[ShaneG.]

Well decided to go out tonight to the hog barns. Pulled in and was scanning and one of the helpers came down the lane to see what I was doing....he came in hot with lights on. After he seen it was me we drove back by the generator shed and parked. I figured with the commotion it would be a bust. Set my call up and hit a howl and not soon after hit a rabbit distress.
Scanned for a few minutes and seen opossum and a skunk wondering around close....then out of the woods a little over 200 yards out a coyote pops out and wonders around.
I lip squeak here and there and it's not real interested it seems but would stop and look at me.
I finally moved to a good steady rest and held second line on my reticle and zoomed up to 8x and let it fly. Heard the pop and seen it fall over. We walked out there and I shot it through the neck. Nice small dark female.

Seen 3 more in the field behind the other barns but they would stop for a few then keep on moving like they had somewhere to be.
Guy also told me kill any skunk as they are overrun and his dogs keep getting sprayed so I took out a skunk as well about 50 or 60 yards....it was close enough I could see bright white chunks fly out and into the air!

 

[George Foster]

A wonderful way to start off the season, thanks for taking us along. It was a nice writeup.

 

[Bruce Eakins]

Them are fun….almost like cheating…LOL

 

[lightman]

Nice looking Yote!

 

[Kentucky Fisherman]

That dark camouflage didn't do this one any good, did it? Nice writeup, Shane, thanks for taking us along.

 

[ShaneG.]

That dark camouflage didn't do this one any good, did it? Nice writeup, Shane, thanks for taking us along.

Nope not while she was alive anyway. She was in some tall corn stubble and when I got close I had a hard time seeing her in the scope. Worker at the hog barn had a light and we seen eyes. After that I could see her in the scope. The tall corn was hiding her pretty good.
My buddy should be back from Colorado today sometime and wants to get back out. With his scanner and my scope hopefully we can get some piled up.

 

[JRinKY]

Nice going Shane, you will wear them out with that new scope.

 

[george in KY]

Awesome!

 

[CarlP]

Way to go Shane. Nice picture too.

 

[Rufjustis]

Congratulations on the your first thermal kill. If you're like me, next thing you know, you'll be doing 95 percent of your hunting at night. Now days, daytime, is just that long period between hunting trips!! lol

 

[Kermit in Va.]

Nice...

 

[45TAJ]

PM sent Shane

 

[george in KY]

Sweet

 

[ShaneG.]

PM sent Shane

Never got anything Tom?

 

[45TAJ]

Nope, noy yet....still trying to wade through range, resolution etc. Talk about a rabbit hole halfway down a slippery slope.... $$$ are king in this arena for sure.

 

[JRinKY]

Nope, noy yet....still trying to wade through range, resolution etc. Talk about a rabbit hole halfway down a slippery slope.... $$$ are king in this arena for sure.

Real simple to decide what Thermal to Buy. Figure out "How Much" you want to Spend....Then "Double It" and get That One.

 

[ShaneG.]

Yep that's right Jr....soon as I started using this one I wished I had spent even more and upgraded. Both my buddies bought Pulsar handheld viewers....one with a built in laser rangefinder which added about $900 to the unit.
With the very nice viewers and my scope we should be able to put a hurt on them.

 

[45TAJ]

So, forget IR and go straight to thermal? Arrrggghhhhh$$$

 

[JRinKY]

Tom.
Don't "OverThunk" this.
I have a very Good NV scope with an Extra Add on IR Illuminator that will light up the "Whole Country." I have killed several past 200 yards. You can see Very Good. (Eyes at 400 yd.) But you won't be shooting that far....it ain't Benchrest....you gotta be "Stable" and not shaking around. It's tough at night and Shane will tell you it's a "long learning curve."

The Biggest Drawback to Nightvision and IR Illuminator for me is:
The IR produces "bounce back" of any Weeds, Sticks, Leaves, Fence wires out in Front of you, and magnifies their size. Your vision is blocked.
If there is FOG or MIST in the Air, just go home. You can not see anything. Thermal Scopes, I "Think" can see thru it better. I used hunt a lot in the Spring/Summer Hay fields and the fog comes up quick.
Get Going with a Good Thermal, not the "Cheapo" one. You get what you pay for.
My regret is I didn't buy one 10 Years SOONER.

 

[acpchuck]

Get both, night vision and thermal. At least that is what my son did. He has upgraded over the years. His current night vision is a Gen 3 KN 203 PVS9 Simrad and his thermal is a TigIR-6M. Don't know the cost for either but do know the TigIR was north of $10k. It is an amazing sight and in credible what you can see with it.

When varmint hunting, he runs the thermal on his AR and uses it for scanning fields to pick up heat signatures. He has a Silencerco Radius on it that is used for ranging distances. The night vision is on his 6.5 Creedmoor.

It is a two person operation with one using the thermal to scan the field where they are calling in coyotes. When one is spotted, it is ranged and the shooter is given directions on where to 'look' with the night vision. Because of the weight (heavy rifle, suppressor and the night vision) he uses a tripod for the Creedmore. Furthest kill to date was at 460 yards. Interestingly he says you can see the laser from the range finder when using the night vision system.

As has been stated previously, high humidity reduces the effectiveness of the thermal. You need some type of range finder as it is almost impossible to determine how far out the critter is. And if you go cheap, you will be looking very soon to upgrade to get better performance.