I have a PVS 14 and also a DTNVG Bino, along with illuminators and lasers for various rifles.

I am now interested in hight hunting for specifically hogs. (Here in Louisiana we are over run). Which what I have now, what is the best setup?

Should I purchase a Thermal Scope and Thermal hand-held? What have you guys had the most success with. (Not worried about the rifle, I have all calibers)

Thanks,

Aaron

Thermal handheld will let you detect critters way way better then NV.  As far as thermal for targeting that depends on terrain you hunt in. NV with laser does the job.

Thanks... This is the exact feedback I'm looking for..

Here in in Louisiana it is FLAT... like NO hills whatsoever (southern LA anyway)..with trees.. I'm not going to be shooting through trees anyway.... I'll look into a handheld thermal first.

I hunt in east Texas with similar terrain - lots of small trees and ground cover.  The thermal will detect things through cover that I2 will not.  The thermal is totally usable during daylight as well.  For stalking or tracking, the thermal is the Way.

I am in a similar boat. I currently have a Sightmark Wraith digital night vision optic, which will get you into the game of after dark pig slaying but leaves much to be desired, especially in FOV. I am planning on eventually getting a set of dual tubes+Perst/mawl and a Hogster R 35mm thermal.

Trying to decide which one to get first, but I am leaning towards the thermal. Night Goggles will let get one on back order and the reviews of it look pretty good. It would work great as a scanner and weapon mounted sight.

Side note, is there an arfcom discount for Night Goggles?

Run what you've already got. Plenty of hogs have been downed with less.

Get some hours in and let your terrain dictate your needs. Thermal can be especially handy for finding downed hogs if that's of major concern.

The ideal setup IMO is a MH25 or Nox 18 on a KVC bridge with a quality PVS-14.  Good 640 thermal sight on the rifle (halo, thermion, reap, ir hunter).  Laser if you want to shoot stuff up close.  Its pretty hard to beat that setup hunting wise.

I have a LTO to spot with and a gen2 + clip on mounted on a rail in front of a ACOG.   I’m wanting a thermal clip on that mounts to a rail  but can’t fine one that’s reasonably priced.  Almost all I see mount to the end of a scope.

I would consider an ECOTI.

OP,

I’m in SWLA and have both a bridged MH25/PVS-14 and a COTI on a DTNVG. Shoot me a PM if you’re ever in the area and I’d be happy to meet up with you to try out for yourself before you buy.

Yes, arfcom get free shipping and a discount on most items. I will send a message with contact information to get you started. My state doesn't have hogs, but we get a lot of coyotes. Give me a call and I can go over what thermal or thermals should work best for your situation. I tried to send a message but it says your inbox is full.

Weird. I only have 4 messages in my inbox. I’ll give you a call next week. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

OP, what did you decide to do?

We've been nighttime hog hunting at least annually in East Texas, (north of Hugh Springs) for 6 years now.Lived in the area from 2010 until 2016. Love East Texas, but job moved me back to Alabama.That said, we get back whenever we can to hunt during cooler weather.
Our first year we rented both NV and Thermal to see what worked. Rifles were an AR-15 and a SIG in .223.PVS-14 monocular and a Steiner DBAL, also a used set of Gen3 PVS-7s.Thermal was a Trijicon IR Hunter, (very nice). That first four night hunting trip taught us a lot.
IMO NV works well for walking, driving, and up close hunting, (50 yards or less). I've had the "bloom' from the laser actually mask the hog, so badly I couldn't tell if I was aiming at the head or the hindquarter, so for me, the laser is for CQB hog hunting.
Thermal for the rifles works really well. The IR Hunter spoiled us and became a standard to judge other pieces of equipment by.
Budget has always been a concern, and will continue to be. We are typically buying one piece of gear annually to be better equipped each year.
We are planning a trip for February, so we're just a few weeks away, and I'm headed to the range tomorrow to confirm zeros on what we will take.
Current kit will include a Zeiss Conquest 1x4 on top of an integrally suppressed 300BO for daytime hunting, and then swap over to a Flir PTS-233 thermal for nighttime hunting near farms or cattle.
When folks are nice enough to allow us access to their property, we want to be respectful regarding noise. If a hog is less than 100 yards, we've had really good success taking them with a 208gr AMAX at subsonic velocities.
For shots beyond a hundred out to 300, we're very comfortable with the AR in .223 with another Flir PTS-233. Shooting 77gr IMI Razorcore.
Although our first PTS-233 had to be replaced under warranty, FLIR did come through for us, but it took quite a bit of time to get the swap completed. (At the time Flir was in the midst of the acquisition of Armasight and they were working from both sides of the country).
I will say they do have responsive leadership. Ultimately I communicated with their president of the OTS Division, and he got my issue handled straight away.
That said, the last two PTS-233's have worked well with no issues, and IMO are hard to beat with performance for your dollar. Good detection, nice features, easy to navigate menu, stays zeroed even during rough trips, on-board video recording of your shots, etc....
We paid just under $2K each for them at the time.
We also have experience with a Armasight / Flir Apollo Pro Clip-on. If you want to leave your daytime scope on your AR and have enough rails space out front to mount the Apollo, it does a nice job.
Again, easy to nav. the menus, good detection, etc.... Three possible issues to consider: 1. cost- they are currently running $7,495 on-line, if you can get one. 2. Overall weight of the rig once you are kitted out. Rifle, Mag, ammo, daytime scope, clip-on,.. it can be heavy.
This isn't a big issue if you are shooting from a stand or use shooting sticks/ tripod. My son shot this very rig two years in a row and did just fine, but he is 6'1" and 210, so the weight wasn't an issue.
Third potential negative is no on-board video recording. Armasight / Flir does sell an external DVR and it works well, recording both audio and video.
Most recent acquisition has been a Pulsar Thermion XP-50, now mounted on an Eagle Arms AR-10.
Although a $5K investment, it is the best standalone thermal we are carrying. Great detection, very clear, feature rich, on-board video and audio recording, and mounts in a standard 30mm quick detach mount. So it fits in a LaRue LT-104 or Vortex QD.
That really comes in handy when swapping from daytime to nighttime hunting. Again, budget is a consideration for us, so one rifle must do double duty.
We also have one Pulsar XD-38 handheld Thermal monocular for scanning. Rifles get heavy holding them up just to scan the field, so scan with the handheld until the hogs come in, then swap over to your rifle.
There are a host of handhelds out there, even multiple models in the Pulsar line, for us the 38mm objective does well and I would purchase again.
I'm going from memory, but seems it was around $3K at the time.
Today looking back, we've spent quite a bit to get where we are, but this is the only hobby we have and I love spending time with my son, so for my family it's worth it.
I wish I knew then what I know now regarding equipment. Certainly I've spent money that I now feel would have been better spent on other things.
That said, the Bad Boy Recoil IS electric buggy was a must have for us.
The PTS-233 have proven to be great values for the performance vs investment.
PVS-7s used from eBay turned out to be all we needed for navigation wether walking or driving on closed roads at night with no headlights.
I expect we'll be fighting over who gets to take the long shots with the AR-10 equipped with the XP-50, but my son usually wins those, and I'm good with that.

My apologies for the lengthy post. As you can see, it's only my second one, and I'm new to the site, but enjoying learning about other aspects of shooting and hunting.
If I can assist you further regarding selection of your gear, please IM me. I'll share what I know, good and bad.
Good hunting.

@Navyvet82

nice write up, thanks.