Axion Key xm22 worth the money?

N

Nomadic

New member
I have the opportunity to pick 1 up used for $1000. Wondering if it is worth it. What can you realistically spot and how far out? How is it to look through for hours? Is the overall picture decent? Or is it blurry? I don’t want a head ache at the end of the night

I have a good thermal on my rifle and I built my rifle light enough that I can scan with it. Therefore, a monocular is not needed. It would be nice to have, but not $2000 worth of nice.

This is about all I’m willing to spend, and just wondering if it’s worth it
 
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I don't know anyone who has the 22 model. Weekender has the XM30 in the Key model and seems to like it pretty well, but that might be an apples to oranges comparison. YouTube may have some reviews and video of one in use.
 
From my perspective, almost any thermal scanner is better than scanning with a rifle as long as it doesn't have too high of magnification or be too uncomfortable to use. I also haven't used this thermal, so hard to know if it might be worth $1,000 to you.

I can tell you if I had to go back to scanning with a thermal on my gun, I wouldn't night hunt nearly as much or as long as I do.
 
Korey, as always you're absolutely right! The mountain hunter, who purchased my Pulsar Accolade XP50 LRF, has the Pulsar Trail XP50 with release coupling on a Blaser 300 W.M. He was tired of using it both as a scanner and as a riflescope for shooting. It had become an unbearable situation for him. If he unhooked the Trail to scan, then he lost time to hook it to the rifle and often missed the chance of a good shot. If he left it attached to the rifle, he tired his arms to move the rifle continuously to observe. He understood that a thermal scanner is indispensable for observing. Indeed he thinks that an NV could be used to shoot. In practice, a thermal scanner is more important than a thermal riflescope ....
 
I have the xm22 and for the money I'm very happy with it besides the battery life, I just use an Anker battery for over double the run time. Image definitely varys on humidty levels. Can ID coyotes at 200+yds and tell recognize what it is from movement much further. My buddy has the xm30key and they are very similar overall
 
I own both Key models, XM22 & XM30. I think the XM22 is a great entry level thermal scanner. Pulsar reduced the retail price on the Key models earlier this year. A new XM22 Key can be found online for $1,199.97.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I bought it, so I hope it does what I want. It will be a few weeks before I get to try it out, but I will report back
 
Finally managed to get in the field and try out the Axion Key xm22. Disclaimer: it was July 1st in South Florida so humidity was super high (88%) with no rain. With that said, I was very impressed for what it is and what I paid. If it was my primary rifle scope, I would have been disappointed, but as a spotter it worked great. The screen is pretty small, but extremely good clarity out to about 200 yards. After that things get a little blurry. Herd of cows at about 500-600 yards and I could clearly see them and tell that they were cows, but they were not crisp. Later I spotted a white blob at about 600 and then a couple of small white blips at 800-1000. In both cases I had no idea what I was seeing, but I knew something was there. I then picked up my rifle and used that scope to identify that they were deer.

Summary: great picture out to 200 yards. Detection out to 800-1000. Screen is small and probably would not want to look through it all night. Worked great switching between axion and rifle to scan. Axion will also be perfect for scanning while driving on ranch or while walking/stalking. After 1st use I’m happy with my purchase. Well worth the $1k I paid for it as a scanner
 
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