Posted By: Afalex1
Thanksgiving Weekend Hogs - 12/14/15 03:15 AM
I'm a little behind on posting hunting stories and am trying to catch up. This hunt took place the weekend of Thanksgiving. I was back at the orchards and hoping the cold nasty wet weather would bring the hogs in like crazy. But, it didn't. It rained so much I think the hogs were hesitant to cross the flooded rivers and creeks they normally do to get to the orchards. I only spotted 3 hogs all weekend and only 2 were killed.
Double Naught Spy (Brian) and Kentucky Kid (Stupid Chad) joined me on this hunt. We enjoyed some great banter to pass the time while we ground through the hours of the dark, cold, and wet night.
The first animal we made contact with was a badger. The landowner wants all the badgers gone and has offered a significant bounty to encourage such a task. Brian spotted one and Chad tried to take it, but missed a few times and we moved on.
The Zeus 100mm pro shines in this kind of weather compared to some of the other smaller scopes, but I think I goofed it up. Since it was so cold out and the windows of the truck must be down for the thermal to see out during out patrol I had the heat cranked up. The scope sat next to my leg and the heat was blowing at the floorboard. I think the heat blowing on lens goofed up the image when we stepped out into the cold and high humidity night. As you will see in the video the scope has a weird halo going on and acts funny when it is nuked. I have tried to repeat the image again, but I haven't had a chance to ride around with the scope and the heat blowing and a low ambient temperature since this hunt. We have had 60+ degree days here in Texas since Thanksgiving. Once the cold rolls back in I will try to recreate this situation to confirm that is what happened. Anyway, even with the halo, high humidity, and lack of time to adjust the scope for the conditions the targets were easily visible for the shot.
The first hog Brian didn't get a shot because he was on the left of the firing line and the hog walked to the far right. Kentucky Kid shot the hog in he scrotum and I tagged the hog in the head. Either way the hog had a bad night.
The second hog I spotted when he was about 50 yards from the truck. I spotted him late because he crossed through a fence row with heavy weeds when we were about 60 yards form the fence. He just appeared there. We barely had time to get out of the truck and get on line because the hog was coming straight to us. I stepped out of the driver side, Kentucky kid got out of the passenger rear and came to the driver side, and Brian was trying to line up to shoot over the hood from the passenger side. We all had safe positions, but the hog closed the distance to fast for us to be positive about this so Brian didn't shoot. I made a quick countdown and shot. I only hear my rifle go off and could hear Kentucky Kid cursing to my left. He forgot to take his rifle off safety. Rooky mistake!
Double Naught Spy (Brian) and Kentucky Kid (Stupid Chad) joined me on this hunt. We enjoyed some great banter to pass the time while we ground through the hours of the dark, cold, and wet night.
The first animal we made contact with was a badger. The landowner wants all the badgers gone and has offered a significant bounty to encourage such a task. Brian spotted one and Chad tried to take it, but missed a few times and we moved on.
The Zeus 100mm pro shines in this kind of weather compared to some of the other smaller scopes, but I think I goofed it up. Since it was so cold out and the windows of the truck must be down for the thermal to see out during out patrol I had the heat cranked up. The scope sat next to my leg and the heat was blowing at the floorboard. I think the heat blowing on lens goofed up the image when we stepped out into the cold and high humidity night. As you will see in the video the scope has a weird halo going on and acts funny when it is nuked. I have tried to repeat the image again, but I haven't had a chance to ride around with the scope and the heat blowing and a low ambient temperature since this hunt. We have had 60+ degree days here in Texas since Thanksgiving. Once the cold rolls back in I will try to recreate this situation to confirm that is what happened. Anyway, even with the halo, high humidity, and lack of time to adjust the scope for the conditions the targets were easily visible for the shot.
The first hog Brian didn't get a shot because he was on the left of the firing line and the hog walked to the far right. Kentucky Kid shot the hog in he scrotum and I tagged the hog in the head. Either way the hog had a bad night.
The second hog I spotted when he was about 50 yards from the truck. I spotted him late because he crossed through a fence row with heavy weeds when we were about 60 yards form the fence. He just appeared there. We barely had time to get out of the truck and get on line because the hog was coming straight to us. I stepped out of the driver side, Kentucky kid got out of the passenger rear and came to the driver side, and Brian was trying to line up to shoot over the hood from the passenger side. We all had safe positions, but the hog closed the distance to fast for us to be positive about this so Brian didn't shoot. I made a quick countdown and shot. I only hear my rifle go off and could hear Kentucky Kid cursing to my left. He forgot to take his rifle off safety. Rooky mistake!