My hunting partner and I went out last night. The weather was just about perfect, cool with hardly any breeze. We hit a few spots, but most places still had corn and beans waiting to be harvested. We went to one spot that was harvested, and we called a coyote in. Coyote - 1 Me -0.
It was a learning experience. The biggest thing I learned is that I need to learn to range with a thermal. We called him in, and we thought he was 150-200 yards out. Unfortunately, my partner was scanning and he'd moved the zoom to 2x without me realizing it. I took a shot, the coyote hopped up and took off. He came back to the same spot about fifteen minutes later, but I wanted him to get closer before I shot again. He wouldn't get any closer and ended up disappearing into the woods. We stepped it off and it was closer to 325+ yards.
Since it was my first time out with thermal, my expectations weren't really high, but it was nice to see how good the thermal did. We saw deer at 600 yards, horses at 1,000+ yards, a hawk or an owl flying around, and a mouse at about 35 yards. Of course, those were estimates - like I said up thread - I need to learn how to range better.
All in all, it was still a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to getting out again in a week or two when the farmers clear the fields.
It was a learning experience. The biggest thing I learned is that I need to learn to range with a thermal. We called him in, and we thought he was 150-200 yards out. Unfortunately, my partner was scanning and he'd moved the zoom to 2x without me realizing it. I took a shot, the coyote hopped up and took off. He came back to the same spot about fifteen minutes later, but I wanted him to get closer before I shot again. He wouldn't get any closer and ended up disappearing into the woods. We stepped it off and it was closer to 325+ yards.
Since it was my first time out with thermal, my expectations weren't really high, but it was nice to see how good the thermal did. We saw deer at 600 yards, horses at 1,000+ yards, a hawk or an owl flying around, and a mouse at about 35 yards. Of course, those were estimates - like I said up thread - I need to learn how to range better.
All in all, it was still a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to getting out again in a week or two when the farmers clear the fields.