Thermals...School Me

Darn, I thought you were talking about long johns ?

I have done some research. And one thing that I have gathered -- and this might be dated so take it for what it's worth -- is that there are basically two classes of thermal scopes. Those designed for AR15 platforms and those designed to withstand AR10s.

My preferred hog gun is an AR10 in 308. So I'm looking at the higher end thermal products that are designed to withstand that level of recoil.

If you're shooting something subsonic (regardless of platform) then I would imagine that you can get away with a much lighter Tacoma style setup.

In short, the #1 destroyer of thermal scopes is heavy recoil. So shooting light recoil really opens up your budget and your options.

I have the Pulsar Thermion XP50. It's now a little less than $5k. It's a great thermal scope, and have had 0 problems with it over the last 4 years. My sons and I have killed +-40 hogs while using it on AR-15.

I have 2 for more than 5 years both zero issues

#1 ATN Thot LT 4x-8x 320 res. Doesn't record, no firmware updates needed, no wifi connection, black or white heat signature options, one shot zero. Plain reliable, easy to use, consistent and just a blue collar thermal. ATN has other more advanced products but not sure thats what you are looking for.

#2 AGM rattler 50 with 384 res. Has a ton of features, wifi, recording, app from home can watch live real time. Firmware updates by computer, multiple zero reticle settings, multil color options for heat signature, lots of adjustments. More advanced that the ATN above and its took me a solid year of hard hunting and shooting to dial it all in and understand and apply all the functions. But its a solid thermal,

Have friends that had pulsar and flir and trijicon and they are now back with the new AGM rattle V2 384 or the 640. Pulsar has problems with our losuisna heat and humidity glitches on those warmer summer nights . will look like a champion in this cold zero humidiity weather we have this week. Adjustments were really fine and hard to make changes quickly. I would not suggest the pulsar fits what your looking for.

Flir has the worse customer service on the planet if you are not military or law enforcement. They told a buddy of mine on speaker one night that private sector customer service issues take a back seat. And it took months for service and in the end do not warranty products well. We took the same thermal and had our local police chief call it in with same issues. Within 5 min FLIR had a new thermal in route no exchange of funds. That was the end of FLIR for him.

Trijicon is one helluva product but one helluva price tag. Trace heat signature can be picked for a long time. We literally tracked pigs on trails that they had walked thru an hour earlier. Walked all the way to a mud waller they were in. You could look at cattle pastures and see the path they had walked. look in rooms in a house and see where plates were on the table they had just finshed eating at. where glasses sat. But for $15k...

The thermal world is just as deep as your pockets can bare.

quote:

---

Pulsar has problems with our losuisna heat and humidity glitches on those warmer summer nights

---

Never had that experience and I've had several different pulsars.

quote:

---

Trijicon is one helluva product but one helluva price tag.

---

quote:

---

But for $15k...

---

Trijicon is behind the times. It is also nowhere near $15k.

quote:

---

Darn, I thought you were talking about long johns ?

---

In my head: "Well, you've got your polypropylene, you've got your merino..."

I bought a AGM Rattler two years ago, the clip variant. I run it on the rail in front of a regular rifle scope on a suppresed .458 socom AR platform. I went with the clip on to try and switch between this rifle and a suppresed .22, just havnt gotten around to running it on a .22.
I got it to shoot hogs on my own place I live on. After two seasons with it now, it has held up well but for me personally I have come to the conclusion that even the best thermal technology fails in comparison to the cheap time tested Q beam and traditional scoped rifle.
I'm running a custom built form 1 suppresor I built, and am loading 500gr hornady dangerous came bullets at subsonic speeds. It's as quiet as a good suppresed subsonic .300blk but it knocks down awesome. That said, none of them are quiet enough to not alert the others in a group of hogs and I don't find I can get off any more additional shots shooting suppressed than I can shooting a regular rifle, after the first trigger pull your shooting at running hogs either way. And if you are going to shoot 200 yards, shooting anything subsonic trajectory is going to be an issue and I have found it very challenging to judge range and depth perception though a thermal, even when having land marks to judge off of.

You’re right with me. I use a 6.5 grendel and can’t recommend it enough. A couple of us here shoot it.

As far as thermals, I’ve been testing the rix leap L3 384 res scope and it has been really, really good. ***uses 18650 “flat top” batteries

My cons are there is no laser range finder but you can connect via Bluetooth…not sure how stable that would be.

That L3 beats the world out of the Thor 4 I also am testing. I can ID out to about 4-500 yards but I have a lot of experience with borrows, calves, yotes, and deer and how they move.

$2300 but I’m not too sure on the warranty.

I’m looking real hard on the Nocpix h50r lrf 640. Iray is importing them and gives their excellent 5 year warranty.

The L3 also has 4 different bullet profiles, most thermals do. Has several reticle color and style choices as the others. The gen 2 384 scopes are dang good.

Most of the grendel shots are within 200, but I can see a case where ranging could be useful at 300.

lol first thing that popped in my head when I read op title

I originally bought a AGM rattler 640 and returned it for a Iray RH50R and the image was vastly better IMO. Dont get me wrong the AGM was a good picture but the detail from the Iray was way better. Thats the only 2 I have hands on experience with.

This is factory image settings so not sure if much would change with adjustments but...

Rattler v2 640




The rh50r in black, red, and white hot. The Iray also has a built in LRF so this is about 190 yards down my street.