My First Pesting Opportunity. Advice Needed

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Night vision scope/cam finally arrived. Hopefully I’ll have it figured out to begin pesting next week. The instruction manual is kinda crappy. It seems obvious that the people who printed it are foreign and English isn’t their first language. The directions seem relatively intelligible, but they are bit vague and disjointed. If all goes according to plan there will be more to come within the week. 
 
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What night vision set up did you get ? 
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@survivor45 Pard NV007a, Night Vision Monocular/scope cam

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Get some motion sensors from Harbor freight. I bought three and all three are different codes so one sensor doesn't activate more than one receiver. When I am having problems with raccoons visiting our patio and causing havoc I simple set one out there on a cat litter can facing the sky. I put some peanut butter and a couple of marshmallows on top of the litter can. When bandit shows up the sensor wakes me and I put a pellet through his brain. By putting the sensor on the litter can facing up the stray cats won't set it off when walking by. If you need a little light you can always place one of the freebie lights from HF to aid in the shot.
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Interesting. Now I don’t intend to fall asleep while pesting, but I am curious. What type of system do you have that wakes you up? What are the sensors connected to? You mentioned a receiver, but I’m absolutely clueless about this set up. I’ll look it up on Harbor Freight’s site. This sounds perfect for my garden. May even try it around the chicken coup.
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The sets are about $10 when on sale. There are two parts, a motion sensor which is placed near the target area and the receiver which has a high and low switch which I keep near me while watching TV or if I go to bed. I have trail cams on the patio but the coons don't visit on a set schedule so the sensors seem to work the best for me.
 
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Ezana I remove nuisance animals 12 months a year for all types of farms and urban areas and travel thousands of miles to do it. I may have missed it in the posts but my method would be my cameras if the permission is close enough. I like to study the animals habits and times to increase my odds for success then lay out a firing line with known distances and bait to get that kill shot. An armadillo has poor site so your odds go up already. Just some of my thoughts. My guns are all .30 cal now but did shoot the .25 heavies for years. I wish I could watch your hunt, enjoy yourself.
 
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Just sat on a beaver pond for 3.5 hours tonight. They sure got me on this one. Did not see a thing. Outsmarted me i guess. Will have to rethink this one. Broke up two dams this morning and was sure they would be out repairing tonight. It works that way sometimes.
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@Monkyshine Ever pull an all nighter on them? How long would you typically sit on an active beaver site? Seen plenty of beaver activity at night hunting raccoons. My grandfather used to complain about the beavers damming up the creek until they did it downstream and created a pond for his livestock. How do you break-up their dams?

I did get out earlier and check on two locations I’ve been contacted about concerning pests. The armadillo spot showed signs of some sort of probing where there were a lot of somewhat shallow holes in the rancher’s grazing area. The other location had some pig activity. I’ve been monitoring it for about a week. I only saw evidence of them visiting one night. Today when I returned I could hear logging activity in the distance so I figure it’ll only be a matter of time before they return. 
 
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No allnight hunts for me. I work three days out of town and when I'm home for four I hunt almost every day not always night hunts but the wife wants to see me a bit. While waiting in my driveway with my UTV packed up a commercial farm manager pulled in and requested removal of beaver on their 2000 acre farm. Work's never done here. Concerning breaking beaver dams some places are big drain pipes that I pull limbs and other debris from and water pressure does the rest others I remove enough to let a little water come through just enough to put them at known distance for removal. The owners get rid of the bulk of the blockage after I finish the job. Included some shots of my machine when I run local if someone comes with me I throw in a office chair next to the stable table. They can nap for those long nights as you said waiting. 
 
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Back in after sitting on these burrow openings in the cold for a couple of hours. What I learned tonight: my rifle isn’t set up for the task. I’m waiting on my night vision camera mount to arrive so I can mount the monocular to the scope. I also need a bipod and a sling for this rifle. My rear bag sucks, it’s way too small. I could use some sort of tactical flashlight to attach to one of the rails. An additional battery for the night vision system is in order as well as an external IR light.


Tonight my objective was to observe and find out if these burrows are active. I set my shooting table and chair up about a half hour before I began sitting there. Once I grabbed my rifle and bags I set up on the table. I used my Pard NV007a as a monocular. I saw more flying insects than anything. Considering that it was cold, I wore gloves. There were numerous times I went to push the power button and accidentally pressed the button that turns on the red beam. There were other times I tried to lower the IR light’s intensity and inadvertently turned on the red beam. What I learned is that I’d be best served to familiarize myself with the monocular’s functions before taking it into the field. Another battery is necessary because I ran this one down to a single cell on the battery monitor icon and I wasn’t running it constantly. I’d scan an area, then hit the power button once finished. It would then be on sleep mode until I pressed the power button again. When I heard a noise or wanted to look again I’d hit the power button once more. The tactical flashlight is necessary because a possum came out of the brush that was right next to me. An LED light provides enough light at close range to take a regular shot. I identified it through the night vision monocular when it came into a clearing about 4-6 yards away, sat up on its hind legs and looked straight in my direction. However, it was so close to me that I shot hoping to hit it, but having no way of aiming because my night vision unit was not mounted to the scope and it was too dark to see anything through the scope. I even tried holding the unit up to the scope to view something. I was unable to see anything this way. After i shot and missed, It scurried back into the brush and I didn’t see it any more tonight. I’m surprised it came out into the open. When I heard the rustle in the brush I grabbed the rifle first then fumbled the monocular while trying to turn it on. I’d even accidentally kicked the table with my boot so the animals should’ve known I was there at some point. The brush I’m referring to is the same brush that I showed you all in a photo earlier in the thread that I thought would make for good cover except I set up on the opposite side of the shed where there’s the same type of brush. I’m just glad it wasn’t a skunk because it was entirely too close to me. I didn’t see an armadillo tonight. Hopefully the next time I go out I will at least be able to mount my night vision system. 
 
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Sounds like you have learned a lot in one trip. I have been doing it so many years now I forgot all the early learning of night hunting. You will have it down after a few more trips..I set up the next evening on my beaver pond in a more obscure spot and dispatched both beaver within 15 minutes of setup. Work complete here on to another problem on a larger farm.
 
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Sounds like you have learned a lot in one trip. I have been doing it so many years now I forgot all the early learning of night hunting. You will have it down after a few more trips..I set up the next evening on my beaver pond in a more obscure spot and dispatched both beaver within 15 minutes of setup. Work complete here on to another problem on a larger farm.
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Congrats! That sounds like a night of light work. You deserve it after the last outing. I can see the obscurity helping. They seem to have decent vision. At night I’ve mainly seen them in the water. Where were the one’s you dispatched when you hit them?
 
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Both were trying to block the 1.5' drain pipe from the pond. I shot each one in the head swimming up with the debri in their mouth to block the pipe. Both are on bottom, when/if they float I will remove them. Not a hard shot at 38y. Removed night equipment because I still had daylight for the shots. The pic shows very corner of pond I was focused on.
 
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I just realized that I forgot to update this thread. The burrows turned out to be old inactive armadillo burrows. However, some lucky possum moved into this subterranean, readymade, earthen mansion. So the damage was done and the culprits had been long gone. At least I know where to set up for a stakeout if the possums ever become more of a problem than pulling some trash from the rancher’s trash bins. 
 
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