Night Vision

S

soup

Active member
Fellows
I'm just wondering how many predator hunters use NV ?
I know in the SW and MW there are lots of long flat shots where I know the thermal is king.
And using my thermal scanner leaves very little chance of missing an animal.
But there are more than a few hunters in the South and NE where the shooting is closer.
But from just being on the farm at night it's easier to make a good id with the NV.
What do the pros say?
Semper Fidelis
Soup

"Down South 68-69"
 
Hey Soup… NV gets the nod for positive identification and thermal get the detection trophy by quite a margin. Biggest struggle for me when I made the switch was immediate ID of what I was looking at. Never a doubt that I was looking at a canine but was it a fox, coyote or farm dog? That’s when I realized I needed to pay closer attention to the details of what I was looking at. How the animal moves. How leggy does it look? How’s it holding it’s tail? Can I see it’s tail? All of this stuff becomes part of your normal routine pretty quickly but it’s a little nerve wracking at first. At least it was for me.

Nothing wrong with NV if you have pretty open spaces. Washout from obstructions between the NV and the animal was the main reason I made the switch. Brush, snow, fog etc makes digital NV with an IR Illuminator just about useless in my experience. High beams in a whiteout is my best analogy.
 
hunt0168 said:
Hey Soup… NV gets the nod for positive identification and thermal get the detection trophy by quite a margin. Biggest struggle for me when I made the switch was immediate ID of what I was looking at. Never a doubt that I was looking at a canine but was it a fox, coyote or farm dog? That’s when I realized I needed to pay closer attention to the details of what I was looking at. How the animal moves. How leggy does it look? How’s it holding it’s tail? Can I see it’s tail? All of this stuff becomes part of your normal routine pretty quickly but it’s a little nerve wracking at first. At least it was for me.

Nothing wrong with NV if you have pretty open spaces. Washout from obstructions between the NV and the animal was the main reason I made the switch. Brush, snow, fog etc makes digital NV with an IR Illuminator just about useless in my experience. High beams in a whiteout is my best analogy.
Click to expand...

I agree 110%. I am a HUGE fan of NV just because I love seeing the actual animal. The biggest disadvantage of NV is washout. It has cost me coyotes before, and it will continue to because there is no way around it if you want to use NV. Another thing to keep in mind is a 850 vs 940 IR. The 850 is without a doubt detectable by coyotes.

One thing that I will add is that most of the newer scopes auto adjust so buying a $200 IR light may just be a waste of time. If you contact Sniper Hog Lights they will help you out.
 
soup IMO thermal is king, both for scanning and shooting. I totally understand PID, there is a learning curve to know what exactly your looking at but the good 640 scopes and up are really awesome. Thermal makes you learn the anatomy of the critters as well as how they move and carry themselves. Experienced guys can not only tell you if it's a fox or coyote but can tell you if it's a red or grey.

As stated above, animals will spook with the 850nm lights (brighter and cheaper), 940nm illuminated is the only way to go. From my limited experience with lower end NV they don't work that great without an IR light. Thermal it don't matter and you never have to worry about spooking game.

Another thing to consider is the quality of NV versus the cost. It takes a lot of money to get into a quality NV setup versus a thermal scope.
 
Kino M said:
soup IMO thermal is king, both for scanning and shooting. I totally understand PID, there is a learning curve to know what exactly your looking at but the good 640 scopes and up are really awesome. Thermal makes you learn the anatomy of the critters as well as how they move and carry themselves. Experienced guys can not only tell you if it's a fox or coyote but can tell you if it's a red or grey.

As stated above, animals will spook with the 850nm lights (brighter and cheaper), 940nm illuminated is the only way to go. From my limited experience with lower end NV they don't work that great without an IR light. Thermal it don't matter and you never have to worry about spooking game.

Another thing to consider is the quality of NV versus the cost. It takes a lot of money to get into a quality NV setup versus a thermal scope.
Click to expand...

"Affordable" hunting thermals have definitely come a long way in just the past two years. Some of the 640's like the RIX L6, IRay Bolt, etc. are amazing and are under $5,000 or even under $4,000. Back whenever it was cold I watched a video someone posted on FB where whatever thermal he was using, you could actually see the skeletal structure of a coyote. That was really cool to see.
 
I made the switch to a thermal weapon scope after a hunt in fog when I could clearly see the coyote coming with my thermal scanner but couldn't see the coyote with my NV scope on the rifle. Very frustrating, especially when I don't get a ton of responses where I hunt. I had a few prior to this when I called in a pair and had no chance at the second coyote after killing the first one. This was also frustrating, but the fog one when I didn't even get a shot was it for me.

As far as the IR light being detectable, IMO they see the red square on the light itself, not the anything projected out in the field. I got busted once in a blind hunting a bait site and I'm pretty confident the coyote saw that lit up square moving as I was getting ready for the shot. I'm struggling to find a better way to explain it (LOL), but if you look into the IR light, you can definitely see that "square". I personally haven't witnessed a coyote spooking from anything other than that with an IR light. I've had the IR on them while my camera IR light flashed and took a pic and had no reaction from the coyote before I shot it.
 
wolverines said:
I made the switch to a thermal weapon scope after a hunt in fog when I could clearly see the coyote coming with my thermal scanner but couldn't see the coyote with my NV scope on the rifle. Very frustrating, especially when I don't get a ton of responses where I hunt. I had a few prior to this when I called in a pair and had no chance at the second coyote after killing the first one. This was also frustrating, but the fog one when I didn't even get a shot was it for me.

As far as the IR light being detectable, IMO they see the red square on the light itself, not the anything projected out in the field. I got busted once in a blind hunting a bait site and I'm pretty confident the coyote saw that lit up square moving as I was getting ready for the shot. I'm struggling to find a better way to explain it (LOL), but if you look into the IR light, you can definitely see that "square". I personally haven't witnessed a coyote spooking from anything other than that with an IR light. I've had the IR on them while my camera IR light flashed and took a pic and had no reaction from the coyote before I shot it.
Click to expand...
Same scenario played out with me only it was snow. Saw the pair perfectly with thermal scanner and nothing but white through NV optic.

I’m also of the same opinion when it comes to why they spook with 850. They see the glow of the illuminator. I’ve looked at both the 850 and 940 from a distance and the 850 looks like a floating red ball. It gets more pronounced as the diameter of the emitter housing gets larger too. 940 is pretty much undetectable so thats what I always ran and things improved drastically.

I’m sticking with thermal though. Always works and never spooks!
 
Back
Top