Predator Flashback

[XUSNORDIE]

Wow. A Buddy sent me this pic. It was my Facebook profile pic when I was heavily into pred hunting/tournaments. I only did Facebook for our Pred Hunting page we ran and another when I coached my Son's Football teams (that's how we communicated to parents). This was just after I bought a Ruger American Predator in 204. I think this was 2014 season. If I recall this was just getting my gear together on a couch in my gun room before heading out for a few quick sets one night. Didn't take me long to replace that flimsy stock.

That is still a favorite rifle. That equipment is obsolete nowadays.

I miss it.

 

[contender]

Nice set-up.

But I doubt it'd be "obsolete" anywhere except in tournament places. In places where nobody does those,, I'm SURE it'd take plenty of predators.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

Nice set-up.

But I doubt it'd be "obsolete" anywhere except in tournament places. In places where nobody does those,, I'm SURE it'd take plenty of predators.

Oh of course it would. But thermal scanners and optics have taken over unfortunately. Scanning and call operation took skill and patience. My buddy and I used to get called a lot by farmers and folks who wanted problem preds controlled on their property. He's moved away now. The majority of those folks who called us now have a couple young guys with all the current thermal stuff.

Night Vision hit the market for a bit before thermal became the norm. I did break down and buy a NV scanner and NV scope. Used it one night on two sets and hated it. Now you can't give NV away. Thermal is now the way even for recreational pred hunting. My buddy is also all into it now, so even if I were still active I couldn't use my gear if hunting with him. My youngest Son really enjoyed at also. We took some of his friends out and they were hooked. Now they have all the thermal stuff. For me, it was all about call selection/control, locating and working the eyes in close to identify and get a shot. Heck there were nights I used hand and mouth calls.

Maybe some night when my Son is on leave we'll break out the gear and head out for some eye shine.

 

[contender]

Well, in many places,, night hunting isn't legal. Although certain species can be hunted at night.

NV,, Thermal,, & such,, all can easily assist in many endeavors besides predator control,, eerr,, 4 legged predator control!

 

[XUSNORDIE]

True....mostly up north in the snobby states .......Some allow the night hunting for preds but no artificial light. Regs can get pretty baffling. I spoke with Mike Dillon (FoxPro Inc) many years back about that. A sticky was added to the forum with current regs for each state. That was a great forum. Unfortunately it is no more.

A few years back I was on a hog hunting trip in Texas. The owner of the ranch we stayed on said to take out as many yotes as possible. I brought all my gear and we had a blast doing just that from atop the bunkhouse. The last night we were there it was BBQ time. Had family down there and they picked up a ton of Blacks BBQ for us. But they neglected to bring more beer. We needed replenishment so drove into town to grab some. We ran across a truck full of guys who were in full kit complete with NODS. Looked like they were getting ready to board a helo for a mission insertion. I asked one where the bird was going to land and they laughed. They were getting paid by some ranchers to kill hogs. Looked like they stepped out of a Rainbow Six video game my kid used to play.

 

[Mobuck]

NV has it's limitations and quirks. That's why I just spent my allowance on a thermal monocular with the hope that it would allow target location and identification w/o waving the 10# NV mounted rifle constantly and being blind in one eye after looking through the NV scope.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

NV came and went pretty quick. SightMark had a hold on the market briefly with the Gen1 Wraith and some sold it as a combo with a SightMark NV monocular which everyone started buying. I absolutely hated it. You are correct Mobuck there is a recover period from scanning with NV and transitioning to the gum mounted optic. So some stuck to picking up eye shine with handheld scan lights and switched over to an NV mounted optic to identify/kill. Didn't take long for thermals to flood the market and become more affordable. That's the norm to this day.

It's a shame some the younger types who now enjoy it couldn't start with handheld calls/mouth calls, and lights. Now there are so many callers with endless playlists and thermal scanners/optics they just jump right into the kill. There is not much skill in it anymore. The hardest part still is locating but after that it's set up, push a button, see everything that moves with a thermal and shoot....Meh.....