Kirsch
Active member
My hunting partner has been using my Hogster for his scanner when we hunt together. The last time I went hunting he was not able to go, so I decided to take off my Flir PTS536 and run the Hogster as my thermal weapon's sight.
This also gave me the opportunity to try the Lumenier DX600 DVR. Here is a summary of my night, and video to follow.
Stand #1 and #2 were blanks. On the third stand, my DVR was already beeping that the battery was low. DVRs don't like cold temps. I turned it off, and almost immediately a pair of coyotes appeared at 400 yards. They never would come any closer and as they exited, I decided to give it a try. I was somewhat shocked as the coyote dropped and was #1 for the night. 30 seconds sooner, and I would have had it recorded. However, my confidence in the Hogster was pretty high after shooting a coyote at 400 yards.
On the 4th stand, I had a coyote right in my lap at about 75 yards, I made what I thought was a good shot. Coyote rolled, and got up and took off. It ran to 350 yards and stopped, and I dropped it in it's tracks.
Mad at myself for not getting footage, I remembered I had an extra battery pack along, so I stuck it in my pocket and ran the DVR off external power the rest of the night.
The video below shows stand 5, 6, 7, and 8. Stand #5 has a coyote appear, and I hit the power button on the scope and turned it off by accident. Luckily this coyote was very patient with me, as I turned the scope back on, changed background from black hot to white hot, and turned on PIP, etc. It finally decided something wasn't right and started to leave. I stopped the coyote at around 225 yards, and made the shot.
Stand #6 had a coyote show up almost directly downwind of my position. The coyote would have continued to come to the call, but I needed to shoot before it winded me. I paced this coyote off at 220 yards.
Stand #7 happened quick. I had a fox appear directly behind me. This was where my truck was parked. It must have seen the truck because it quickly turned around. It stopped at roughly 300 yards for one last look, and I squeezed off. A fox at 300 yards with a thermal is a long shot for a 2x base mag thermal, but I got it.
This was 5 stands in a row with an animal down with the Hogster-R 35mm with hits on coyotes/fox from 75, 220, 225, 300, 350, and 400 yards. My confidence was sky high as I went to a spot that always produces coyotes.
I was running low on my Hogster batteries, so I connected it to external power, which causes the recording to show some interference. I had been on the stand for almost 30 minutes, and nothing had showed. I did one final scan of the area and noticed a coyote a long ways away slowly working towards me. I was preoccupied by this coyote when I scanned the area again to find 4 coyotes coming hard towards the call. My usual pattern is if they are coming hard, stop the call when they are at about 400 yards, and if they haven't slowed up, give them a quick shout. It usually works. However, in this situation they surprised me so much, I didn't get the call turned off. I couldn't decide which coyote to shoot and just as I squeezed off on the 2nd coyote, it moved, and I shot right over the coyote's back. I tried a few running shots as the group exited, but never connected.
The Hogster did it's job, but if you hunt long enough, everybody misses. I also now have found the Lumenier DVR has a rocker switch that allows it to stay off, and you press the switch, and it turns on and starts recording which should help conserve battery. I have also discovered there is a way to turn off the timestamp, so sorry as it covers a lot of the PIP window on the video.
Thanks for sticking with me through the long story.
This also gave me the opportunity to try the Lumenier DX600 DVR. Here is a summary of my night, and video to follow.
Stand #1 and #2 were blanks. On the third stand, my DVR was already beeping that the battery was low. DVRs don't like cold temps. I turned it off, and almost immediately a pair of coyotes appeared at 400 yards. They never would come any closer and as they exited, I decided to give it a try. I was somewhat shocked as the coyote dropped and was #1 for the night. 30 seconds sooner, and I would have had it recorded. However, my confidence in the Hogster was pretty high after shooting a coyote at 400 yards.
On the 4th stand, I had a coyote right in my lap at about 75 yards, I made what I thought was a good shot. Coyote rolled, and got up and took off. It ran to 350 yards and stopped, and I dropped it in it's tracks.
Mad at myself for not getting footage, I remembered I had an extra battery pack along, so I stuck it in my pocket and ran the DVR off external power the rest of the night.
The video below shows stand 5, 6, 7, and 8. Stand #5 has a coyote appear, and I hit the power button on the scope and turned it off by accident. Luckily this coyote was very patient with me, as I turned the scope back on, changed background from black hot to white hot, and turned on PIP, etc. It finally decided something wasn't right and started to leave. I stopped the coyote at around 225 yards, and made the shot.
Stand #6 had a coyote show up almost directly downwind of my position. The coyote would have continued to come to the call, but I needed to shoot before it winded me. I paced this coyote off at 220 yards.
Stand #7 happened quick. I had a fox appear directly behind me. This was where my truck was parked. It must have seen the truck because it quickly turned around. It stopped at roughly 300 yards for one last look, and I squeezed off. A fox at 300 yards with a thermal is a long shot for a 2x base mag thermal, but I got it.
This was 5 stands in a row with an animal down with the Hogster-R 35mm with hits on coyotes/fox from 75, 220, 225, 300, 350, and 400 yards. My confidence was sky high as I went to a spot that always produces coyotes.
I was running low on my Hogster batteries, so I connected it to external power, which causes the recording to show some interference. I had been on the stand for almost 30 minutes, and nothing had showed. I did one final scan of the area and noticed a coyote a long ways away slowly working towards me. I was preoccupied by this coyote when I scanned the area again to find 4 coyotes coming hard towards the call. My usual pattern is if they are coming hard, stop the call when they are at about 400 yards, and if they haven't slowed up, give them a quick shout. It usually works. However, in this situation they surprised me so much, I didn't get the call turned off. I couldn't decide which coyote to shoot and just as I squeezed off on the 2nd coyote, it moved, and I shot right over the coyote's back. I tried a few running shots as the group exited, but never connected.
The Hogster did it's job, but if you hunt long enough, everybody misses. I also now have found the Lumenier DVR has a rocker switch that allows it to stay off, and you press the switch, and it turns on and starts recording which should help conserve battery. I have also discovered there is a way to turn off the timestamp, so sorry as it covers a lot of the PIP window on the video.
Thanks for sticking with me through the long story.