What’s the max distance at which you’d feel comfortable clearly identifying and shooting a pig with the PTS223? XQ38? I’m talking, you can be 100% certain it’s a pig and not a fuzzy blob you are pretty sure is a pig.
It really depends on the weather conditions and the terrain but generally speaking I would guess I could be 100% certain a hog was a hog at about 175 yards with the PTS233 and maybe 225 yards with the XQ38. However, there are times it might be 250 with the PTS233 and 300+ with the XQ38. Weather and grass height can play a big role in how good the ID range is.
The Apex or Trail XQ38 (same image quality and magnification on both) have a much better image quality than the PTS233. There isn't even a debate on that. Also, the PTS233 is only 1.5x and the XQ38 is 2.1x and that helps with identification as well. But.....the PTS233 is $300 less and has internal video recording. It really comes down to what features you want. The PTS233 is a bargain for what it is. If video means nothing to you and you can spend the $300 extra the XQ38 is an excellent choice. If you need internal video recording, the PTS233 looks like a heck of a deal considering you have to spend $2,799 for the Trail XQ30, which is the least expensive Pulsar with video recording and the image quality won't be too much better than the PTS233.
With all that said, I still don't generally advise your first shot being much over 100-150 yards if at all possible. I rarely take a shot over 80 yards but I realize not everyone has hogs that are easily stalked and coyotes can be hard to get in that close sometimes.
My thing is, I've seen mistakes made on ID'ing animals with thermal at 150 yards with multiple experienced night hunters looking at the same thing and $5,000 scopes being used. A couple of those near disaster situations broke me from sucking eggs. I want to be as close as possible.
- Jason