As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Our Associate portal can be found here
Every hog hunter knows that success equals determination, patience, tactics, and the right gear. When I hunt feral pigs, I prefer distance shooting instead of baiting, snaring, or trapping.
The best scope for hog hunting becomes handy during such scenarios, essentially improving my pig harvesting capabilities.
When you hear talk about scopes or optics, it’s always inundated with technical jargon. In retrospect, the best scope for hog hunting is relatively easy to operate and understand its workings.
However, you shall keep in mind that scopes vary in lens type, magnification capacities, construction material, and price.
Finding the scope that works well alongside your preferred firearm shouldn’t prove intimidating. I will offer a hog hunters viewpoint, reviewing the hog hunting scopes I’ve personally tried and tested.
Why You Need the Best Scope for Hog Hunting
As a hunter, it’s essential to understand your game animal of choice, in this case, feral pigs. You will be hunting hogs in low light conditions, with which they prefer to come out from their hiding places.
As soon as its dusk, you’re fancied pounds of ham and bacon become very active. Wild hogs forage for food mostly at night, and your chosen scope should feature excellent light-gathering capabilities.
Feral pigs are also very agile and always on the move. Your selected optic must maintain the magnification within a wide field of view to point your rifle to where rounds ought to go.
The best scope for hog hunting has a reticle with directed focus and may come with infrared or thermal integration. These optics aid efficient light transmission for after dusk or pre-dawn pig harvesting activities.
The reticle system’s simplicity also matters, as there’s no need for calibrated markings for the close range in which hogs are hunted.
You will benefit from elevation and windage adjustment, and the best scope for hog hunting will alleviate parallax.
When looking to acquire the best scope for hog hunting, it’s essential to consider your requirements without focusing on price or popularity.
Your pig harvesting situation, including terrain, light conditions, and factors like recoil impact, will determine whether you end up with a good optic or the best possible scope.
Here are my three choices for the best scope for hog hunting.
Overall Best Scope for Hog Hunting:
ATN X-Sight 4K Pro Smart Day/Night Rifle Scope
This is the best scope for hunting feral pigs in the black of night. The ATN X-Sight 4K Pro Smart rifle optic has superb thermal imaging using an obsidian IV dual-core processor for cutting edge imaging resolutions, vivid color, and faster optics.
You can now be assured that hogs will not hide within the shadows.
Doubling as an Ultra HD 4K live stream platform, this scope lets you share your pig harvesting adventures with family and friends. You can stream video straight to your smartphone while saving a copy in the provided SD card drive.
What impresses me the most is the thermal signature picking technology integrated into the high-end scope. You’ll be able to sight pigs from within underbrush or heavy cover by tracking their body heat.
With the ballistic calculator, you can make expert hog-killing shots on target with determinations on wind, temperature, range, and humidity. The ATN X-Sight 4K Pro Smart scope is a night vision optic that delivers clarity and crispness of images relayed to your shooting eye.
Infrared integration means that you have a better nighttime view of your intended hog together with the X-Sight. This scope operates on an Ultra-Low-Power Profile with over 18 hours of continuous service for battery life that won’t die in the middle of your hunt.
Pros
- Superb optics and high performing HD image sensor
- Built-in thermal and night vision sensors
- Ballistic calculator and laser rangefinder
- Video capture, recording, and streaming alongside images for sharing
- Easy to use interfaces on a robust construction
- Ultra-low-power profile for longer battery life
Cons
- Pricey
Best Premium Scope for Hog Hunting:
Sightmark Wraith HD Digital Riflescope
You can use this scope during the day with HD color imaging, and then switch over to night vision for a clear hog target view. The Sightmark Wraith Digital Day Night Vision uses a 1920 x 1080HD sensor integrated with a detachable IR illuminator.
See hogs in HD with this digital rifle scope, with enhanced nighttime imaging accuracy for up to 200 yards. The 850mm IR illuminator smooth’s over image quality for the decidedly accurate acquisition of the target.
Ten reticle choices are available for the Sightmark Wraith Digital Day Night Vision hog hunting scope. You can also choose from 9 colors to fit your hunting scenario, alongside four AA batteries that give 4.5 power hours.
You can preserve the memories with the inbuilt HD video recording and sharing options when out hog hunting.
Pros
- Impact, recoil, water, and fog proof
- Ten reticle patterns
- Elevation and windage adjustments
- 50mm objective lens and 850mm IR wavelength range finder
- Adjustment range at 60 inches for 100 yards
- Side mount and nitrogen filled optics
- 200-yard night vision detection range
Cons
- Heavy at 2.26 pounds
- Pricey
Best Budget Scope for Hog Hunting:
Bushnell 756185 Trophy 6-18x50mm Rifle Scope with Multi-X Reticle
With a 50mm objective lens, this scope maximizes your day time hog harvesting. The Bushnell 756185 Trophy is 100% fog, shock, and waterproof, offering a multi-X reticle and fast focus 3.5-inch eye relief.
Your feral pig harvesting demands are met by the Bushnell 6-18x50mm Rifle Scope’s field of view for high end and satisfactory images. The directional indicators are intuitive and simplify elevation or windage adjustments at ¼ MOA.
A dedicated caliber model, the Bushnell 756185 Trophy scope, will match your reticle to the short or long-range engagement called for when hunting hogs.
Pros
- Multi-X reticle that offers 6-18X magnification
- Rain guard HD with 91% any weather light transmission
- 50mm objective lens
- Generously ergonomic eyepiece for eye relief
- Fully multi-coated optics
- Windage and elevation adjustments are elevated
- Low priced
Cons
- Weighty at 1.14 pounds
Considerations to Make When Buying the Best Scope for Hog Hunting
When purchasing the best scope for hog hunting, several factors are critical to take consideration of. It all boils down to the habits and habitat of feral pigs, which are nocturnal.
Qualities that go into the best scope for hog hunting include;
Low Light Capabilities
Whether your scope uses thermal, infrared, or is holographic, zeroing in on hog prey after dark will require night vision abilities. A handheld NVD can also be used when the available scope choice remains limited on moonless nights, such as with the EOTech EXPS2 Holographic Weapon Sight.
Reticle Markings
When hunting hogs, the reticle is essential in target re-acquisition due to the fast movement or hiding tactics feral pigs employ. Due to the dark color of wild boars, low light conditions give them perfect camouflage.
A reticle that’s full of windage or elevation marking can make sighting a hog on the move complicated. Simplicity in a reticle such as with Duplex crosshair or red dot is sufficient for hog hunting applications.
Optics Quality
Once again, the low light hog hunting conditions will require that your optical quality is on the higher performance level. A large objective lens on the best scope for hog hunting allows efficient light gathering and transmission.
Quality optics allows your hog to be brightly seen from a distance while cutting edge coatings improve light transmission.
Power of the Scope
If you’re eagle-eyed and don’t expect to hunt hogs beyond 50 yards, then a fixed power scope will perform fine. However, given the unpredictable nature of wild hogs, a scope that features power variations will offer better acquisition speed coupled with precision.
What’s the Best Magnification for a Hog Hunting Scope?
Seeing as wild hogs are quite excitable, the best range to target them is between 50 and 100 yards. However, there’s no sugarcoating it; feral pigs are sneaky, moving fast on short stumpy legs.
The farthest I’ve shot a hog is at 150 yards. But if I remember correctly, my scope didn’t have a magnification of more than 4X.
It’s, however, rare to hear of hogs hunted from more than 100 yards. With the best scope for hog hunting, you can take down boars that come straying your way up to a close 10-yard range.
I prefer a fixed magnification scope as opposed to one with variable settings. At 20 yards, my good eye will not miss hitting a 500-pound boar, and I won’t need to use an optic sight for that.
A 4X magnification is sufficient for any hunter to harvest feral pigs, especially if you have poor eyesight.
You’ll find the most popular scope brands with 3-9X magnification specifications. While you’ll be using a lower scale of its magnifying power, the device’s 9X power may not be forthcoming.
As such, my perfect scope will have the range of between 1X and 4X magnification, quite sufficient to add versatility to your wild hog harvests.
Conclusion
Understanding the nature of the wild pigs you aim to hunt makes selecting the best hog hunting scope completely manageable. You may find that hunting feral boars in seasons other than summer will require a scope that’s a daytime performer as well.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.
36 years old, been hunting and fishing my entire life – love the outdoors, family, and all kinds of hunting and fishing! I have spent thousands of hours hunting hogs and training hunting dogs, but I’m always learning new stuff and really happy to be sharing them with you! hit me up with an email in the contact form if you have any questions.
