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

Yes.

Remember, with thermal, one is not (for lack of a better term) limitied to light or illumination, one is measuring the difference in the external temperature of an object in comparison to the ambient temperature. Consequently, day or night if that object's temperture is above ambient, it will stand out. The resolution and sensitivity of the sensor is a major factor in detection range and identification of an object.

The Super Hogster is now mounted on an AR-15 chambered for the 300 HAM'R. I use it for running and gunning in fields where I may make 10 to 20 shots on running pigs.



The Super Yoter is on my Sig Cross, chambered for 308 Win. It is my dedicated thumper for most of the hunting I do as I rarely shoot more than twice and rapid follow up shots are not necessary. I'm thinking of putting up lights at a couple feeders just so I will use other rifles.

Typically any time i go afield I'm out at least an hour before daylight and many times in the eve hunt until 2 AM. In the last two years I could count on one hand how many times it has not accompanied me. At night when i get out of the stand, i may leave my pack, binocs and another rifle, but never the rifle with thermal.

Thermal suppressed is a game changer. Once tried successfully, you'll probably be spoiled. I am.

I am liking some clip-ons more and more.

I have 640 and 385 res thermal scopes and those work really.

That said, the AGM StingIR when mounted exactly at scope line over bore and with covers to stop any ambient light from reaching the scope lense is pretty damn sweet.

You can dial range in the day optic (of limited value) and the image is less intense in full dark, which is easier on your eyes.

The little StingIR weighs 8 oz so combined with a Leupold VX-6 3-18 it's a bit lighter than my Adder 640x50mm.

The StingIR is awesome as a hand held scanner and bridged with a PVS-14 (Night Vision) for a dual band helmet setup.

For calving the vehicle mounted Nightride units are a gamechanger.

Thermal video feed inside the cab to a tablet.


LOL.

As per you're usual your way behind and sucking hind tit. (Just cause it bothers you and it's fun to push those buttons)

But you will be crowing about how you invented thermal in short order.

Any ideas on when you can pick up enough soda pop cans to afford your first suppressor?

nice set ups.

love my super hogster

What can you legally hunt with thermals in AK? Just curious. A buddy of mine lives in Palmer and we were discussing it last night.

That would depend on the situation. I love my clip on and I also have a bering optics hogster. I use the hogster for scanning. I sit in blinds and hunt during daylight and dark and I don't feel comfortable swapping scopes out in the field and I don't like hunting with a thermal during the daylight. If I were only hunting at night or if I moved around allot, I would use a dedicated thermal scope.

does the thermal give up a lot in the daylight?

Thanks for all the input. I think that after reading you guys stuff, most are reco'ing not cheaping out with the Arken NV and to go thermal. I kinda like that cheap Wraith thermal that 10GA linked, as for not going whole hog on something that I won't use much. And the fact that it takes cr123's is a plus to me. Not having to worry about charging an internal and already having a bunch around for my headlights and flashlights seems good for only using a little. So, if I pull the plug on the Wraith thermal, what handheld should I be looking at? I can see THAT getting a lot more use around here than the scope. Is a monocular hard on your vision at night, or would thermal binocs be a better way to go? Keep it coming.....

Anyone tried the Athlon Cronus scope and scanner? About $4k would buy both and the specs seem pretty decent for that coin. Everyone seems to rave about Athlon.

Your handheld will see a lot more use than the thermal or NV weapon sight, and for that item I would highly recommend thermal. For detecting, you don't really need a lot of clarity, the thing just alerts you to the presence of something that might merit a little attention. There's nothing at all wrong with a higher quality thermal monocular if it doesn't hurt your pocketbook, but you can get by with something pretty utilitarian. You really do need to be able to identify something before you shoot it, of course, so either your scanner (or monocular) needs to be up to snuff or the weapon sight does. I am not suggesting that a thermal monocular typically will leave you guessing, but sometimes you may not be sure what you're looking at. For hog hunting down here, you get pretty good at making that call by the way the critters move and behave but you just can't be too careful when the only things you should be shooting at are hogs and coyotes and such.

A monocular IS hard on your vision at night. It will desensitize your eye for a little while and it can take five or ten minutes before your normal vision returns. I've never used a thermal or NV binocular myself, but it seems to me your vision would be totally wiped out in both eyes for a while and even if you just take a quick peek around. I'd rather have at least one good eye all the time.

I use a Pulsar Axion Key XM30 as a scanner. It was about $1350 or thereabouts, best I can recall. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is the last of my night hunting equipment I'd want to give up. I have a quite nice Pulsar thermal scope on my night gun and I like it very much, but I'd give it up and go back to digital night vision before I'd give up that little thermal scanner. It's just too useful and makes night hunting MUCH easier.

My AGM Taipan 10-256 was $550, I looked tonight and the 15-384 is $1195. If it was that cheap when I bought mine, I would’ve went 384, seems like it was $1500.

But I paired mine with my phone and drove down the road, cows and calves are easily identified. I’m sure the 384 would be better but for now I’ll rely on my Wraith NV scope to ID before I shoot. Probably upgrade to a thermal scope eventually.

In Huntsman’s case of looking for someone around the place, I would be comfortable using my 10-256 scanner. But again, the 384 would only be better.

Do these handheld thermal scanners have a mount/hole on the bottom for tripod use?

Did the deed today. Called Doug and ordered a Pulsar refurb monocular for scanning and the Arken cheapo NV scope. The Arken is on a slow boat from china, so that may be a while getting here. Will toss it on cheap dpms AR for giggles. Also have a Wraith mini thermal on the way for my suppressed AR. Figgered to try both ways and find out the diff's for myself. These otter be good enuff for what little use I need them for, but if I was going whole hoglet, like Geedub, I woulda been a little free-er with my funds.....

Appreciate all the input, fellers. Don

There may be something that includes a tripod mount, but I wouldn't know which. Which Pulsar did you choose? Out of curiosity I tried to dig one up on CL's website but couldn't find anything refurbed.

You're gonna love thermal!

Nothing. Can. Hide.


Now you need hogs up there in Wyoming country.

Just kidding. You really don't!

The AGM scanners do have a tripod mount on the bottom.

I dug my Pulsar out of my backpack to take a look, and sure enough it has a provision for mounting as well. It was there the whole time, I just never had occasion to think I may want to use it that way. I've had mine two or three years and was never aware of that feature. LOL.

Don,

What's the old saying, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

It's taken me since 2002 or there abouts to acquire my night hunting equipment.

Sounds like you chose well.

Next thing you know you might get into modern air guns.

What with all the varmints you got you should have a ball with your NV and thermal.






yup!



GWB

I have the Wraith NV 2-16x, it is digital and has worked well for me, like you, I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money to only shoot hogs every now and then on a friends ranch and entry into the game.

I bought a better IR illuminator, since the one it comes with was sometimes not enough. Another advantage was that the flashlight I got for IR illumination can take different bulbs, so it can be used as a regular green light source (or red ' but I bought a green one).

As mentiones, the illuminators will have the washout effect with reflections from brush, and depending on where you position it, sometimes the smoke from firing will flash and "blind" the scope, enough that it can limit shots if not on an open field and hogs can hide.

The only thermals I have seen have been cheaper ones and the resolution of the rest of the forest looked better with the NV, albeit you can't see behind brush

Haha! that's because I grabbed the only/last one. Axion2 XG35 for $1999. Decided to bump up to the one above yours for just a couple hundo more.

geedub, I have a little tripod like that on my Garmin....


thanks again, guys.

We've been getting good feedback on the new InfiRay Outdoor AFFO AP13 Thermal Monocular.

The AFFO Series handheld thermal imaging monocular is an entry-level thermal monocular for users, featuring both a fashionable appearance and a more compact size. The AFFO Series uses a self-developed 12μm detector to produce crisp images and supports photo taking and video recording with its built-in high-speed 32GB storage capacity.

That's a solid scanner, amigo. I used the previous generation with LRF.

Would have loved to have LRF in the dark, but I was too cheap to spring for the LRF one.