Had a PVS-14 for years, it went bad, all grainy as shit now, too old I guess.  Never hinted, got it for other purposes.  Hoping to hint late this year at night.  Can a guy yse a red flash light or something, i mean can hogs not see some colors?

Yes you can sometimes they pay attention other times they don’t. Plus you can try a lower powered red light with the pvs-14 the intensifying tube may be wearing out and you might clear things up a little with some light help.

Its all grainy in there, should try w an illuminator tho, good idea

Your thread title asks a question... the answer is thermal rules the night hands down, not even close.

I thought a PVS-14 and IR laser was the shit... until I tried thermal. With thermal I have killed hogs from 30 yards to over 300 yards.

Yeah and they don’t white out due IR reflections in the timber. Nor does the muzzle flash from your buddies rifle cause you to loose focus on the target. Only down side to thermal is recognition at distance.

If it's grainy, you should really try supplemental IR. It gets grainy when there's not enough IR, so using an illuminator might fix you up.

If you can't afford thermal/nv, a light is a good alternative.  It doesn't have to be red, I have red lights, but their range is much shorter than a white light, and around here hogs spook from white light less than half the time.

I use a good old fashioned Q beam more than anything.  Rather than NV, I've gone to using a thermal monocular for detection, teamed with a weapon mounted red or white light.

Just about anything will work if you work it!

We've tried white lighting and thought green or red lights would be an upgrade.  They weren't.  We then got in the NV/IR laser game and greatly upp'ed our success.  Then...thermal.  Nothing touches it for efficacy.

How do you hunt?  Deer feeder and stands, or spot and stalk?

I havn't so far, but I hope to maybe this Nov.  Probably spot & stalk.  I am getting a 308 SBR all set up for it.

However, if I do it out on public land I hear there is like zero chance I'll be allowed to do it after dusk, even during firearm season.

I need to find someone w/ a Hog problem they would not mind me addressing w/ private land.

so I was at a job site (I do electrical work generally..) and this fella had this really small FLIR camera, about like a smart phone...  He left it laying on the table, I picked it up and had a look, I was looking across this huge room at guys in a distance, lit up light christmas trees. & I thought, fuck NV, this doesn't look that expensive.

here it is:
https://www.flir.com/products/c2/


Nope, it is not, MSRP of $400, and they have one that plugs into the bottom of your smart phone for like $300.

I called the mfg last year about replacing the intensifier.  I think they said something like $1500 to re do the insides of my pvs14?

Maybe I can just creep about w/ something like this to spot critters, sneak up on them a bit, then spot light them w/ a weapon light and & shoot w/ aim point??

I like the idea of holding something that I can easily pan around with that is NOT attached to the gun, and something that is NOT having on my head as i have neck problems and probably could not wear helmet w/ thermal/nv goggles for long.  I watched some vid of a guy in TX who said that navigating around by his gun mounted optic, probably NV, not having good peripheral vision, he stumbled into the middle of a big her of hogs.

All great points.  One downside to thermals is that you can't use them through glass.  Whether it be in your house looking outside or in a vehicle looking outside.  I like to look out around my place at night (from inside where it's airconditioned and there aren't any mosquitos!), it's a bit of a hassle with NV because I have to go around and blackout the inside of the house (open floor plan) to avoid reflections on the windows, but for situations like this thermal would be useless.  On the whole though, thermals are just so much more useful for hunting hogs at night than either colored lights or NV....they really are amazing.

As stated above, try a cheap red filter on a flashlight and see if that helps your PVS-14.  If so, and if you want to really reduce the likelihood of spooking hogs, spend a few bucks on an IR illuminator.  They aren't too pricey.