Alright guys, I need some guidance. I usually hunt hogs from a stand or a still position. Since it has been hotter than crap during these summer months, we decided to ride around in the Ranger and look for them with thermal. And to my surprise, we came across a group of about 30 in a field.

I was going to let my brother and my dad shoot bc they've never hunted with thermal before. These pigs are about 200 yards out and we wanted to get closer. So we started moving pretty slowly. We were also downwind. I'm not sure if we were too loud or what but they got spooked and moved about 50 yards to the left. So we moved on them again and got within about 125 yards and they hauled ass and we never saw them again.

So how do you guys stalk hogs and get within 40 yards of them? Is it move, stop, move? Or do you take 1 step every 30 seconds (extremely slow)? What's the consensus?

I tend to go extremely slow, while scanning. a couple of slow steps and then stop and scan. Make sure you were not back lit as despite being far away for piggy eyes, something with sight as you describe the situation burned you, or it could have been something else upwind spooked them.

Try again and see how it goes.

Make sure the wind is in your favor; sometimes the moon is not (bright).  Hug a treeline is possible, if not, single file and look like one person vs. fanning out early.  Fan when ready to shoot.

I successfully stalk them often... many times I go around my ass to get to my elbow if you know what I mean. You're not going to get close when dealing with MULTIPLE hogs on flat open fields... you can with two or three, moving only when all heads are down, but not a dozen.

Use the terrain to your advantage using low spots, trees, brush, etc. to hide your approach if possible... learn to look around for such possible advantages then make a plan. You might have to go over there, to get over there, to get in line to make a successful stalk. Don't walk upright, get on your belly and crawl... I've done it successfully many times.

Within 200 yards... dead meat.

Well damn! All good advice here. I'll have to try this out again. Thinking about it now, we were all clumped up and just moving towards them without any kind of stealth or plan. I think we were all kind of shocked that we stumbled on such a big ass group.

How close were they to the treeline?

I've never used thermal before so I'm curious why not start shooting at 200. What was you goal for shot distance?

We were using a PTS233 and a 6.5" 300 blackout AR pistol. 200 yards would be stretching it I think. Had I brought my CM with the PVS-30, I would have just laid into them. Also, I wanted to get closer to make damn sure they weren't cows.

Wind can play tricks at night especially around low spots. Thermals have gave me away ore than once at the bottom of a hill.

You need to talk to BushmanLA. He can walk up to them in a flooded rice field and spear the fuckers.

With thermal and a wise approach, there's no reason to take a shot beyond 50y.  Wind is your biggest enemy, then moonlight.

I have never had to crawl, and we end up close to sounders with 15+ pigs

All of my kills in the last 2 months have been during the daytime. We walk single file and lead guy stays focused on the hogs. If any lift their head up or look spooked we stop. Knowing the wind is the most important.
Night time stalks are almost to easy

Pigs eyes are about as good as yours in the dark.  If you can see them, they can see you. Always keep one eye dark so you can get a feel for how well they will see you.  Don't blind both your eyes from night vision optics.

Make sure you are downwind.

You don't have to walk super slow but you do need to avoid human sounds. Boots shuffling, people sniffing or clearing their throats, equipment clanking is all bad news on that last 50 yards or so.

Make sure you aren't back lit.  If there are distant lights behind you or a bright starry sky they will see you easier.

Sometimes pigs are just jittery and they will shuffle around even if they didn't see you.

Keep a constant eye on them, if they have heads down and are snuffling and rooting, you are good.  As soon as picks his head up and sniffs the air with perked up ears, stop and get ready to shoot.

If you do it right, you can get close enough to kick them in the balls.

I guess I'm just lucky. As long as I'm downwind and don't make too much of a ruckus, they ignore me. I don't just bebop up to them, but I'm not really that concerned about noise.

My experience as well.  Their night eyes are really poor and they don't seem to hear the rustling over their own noise too well

I don't have the luxury of flat fields very often, so we use the terrain.  Their noses are simply unbelievable.  Last winter my partner and I walked 200 yards into a 200 acre hay field surrouded on three sides by national forest, with the southern border being a paved road.  We walked north from pavement.  Wind was blowing 20 mph east to west.  About 20 minutes after we walked the gravel road (in muck boots), we saw a sow and 5 or 6 30# piglets come out of the trees on the east side headed straight west- with a 20 mph wind right up their asses.  No moon, complete blackness.  We were watching through our thermal scopes waiting on them to go under the barbed wire fence (to make it easier to load them later).  Sow stopped 25 yards before the gravel road and came to full alert.  In hindsight, we should've dropped her right then.  After 5 seconds, she spun around and ran full speed back into the woods.  I swear she smelled our boot prints up wind.  We were still 130 or 150 yards north of her.  Still not entirely sure how she did it.

Last time we went out, we spotted a soudner of about 20 and the wind was not ideal.  We swung around a small hill and ended up walking over the top of the hill.  We expected them to be 100 yards away and 20 feet below us...  They came up the other side of the hill and when we saw them, the entire sounder was 15 yards from us.  They never saw or smelled us, but they heard us about 15 seconds later.