Turkey Tx is about 70 miles SSW of me. I live in Wellington TX. When I was looking at those pictures I thought you had to not be too far from me. Very unique vegetation and landforms around here that I know well. Then I saw the picture of the sign for Turkey and it confirmed it for me. Anyways, lots of good pigs down in that area, lots of pigs in general.
West Texas has always been a very nebulous term. Ask 10 people and none of them will say exactly the same thing. High Plains is up on top of the Caprock, Rolling Plains is down off the Cap. Turkey is Rolling Plains just like us. Don't matter what you call it though, I call it home and love it here.
We do a lot of pig stalking at night and coyote calling. I have a Hogster R35 I use on my backup gun for my kids, and I use it as a spotter a lot. My main shooting thermal is a Thermion XQ50. I have lots of friends with all kinds of thermal. Hogsters, Super Hogsters, all kinds of Pulsars, Trijicons, whatever. Personally I don't feel like the Hogster gives up a whole bunch to the $4000 and below Pulsars. I have used both a lot in the same conditions. Hogster is more pixellated for sure, and does not handle zoom near as well. But it handles high humidity very well. On nights with really crappy thermal conditions it sees nearly as good as my Thermion. I feel the Hogster is very capable on pigs and coyotes out to 200-250 yards. I can ID pigs out to 400 yards with mine. Does it give up some to a Super or some of the Pulsars? Yeah, but not that much. Really get used to it and play with settings, and it is plenty capable.
Much of that has to do with getting your settings right, and then getting a lot of experience looking through thermal at distances you know. Across the street from my house we have goats, donkeys, cows, all kinds of stuff at ranges from 75 to 400+ yards. Sitting in my front yard playing with the thermal helped a lot estimating range. Getting out and stalking helps a lot too. Find some pigs and make a guess on range. Then take a certain number of steps, count them, and see what it looks like. Before long you start getting the hang of it. Much of thermal ID is based on behavior and not shape anyways, at least until you start getting under 200-250. Groups of animals are easier to ID than individuals with no scale around them.
Just curious, were you on a paid hunt or a hunt with someone you know from there?
