Hogster-R 35mm As A Weapon's Sight

Kirsch

Active member
My hunting partner has been using my Hogster for his scanner when we hunt together. The last time I went hunting he was not able to go, so I decided to take off my Flir PTS536 and run the Hogster as my thermal weapon's sight.

This also gave me the opportunity to try the Lumenier DX600 DVR. Here is a summary of my night, and video to follow.

Stand #1 and #2 were blanks. On the third stand, my DVR was already beeping that the battery was low. DVRs don't like cold temps. I turned it off, and almost immediately a pair of coyotes appeared at 400 yards. They never would come any closer and as they exited, I decided to give it a try. I was somewhat shocked as the coyote dropped and was #1 for the night. 30 seconds sooner, and I would have had it recorded. However, my confidence in the Hogster was pretty high after shooting a coyote at 400 yards.

On the 4th stand, I had a coyote right in my lap at about 75 yards, I made what I thought was a good shot. Coyote rolled, and got up and took off. It ran to 350 yards and stopped, and I dropped it in it's tracks.

Mad at myself for not getting footage, I remembered I had an extra battery pack along, so I stuck it in my pocket and ran the DVR off external power the rest of the night.

The video below shows stand 5, 6, 7, and 8. Stand #5 has a coyote appear, and I hit the power button on the scope and turned it off by accident. Luckily this coyote was very patient with me, as I turned the scope back on, changed background from black hot to white hot, and turned on PIP, etc. It finally decided something wasn't right and started to leave. I stopped the coyote at around 225 yards, and made the shot.

Stand #6 had a coyote show up almost directly downwind of my position. The coyote would have continued to come to the call, but I needed to shoot before it winded me. I paced this coyote off at 220 yards.

Stand #7 happened quick. I had a fox appear directly behind me. This was where my truck was parked. It must have seen the truck because it quickly turned around. It stopped at roughly 300 yards for one last look, and I squeezed off. A fox at 300 yards with a thermal is a long shot for a 2x base mag thermal, but I got it.

This was 5 stands in a row with an animal down with the Hogster-R 35mm with hits on coyotes/fox from 75, 220, 225, 300, 350, and 400 yards. My confidence was sky high as I went to a spot that always produces coyotes.

I was running low on my Hogster batteries, so I connected it to external power, which causes the recording to show some interference. I had been on the stand for almost 30 minutes, and nothing had showed. I did one final scan of the area and noticed a coyote a long ways away slowly working towards me. I was preoccupied by this coyote when I scanned the area again to find 4 coyotes coming hard towards the call. My usual pattern is if they are coming hard, stop the call when they are at about 400 yards, and if they haven't slowed up, give them a quick shout. It usually works. However, in this situation they surprised me so much, I didn't get the call turned off. I couldn't decide which coyote to shoot and just as I squeezed off on the 2nd coyote, it moved, and I shot right over the coyote's back. I tried a few running shots as the group exited, but never connected.

The Hogster did it's job, but if you hunt long enough, everybody misses. I also now have found the Lumenier DVR has a rocker switch that allows it to stay off, and you press the switch, and it turns on and starts recording which should help conserve battery. I have also discovered there is a way to turn off the timestamp, so sorry as it covers a lot of the PIP window on the video.

Thanks for sticking with me through the long story.



 
Looks very good K especially on the native mag. They should sell a boatload of them. Glad you're getting the hang of the Lumenier. I have one just like it. The rocker switch will be your friend.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleUpLooks very good K especially on the native mag. They should sell a boatload of them. Glad you're getting the hang of the Lumenier. I have one just like it. The rocker switch will be your friend. The first time I tried the rocker switch, I didn't wait long enough for anything to happen. After keeping the LCD off, and holding the remote in my pocket, and then in the dark trying to hit the right button and making sure it vibrated twice (record on) vs vibrating four times (recording off), I thought there has to be a better way. Plugged the rocker switch in, and tried it to find out, I just needed to wait about 5 seconds in total, and the unit starts up and starts recording automatically and turns off by flipping it the other direction. I now have mounted the DVR to the TNVC TRB battery pack. I have the rocker switch on top of the TRB. With a battery pack and the rocker switch, I can probably hunt for weeks on a charge. It is still a lot of wires, etc but should work.
 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06The view looks very good. Originally Posted By: Burnsome...Nice video Kirsch. That Hogster continues to impress. Originally Posted By: DoubleUpLooks very good K especially on the native mag. On native/base mag, it rivals many 640 scopes/scanners especially for background detail. The image would be even sharper if I turned on the Image Enhancement for High Humidity. I only use that feature in extreme humidity. The Hogster image does suffer when you need to use digital zoom. The image in the PIP window at 4x is not nearly as good at the native mag of 2x.
 
Do you know if Bering Optics is going to offer a higher native magnification scope in the future? A 4x or more for shooting like your Flir would be great.
 
Originally Posted By: Pro_huntDo you know if Bering Optics is going to offer a higher native magnification scope in the future? A 4x or more for shooting like your Flir would be great. I couldn't agree more. I have recommended they release a 50mm version that would probably be in the 3 to 3.5x range, but I haven't heard of any plans to do so. I would recommend you send your suggestion to info@beringoptics.com and add your suggestion for a Hogster scope with a higher native magnification. They have the Beast-R 50mm but it is only 2x native mag as it doesn't use the same core as the Hogster-R.

The Hogster-R is a very nice scope and the fact that it can be used equally as well as a scanner makes it so, so attractive. Although I have made shots out to 400 yards with it, I prefer more native magnification for my open plains hunting. For the majority of coyote hunters, 2x is probably perfect, but for me I desire a bit more.

Tom Austin and I were just discussing the fact the Hogster has filled the market gap that was left when Pulsar quit making the Apex. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but just a moderately priced thermal that has a really good image and kills stuff. However, at less than 50% of the size of the Apex, the Hogster makes a great scanner as well. It also takes rechargeable CR123s and can use a standard 5v battery pack.
 
Originally Posted By: NGI_TOMThat's some mighty fine shooting Korey. Small targets at some long ranges in the dark... Impressive! Thanks. I don't seem to struggle with the 200-400 yard shots, but had the quad inside of 100 yards, and I choked
tongue_smilie.gif
 
The video is fantastic and the Hogster_R 35mm thermal device is truly amazing. It looks like a very high definition thermal.

Hello Korey, we both have a mathematical background, but sometimes we have to recognize that 2 + 2 is not 4 !!

The Hogster-R 35mm ID = 384x288/(40000 tan(10.7/2)tan(8/2))= 422 pixel/square-yard

The Pulsar Thermion XP50 ID = 640x480/(40000 tan(12.4/2)tan(9.3/2))= 869 pixel/square-yard

It does not seem that the Pulsar has a double definition of the Hogster !!!


 
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Originally Posted By: Ernest49The video is fantastic and the Hogster_R 35mm thermal device is truly amazing. It looks like a very high definition thermal.

Hello Korey, we both have a mathematical background, but sometimes we have to recognize that 2 + 2 is not 4 !!

It does not seem that the Pulsar has a double definition of the Hogster !!! Just because the math says there is more than double the pixel count per square yard doesn't always translate to image quality. I have used some 640x480 thermals that had poor image quality. I have also used some 384x288 and 320x240 thermals with very good image quality.

The Hogster core is built by IRAY. Their core seems to do a really good job with overall image definition. By contrast, the Boson core from Flir, seems to have a lot better animal definition. Microns play a part in this as well, but I agree, the XP50 doesn't have twice the image quality of the Hogster-R 35mm. The other consideration is Pulsar videos are internally recorded and the Hogster is externally. Typically, externally recorded videos loose more quality compared to internally recorded.

The Hogster-R definitely delivers a lot of performance for a modest price compared to other thermal scopes.
 
Originally Posted By: KirschOriginally Posted By: NGI_TOMThat's some mighty fine shooting Korey. Small targets at some long ranges in the dark... Impressive! Thanks. I don't seem to struggle with the 200-400 yard shots, but had the quad inside of 100 yards, and I choked
tongue_smilie.gif


Don't feel too bad, for some reason, lately my partner can't hit a stationary coyote, but he's almost 100% on running coyotes.
 
This is great video and no more flashing crosshairs either. I had assumed that was the NG inc dvr, but you mentioned it was not. But now I’m wanting this Luminiers dvr, however there does not seem to be any in stock anywhere.

On another note thanks Korey for the throw lever idea for the focus knob! The difficulty of finding the focus ring with gloves on was my only real complaint with my Hogster. This quick easy mod makes all the difference.

Now if I can just find some coyotes that are willing to cooperate.


657FF307-4B85-47C0-9CCE-8EB34B0A4216 by Cornivorus, on Flickr
 
Originally Posted By: KirschOriginally Posted By: NGI_TOMThat's some mighty fine shooting Korey. Small targets at some long ranges in the dark... Impressive! Thanks. I don't seem to struggle with the 200-400 yard shots, but had the quad inside of 100 yards, and I choked
tongue_smilie.gif


Pm.sent sir
 
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