Here's some footage of a squirrel hunt almost two weeks ago. That day I missed every shot (except for the one in the second clip. It appears I grazed that one). Thankfully I was able to record these shots which reveled a few things to me that I didn't notice in those moments. I did check the image quality and reticle cant within the app before embarking on the hunt. They looked ok to me, but I'd only used a tree trunk as a focal point.
vimeo.com
vimeo.com
1) I don't recall the images through the scope looking anywhere near as blurry as these recordings captured. I was surprised to see it when I played back the video.
2) I determined that the reason the image was out of focus was because I managed to turn the diopter either while affixing the Tactacam FTS mount or when I was using an EagleVison mount with a Pard NV007 on a previous night hunt. Either way I remedied the issue by readjusting my diopter into focus.
3) It seems to me that when the diopter is out of focus, the parallax focus is also thrown off which throws off my holds according to my DOPE.
After realizing these things, I took time over the next couple of days to check and rework my DOPE out to 55 yards. Some holds changed and were put to the test in a subsequent hunt in which I took three shots on three squirrels and killed them all on the first shot. My only difficulty came when I shot an armadillo that came very close to me. I let the two of them trot past me until I'd estimated that they were within my point blank range. After killing him I analyzed my first shot on him and determined that he was not within my PB range. I needed to hold over in alignment with my DOPE for a 10 yard shot. That was completely my error. It suffered a little longer than I'd have liked in part because my shot didn't hit where I thought it would and I thought he was dead from the first shot by his initial reaction. Thankfully it did not escape and I was able to put it down with followup shots.
If anyone has any differing knowledge based upon similar experiences, I'm open to reading about it.
Also, for those of you who have asked about why I use IR or when, pay attention to the contrast between the lines in the reticle and the illuminated portion. My apologies on the upload. I don't know how to incorporate the slow-mo files into the upload in order to keep the slow motion portion in the videos.
Squirrel Miss Low, Hit Vine
Screwed up my diopter focus while attaching scope cam. The result was a series of misses. This is one of them.
vimeo.com Squirrel Miss, Misranged Wrong Hold
I screwed up my diopter focus while attaching scope cam. The result was an unclear image that didn't look so fuzzy to the naked eye. Consequently, my parallax…
vimeo.com 1) I don't recall the images through the scope looking anywhere near as blurry as these recordings captured. I was surprised to see it when I played back the video.
2) I determined that the reason the image was out of focus was because I managed to turn the diopter either while affixing the Tactacam FTS mount or when I was using an EagleVison mount with a Pard NV007 on a previous night hunt. Either way I remedied the issue by readjusting my diopter into focus.
3) It seems to me that when the diopter is out of focus, the parallax focus is also thrown off which throws off my holds according to my DOPE.
After realizing these things, I took time over the next couple of days to check and rework my DOPE out to 55 yards. Some holds changed and were put to the test in a subsequent hunt in which I took three shots on three squirrels and killed them all on the first shot. My only difficulty came when I shot an armadillo that came very close to me. I let the two of them trot past me until I'd estimated that they were within my point blank range. After killing him I analyzed my first shot on him and determined that he was not within my PB range. I needed to hold over in alignment with my DOPE for a 10 yard shot. That was completely my error. It suffered a little longer than I'd have liked in part because my shot didn't hit where I thought it would and I thought he was dead from the first shot by his initial reaction. Thankfully it did not escape and I was able to put it down with followup shots.
If anyone has any differing knowledge based upon similar experiences, I'm open to reading about it.
Also, for those of you who have asked about why I use IR or when, pay attention to the contrast between the lines in the reticle and the illuminated portion. My apologies on the upload. I don't know how to incorporate the slow-mo files into the upload in order to keep the slow motion portion in the videos.
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