Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics ATN thermal scope ?

Looking for those with real world experience with ATN thermal, scopes, pros cons, best place to buy, etc. a friend of mine runs one on his coyote rifle and loves it.

Tell your friend to cherish that scope, as it's one out of a thousand ATN scopes that actually works.
There are many scope brands to choose from that actually function, have decent customer service and warranties if needed.
ATN is at the very bottom of that list.
You've been warned.

SJC

I went with AGM because I heard so many bad things about them but if I were to buy one I would look at their refurbished scopes.

https://www.atncorp.com/refurbished

I would definitely stay away from the 160's

I had a Thor 160 LT 4-8x and killed a number of hogs and coyotes out to around 175 yards. I'd consider that about the max effective range of the unit, though under good conditions and a larger hog, 200 may be doable.

This model doesn't have all the unnecessary bells and whistles like BlueTooth, video recording, etc -- and that is why I bought it. No, it's not going to give you the same view of a $4K model, but it flat-out works, and to me, that's what matters. I had no issues with mine, and the only reason I sold it is because of CameraLandNY running a superb sale on a refurbished SightMark unit.

While I have never personally owned one, I am a salesman in a store that sells anywhere between $2.5 million to $3 million thermal units in a given year the past number of years. Ive sold everything from Trijicon to ATN, Pulsar to Iray, Nvision and AGM. ATN was far and away bottom of the list and it isn't very close. The units themselves actually did not look terrible on the THOR's once you hit about $2k or so, is was the longevity. The rings that came with them were [bleep], accessories were [bleep], the menu layout and usage was [bleep], the operation when below freezing outside was [bleep], and their customer service was [bleep]. We simply had to stop selling them as a store, it got to the point where we felt like doing a disservice to the customer selling them that and it was a headache trying to take care of them for spending thousands of dollars when it's broken weeks or months later. Yes, some people get lucky with a good unit and take exceptional care of them, good for them. But why waste your hard earned money with them when AGM, lower end Pulsars, and Iray's exist?

AGM or pulsar?

It's funny this conversation comes up. I am currently trying to get an ATN OTS-HD 384x288 up and running for a friends AR10. He bought it used off of an internet site for about $600. This unit is no longer made and I'm sure there is a reason for it. It's not been real difficult to get up and running but I have yet to get it mounted on the rifle. I found the original bill of sale for around $1200 somewhere in Georgia. It's not one I would of bought but learning how to set it up has been an "experience".
kwg

1000x. This.

Friend and I do pest control on dairy farms: rats and pigeons. Started out with digital Sightmark and ATN NVs with IR. Discovered thermal, which was the end of NV for us. We currently use AGMs, have four between us. Tried the ATN Thor and we both thought resolution and picture were inferior. No idea about ATN durability, but no issues with the AGMs and have logged a fair number of hours on them.

Considerations distill to resolution and base magnification. People seem to want higher base magnifications, but forget that the thermal isn't just an aiming device. Unless you have a second thermal, ie., a monocular for spotting, you'll want to be able to use the thermal scope for scanning. Too much base magnification can be frustrating there. OTOH, if you're coyotes and hogs are mostly beyond 200 yds base magnification is a plus.

As for resolution........get as much as you can afford, sez i. You will never be sorry, and wish for less.

I have minimal experience with thermal scopes. But I did night hunt coyotes the past week with a friend who has a pulsar rifle scope and monocular. It was amazing how well one could see at night. He has had these for a year and hunts coyotes fanatically and says they’ve been flawless.

We have a very nice selection of very discounted refurbished Pulsar Thermals. Worth taking a look and calling us to discuss

That's what I'd do!

No ATN's..

ATN? Get outa here.

I'll tell you true...I've had four Pulsar thermals and one AGM thermal as well as one of the earlier Sellmark DNV scopes. There was nothing wrong with the AGM and it had some features I really liked, but it went down the road when I gifted myself a Pulsar Thermion XG50. The XG50 was a very good performer but it developed a problem for which I sent it in. A few days after they received it I was informed that it was not repairable and they sent me a Thermion 2 XP50 Pro as a warranty replacement (XG50 is no longer available). In short, Pulsar replaced a $3700 optic with about a $5000 optic and that cost me nothing. How are you going to beat that?

A difference between the XG50 and the XP50 Pro is that the former was 3x base magnification and the latter is 2x base magnification. To tell the truth, after thinking it over I prefer using 2x and 4x as opposed to 3x and 6x. I think I came out ahead all the way around.

All manufacturers are going to build and sell stuff that breaks once in a while and that's especially true with electronic products. I hear about ATNs breaking frequently and I rarely hear about a Pulsar thermal breaking down. To be fair, the feedback I get from one particular ATN user is that their warranty turnaround hasn't been all that bad but it does seem like he has to use it more than he should. He's been pretty hard-headed about it but I did convince him to try a Pulsar thermal and he is very positively impressed with it.

I've never owned an iRay product, but they seem impressive. There are others out there that get very good reviews and enjoy good reputations as well, but I do have experience with Pulsar and Sellmark and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend their products.

I have several AGM thermals (StingIR, Adder, Rattler) and am happy with the performance.

AGM offers a pretty good feature set for the $.

Good Luck.

AGM or Pulsar, you'r playing the lottery to find a ATN that is worth a crap.
I had a AGM sold to a customer, UPS beat the hell out of it and broke the battery cap.
Called AGM and he had a new one on his doorstep 2 days later.

Ever since then i've been sold on the quality and the service.

I'm sure cameraland has what you need!