Limited budget thermal scope?

Originally Posted By: 1trkyhntrIf at all possible see if you can find someone with a thermal scope who will let you look through it before you buy one. I don't have a thermal scope. I have a FLIR PS32 for scanning and a dedicated gen 3 NV scope for ID/killing.
Some guys will tell you that they can ID an animal with thermal. I will tell you that I ABSOLUTELY cannot positively ID ANY animal with my thermal at 200 yards. Or 100 yards for that matter. I can tell that it is an animal, and even it's approximate size and I can even BS you and say that I know it's a coyote/fox by the way that it moves, but the truth is that you won't know for sure what it is until you pull the trigger and put a light on it after it's dead.
Maybe if your only target was hogs, at close range, you might be ok, I don't know about that.
Personally I would not pull the trigger on ANY target based on the thermal image alone from my experience with a 320 core unit.
Maybe a $10000.00 plus unit might give better results, but I get the impression from your question that your budget won't allow that.
If I were you I would be looking more at NV than thermal.

What He said +1000
 
Here is a hog @ 500 yards right before he took a precision .308 slug to the head and died instantly, did not have any problems IDing him, the actual scope image is ten times better than the photo.




T75%20Big%20Boar%20Hog4X.jpg
 
I was able to get videos tonight of deer ranging from 150 yards to one at 510 yards. I will work on uploading those and let you guys be the jury if you can positively ID what it is (even though I just told you).
 
Here is the first video shot at 510 yards. Still photo for reference, used my range finder to get distance.

I will say the quality is very distorted from what I actually see looking through the scope. I had to convert the File to a GIF. But, "to me", this is 100% identifiable as a deer when watching it move around.



 
Last edited:
Here is the other property that I filmed at:



145 Yards



445 Yards



I ran through the color pallets on the last video just to show them.
 
Last edited:
And Just for fun, here is the power plant that is about 1.5 - 2 miles away. I never thought when I bought one of these that it would be able to work at that kind of range.

 
Last edited:
That's impressive skypup, I did not know the t75 would hold resolution at those mag levels. Now you've got me wanting to check one out! I'm a big fan of the clip on weapon sights. Ive got a buddy that gets to play around with some of the Drs units (inod block) he's sent me some photos and the thermal resolution and image is absolutely amazing! It's crazy to think that companies like flir, Drs, etc have technology like they do.
 
I've used the MKII for over a year and love it!! Debating on upgrading to the 3. I just purchased patrol 250 to upgrade from my Flir 618. I just came across this interesting thread. I'm very curious to see the pics. I can absolutely detect an animal out 500 yards, but when I magnify the image it is pixelated so much it distorts. I look over a river onto a corn field (300-1000yards away). I might have a guess as to what's out there, maybe even a good guess, but it's still a guess.
 
I'm having a helluva time with the videos, and the quality is horrible. Not sure whats the best method for posting online (not a tech guy). Also wondering if getting a better SD card would help with the quality. These videos are about 50-60% of the quality vs looking through the scope.

I will mess around with Youtube to see why its not letting others view them.
 
Nice video's, it's always nice to see what people are using these days with several companies making this stuff it's hard for some guys to make a decision what to get. The scope looked really good to me.
 
Back
Top