Week 5 of our weekly trip to Grayson County finds Ed (specialed309) and I hunting together like a well oiled machine that needs to be lubed with graphite. Each week has been a new adventure, but except for the first hunt that was in the ragweed jungle, we had not been seeing hogs. So despite any health considerations for Ed who had been left with sinus issues and eyes partially swollen shut and me with a sinus infection, we ventured back into the ragweed jungle, this time without our guides of Mike and Jon. I was impressed with Ed's ability to find camo for this particular excursion, but he managed to do so with something new. I just wore my old gear.

I had had the benefit of some prolonged discussions with Glenn Guess about using an electronic caller to call hogs. He had shown me some of his yet to be published videos of hogs coming in and explaining what was going on at the time. Armed with that information, we thought we would try to call hogs in the spot where we shot 2 hogs (sow and piglet) 5 weeks ago with Mike and Jon. The area where we set up is an area cleared for the installation of a fence. There is plenty of deer and hog sign in the soft sand. So we know the hogs are around. We just need to get them to show up.

I set up the caller across a drainage about 100 yards away. Strangely, the first animals to come in were deer. They did not seem too bothered by the caller. They noticed there was a commotion, but regardless of what sounds I tried, nothing seemed to phase them. Then while we were watching they one young buck, he turned and hightailed it away. I told Ed something might be coming in and a minute or two later, this hog appeared in the clearing. Now this fence clearing is only about 10 yards wide. The hog came in and appeared to be looking for the caller that I had muted, then he quickly lost interest and started to leave. The goal was to get video and audio of the event, but the delay in doing this resulted in the hog vacating the area.

A little while later, a second boar came in. The caller was going and the boar crossed the clearing, stopped onc to check out the caller from several yards away, continuing a few feet closer to the edge before stopping again a second time at which Ed commenced the countdown and we both fired - 3, 2, BOOM. The hog dropped in place.

We decided to continue calling until the moon came up, but no additional hogs came. I was sweating the wait. Ed was using his new 6.5 Creedmore loaded with 140 gr. Hornady ELD-X with a Pulsar Apex XD50a thermal sight and I was using a .50 Beowulf loaded 350 gr. Hornady XTP with a Sig Sauer Echo 1 thermal reflex-type sight. Ed had been warned that if he wasn't careful, he could put an eye out. Sure enough, his bullet entered the left eye and exited the right eye with no eyes remaining. My bullet entered behind the shoulder, going through the rib cage on both sides before exiting the other side. It was monumental occasion. It was the first time Ed had shot a hog with his 6.5 Creedmore. It was the first time I had shot a hog with the .50 Beowulf. It was the hog's first time to be shot by either caliber, much less both at the same time. In all, it was an evening of many firsts!

Unfortunately, there was no video of the shot. Things happened far to fast in the narrow clearing. Hopefully, next time will result in some good video.

That hog looks to be in pretty good shape considering he was just shot with a bazooka.

Nice hog

Wow y'all are quite the sight - Brian's attire blends well with the foliage and Ed blends in with the fauna.

Pretty cool guys

What a hunt congrats

Good job guys!

What's your take on the Sig thermal?

Charlie

I think this is a really nifty, comparatively light (14.7 oz) functional thermal optic. I am getting to test is as part of the prostaff benefits from Third Coast Thermal (disclosure). The resolution is listed as 206x156, but comparing it side by side with my FLIR PS32, the resolution seems quite comparable. I think this is because the image is actually being displayed on a larger screen. Here is an image I took of a buck at 140-150 yards. This is on 1x, black hot. The buck is on a hillside walking toward us. Even at 1x, I could engage the buck, but would zoom it to 2x before doing so. I am using the crosshair reticle in contrasting red which I find easier to see in daylight. At night, I like to use the box with the dot center for aiming, the dot providing a finer aimpoint than the crosshair reticle.



The optic comes with 5 reticles (I like 3) and you can apparently design and upload your own to have a custom reticle. I have not tried this yet. You have 4 reticle color options and there are 8 color palettes, of which I really like 3 (white hot, black hot, and red with whitish hot).

Zeroing was really easy for me. I did the two-shot zero process (which never works quite right for me) where you aim at a specific point, shoot, then while aiming at the original specific point, walk the crosshair over to where the bullet impacted and save the changes. I fired a verification shot and had to bump the crosshairs over 1 increment. My 3rd shot confirmed I was zeroed. I changed to 100 and just needed 2 shots (1 shot to see where I was hitting, moved the reticle, and 1 shot to verify I was on target).

While this is a reflex type of heads-up sort of thermal, it does have an objective focus which you will not find on a typical reflex sight. I tend to focus my optics at around 80 yards that that seems to cover a wide usable focal range from 50-150 and that seems to be the case with the Echo 1 as well.

In the end, this is a uniquely configured, lightweight, functional thermal optic that handles high recoil (not limited to .308) and is currently the least expensive, functional thermal weapon sight I know of on the market right now. I like the aspect of being able to put it on a big bore rifle with no worries. Battery life is listed at 8 hours. I got over 10 on my first set of batteries (2 CR123s).

The downsides are that until it warms up for a few minutes, it auto-NUCs frequently until reaching a point where it stabilizes at 30 second intervals. There is a countdown clock in the corner to let you know how long before the next NUC.

The resolution and contrast are not high. So while you can see your critter, the background isn't going to be as noticeable.

The unit does shine light on the user's face. So after dark, I use the red palette to reduce the effect.

Did the pig want his eyes blown out after seeing that shirt?

Nice shooting men

Here is the video showing the terminal ballistics...

Nice work, guys. Almost feel sorry for the hog.

Almost…

Keep after 'em!

Good work.

A little off topic (and you might already know) but when Ragweed gets tall like that, you can run it over with just about anything and it will lay down and stay down. It doesn't have to be shredded/bushhogged.

Don't know if the land owner wants it standing for any particular reason or if its enough of a problem to worry about, but if you need a good path through it...you can literally drive a vehicle across it and crush it down very easily.

Thanks flintknapper. I think a lot of it is to the point you described, but a lot is still pretty green. I think in another week or two we will try your flattening method. It definitely needs it.

It will lay down right now, green or not, if fact...green is probably better. The height and stalk size are what matter. Once it gets head high (or more) it will break over easily and it stays down.

I don't mow it any more, just run over it. Heck I used my Skag Zero Turn to run some over and make a 10' wide path to a stand just a month ago, just ran it over, no cutting. A truck, 4 wheeler, side by side....pretty much anything will do it.

For large areas I'll lower the bucket on the tractor and knock it over. But if you just need a 'path' you can run over it with almost anything (the lower the better).

Don't cut it....though. Even if you are not allergic to it...you'll be one miserable soul after it covers you in dust/pollen.

I have some on my property that grows nearly 10' tall each year.