# night time hog hunting equipment



## treeman101 (Feb 2, 2011)

Night vision has helped efforts in our area 10 to 1. We use ar 15s with d760 scopes for the shooting and pvs 14 for the locating for info and pics try. We recommend this equipment to any serious person with a hog problem. The proof is in the pictures.


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## GriffGruff78 (May 12, 2011)

If you are on a relative budget but have pigs that have been driven completely off of diurnal activity and need a real night hunting capability there are a number of options.

First, stalking at night with a spotlight, filtered or unfiltered, DOES work but they get wary of any light very, very quickly if you are pressing a serious attack and a scope with an illuminated reticle is essentially a necessity. This will work, but it becomes less and less efficient as the pigs figure you out.

Feeder lights also work. They work quite well in fact and are generally the least expensive way to get on pigs at night, but if you are really trying to kill them back this has an upper limit of effectiveness.

Here's my top option: Take a mid-bore rifle out of retirement, remove the scope, affix an inexpensive aluminum weaver/picatinny rail and slap a relatively affordable generation 1 riflescope on the back of it (ATN mk 410 is about $550 and is a great gen1 scope). Stalking in tandem is probably the best option and I think a shooter/spotter team (spotter will have a lot more fun with a night vision monocular - Yukon Digital Ranger is actually very good option for pig spotting IMO - and should have a shotgun w/ buckshot slung over his back since you are pretty likely to have a very close encounter at some point) can have the most fun with the highest degree of effectiveness and safety possible. If you are in good condition, have some native coordination and have the little bit of discipline required to ONLY stalk from downwind, you can get within 30 yards of all but the wariest and spookiest of pigs. With 1/4 moon and IR illumination you can shoot out to 75 yards easily with Gen1 and out to 100 or slightly beyond is getting reachy, although definitely possible (it can be hard to pick out whether you are shooting at head or butt). They will actually tolerate a lot of footnoise if they are around cows, but any metallic sound or voice will spook 'em.

Another option if you are a single guy with a decent job who can spend $2,000 as though you were buying a bag of potatoes (I was once like that, if you still are you should appreciate it while you can) would be to purchase a forward mounting attachment for your day scope. ATN's PS22-2 is an EXCELLENT unit for this purpose. I don't own one but have used one attached to the front of a Redfield Revolution 3x9 and it is plainy AWESOME. It will set you back around $1,500 but puts your maximum effective range around 200 yards or possibly more with a full moon. You can really snipe pigs at night this way. Very, very cool.

I do not work for ATN, Redfield or Yukon. I drove myself crazy researching all of this stuff and made my purchases based on the best information I had available at the time. I'm posting this hoping that people in the same situation can draw some conclusions from my experience.

ATN mk 390 or 410 for excellent value, ATN PS22-2 for excellent capability that allows you to keep your dayscope on your favorite rifle.

Whichever way you elect to go, get out there and get you some hogs! Happy hunting, yall!


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## txwcby13635 (Nov 17, 2011)

Howdy,

I am new to this site (I live in Texas) but have been hunting feral hogs for about 11 years now. The hogs I hunt are generally nocturnal but occasionally they can be found around sunrise or sunset when there is enough light to shoot them. :sniper:

As far as hunting them at night goes, I rely on a regular handheld monocular nitevision scope for making the positive ID on hogs. I have a pressure switch-activated super bright tactical light mounted on the barrel of my 7 mm ultramag which I use to spotlight them and guide the bullet 

The problem with this technique is that sometimes the hogs react too quickly to the bright light and scatter almost instantly when I shine the light on them. I had heard about feeder lights and looked into them. The price wasn't beyond my reach but I held off buying a setup (ranged from $150-$250). Recently I saw a reasonably-priced set of feeder lights ($50) at a retail sporting good store here in Houston and decided to give them a try. In addition to the $50 lights you have to buy a rechargeable 6 Volt battery ($10) and, if you want to maintain a constant charge on it , a $20 6 Volt solar panel. Total price $80 plus tax.

I bought all of this stuff and read the instructions on how to wire it all up and headed out the door to go install it. As I stepped outside I happened to glance down at something in my yard. The instant I saw it I kicked myself in the rear. It was one of those spotlights that you stick into the ground in your yard that you use to illuminate a tree or bush. These lights consist of a L.E.D lamp with internal battery and solar panel attached. They also have a photocell which acts as a trigerring device to ensure the lights only come on at night. These lights are compact, self-contained, portable, and reasonable (sets of 2 lights cost $10-20). They essentially serve the same function as the feeder hog light setup I purchased.

The only real difference is that the feeder hog light setup has a motion detector which can be activated so that the lights only come on when an animal sets it off. Given the fact that the sudden light can scare the hogs, it may be best to let them "go into the light" (no pun intended) :rollin: and let them get used to it being there. These yard light I have, on a good charge with lots of sunlight, will burn all night anyway. The feeder hog light setup comes with red gel caps you can place on the lights to dampen the brightness. If you go to your local auto parts store you can purchase a roll of that red tape that you use to repair broken taillight lenses and achieve a similar effect.

I know they are not exactly the same but the price and the advantage of being able to control how many yard lights you put down coupled with the portability of being able to re-locate the yard lights quickly are enough to consider this cost-effective alternative.

Let me know what y'all think :beer:

Take care Ndaks!

-Erick


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