I’ve been gunning for these buggers for a while. I just took my thermal scope out of its mount to use it for another scope and didn’t mount the thermal scope in another mount. So I went out with a thermal hand scanner, a hog light, and later I came back and grabbed my ScanPro headlamp.
I was scanning my yard for dillos and got wheezed at by a deer that startled me. I made my own animal noise back and then clicked on my rifle mounted torch. She looked back for a few seconds and walked off. I took the time to record some thermal images of her. I began to scan my yard again. That’s when I spotted a small body through some brush and grass at the corner of my yard and an adjacent property. I had to have been at least 50 yards away. Then I made my way to the fence line and saw something crossing the adjacent property through the tall grass. I thought it might be a cat with its long tail stretched straight out. I decided to investigate, so I maneuvered around to get a gander from a different angle. I followed as it crossed two different properties. Then I saw it doing something in the grass. I really thought it was a cat that had caught something and was playing with it in the grass. Then it lifted its head as it was looking in my direction that’s when I realized it was an armadillo. It was easily identified by its head profile and ears. It moved through the grass and hit a clearing it as it walked. I leaned against a post, clicked on my rifle mounted torch’s pressure switch, and squeezed the trigger. Damn it!!! My safety was on. So I clicked it off, thermal scanner dangling from my wrist and I’m trying not to hit it against anything and scare off my quarry. I pressed the trigger and popped off a shot broadside before it walked back into the tall grass.
Pop
the shot was unusually loud or maybe it was just that quiet tonight. The dillo jumped and scurried off into the treeline. Once it got in there, it sort of hung out between some tree trunks. I watched it for a little while through my thermal scanner as it moved rather slowly before settling. I figured it’d be dead by the morning. I went back home, conversed a while, and said I wanted to go back out and check the yard before I go to bed.
When I went back out I grabbed my ScanPro headlamp and a hat. I scanned my yard and still saw nothing. Then I made my way back down the road scanning various properties. There are only a couple that I don’t hunt. I returned to the property where I’d shot the dillo and saw another one through my thermal scanner. This one was beneath the trailer and I kept half circling the trailer trying to catch it clear of the tires. Once it looked clear I clicked on my headlamp to be sure. Once there were no obstructions, I turned on the rifle mounted torch.l, then my IR (illuminated reticle. I took a shot. “Shhhmack!!!” That’s a hit! It turned around beneath the trailer and whimpered (like a faint squeak) I tried to line up another shot and let it have another. It began to skeedadle and made its way beneath the trailer towards the opposite side.
I tracked it by circling to the rear so I had a view of the other side. I grabbed my my scanner again and saw it head into a bush, then beneath an old broken ramp. I circled around the ramp and put both lights on it, then I adjusted my parallax to 10 yards, backed up until it was in focus in my scope, held over 6 MOA and let him have another one. He piled up deep under the ramp to where I could not see it.
I watched for movement for a while and saw none. I went up the road to check another property. I caught some movement from a property I don’t bother with, but I watched. I thought it might be a cat, but I tracked it through my thermal scanner as it crossed the road. I practiced a little stalking to get close in order to ID it and turns out it was a possum. I slung my rifle back over my shoulder and just observed the possum for a while. The worst I saw it do was use the bathroom in the grass and check a bird feeder for seed.
After leaving the possum, I went back to the other property. Again I saw a dillo hanging around the underside of the trailer. I followed it half-circling the trailer again before deciding to get in front of it with the wind blowing right to left so that it couldn’t smell me. I kneeled down and tried to line my rifle up with the thermal scanner. This was a bit tricky. I switched on the torch and checked my scanner again. It was hard to see with a little vegetation around it in the dirt. Once I located it in my scope, I thumped him broadside. I heard it wince and shot again. It fell over on its side and scooted up a little. I shot again and I could hear it whining so I shot until it was quiet (about another two shots). Keep in mind that my range is all by estimate for the most part. My parallax wheel is set at 25 yards.
If you look to the right of the red bowl you’ll see part of the body with a red streak of blood running down the amor. That’s a dead dillo.
I have to fish it out tomorrow. I expect to find another dead one in the treeline. I hope all of these weren’t the same dillo because I’m tired of them digging in my yard.
Gear used:
Huben K1 shooting FX 18.1 grain diabolo pellets with an Amazonia “El Cheapo” hog torch. I think I snagged the pressure switch from another torch. Burris BTH50 handheld thermal scanner. ScanPro headlamp. I forget the model number.
does it hurt a scope to be adjusting all the time? Last question if anyone is reading this far... Do you find you have to adjust the zero every time you re-torque certain screws on the gun? In this case it’s a super accurate HW30S. 
Thank you Veterans!!
