Pulsar APEX XD50A Hog Hunt Vid

Mi amigo KSI, needs a pouch for his DVR connected to his XD50A.
The wind was steady at around 15 to 20mph so there's some mic buffeting noise.
For the loot, the Pulsar Apex XD50A is very effective. Only thing I don't
like about it is the focus. KSI seems to be focusing now and then whereas
on the IR Hunter MK II the focus remains constant regardless of range.
It's possible it's user error but I have no idea for certain. The XD50A
also does an auto NUC but maybe that feature can be turned off as it causes
a brief screen freeze whenever it runs. Or I guess that's what causes the
the intermittent screen freezes I saw while editing his raw video.
On the other hand, the XD50A has a few features I do like which aren't
available on the MK II. At 50% cost compared to the MK II, there really
isn't anything to complain about.

A better bipod or tri pod might help. Good huntin. About how far were they?

Good job on the hogs you did get. You might consider leading those distant runners by a foot or so in front of their heads, minimally at the tip of their noses, to connect. The hogs were literally running out of the way of your bullets.

The auto NUC can be turned off. You can tell the screen freeze is NUCing as you can hear the ZIT-ZIT of the NUC shutter moving in and out of position. When I hunt with a Pulsar, I run it on semi-auto and NUC only when needed by hitting the button.

We definitely need tripods for stand up shooting.
KSI used the steering wheel of the Ranger for a rest and I used what
I had up top, an elbow on the arm rest of the rack. We forgot bags and
the shooting stick we had was stuck halfway between a kneeling and
a standing position and it wouldn't budge. We were on a dove hunt
and simply didn't expect to see more than possibly one or two pigs
over two nights out. We had one pack we coulda used for a rest but
there wasn't much in it.
I can't seem to judge distance very well at all at night via thermal.
Except when I'm in the blind at KSI's place in the Blacklands cuz I
know the distance to the feeders, the fences, specific trees etc.
What I perceive to be 100 yards turns out to be 200 or more and or what
I may think is 100 yards might be fifty yards. Not enough experience
yet but we'll get better at it one of these days, Possibly.

I would agree with DNS that you guys need to be leading more. It takes practice. Distance is hard to get a handle on with thermals. Depth perception is a booger. When you add magnification, the world can be difficult to judge. I remember seeing a lot of 8 foot tall rabbits at first. LOL...

Like DNS, I use semi-auto NUC when using a Pulsar and just push the button.

My buddy and I did some figuring on how much to lead a hog, and the results were — for us — enlightening!

Assume a hog is 100 yards distant, running directly tangential (straight across) to our position at 20 miles/hour.

20 miles/hour X 5280 feet/mile ÷ 60 min/hour ÷ 60 sec/min = 30 ft/sec which means this hog is moving out at 30 feet per second!

Let's say our bullet speed is roughly 2,800 fps (.308 or .30-06 — YMMV).

It'll take the bullet 100 yards X 3 feet/yard ÷ 2,800 feet/sec = 0.107 sec to reach the hog (call it 1/10th of a second).

In that time (1/10th of a second) the hog has moved 3 feet, or almost a body length! If it's going faster than 20MPH, it'll move more. At 30 MPH it's going to travel 4.5 feet by the time the bullet arrives. Generally I aim one body length ahead of the hog. I don't always hit it, but that's probably due to other factors into which we won't delve here.

Very good, dT, that is exactly what I am talking about. Aiming at the shoulder or mid body on a laterally running hog at distance can literally result in the hog running out of the way of your bullet.



I am sure you will!!!

Great info dT! Flip side, it can be great to have the info, but difficult to carry out in practice.

Lots of pork

I am the living proof of that …

Thanks for sharing your hunt with everyone!

LOL... We all struggle with it.