Hunting coyotes at night

[PNWPrepper]

my dad I buying his first AR and he is buying it to shoot for fun, but mainly kill coyotes on the property at night. He was looking at some night vision scopes but were way out of budget starting at 3000$

What do you guys recommend for night shooting coyotes. Is there some sort of night vision sight that you can put in front of a scope? Or are there any good night vision scopes for under 1k? I have no experience when it comes to night vision. Thanks for the help!

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[EPS]

Hunting at is legal for coyote .
But if I was you I would look into the laws about using night vision.
I know you can use lights .
But the stuff that I have read is not kinda confusing.
I
It say big game can not be hunted with night vision or spot lights but coyotes are not consider big game.
So probably want to check it out.
Before buying night vision.

 

[PNWPrepper]

Hunting at is legal for coyote .
But if I was you I would look into the laws about using night vision.
I know you can use lights .
But the stuff that I have read is not kinda confusing.
I
It say big game can not be hunted with night vision or spot lights but coyotes are not consider big game.
So probably want to check it out.
Before buying night vision.View attachment 567801

Good to know, I didn't think it'd be relevant since he lives in Oregon, but I will have to look into it. According to those laws it says not during hunting season where rifle hunting is allowed. It would be on his own property where no one hunts. So I will have to look into the laws. Thanks for that! I figured since they were varmint it would be a little less strict.

 

[Greenbug]

Oregon hunting regulations outlawed the use of night vision and thermal this year, so there is that....

But if you are on your own property I think you are probably ok maybe???

 

[Greenbug]

You would probably be amazed at how much you can see in the dark with a low power big objective rifle scope....

Try it out!

 

[MannyGlocks]

Don't overlook the possibility of eating Coyote.

On "Bizzare Foods" with Andrew Zimmern there was an episode of taking a cleaned (skinned/gutted) Coyote, cooking it, eating it and declaring it great eating.

Any of you Coyote shooters eat them?

 

[PNWPrepper]

Oregon hunting regulations outlawed the use of night vision and thermal this year, so there is that....

But if you are on your own property I think you are probably ok maybe???

Dang. Really? Man I need to keep up on laws I never use lol

 

[American123]

ATN thermal scopes on the low magnification range when found on a good sale can be had for 1000 - 1500

For hunting purposes, thermal seems better than night vision.

Depending on what distances and at what level of darkness the intended coyote hunting will take place, that's the route I would go, unless as previously suggested a very large objective scope gathers enough light to get the job done.

 

[PNWPrepper]

ATN thermal scopes on the low magnification range when found on a good sale can be had for 1000 - 1500

For hunting purposes, thermal seems better than night vision.

Depending on what distances and at what level of darkness the intended coyote hunting will take place, that's the route I would go, unless as previously suggested a very large objective scope gathers enough light to get the job done.

Thermal would work too! We have no idea when it comes to shooting at night, so if there is a good thermal scope you suggest I'm all ears!

 

[V4Cascade]

Check out the link below. FLIR is local here in Oregon. They have great products.

https://www.flir.com/browse/home--outdoor/riflescopes/

 

[American123]

Thermal would work too! We have no idea when it comes to shooting at night, so if there is a good thermal scope you suggest I'm all ears!

Your listed budget of $1000 leaves few options for thermal, but not impossible.

Here's an example: I have experience with the brand, not the specific product.

New! ATN ThOR LT 3-6x Thermal Rifle Scope TIWSTLT136X, Color: Black w/ Free Shipping

The one I have is similar to this one but with higher magnification range.

ATN ThOR-HD, 384x288 Sensor, 1.25-5x Thermal Smart HD Rifle Scope w/WiFi, GPS TIWSTH381A, Color: Black, 28% Off — Free Two Day Shipping

Optics planet is the company I got mine through, but I did it at a time that they had a 14% off coupon running and ATN also had a manufacturers rebate that took $1000 off the price tag.

Saying thermal is amazing is an understatement. Absolute darkness does not matter, unlike night vision which relies on small amounts of ambient light or infrared spotters. In my eyes, the major benefit of night vision compared to thermal is that night vision can look through windows, the other being the ability to use infrared lasers as a method to aim.

One thing that hasn't been stated yet is the estimated ranged a coyote will be shot at. The reason why this is important is because thermal magnification is entirely digital, the more you zoom, the less clarity in the picture. So if your thermal sight is looking at a coyote 300-400 yards away, it might be hard to make a good shot.

You can find their products reviewed on YouTube.

My own experience with a ATN thermal scope had been positive. I mounted it onto a Tavor and haven't experienced any problems with about 100 rounds that way. They rate their scopes up to much higher recoil.

I recommend watching videos of people hunting with thermal, coyote, hog, etc. after that, I think your decision will be easy.

 

[Geardo]

What about a bright focused light. Should get you 100 yards easy, look at the example pictures. Not sure what yotes do when hit with a spot light.

Optimized Weapon Light

 

[PNWPrepper]

ATN thermal scopes on the low magnification range when found on a good sale can be had for 1000 - 1500

For hunting purposes, thermal seems better than night vision.

Depending on what distances and at what level of darkness the intended coyote hunting will take place, that's the route I would go, unless as previously suggested a very large objective scope gathers enough light to get the job done.

Hunting the coyotes would be under 300 yards.

 

[flashpan]

We've killed a lot of nite yotes with red and green lights. Have not steeped up with a therma yet because of $$$. But have tried a FLIR once and you can definately see more coyotes than red/green because of the heat signature behind bushes etc. Either way its an exciting , addicting sport. Enjoy

 

[American123]

Hunting the coyotes would be under 300 yards.

I haven't used it on anything that far. You can see things that far, but I haven't shot anything that far with it.

I'd watch video available online of coyote hunting with thermal to compare.

The digital zoom will distort an otherwise clear image, so trying to use the thermal at 300 yards, at least with the one I own, would be similar to using a 1x scope.

 

[EPS]

Good to know, I didn't think it'd be relevant since he lives in Oregon, but I will have to look into it. According to those laws it says not during hunting season where rifle hunting is allowed. It would be on his own property where no one hunts. So I will have to look into the laws. Thanks for that! I figured since they were varmint it would be a little less strict.

I don't know what it is in Oregon
I bet it is similar.
I would just check it out before you spend a few hundred bucks or few thousand bucks.
Private property could be different.
Too

 

[PNWPrepper]

I haven't used it on anything that far. You can see things that far, but I haven't shot anything that far with it.

I'd watch video available online of coyote hunting with thermal to compare.

The digital zoom will distort an otherwise clear image, so trying to use the thermal at 300 yards, at least with the one I own, would be similar to using a 1x scope.

That's good to know. I will watch some videos on it! Like I said, we don't know anything about thermal scopes or NV scopes. My dad wants to reach out to 300 but if we can't do that with one of those scopes then oh well. I figure 150 and under is more realistic.

 

[PNWPrepper]

I don't know what it is in Oregon
I bet it is similar.
I would just check it out before you spend a few hundred bucks or few thousand bucks.
Private property could be different.
Too

For sure! I think some laws are different for private property, I told my dad to talk to the local Sherriff, our property is 140 acres but on the backend of the property there is a small development and a local Sherriff deputy lives there, so he will get in trouble if he breaks the law for sure haha

 

[User 1234]

With a housing development bordering the property I would take many extra precautions before shooting, especially at night. At night, especially when looking though a scope and getting excited about hunting coyotes, it gets easy to lose track of your backstop, and many rifles are going to easily stretch past that acreage. Before dusk you could put up range limiting stakes with red glow sticks, and hand warmer packets to mark the edges of safe shooting directions. You could also put field of fire stakes in the ground at your shooting position so that if you are panning through the scope and start to point towards an unsafe direction the side of your barrel bumps into a wooden stake to warn you.