Night Hunting

[woogie_man]

So how many of you guys are able to hunt at night? Have been looking around and reading through some of the laws and what not around my area, and quite honestly needed to take a break from it all.

So figured I would come here and see what you guys think.

As much as I would love to get a nice scope ( Viper PST ) and then get a nice NVG for the rifle, there is no way I could afford that. So was goofing around and came upon the pulsar n550 digisight. Looks like a beast of an optic, but can be used durring day and night.


So what do you guys use and do you have any videos of your hunts at night? And what does everyone use for their night time sneaky hunts.

 

[TOP PREDATOR]

Re: Night Hunting

for coyotes i've tried an illuminated centerpoint on a .22mag.

BUT the illumination has 5 settings for diming. even on the lowest setting, the crosshairs were just too bright and washed out everything while looking through the scope.

so now i have a stock of worn down 2032 batteries. when taking that set up ouot, i put a weak battery in it so it just barely lights up. but in very cold temps, its hard to get consistant lighting.

if having to use a scope on a rifle for night and not having the budget for NV (which i don't) a scope with at least 11 settings for brightness seems to work out good.

after not being able to get enough time to positively identify a coyote at distance, get on it when id'd, and squeezing off a shot quickly enough (our coyotes are heavily hunted in my area and are very spooked),i actually take out a 835 mossberg shotgun now with a 11 setting red dot. with a carlson dead coyote choke and 3.5 dead coyote ammo, it holds a pretty great pattern even out to 75 ish yards. that set up works well too with #4 buck.

it's one of the few setups that actually holds up to the claims of shotgun chokes and ammo. works great for coyotes and critters that seemingly are on "full throttle" most of the time.

for scanning, i simply use a LED maglight 2 cell w blue filter. eye shine out to 200+ yards, positive id of critter out to 100ish yards. upgrade an old maglight if you don't have an LED one, the upgrade by nite ize turns the ol' maglight to a pretty decent focusable spotter that packs easily.

one thing at night that i've found without NV equip is that in reality your going to have close encounters and the shotgun gets the nod more often than the rifle (rimfire or centerfire). not much open area in my region ...either the critter is making it's way through the hedgerows to my calls or is too far out to see in the dark anyway.