Best setup for night hunting?

[ace4059]

What does everyone think is the best night vision setup with a pvs-14 for hunting? Active or Passive?

I have tried just about everything I can think of for hog hunting at night. I haven't had any outstanding setup and have been searching for a better setup for night time hunting. I would like to see what other people are using and their setups.

So far I have tried...
pvs-14 gun mounted passive setup with an aimpoint comp m4. But for pigs 100yds+ out it was hard hitting them.

So then I got a helmet mount and ran an active setup with an IR laser on the gun. I wasn't fond of that setup due to laser bloom of 12"+ at 50 yds. Its a fairly strong IR laser and has lots of bloom with anything 300 yds or less. A neutral density filter did help some with it.

I have tried it in behind a low powered scope (3x-4x range) and that seemed to work best. But it was a night only setup due to the scope being mounted so far forward and I wanted to be able to shoot the gun day or night.

I just got a 4x magnifier for the pvs-14 that mounts to the front. I figured I could mount that setup behind the comp M4 or use it with the laser.


What setup works best for hunting? Im kind of lost.

[ace4059]

Today I did some more research and called TNVC about the IR laser. They said to use an IR light and it will reduce bloom. I went by the store and got me an IR flashlight. And yes it worked great to reduce the laser bloom when I tried it out tonight.


At first I had everything mounted to one gun and it was over loaded.
I ran some trial and error tests tonight and here is what I found.

1.The 4x magnifier on the PVS-14 mounted to the gun wouldn't focus behind the aimpoint and on the target at the same time. It tooked focused out in the field when I was hunting pigs in complete darkness and very little starlight, but when I looked at it down the street with the street lights I could tell it was clearly a double image. I could get it to focus on one or the other (either the red dot or target) but not both at the same time. That explains the hard time I had hitting the target with it. Maybe why I missed the hog at 110 yds.

2. The IR 720 or 760 filter that some recommend to screw on the front of the PVS-14, filters out the red dot on the aimpoint. So I was having to turn up the brightness thus causing it to have a huge dot on the aimpoint (probably a 14 moa dot). Since I took the 720 IR filter off, the Pvs-14 picks up the dot on the first setting and its tiny (2 moa). Good to learn.

3. While having the pvs 14 helmet mounted with the 4x magnifier attached, there is huge parallax when trying to use the IR laser at 150+yds. That explains why I was hitting high at 180 yds with the laser. No to mention the 4x mag gives you a migraine when using it helmet mounted for surveillance . So its a bad idea to have the pvs and 4x helmet mounted.


I found the right setup that works for me after spending 4 hours at the range tonight. I figured out that I need to use two guns and not try to cram everything onto the rail of just one gun.
First gun I just mounted the IR laser and the IR flashlight on the front of the rail on my 5.56. I used the helmet mounted pvs and it works well. I do not have an aimpoint reddot mounted on this gun and only have BUIS. If I need magnification, I have a quick mount and I can use the pvs and 4x magnifier screwed to the front of the pvs. Mounted like this it cuts out the parallax and I am hitting true.

Second setup is I have a scope mounted far enough forward on my 300 Blackout. I have the quick mount where I can mount the pvs behind it and it has good light and is clear up to 5x to 6x zoom on the scope.

This setup did work amazing and I now love it.
Hopefully my trial and error will save someone a headache in the future. I wish I would have know this when I started.

[ace4059]

Since this is the hunting forum Ill post the results of the setup up.
After I went to the range I went out to my wheat field to see any hogs were there.

I shot this one at 61 yds with it on the run. Some reason it was running towards me. I shot it once in the neck and it did two circles and I popped it again behind the shoulder as it was going round and round. It dropped on the second shot and it was kicking so I let it have it one more time and it was DRT. Helmet mounted PVS with IR laser and IR flashlight. Shot with 5.56 mk262 round.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/627049ec-e318-42b9-be73-cf123b546b00.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/627049ec-e318-42b9-be73-cf123b546b00.jpg.html)

Same pig as the first one just not looking through the PVS14.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/DE0AA718-78DC-4B5C-8B9F-DF626BCB4A6C-289-0000002CE4148751_zpsc61fcad5.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/DE0AA718-78DC-4B5C-8B9F-DF626BCB4A6C-289-0000002CE4148751_zpsc61fcad5.jpg.html)




Then this was the other pig I got at 171 yds with the 300 blk. It was DRT with a brain shot. This one was at the feeder eating corn. I had pvs mounted behind the scope set on 5 power using an IR flashlight. It was a barnes 110 gr bullet TTSX. It worked great. That 300 BLK bullet has lots more stopping power than the 5.56.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/D5289A6F-E9A5-47D2-871E-655ED3F34E7E-289-0000002D102235B3_zps318875ac.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/D5289A6F-E9A5-47D2-871E-655ED3F34E7E-289-0000002D102235B3_zps318875ac.jpg.html)

[ace4059]

I went out hunting tonight and got two more hogs.
The first one was walking in the wheat field and I shot it once in the head with the 5.56 MK262 round and it was about 30 yds out. It took off for the tree line and I shot it once more in the head while on the run. It started to stumble and was still on the move so I opened up on it.

The second one I shot under the feeder right around 100 yds and shot it right in the ear. It dropped and I went to walk up to it and it jumped up and took off. I gave it another head shot on the run and it kept going. Had to shoot it a third time in the shoulder before it died.

I am beginning to rethink using the 5.56 for hog hunting. The MK262 just doesnt have the knock down power. I figured it would be good with the heavier 77 gr bullet but it just isn't cutting it. i am begingin to think about switching the IR laser to the 300 BLK and just using that for pigs with the PVS-14 helmet mounted.

First pig
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/BD0918A4-F813-4809-9809-F8D4EAA8E394-538-000000738F445F4B_zps680fbd38.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/BD0918A4-F813-4809-9809-F8D4EAA8E394-538-000000738F445F4B_zps680fbd38.jpg.html)

Head shots on first pig.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/60f5112a-f948-4f15-b839-d873a88b39a8.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/60f5112a-f948-4f15-b839-d873a88b39a8.jpg.html)


Now the second hog.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/3D4728AC-4C69-4BBF-9B7B-7ED932C102DA-538-00000073D3E00662_zpsfebe25f2.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/3D4728AC-4C69-4BBF-9B7B-7ED932C102DA-538-00000073D3E00662_zpsfebe25f2.jpg.html)

Second Hog head shots. One is in the ear, the other is right behind the eye.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e400/rhino4x4/F9193236-D96B-4040-B2D0-963452AC0DA4-538-00000073C6BC3012_zpsc9817b55.jpg (http://s43.photobucket.com/user/rhino4x4/media/F9193236-D96B-4040-B2D0-963452AC0DA4-538-00000073C6BC3012_zpsc9817b55.jpg.html)

I'm going to have to try the Barnes 70 gr TSX bullet that Skypup recommends and see how that works on pigs.

[MurtaughF3]

I'm partial to the Wildlife Exclusives XLR 250, man is it bright. Basically a green powered flashlight that you can mount on top of your scope, or in the flashlight spot on an AR. The kit I got came with everything rechargeable batteries, wall charger, car charger, pressure switch, and more.

The reason I like it is because it's a flashlight with lots of flexible and more uses for more then just hunting. And because it is green the hogs can't see it. I've had it shinning right one them and nothing.