I need some schooling on thermals

Predator257Roy

Predator257Roy

New member
I might actually be dropping some money on a thermal, finally. Night hunting was not allowed in Tennessee but now that I'm in Florida with hogs nearby, it's time to get one.
I want to keep the budget at 8-10k, I am more interested in the performance of the thermal imaging than I am with tech add on do dads of Bluetooth, wifi, rangefinding, portable weather station, and whatever else they have imagined - but am not opposed to such things. I want to record, but onboard is not required. I want the crispest clearest highest definition I can afford. Auxiliary battery pack is a plus. It needs to be compatable with my day scopes and preferably be able to be stand alone as well. If stand alone only, I would have to build a Grendal, not necessarily a bad thing I guess. Good warranty and customer service too.
I may add more things if I can think of them but that is what I have had in my mind for a while. I may have left something out, so just ask me.
I was originally looking at the ARMASIGHT APOLLO-PRO LR 640 100MM 60HZ THERMAL.
Armasight is now Flir.
It seems as if what I was looking at is now the Flir THERMOSIGHT R-SERIES PRO 640 100mm.

It seems like there is a lot of change going on in the industry right now. Buy or wait?
My head is swimming from reading everything and all the YouTube videos this afternoon.

The Pulsar Helion XP50 looks pretty good. I couldn't decide if it or the above mentioned had the sharper image. I like that it is waterproof.
Also like the Pulsar Trail XP50, what is the difference between the two? I think I answered that. Helion is held held monocular, the trail is a weapon scope, correct?

Although slightly out of the price range, I'll throw the Flir T50 out there as a contender as well.

Is Boson in the equation for a thermal scope or anywhere in the near future?

Does anyone have another to add to the list of contenders that fits the criteteria?
Any questions? Anyone want to school me on any of my finalists? Not being around night hunting at all, this is all new to me, so I don't have the years worth of accumulated knowledge and experience. Is there anything else I'm forgetting or needing to successfully night hunt with the above choices? Skypup has all kinds of stuff on his rifles, what all is it and what do I need if anything with the above thermal sights.
Sorry if a little long winded, but I really do my homework before dropping this kind of money on something.

Skypup, where are you? Feel free to chime in!
Looking forward to getting schooled guys, thanks!
 
I'm new to to thermo I have the xp50 preordered. I'll let you know if I like it. I paid like 5000. If I like it going after a helion monocular. The two togeather will be about 10 grand. I really wanted the trigicon Reap IR but there to much for me better image with the 12 micron. Don't quote me on anything technical I still know just about enough to be dangerous.
 
They look a little better to me than the new pulsars. The clip on flir is only fog and water resistant.But the batteries would be the up side to the pulsars trails.to me anyways. The pip feature looks interesting on the pulsar also. If there quite a bit more money I'd jump to the Reap IR. My trail xp50 is rated to handle recoil of .375 since your hog hunting might be important. A stand alone unit and a separate monocular for scanning with the research I have done seems the way to go from what I have read.
 
No mention of Trijicon EO, predator257roy? If you're looking for image quality first, nothing compares to Trijicon EO Thermals with 12 micron BAE cores. Especially not Flir.
 
Thermal clip on options in that price category are triji snipe, flir t50, used lwts, used bae stalkr and the apollos. For the best image quality in that price category, it's hard to beat a Trijicon mk3 35mm or 60mm. The 320 Boson units should be available in the next few months. The 640 boson units will be available this fall. I looked at the flir 320 boson units at shot, some models were pretty neat but I wasn't overly impressed with the image quality. But, I haven't looked through a 640 unit and haven't talked to anyone who has either. Hopefully they will look sharp and have a good price point.
 
NGI Tom, sorry, that one was also a contender.
http://www.trijiconeo.com/products/snipe-ir/
Hard to keep track of them, but I had looked at it. Guess it wasn't at the top of the list since I can't seem to find many hunting videos with it. I'm having a hard time distinguishing the clarity of them with YouTube videos. I want to have them all out in front of me to try out.
I watched their shot show video. They claim to have to most sophisticated unit available to civilians and the only 640x480 resolution with 12 microns. I'm a bit new to this, but that isn't true from what I've been seeing. They use a Vanadium oxide core, that is different from the others from what I've seen, right?
If I understand correctly, the smaller the micron number, the better, correct?
Nothing said on Trijicon specs about external battery pack, use of rechargeable cr123's, or its water resistance or waterproofing. The clarity looks good on their site, wish I could see mode videos.
Definitely leaning towards models with bigger objectives
 
It'll be a good while before you see boson cores in FLIR products. If you order one right now, you'll be getting an Armasight Zeus Pro 100mm with a Tau 2 core. Nothing wrong with it but want you to know what's what. FLIR is not set to start releasing 640 Boson products til 3rd quarter this year at the soonest from what I hear.

For your budget, I'd get setup with a MK3 60 + a Pulsar handheld scanner of some sort. If you're wanting a clip on check out the Snipe-IR. If it were me I'd go good scope plus a spotter.
 
Sounds like I have a few months to do homework, then some more homework to do when the Boson cores come out. Is Boson going to be that big of a game changer?

What are the performance issues, plus and minus wise of stand alone versus clip on. Looking for image sharpness, and accuracy, less at the convenience aspect.
 
Those are military units. Extremely hard for an individual to get ahold of if. If you find one for sale be cautious of where it came from. Uncle Sam might want it back.
 
Are the Boson cores going to be a Flir exclusive, or is it going to become a industry wide thing? Either way it seems like there will be several implications for the industry.

I have spent two days reading and watching anything I can on everything mentioned. More questions is the result, lol.
 
257 Roy
PM me. I've got a mark 3, also a great scanner/weapon sight. Also a very inexpensive battery pack setup that will suprize you
 
I've used the utm and utc xii. In all honesty the image quality is not any better than a trijicon. They are solid units but I wouldn't consider the utm any better image than a patrol m250 or reapir. The utc xii has a better image than a lwts and from what I could tell will hold resolution at a higher mag level than the snipe that I looked through. I know where a clean serial number utm is for sale. I have yet to see a utc xii for sale. I've seen some utc x with the 17 micron core for sale and guys were still wanting 18-20k for those units. Its hard to beat a mk3 60mm for the money. There's a couple of skeetir units floating around for sale as well, just check the serial numbers out.
 
Back
Top