Night Hogs

Story by Brooklee Grant

THERMAL HOG hunting is an adrenaline-filled adventure all hunters should try at least once. Texas is plentiful in hogs, but finding them in a Pineywoods thicket presents a true test for a hunter.

Feral hogs are intelligent, adaptable, and pretty unpredictable if they’ve had any hunting pressure whatsoever. Pair that with stepping out to chase them in pitch darkness, and you’ve got an adventure on your hands.

My husband Derrick and I hunt every Friday night we can. As we pulled up to the gate, I killed the headlights on the CanAm and proceeded to navigate my way up the dirt trail relying on memory and a tiny bit of moonlight. As we reached the top of the hill, I killed the side by side and let Derrick take up the scanning duties while I prepared my equipment. I could tell by the way he was hurriedly walking back to the side by side that there was something in the field below us.

I grabbed my shooting sticks, adjusted my sling, and began walking as quietly as possible. When we reached the bottom of the hill the trail opened up to a large hay field that was just baled. I sat my AR on my shooting sticks to scan. Right beside the road about 100 yards away rooting his little heart out, was a lone boar, seemingly unconcerned with anything other than tearing up Dad’s pristine hay meadow.

I decided to go straight in to close the distance and get a shot off as soon as possible. You have to be careful hunting hogs; they can smell so well all it takes is a change in wind direction and our cover would be blown. After closing the gap to around 50 yards I quietly placed my AR atop my shooting sticks. Next, I made sure my Pulsar thermal had the picturein-picture setting on, so I would be able to take a headshot. This feature allows me to open a small screen at the top of my display that shows a magnified image of the reticle. Hogs are tough and if you don’t hit them in just the right spot you might lose them.

I’ve become spoiled using the picture in picture function because headshots are just so much easier with a zoomedin image. Between walking in and my adrenaline pumping, I tried to take a few deep breaths in a last-ditch effort to slow my heart rate before taking the shot.

For a moment, the hog picked his head up which had me worried he smelled us. Before giving him an opportunity to runI placed the crosshairs on his head andsqueezed the trigger. THUMP! Using mySilencerCo suppressor you could hear theround hit hard and down he went. I keptthe crosshairs on the pig just to make surehe was down and done. No squealing nokicking, no wasted ammo.

Thankfully, we helped eliminateanother pasture terrorist and had fun inthe process making hunting memoriestogether. If you’ve never had the opportunityto hunt with thermal, I encourageyou to give it a try. Looking at products atan outdoor show doesn’t hold a candle toputting them to work in the field.