First big boar with my thermal!

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Jbird22

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Had some friends in town this past weekend to do some hog hunting with thermals. It was the most fun I've had in forever. A few days later and I had one for myself. Got it set up/sighted in yest evening and waited for my cam to go off. It did some time around 730 and I was in route shortly after.
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I'm still learning the thermal but here's a video I was able to take. I thought he was facing me first shot but was able to follow up quickly after I realized what happened. Well over 200 lb boar hog.



I've killed a pile of hogs over the years but hunting them with a thermal is a whole new level of fun!
 
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The thing with thermal hunting that makes it so difficult is that you are basically seeing in 2D and have nothing to base your depth perception to unless you have a range finding scope or you know the terrain exceptionally well. Its a tough learning curve because with hogs shot placement really counts more since they have that "shield" shoulder plate or have a smaller brain size compared to their body size and also they virtually have no protruding neck their organs arent in the same place as a deer not to mention the shield. I had a really hard time adjusting to the organ placement and shield until I just said screw it and go head shots from that point on and my harvest numbers increased....lol
 
Jbird22 said:
Had some friends in town this past weekend to do some hog hunting with thermals. It was the most fun I've had in forever. A few days later and I had one for myself. Got it set up/sighted in yest evening and waited for my cam to go off. It did some time around 730 and I was in route shortly after.
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I'm still learning the thermal but here's a video I was able to take. I thought he was facing me first shot but was able to follow up quickly after I realized what happened. Well over 200 lb boar hog.



I've killed a pile of hogs over the years but hunting them with a thermal is a whole new level of fun!
Click to expand...

Awesome!! What's your YouTube channel??
 
338lapuaman said:
The thing with thermal hunting that makes it so difficult is that you are basically seeing in 2D and have nothing to base your depth perception to unless you have a range finding scope or you know the terrain exceptionally well. Its a tough learning curve because with hogs shot placement really counts more since they have that "shield" shoulder plate or have a smaller brain size compared to their body size and also they virtually have no protruding neck their organs arent in the same place as a deer not to mention the shield. I had a really hard time adjusting to the organ placement and shield until I just said screw it and go head shots from that point on and my harvest numbers increased....lol
Click to expand...
I hunt mostly wooded areas with small plots where distances are fairly well known. If you keep the wind right, you can get pretty close to hogs.

Their shields are incredibly tough. If you notice on that follow up shot, I hit him just above center of the shoulder. The 170 gr Barnes TSX put him down but didn't exit and it gets pretty good reviews on penetration tests. I'm like you though, heads shots are preferred especially when it's a hog I want to eat. But on this one, I wanted to test the penetration capabilities of that bullet.
 
I sure wished I would of had a thermal last Friday night, no hogs but a drug dealer the Knox county police was trying to catch lol, thermals scopes and scanners have some great potential in a lot of different fields 🤣
 

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