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Here's the situation. My father has some hogs rooting around his property and tearing up stuff at night. He wants to shoot some of them, and the only modern rifle he owns is a SP1 Colt AR-15. (yes, he will clean them and take them for processing) He does not want to take the carrying handle off, but he wants to know what accessories would be good for taking a hog out at night with that rifle. I assume a carrying handle mount with rail would come first. What next? Red Dot, night vision, variable scope, etc.? Any thoughts are welcome! (He lives in a very rural area, and he's already contacted the local law enforcement office on if it's ok to do so on his property. No legal problems jic anyone asks)

I hear the sniper hog lights are pretty good. Youtube will have reviews, check out "dnahoghunter" he has some really great videos using said lights. Best of luck to your dad

I am getting ready to test out a rail mounted light this weekend. There is an outfit in Mountain Home Texas that makes a 300 lumen red and green light for night hunting. Streamlight makes the gamespotter but it costs more. He will need some illumination.

Johnnyreb,

He is (at best) going to get off one aimed shot, so don't invest a ton of money on this endeavor. Texas wildlife dept is saying unless we harvest feral hogs at a 66% rate, the population is going to double in 5 years. Hogs learn and adapt so TWD thinks unless new eradication methods are developed we are going to be in quite a pickle.

If you want to thin them out get 4 or 5 guys with rifles and a couple with spotlights. Scopes help ID them on a night with decent moon light. Organize, aim, hit them with the lights and start shooting. Use hunting ammo in rifle caliber and don't expect the hogs to die on the spot. They run off even when hit hard in a lot of situation and especially with smaller caliber rifles. You may have to do this every couple of months to change the ones that live pattern away from your property. They will return.

Rent/buy/build a decent trap and knock em dead when their trapped. 10-15 T-posts and some hog panel can make you a decent and effective trap. You can get a lot more than one at a time that way and be more efficient with your time, effort, and ammo. My Dad needed two rounds from an AR in 5.56 to drop one a few weeks ago. First shot went in the ear and the second in the neck. He was within 35yds and it still took two shots. The trap guarantees clean kills and no run a ways.

XS sights makes tritium sights for AR's.

http://xssights.com/index.php?nID=sight ... D=tactical

For a relatively small spend, that would let you put a large rear aperture and front post onto the SP-1, complete with tritium lamps.

There are also lots of optics that come with "carry handle mounts" like this:



Or you can get a "drop-in" solution that will let you mount any standard scope to your carry handle:

http://www.nightvision4less.com/leu-521 ... 6-mat.aspx

In terms of what optic to put on...a low magnification, large objective scope can work well on nights with good lighting from the moon...but nothing quite measures up to good night vision technology when it comes to operating at night. The problem is that it's not cheap. At all. Especially if you want good equipment.

Look up this poster. He is one serious hog hunting expert. He had a running thread going on another forum for quite awhile. PM him. He knows more about hog hunting than most folks I have known. http://texaschlforum.com/memberlist.php ... file&u=411" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RECIT wrote:Rent/buy/build a decent trap and knock em dead when their trapped. 10-15 T-posts and some hog panel can make you a decent and effective trap. You can get a lot more than one at a time that way and be more efficient with your time, effort, and ammo. My Dad needed two rounds from an AR in 5.56 to drop one a few weeks ago. First shot went in the ear and the second in the neck. He was within 35yds and it still took two shots. The trap guarantees clean kills and no run a ways.

A trap might work for a little while and then the hogs learn, they are very smart critters. Leg snares can be very effective - look for their travel routes and place some around their paths.

Of the few I've shot, they always went down with one hunting round (.270 Win bolt gun) placed behind the shoulder. Sometimes a second shot was necessary to stop the noise . Planning on hog hunting at a buddy's ranch sometime next week with my .308 Bushmaster for the first time.

At my brother-in-law's ranch he's had to twice remove white tail bucks from the hog traps in the last few months .

Thanks for all the great advice guys!