It was a typical Texas summer day, 105° F with a light but hot wind blowing and no clouds in the sky. Weather like that had not yet been able to deter me from having a good time behind the trigger, and I had the bright idea to go shooting all day and hunting all through the night. My friend Felix wondered if it was sane to go shooting in that heat, and I answered, "If it ain't raining, it ain't training." Felix rolled his eyes as he got up with a huge sigh. "Fine, let's go."
I'm either hardcore or haphazard. Sometimes, I keep all my stuff ready to go for every shooting scenario, including the zombie apocalypse. Truth be told, I just like to be prepared, so I usually have a bugout bag or something like it as well as one of my guns within reach so I can get rolling within just a few minutes. Other times, I just grab whatever is available, which in this case was a bottle of water, then off we went.
I was armed with a Remington 700 5R Gen II chambered in .308 Winchester in a Magpul chassis equipped with a Streamlight ProTec and topped with Sightmark’s Presidio 5-30x56. The Presidio was designed for long-range/day shooting, with a first focal plane, illuminated milliradian reticle. Still, I could make it work for night hunting with a very powerful flashlight. My buddy Felix had my Remington 5R chambered in .300 Blackout. And, of course, the great state of Texas allows us to use silencers, so both rifles were equipped appropriately. We set targets at 100, 230, and 530 yards for day shooting. I just happened to be testing the Presidio and thought this would have been an excellent opportunity to test it on the range and at night. We both took a few shots at 530 yards to ensure everything was still on. With my .308, I was 5 for 5 on a 6-inch plate. Surprisingly, Felix was 3 for 5. I was surprised because Felix was both new to long-range shooting and had very rarely shot .300 blackout with 110gr V-Max. We engaged the targets for several hours and did some training until dusk. The Presidio did an excellent job. The tracking was perfect, and I was able to put all the features to use.
As it got dark, luckily, we had clear skies and a bright moon for just enough light to see the silhouette of any Pigs looking to cause damage. Well, at least for me. The .300 Blackout was topped with Wraith 4K digital night vision scope, so Felix was good to go. I on the other hand, was content to use my flashlight and the illuminated reticle of the Presidio. It took a few hours, but we were able to pick up the loud grunting and snarling of a group of pigs. We slowly, carefully, and quietly made our way towards the sound. As we circled around to the top of the hill overlooking the small meadow, Felix looked through his Wraith 4K to see the pigs at the bank where the creek and pond met. We set up just on the crest of the hill, about 200 yards away. Luckily, the pigs were playing in the mud and making a mess, oblivious to our presence. They stayed in one general spot for a while, so we called what pigs we were taking. Generally, if I was on the left, I would shoot something left of center, and Felix would shoot right of center.
"I got left," I whispered as I picked my target.
"I got right,” Felix replied. “Count when you're ready."
That was my cue that he was on target and ready. As quietly as I could, I counted out “3..2..1…”
With two loud bangs from our synchronized shots, a pair of hogs dropped in perfect unison. As the rest of the sounder began to scatter, we cycled our bolt actions, and went “full send” mode. I turned on my flashlight and painted the beam on the fleeing pigs to stay on target. The illuminated reticle of the Presidio 5-30x56 proved to be invaluable. I had it set to the second to dimmest setting and could see it perfectly with the light the flashlight provided. I feared it would be too bright or not bright enough, but it worked out perfectly.
We ended up taking out 5 pigs in all. We spent the next hour after our hunt doing some night shooting at targets from 100 to 230 yards using the Presidio scope and a flashlight. What an excellent way to spend the day.
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