I was following JG’s thread on which thermal to buy, which was very interesting. With a top of the line thermal with a laser range finder and the desired reticle (and the knowledge to use it), how far out could a good shooter reach on a standing coyote or hog? I’m not in the market right now, but this still interests me.

My personal best so far was 411Yds this past February

BigPig tried to send me a video that didn't go through.

6mm Creedmoor, Coyote, 751 yard shot. That would have been around a 4.1 Mil hold. Give or take, depending on his load.

Last night I scanned my place with my new one. The tree line 500 yards from the house was quite clear.

500 yards means 3.0 Mils with the rifle the thermal is mounted to, currently.

After more than a decade of using thermal spotters and scopes I can confidently say the limitation of shooting distance is positive target identification. A fawn and a coyote look very similar at 500+ yards. I haven’t used a 1280 scope like the RS75 so I can’t speak to their ability at great distances. They are the best but 15 grand is difficult to justify for me.

But they move very differently.

I’ve only mistaken a pet dog for a coyote, and that’s because they moved through the brush the same.

And yes, I notified the GW and the owner, the owner was mad at his dog for being 3 miles from home.

The one that JG is referring too has a ballistic ap built into it. When used, along with the LRF, the crosshairs are automatically adjusted to the distance shown on the LRF.

The only hang up to this, especially at 751 yards, you have to be sure the LRF is on the animal and not possibly picking up a bush or some other object that’s closer. Been there, missed that coyote the first shot, corrected and connected on the running follow up. This can however happen without the ballistic ap, I don’t have that feature.

I'm aware of that but it's not always an open field with time to watch how they move.

Pic of rabbit at 100 yds with 16x mag (Rattler V2 max mag). One thermal pixel @ 100 is about an inch, then the software 'makes' the image. You can see the processing ring around the rabbit. Yote's going to be the same at 400. But I'm not good enough to make a 400 yd shot. Highest mag on reasonable IR scope is 24x.

Basically, if you can see it with thermal and your bullet will fly that far, you can hit a standing hog or coyote at 1500 yards if you know your dope and have the proper skills. A LRF and ballistic calculator can make the task much easier, although LRFs have some significant application issues. Most notably, people are often ranging objects other than what they think they are ranging. That is because the ranging laser isn't a 1/8" dot at 1000 yards or even 100 yards (those of you with night vision have seen the LRF at distance and know what I mean). Most are rectangular or pill shaped and may be as big ans 1-2 yards wide and ~0.5-0.75 yards tall at 100 yards. So at 100 yards, the area being ranged will be 100 times larger. My figures are approximations, but the critical point is that you aren't ranging a precise little dot. You are ranging an object or objects inside a large, rectangular 'box" that may or may not be your target.

For example at 100 yards, say 2 yards by by .75 tall gives you an area of 1.5 square yards At 100, it is going to be 20x7.5 yards gives you an area of 150 square yards being ranged.

Your pig or your coyote is only taking up less than 1 square yard. Most of your ranging laser is hitting stuff other than your intended target, especially at long distance, maybe in front or well behind it, and potentially giving you an incorrect distance for the target you want to shoot. If the LRF is feeding your ballistic calculator that moves your reticle, if you haven't ranged correctly, then the drop for your bullet will be incorrect as well, potentially resulting in a bad hit or incomplete miss.

With that said, I have seen a coyote hunter take a coyote at 979 yards on thermal. That has been several years ago, so it wasn't over 640 resolution, no LRF thermal scope, no built in ballistic calculator.

Having a Leica RF for a few years, I quickly discovered that ranging at distance has its challenges. My interest was in how far could a fellow shoot effectively using a thermal scope. I had no idea, but figured some of you did.

Shooting a coyote at nearly 1000 yards isn’t something I could do in daylight, with 10 tries.

Yes you could.

The rifle scopes are available to do such a thing. You can see what you're doing. You would just need to learn how to operate the scope. 1000 yards got easy. So I built a rifle to go 2000 yards, and put an appropriate scope on it to do so.

You misunderstand. I mean I couldn’t make the shot now. Pretty sure I could gear up and do it - if I had any desire to do so.

The amazing thing is that someone could make the shot at night. That’s really something special, though I’m sure that being positive it’s a coyote at that distance isn’t easy.

By 800, you can id the target with civilian thermals. Ranging is tough. I laze and map in daylight, then try to confirm that night. Running 80% on coyotes 700-800 with the .28 Nosler.

What has surprised me is the target profile at impact. The angle can be very different than I believed when the shot broke.