Thermal for scanning & Red light for weapon

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Driven2tri24

Member
Looking for opinions on buying a XM22 for detection and staying with Red light on the weapon to keep my initial cost down. I call a mixture of woods with Shotgun and small fields/clear cuts with rifle. The flexibility of using small compact lightweight lights on the SG and heavier more powerful light on rifle in Tripod is nice. I don't think I would gain anything in woods with NV weapon light in the places I hunt, but wanted your guys opinions.
 
Thermal will definitely aid in detecting more predators, but not sure that switching to a red light for shooting will be very compatible. My personal experience is that hitting predators, especially coyotes, with a bright red light suddenly almost always results in them bolting almost instantly.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleUpThermal will definitely aid in detecting more predators, but not sure that switching to a red light for shooting will be very compatible. My personal experience is that hitting predators, especially coyotes, with a bright red light suddenly almost always results in them bolting almost instantly.

My experience exactly. Been there, tried that.
 
I would ease kill light onto them like I normally do when transitioning from my scanning light...
If using NV scope do they run with sudden IR illumination?
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleUpThermal will definitely aid in detecting more predators, but not sure that switching to a red light for shooting will be very compatible. My personal experience is that hitting predators, especially coyotes, with a bright red light suddenly almost always results in them bolting almost instantly.

I tried it and got the same results. I did kill a couple dumb ones that ran a ways and stopped to look back, but most didn't stop running after the red light hit them.
 
Originally Posted By: Driven2tri24I would ease kill light onto them like I normally do when transitioning from my scanning light...
If using NV scope do they run with sudden IR illumination?

Some do some don't but they all seem to see it. The reaction varies from just freezing to leaving. Very seldom do they just ignor the IR.
 
Agree with weekender. Seems like about 80% of the time when I light them up with IR, that at least look up right at me. I shoot fast so its not an issue normally, but I use a thermal for scanning and then get on the gun when the moment arrives.

I've got two IR lights on my rig, one low power variable and one high power. I try to use the low power to locate and get the cross hairs on them and then when ready to shoot light them up like a football stadium at night for the shot.

Usually they look up at me. Occasionally they look up and might hesitate or take a few steps back and think about it. Thats their mistake because they're already dead at that point they just dont know it yet.

Thinking back, I dont recall ever having one get away due to the IR light up. Some dont even notice it, but most seem to. Its kind of strange. I think the IR light might reflect off moisture on the ground or something perhaps and they seem something thats not quite right and they react accordingly.

Guess I'll never know but it works well for me. If you go down range with the IR on you can see the slight red glow from the light so maybe they see that I'm not sure.

There's a lot of evidence that they cant see IR light at all, but the moisture reflection theory (my theory) or the red light might be the culprit.
 
I definitely don't have the money to run thermal for both scanner and gun and I don't know if IR vs Red light is a significant advantage at trigger time to warrant spending that much more.
 
Ir is way better than a red light and with gen 2 plus unless it’s very dark you don’t need the ir. I like the ir cause I can see their eyes and I’ve never noticed them spook from the ir. This is on @80 coyotes the last couple years. Not much but better than most. Maybe
 
Originally Posted By: Driven2tri24I definitely don't have the money to run thermal for both scanner and gun and I don't know if IR vs Red light is a significant advantage at trigger time to warrant spending that much more. I never recommend someone overspending on something like thermal if it jeopardizes their finances. However, it comes down to how successful do you want to be at coyote hunting at night. If you shoot a couple a year, it probably really won't matter. If you are serious about night hunting and really want to up your game, every step up matters. Of course, there are other factors besides using lights or not that can help a person's success at night hunting.

Moving to a thermal scanner is priority 1. It sounds like you are there or plan to be. I am not a huge fan of scanning with the rifle. However, if I had to choose between scanning with thermal scanner and shooting with a redlight vs scanning and shooting with a Hogster 25, for instance, I would probably choose the Hogster route.

If you go with the Hogster 25, you can choose to scan with it and still shoot with a red light, or use it for both. If you buy a dedicated scanner, you have no choice. However, per the original question, I prefer IR or Red lights.
 
Then again I’m 63 and sometimes hunt with a bud in his 70s. Standing around for a half hour which is what I usually call call is tiring.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I finally located a used XM22 and it's on it's way. I tried a Leupold Tracker 2 awhile back but found it was more detrimental than beneficial. I only have a couple places that I coyote hunt in attempt to control the population when not deer or turkey hunting. I'm just hoping the XM22 is significant improvement over the Leupold junk to actually help me see them inside the woods before they get to me..
 
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