Saturday night.

roperdoc

Senior Member
It's been really quiet on here. Yall ok?
We went Saturday night for the first time in a couple weeks. The chicken chasers have really slowed us down as far as daylight hunting and property access during turkey season.
We turned out at 9 and checked several fields with no luck. Around midnight we had a double on two good 80-100 pound eating hogs down in the swamp. .As we headed out with them and came back into the field, we saw a big hog leaving. With no good shot, we turned the dogs out and caught him about 300 yds in the woods. This big boy was 350-375 and was a handful in the briars. A young catch dog, Brody, that had soloed on one of the smaller pigs earlier thought he would manhandle this boar too. By the time we got the boar stuck Brody was waking back up. Fortunately he wasn't cut but he did get his bell rung.
We loaded the hog on the trailer and took him to the truck. With the kids along we had 10 people, 8 dogs, and 3 hogs on a kubota and a 4x8 dog trailer! Not a quiet, serious type hunt but a lot of fun, After unloading pigs and patching up a few minor scrapes on the dogs, we decided to try again.
A trip to the other side of the farm didn't show any pigs, but about halfway back I spotted a big hot spot in a wheat field with the thermal. As we watched it, it began to move and turned into 12-15 hogs. I tried to move in on foot for a shot prior to turning out the dogs but these pigs knew something was up and started leaving before I got in range. Ten people, a diesel kubota and a trailer full of dogs aren't exactly stealthy, LOL. I yelled for dogs and they dumped the box. We got two more bayed and one caught out of that.
It was 4 am by then and time to get out of the way of the turkey hunters. I wonder if sleep deprived turkeys are easier to call in? The rs32 allowed us to see two sets of hogs that we would have likely driven by. We are able to detect and id hogs much further with the rs unit than we can with the ps32. And on a night with wheat up to our knees and a little fog the night vision is little help. We have shot a number of hogs using these units also. All in all they have been a great addition for us.
Now two weeks work before I'm off to go again.
Good luck to yall in the meantime.
 

Krm944

Member
I have a friend that praises those FLIR units to the heavens. I am looking into a FLIR RS24. Wish I could afford the 32!

It was interesting to read you are a thermal guy and a dog guy! Usually hunters subscribe to one method or the other! I love thermal hunting!
 
It was interesting to read you are a thermal guy and a dog guy! Usually hunters subscribe to one method or the other! I love thermal hunting![/QUOTE]

I had the same thought. Sounds like a good method - start with the thermal for a possible shot, and if that doesn't pan out call in the dogs.
 
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