I had not seen hogs on this property in a while and there had been no new reports of hog damage. The winter wheat field had been grazed down to next to nothing by the cattle, but there is plenty of water on this property and long open views, so I set up before dark in hopes of catching a cruising boar. Instead, I spotted a sounder in the next pasture and figured they would come into the old wheat pasture. They didn't. Even worse, they were hanging with the cattle. I followed them as they moved and I moved in among the cattle and managed to safely shoot two...
Posted By: Pig_Popper
Re: Shooting Hogs Through Open Gate - 06/25/18 04:52 PM
Threading the needle !
Looked like a good hit on the second hog, guess it was running on pure adrenaline for the last 40 yards.
Posted By: 1860.colt
Re: Shooting Hogs Through Open Gate - 06/25/18 08:00 PM
ing with android, it not up ta date, most pic's & videos dont show.
as others have posted, keep up the good work. Land owners are sure ta be grateful.
very nice. How far away were the shots? I sometimes have trouble with my thermal telling distances unless I am familiar with the surroundings and have some good markers.
I have no real idea of the distance. Looking at a aerial view of the property on Google Earth, I would guess that I was between 9 and 140 yards. I like to get GPS from my shooting position, but since I went after the hogs that ran, I never had the time to get a fix.
Thermal tends to provide an extremely flat perspective (no depth of field) and so making distance assessments on the fly, particularly in unfamiliar surroundings, can be extremely difficult, particularly with different levels of magnification. Scopes such as the Pulsar Trail and the IR Hunter MKIII series have stadiometric randgefinders. The problem with stadiometric rangefinders is that they require you to know the size of what you are ranging in order to be able to give you a distance. So, I don't use the formal stadiometric rangefinder in my scope. I never know how big the hogs really are. However through experience, I have determined that when zoomed 2x, if the hog is longer and either the left or the right side of the horizontal crosshair, it is within 200 yards and therefore needing no significant POA corrections for my gun. This is assumed for a larger adult hog. I don't know how far inside 200 yards it will be, but that doesn't really matter for stationary shots in my case.
If the hog is smaller than one arm of the horizontal crosshair, then it is either over 200 yards, or it may be a smaller hog at a shorter distance. I think have to figure out whether or not I think it is a juvenile at shorter distance (if so, no correction) or if the hog is actually a larger adult. If it looks that far away, then I can usually move up safety until the hog is longer than one arm of the horizontal crosshair and I will know I am good to go.
I have no real idea of the distance. Looking at a aerial view of the property on Google Earth, I would guess that I was between 9 and 140 yards. I like to get GPS from my shooting position, but since I went after the hogs that ran, I never had the time to get a fix.
Thermal tends to provide an extremely flat perspective (no depth of field) and so making distance assessments on the fly, particularly in unfamiliar surroundings, can be extremely difficult, particularly with different levels of magnification. Scopes such as the Pulsar Trail and the IR Hunter MKIII series have stadiometric randgefinders. The problem with stadiometric rangefinders is that they require you to know the size of what you are ranging in order to be able to give you a distance. So, I don't use the formal stadiometric rangefinder in my scope. I never know how big the hogs really are. However through experience, I have determined that when zoomed 2x, if the hog is longer and either the left or the right side of the horizontal crosshair, it is within 200 yards and therefore needing no significant POA corrections for my gun. This is assumed for a larger adult hog. I don't know how far inside 200 yards it will be, but that doesn't really matter for stationary shots in my case.
If the hog is smaller than one arm of the horizontal crosshair, then it is either over 200 yards, or it may be a smaller hog at a shorter distance. I think have to figure out whether or not I think it is a juvenile at shorter distance (if so, no correction) or if the hog is actually a larger adult. If it looks that far away, then I can usually move up safety until the hog is longer than one arm of the horizontal crosshair and I will know I am good to go.
Thanks - appreciate the thoughts on how to address and at least know I am not the only one who fights with it a little bit. If I had more hogs, then I could take more shots to figure it out using the crosshairs (I like the idea), but I only get a few shots a year on our place, and I really like to make them count.
