By: Jason Price, Owner of Feral Texas Outdoors
Though deer hunting is a passion in Texas, hunting at night for hogs and varmints is starting to become common place across the state.
Farmers protecting cropland, ranchers protecting livestock, or weekend hunters are just a few examples of people wanting to get out and hunt. With only a few daylight hours after work, not everyone can get out in a stand, or up in a tree, as often as they would like. More and more folks working during the day and living busy lifestyles that don’t have time to take off during the day are able to sneak out for a few hours at night.
There are many reasons people want to go out and hunt at night as opposed to during the day. Some of these reasons are coyotes harassing livestock, hogs tearing up fields with crops, and of course tons of raccoons that get into everything. We have even seen folks asking about beavers and nutria eradication. The largest need for night hunting we have seen in Texas has been feral hog eradication. Feral hogs have been invading the state for years, causing millions of dollars in damage every year. We all must do our part to protect farmland, livestock, and crops. Hunters going out at night has helped to decrease some of these numbers in recent years.
I became a night hunter back in 2016 when my father bought me my first thermal. Our family ranch was getting destroyed by feral hogs and my father needed my help removing them. After a few weeks, we began to see the effectiveness night hunting had in removing feral hogs and varmints off our family property. From there I started Feral Texas Outdoors on YouTube, having fun posting content of my night hunts and talking about different optics I was using.
After a couple years and some consideration, I decided to expand Feral Texas Outdoors into a night optics company. First selling products online and still running content on social media platforms. The company became so popular I had people wanting to come see optics in person and showing up at my home.
Needless to say, I was getting busy, so I brought my wife, Jessica, on board. Jessica is my hunting partner, so having her help me run the business was no question. My wife and I saw the need for people wanting to see optics in person, not just buying online.
At this point we started looking into retail space and found a location in our hometown. We opened our doors for business in April 2021. We wanted to provide an environment where anyone with any budget can test these optics hands-on and find the optic that works the best for them. Now we have people driving from all over to find their optics and seek advice.
Starting a business in the hunting industry has not been easy, we have had our challenges. Social media has not been kind to the hunting community. Content being blocked, reported, or deleted is a mountain to climb every day. We have been able to make a name for ourselves in the night hunting industry with the support of our customers. This gave us the opportunity to also be featured on Sportsman Channel. Feral Texas Outdoors has appeared a few times in Pigman: The Series working with Pigman and Junie. Since becoming close friends, we still offer our expertise on the show for night hunting. It was a blast!
We pride ourselves in field testing new products that come to market for our customers. We provide our content and product reviews on our YouTube Channel, as well as our other social media platforms including our new podcast, Hunting After Dark. Hunting After Dark will feature product reviews, guest speakers, along with tips and tricks.
At Feral Texas Outdoors we want to give customers all over the nation the opportunity to see what these optics look like in the field to make an informed decision. We want the customer to decide what optics fit their needs and are not just trying to get a sale and move on. We don’t bring products into our store unless we have personally tested them. Some products don’t make it through to our store having failed our field test. With product testing we are able to bring experience to our customers when they run into issues with their optics out hunting at night. Firsthand experiences allows us the unique opportunity to provide high-end customer service for the optics we sell.
At our retail location we provide a unique experience with customers being able to test units hands-on. Comparing image, button layouts, and features between products and different manufacturers.
Night optics have changed over the last few years. Night hunting was always seen as an expensive style of hunting, but that has now changed. Thermal optics manufacturers have been developing new technologies almost every year. Now you can get into the night hunting game with a thermal scope for less than $1000. We’re not saying it’s the best thermal on the market, but just like daytime optics the more you spend the better image and features you get with your optic.
Manufacturers have also done the opposite, you can now get thermal optics in 1280 resolution doubling the resolution and the price of previous high-end models. Thermal optics have so many features now, even in optics that are on the inexpensive side. Thermal optics now have laser rangefinders, live wi-fi streaming, video recording, audio recording, shot activated recording and now even ballistic calculators. With so many options, it can be difficult to find the right one for you, but that is why we’re here!
If you ever find yourself in the market for a thermal or night vision unit, please give us a call or even better, come by our store located at 301 S. Franklin St, Suite B, Holland, TX 76534 so we can help you in person. We are here to help you find the right unit for your needs.
