Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics educate me. thermals and night vision...

10/4

you didn't think I'd be savvy enough to think of buying that one with out a little help from a friend.



I may be a Texican that hunts behind Gates in Golf Carts, but I can follow sign (if its plain enough).

ya!

GWB

Excellent choice, Don. I don't think you'll ever regret it, even for a microsecond.

I might decide to upgrade mine, but it would just be an extravagance like when I upgraded from a 384 thermal scope to a 640. Not really truly necessary, but nice.

The LRF idea is not a bad one at all. It is somewhere between impossible and can't-be-done to estimate range using a thermal. The images are just too synthetic, for lack of a better term. DNV might be easier because it's much more like looking at a B&W image, but that would never be enough of an advantage for me to switch back to DNV.

I think there's some new stuff coming out that, based on the little attention I have paid to it, is kind of a hybrid between DNV and thermal. I stay off sites where I can read more about it for the same reason I do not test drive BMWs or Corvettes.

I feel ya.

I'd luv one of the new Super Yoter LRF's, but at this time not willing to plunk down near near 5K for that feature.

ya!

GWB

I suspect you've just begun your slippery descent down thy rabbit hole.

You suspect wrong. Just like geedub thinks I have ANY inkling to get into fancy/schmancy airguns. That said, the local LGS does have a Ruger American Ranch in 6.5 grendel that they're gonna hold for me for a couple weeks (or until I replenish some cash) to mount the Wraith on, instead of my suppressed AR. I can put the Arken on that and put my currently unmounted Harvester on the grendel and have 2 suppressed night rigs. After that, I'm done. Really......grin

Ohhh, but it's a great ride. LOL.

Quoting this one for posterity, my friend.

Not in my experience. The debut of my Pulsar Talion XQ 38 was so surprisingly clear & resolute, I thought, I could just hunt with this alone, daylight or dark.

Just remember, thermals do not give you a picture of antlers. They have no heat signature.

That's not 100% true. In colder conditions, there's generally enough heat-bleed to at least cast a vague outline.
And it also involves some tweaking to the settings to get contrast and brightness just right.

Mounting thermal scanners to a window mount and feeding the image to a tablet makes driving in the dark more fun.

Agree, the other night hog hunting I had a large buck walk in at about 80 yards and as it turned its head, I could see antlers and this boy was a 9 or 10 point. Standing still hard to see them but when he turned his head, easy to see.

I'm sure others have provided great feedback on this subject... I'm well into the rabbit hole on Thermals so I'll share my experience.

Started with an entry level Pulsar scope three years ago struggled holding zero and then the pulsar rep told me they had trouble with bodies twisting due to temp swings.... Worked OK but then you want more.... sold it.

Purchased a Pulsar monocular XM30 for spotting along with the Pulsar scope. Monoculars work for scanning because you are not moving the rifle around all the time. I hunt tight SC timber so it's one or two shots and done. The monocular works great for spotting deer in cutovers early mornings too. Legal where I hunt as long as it's not mountable on a weapon and only an observation device.

Sold the monocular last month and replaced it with a Pulsar XM35 with better resolution and love it.

Purchased a Trijicon REAP IR MKII 60 from Europtic and love it. Price hurt but it was a game changer and rugged. (Made for 18 years olds in the military) It's heavy but I hunt using a bogpod death grip so the rifle and thermal are mounted on the tripod.

Last year I bought a ATN LT 2-4X as an economical backup on a second rifle and loaner for friends who want to night hunt. Like it a lot but you must be careful as the housing is plastic. Image quality was good too.

Budget:

Monocular say $1600 to 2K
Trijicon REAP was $7K in mid 2022 and retailed for 9K. Expensive but I'll own this for a long time and you can run over it an it will still work... Today, there are good thermals for half the price.
ATN LT 2-4 was around $1,100


If you are going to get serious about Thermal hunting, buy the best you afford or a bit more than you can afford. Buy once and cry once.


Now one thing about thermals I learned and I'm sure most others who have been using these know this already... One knock on my REAP is base magnification is 1 power and then goes 2, 4, 8. Every time you zoom, the resolution is cut in half. I run mine mostly on 2X magnification so you are starting with a high re$olution thermal and right away cutting its resolution in half. The ATN starts are 2X and then goes to 4X, so your base magnification with best resolution is 2X.

So look at a thermal that has its highest resolution at the power you are going to generally shoot so you are not wasting any by zooming. If I got this wrong, someone correct me as this is all a learning experience all be it a pricey one....


But, fun as can be and I never thought night hunting could be this fun and using the monocular for early morning spotting in large cutovers for deer is great. Check your laws as the state I hunt in doesn't allow the use of artificial light when hunting deer but thermal does not project artificial light but one could get creative and say the screen in the scope is artificially lit. The interpretation I got was that since the monocular is for spotting and cannot be mounted on a weapon it's ok. I'd never take the REAP with me deer hunting to spot with.


One other rambling point is you really have to practice with the thermal as you have no depth perception and you are shooting at what you see on a TV screen so practice helps. I've shot at hogs that I thought were closer and they were actually farther away. On my hog spots I have some landmarks to help be gauge where the hog is actually standing. Spot and stalking in the woods at night on a group of pigs is a blast!

Hope this helps.

Which between these two inexpensive choices for very occasional night hunting of 'yotes to go along with a handheld thermal?:

https://cameralandny.com/shop/arken...ariation=3644735&query=arken%20night

https://palmettostatearmory.com/sightmark-wraith-4k-mini-2-16x32-night-vision-scope-sm18041.html

Personally, I'd go with the Sightmark product. I know that they're good with support (they support Pulsar products in the US, and I have first-hand experience with them).

I have no idea how good Arken support would be.

The Wraith is only rated down to freezing if you live somewhere like here where coyote hunting is often a below zero activity.

Good catch. I'm surprised that Sightmark accepted that limitation. But, hey...there it is.

Have seen the vague outline. I'll go back & revisit the settings.

Wow. Good to know and a game changer as I'm in the midwest. We were way below zero all weekend.

I have the Wraith and it’s a decent scope that could use an upgraded IR illuminator. It was easy to sight in and has held zero. I like it.

We have just got above freezing today for the first time since last Friday night. I went out the other night at 9 degrees and it was working but nothing was out except me so I don’t know how well it would’ve worked.

I returned my AGM 10-256 scanner today and ordered a 15-384. Hopefully I’ll get to try it out this weekend.