Shoots100

Great news. Remember to keep hydrated and get outside to breathe some fresh air.

There's only one real way to learn the weaknesses of your gear and how your using it. Most of the videos promoting scopes that need IR illuminators, are in open fields for a reason and now you've seen it first hand. When hunting wooded terrain in any part of the country, you need to shorten your shooting distances, lessen your IR brightness and set up in spots with shooting lanes or small open areas, where the illumination won't reflect as much. If your taking a shot at an animal over 100 yards, you need to change your hunting technique. Scanning with any type of night vision/thermal mounted on a rifle sucks and is dangerous when hunting with others. This is why a thermal spotter was recommended. I hunted for years with lights and NV scopes before being introduced to thermal optics and eventually buying my first 160 res thermal scope around the mid 90's. It's a real game changer and with the low prices of decent resolution thermal optics these days, it's worth saving up to buy one. I've only used red light filters, but have been told that green filters are primarily used in high pressure/over hunted areas, where even the minimal glow of an IR illuminator will scare off what's being hunted. I would only hunt with a light, in a state that prohibits night hunting with NV or Thermal. Come over to the Dark side !

Scope base or scope mount ? If you haven't, put a little loctite on whatever "Rail" screws before tightening them. The recoil of a .243 shouldn't be loosening anything.

Don't lock this up, as it's comforting for me (at least) knowing that there's some happiness coming out of this. While this year has pretty much sucked for me and my family, I have a smile on my face and a tear in my eye reading of the joy your experiencing with your granddaughter. Learning that Moogs wife is doing better, only solidifies my belief that there's a couple of new angels from my family up there listening to our prayers and forwarding them to the big guy. Keep the Faith. SJC

If you show no symptoms after the 10 or 14 day quarantine, you should be able to go back to work, without a test. There are some instances where people have tested positive 5 months after getting covid. People have tested three days in a row and had mixed results. The most reliable test is the PCR test, but that takes three or four days to get the results. Since I had a serious covid rash, I had to take 2 regimes of steroids and waited until the rash disappeared to go back to work. Hope all goes well for you.

Yes, $1,300 shipped. AGM ASP Micro TM384. After using this one for almost a week, I'm saving up to buy one as a backup and maybe helmet mount it. I drove around this evening for over 45 minutes trying to get some footage of deer or other animals and found one doe at 60 yards and a pair bedded at over 300 yards. While I could tell there was something alive at over 300 yards, you can see in the video, the image wasn't good enough to ID them 100% at that range. This unit is perfect for detection, not Id'ing at longer ranges. At closer ranges, it's more than adequate and the display is a lot clearer than the recorded video. Good to read that you got the wraith working and ready for sight in. You get the thermal and coyote will be knocking at your door to be shot !!!

Sorry for the confusion. I think at the time I was hunting near one of those county's and was advised by a DEC friend on the caliber restrictions, so I built a rifle in .20 cal to avoid any potential problems in case I wandered into said county(s) and I also wanted to build a .20 cal too. USRN, Any news on the wraith working in night mode ? Thermal ? I ended up buying an AGM TM384 for a friend, but because of the snow + vehicle issues, I wasn't able to deliver it last weekend, So I'm testing it while it's still in my possession. I also bought the 160 unit (Under $500 shipped) to do a comparison and ended up sending the 160 back, as it's pretty much useless. For just under $1,300 shipped, the TM384 is a real deal and will bring your predator hunting results to the next level.

Do you want a dog that will hunt too, or just a house dog ? If just a house dog, there's plenty of pound puppies available that need a loving home.

Back in the day, beagle breeders would kill lemon pups. Glad to see some breeders don't practice that anymore. Good Luck hunting.

Nope, the warm bag is the 20th century version of the German army field sleeping bag, that has zippered arm slots, but it's half the weight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC-D2ntVkqM The heater body suit is a big fluffy set of coveralls. The only issue I have with my warm bag, is that I don't want to get out of it. I was lucky enough to buy one before they went out of business. I looked into the heated suits and vest's, but I don't want to depend on a battery for power.

Just remember, being it's a centerfire cartridge, bigger than a .21 caliber, your not going to be able to use it legally for the first month and 20 days of Coyote season, as Deer bow season opens Oct 1st to Nov 20th. You may hunt furbearers with a rifle chambered in any cartridge, except that during any open season for deer (including archery, muzzleloading, and regular seasons) you may not possess a rifle larger than .22 caliber rimfire afield, during the day or night, to hunt wildlife, including furbearers in any county or portion of a county where deer hunting with rifles is prohibited during the regular deer season. Centerfire rifles smaller than .22 caliber are permitted.

Happy Birthday, remember to blow out the candles with a blow dryer !

Sasquatch ?

It's nice to have someone to "make" you go out coyote hunting and being able to go out behind the house and hunt them too, so be thankful for that. I let fox go, unless the chicken coop is being raided or the neighbors start complaining that their cats are disappearing. Fox are better than cats at rodent control and by the way it's looking down at the ground in that snap shot, it looks like it was doing just that. Do you have any video of the same view with the thermal and wraith ?

I'm sure the team is looking forward to tracking some chameleons in Florida. Safe Travels.

I was in it, but first I had to get rid of the pesky owl that kept bothering me !!!

Like the Lottery, You never know ! I have way too many people calling me up asking to do some coyote hunting on their land, but not until after deer season ends. One morning last week, the coyote were taunting me as I was headed to my stand, that I almost went back to camp to get my coyote rig. The next couple of morning's I took my coyote rig and didn't hear or see a thing. How's the Thermal working and the battery life in the cold weather ?

Don't beat yourself up, it happens. One of the first deer I shot was on a deer drive. I shot a small buck that was running down the ridge I was on, blowing both of it's front legs off. That buck made the most God awful sounds before I finally caught up to it and put it down for good. I felt so bad, I didn't go hunting for a couple of days after that. That was 38 years ago and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. I like to think that experience made me a better hunter and think this will do the same for you. You know you didn't mean to do it, so get out there and redeem yourself.

Why do you need 5 rounds to hunt deer ? FUAC, FUAC, FUAC !!! If it doesn't have a bayonet lug, threaded barrel or pistol grip, your good to go with the M1 carbine.

You pay for it and have your local FFL send their FFL paperwork to them for the transfer. Then they ship it to your FFL, you fill out the 4473, hope it passes quickly, pay a small fee and go home. If available, Buy the model with a detachable magazine. Once you know it's on it's way, buy a full length scope base and start buying Ammo or reloading components to feed it. After you get it all set up, maybe we could have a get together and put some holes into some critters with Grampy's AR and bust it's coyote cherry ? I have a spare thermal scope we could mount on it. I won't let you look through the XP38, as you'll end up selling your 700 to put a down payment on one.

After Deer season. Every scope I have on my puny rifles, has Quick detach mounts and I switch between my night scopes, thermals and day scopes all the time. A rifle is a tool made for killing, so don't deny your baby more killing time after deer season ends. The wraith also has color for daylight use, so it's not just for night hunting. You can save some money and build an AR to your liking, while you take out coyote with Grampy.

Buy the AGM 384 spotter and put the wraith scope on your .308 after deer season ends. The spotter can be used for spotting deer and also security around the house. .308 would be the biggest cartridge I would go with for a varmint rifle, as most night scopes are only rated up to .308 recoil. I always suggest going with a .223, as ammo is going to be somewhat easier to find, recoil is easier to handle and it kills critters just fine. I've built many custom rifles for friends using the savage axis platform, after they've shot out the barrel of the stock rifle. SJC

A friend had similar needs and after he hunted with me a couple of times to see what night hunting is all about, he ended up getting an AGM micro TM384 thermal spotter and a Wraith HD 2-16 scope combo, for under $1,800. He can and does use the thermal spotter for more than coyote hunting and that was a good purchase, as you use a spotter 95% of the time and a scope 5% of the time, and thermal rules in the spotting dept. The 2x wraith scope has a wide FOV and has a color image too, so it's totally useable for daytime hunting. Both optics record video and still images. He mounted it on a NYS legal .223 complete upper that he got for $500. That would keep you under a $2.5k budget for a complete setup that you won't need to upgrade for a long time. SJC

Nov 26th update. I've worn the Lynx boots while coyote & deer hunting, in all sorts of terrain and weather conditions. So far they seem to be holding up well. Lightweight and good ankle support. Easier to remove than a pull on boot and warmer in the cold too. SJC

After years of suffering and spending a lot of money on heater products and layer systems, I tried the warm bag that my brother uses and I was sold. My brother tried the heater body suit, but it was too big , bulky and noisy. I walk out in my bow hunting clothes, get into the warm bag and I'm set for all day sitting, if needed. Unless it's pouring rain, I'm not concerned one bit about going hunting anymore. I even outlast my farmer cousins, who hunt till their spit bottles freeze to their hands. The warm bag isn't available anymore and the only product that I could find that is comparable, is the IWOM system.