, but it's
something that had to be learned and applied when taking shots on
animals or bad guys.
SECOND VIDEOWe got PID on these hogs, at about 200 yards out from Doc Lucci and
stalked up on them, until eventually Kyle (whom had the crossbow) was
roughly 20 yards from this sounder. This hog in particular, got popped
pretty good and we tracked him for a bit, until we encountered a nice
patch of thick brush where I assume he laid down to die, and so we
called it. We had more hogs to exterminate on the property, and we knew
that wasting our time trying to find this one, wasn't the best idea
since we had many more to kill.
Honestly, with this many hog in one area and really only one designated
shooter (with a crossbow at that) it's a little less than safe in my
opinion. Fortunately, these bastards didn't try to run back
towards us. It would have been interesting to say the least.
If you look closely at the slow motion replay, you will notice that when
the arrow passed through the hog, the hog did a barrel roll, then ran
into thick brush. Details on the equipment we were using, are in the
video itself. If you guys gave any questions, please feel free to ask
them
To my knowledge, this is the first video of a hog kill with a PEQ-15
mounted to a crossbow.
THIRD VIDEOThe second hog we took with the crossbow setup. Kyle (the shooter) got pretty close to this group,
maybe 30 yards. The hog he shot, the arrow passed straight through (double
lung), and dropped at about 50 yards off screen. What I thought was
interesting, is the fact that after Kyle shot the crossbow, the rest of
the hogs were barely even spooked. They moved maybe 15 yards and
continued to root.
*Details on the equipment we were using, are below;
BARNETT QUAD 400 CROSSBOW
PEQ-15 LASER
TNV/SENTINEL GOGGLES
HEADHUNTER BOLTS
NAP HELLRAZORS
LAUNCHPAD LIGHTED NOCKS