Was night hunting for hogs this past week using IR and thermal this past week. Came away that IR is better for shooting and thermal better for spotting. What say?
I tend to agree with one caveat... Brush. In thick brush you get more reflection that can white out your image with thick brush when the IR light hits it.
Overall, if I had to chose one, I'd choose thermal.
How far back was it when you posted those night hog hunt videos? I forget what you were using in those...
A year or two.
One thing I forgot to mention before is the cloud of gunsmoke after the shot also reflects in the IR light, and can white out a followup shot. If it's foggy, it affects both, but you can still use a thermal.
I still hunt with them, I have just been remiss in wanting to hit the record button.
As a comparison, here's a video of IR digital NV and one of thermal. What you see through the eyepiece is clearer than what they record, in both cases.
Rockinbbar states it well. Brush deflection and muzzle blast white out are the main drawbacks to IR. If you are hunting established lanes and are likely to only get one good shot anyway, it is a pretty cheap way to do it and the picture can be very decent. I think a thermal handheld is critical for spotting, be it a monocular or spare scope.
This is all based on my rather limited experience. A guy around here could be pretty well equipped with a $1600-1800 spotter and a $600 IR setup for hunting hogs on woods lanes and food plots inside 250yds.
I don't own either but a friend of mine hunts with Thermal at night. He tried a ATN and says it's flimsy and doesn't give enough detail. My grandson got an ATN Thor I believe. It has a lot of gee whiz stuff on it but it weighs a ton. He went hunting with another friend that uses a thermal and when he came back he decided he wanted a thermal. I believe that unless you are able to set up in a stable position to shoot and let them come to you, you are going to have a difficult time carrying around a lot of weight all night hunting. That's just my opinion. I have some decent scopes and when it gets dark they don't help much. I have looked through both and I must say that a good thermal makes things look very clear in the dark.
I don't own either but a friend of mine hunts with Thermal at night. He tried a ATN and says it's flimsy and doesn't give enough detail. My grandson got an ATN Thor I believe. It has a lot of gee whiz stuff on it but it weighs a ton. He went hunting with another friend that uses a thermal and when he came back he decided he wanted a thermal. I believe that unless you are able to set up in a stable position to shoot and let them come to you, you are going to have a difficult time carrying around a lot of weight all night hunting. That's just my opinion. I have some decent scopes and when it gets dark they don't help much. I have looked through both and I must say that a good thermal makes things look very clear in the dark.
Aside from the weight of the digital NV, you have the weight of the IR light to mount on the rifle as well. A decent IR light adds quite a bit of weight.
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