Night vision/thermal bino or mono

[2damnold4this]

I'm thinking about getting a night vision or thermal binocular or monocular for hunting and use in the yard. I have a thermal imaging scope that I like but I don't want to be waving around a rifle searching for game at night or just checking out the back yard at my suburban home. It would be a bonus if I could look out a window into the yard but that isn't a deal killer. As always, price is important but value also matters.

Do you have any NV or thermal binocular or monocular that you like?

[Double Naught Spy]

Alright, lets deal with useful particulars. Is your yard 1/4 acre, 200 acres, or what? Is it a nice mowed yard, native brush, untreed, sparsely treed, heavily treed? What is your budget? This is critical. "Value also matters" is HUGELY relevant to need.

I am no longer involved with thermal demo-ing, but we sold a cheap Pulsar RXQ30V to a guy who happened to need it for killing barnyard vermin. Literally none of his shots were going to be over 75 yards and most were inside 20. He loved his scope. Most other people who got one immediately found it wanting and upgraded to something else. For the barnard guy, it was a great value. For most other folks, it was just cheap.

Thermal does not see through regular glass. That is one of the major drawbacks of thermal, but thermal needs zero light. Night vision does need some light and just how much it needs will depend on whether you get digital NV, Gen 1, Gen 2, or Gen 3, but will it will see through windows.

Camo will thwart NV, but will not thwart thermal.

If you are trying to spot game, thermal wins hands-down, left and right. If you are wanting to navigate around your property, on foot or in a vehicle, NV wins hands-down.

If you need to use an IR source for your NV, brush and limbs and anything that can reflect the light is more of a problem with NV than with thermal. Thermal will see INTO the woods and NV will generally see TO the woods.

So tell us more about your situation and budget. Also, what sort of critters are you trying to see. What is the typical range you want to see and the max range you want to see. Are you wanting to just detect or to be able to identify. This is a controversial word with thermal as many folks make "identifications" that are based on traits other than animal morphology, but that sometimes are quite valid. For example, I often distinguish between deer and coyotes at long distance based on how they move because the resolution isn't there to actually tell them apart based on shape.

So if you provide some details, then maybe I could provide some suggestions that might be useful to your situation.

[jimbob86]

DNS, thanks for the info .... what I got out of this was that for search, thermals would be the way to go ..... NV for targeting, provided that thermal imaging was good enough to make sure you were were in fact pointing at an animal ... nice shooting on the videos, btw ....

[2damnold4this]

DNS, thank you for the detailed and informed response. I'll try to give you the information you asked for:

My backyard is wooded but I have cleared most of the underbrush. I would have to look through a chain link fence to see parts of the yard. The edge of the yard is just under eighty yards away. I'd like to be able to see the critters that my dogs sense in the back yard without pointing a rifle at my neighbors' land. I don't intend to shoot a firearm at any of the critters I see in the backyard but I might get a crossbow and a flashlight if I see certain pests.

When at the hunting land, I'll typically be in a elevated stand overlooking a food plot or clear cut and surrounded by woods. Maximum distances would be 350 yards but the most likely distances would be less than half of that. I'd like to be able to scan around with a handheld device without waving around a bulky rifle. I'm looking for something to use to search the thick woods behind me and the food plot or clear cut in front.

I had a low end NV device with an IR illuminator 20 years ago and it splashed back considerably in wooded areas. I could see about twenty five yards maximum in a wooded area and had to be careful not to shine the illuminator at nearby trees. In an open field, I could see maybe 150 yards under ideal conditions. I don't think the type of NV device I had would work through the chain link fence unless there was enough ambient light to use it without the IR illuminator and even then I wouldn't be able to see very far. I'm sure there are far better options now than there were then.

Now for the budget. You mentioned the Pulsar RXQ30V, a low end thermal rifle scope. That is the thermal scope I have and I'm happy with it. I think of this as a cool toy rather than a hardcore self defense or hunting tool. Something would have to be a good value to convince me to go over $1k. It could be that my budget isn't realistic and everything in that price range is junk but that is why I'm asking questions.

[Double Naught Spy]

The good value aspect of going over $1K is the ability to recognize what you are seeing through the optic.

Since you know about back splash or reflected IR light, then you know your home circumstance isn't good for NV with an IR illuminator and for that amount of money, you are looking at Gen 1 or Digital NV. Trees in the foreground will be over illuminated and will likely wash out your ability to be able to see very well behind them.

Thermal under $1K are things like the 200 resolution such at the Leupold Thermal Tracker 2. (Leupold LTO Tracker2 HD 177188 Thermal Viewer). Don't confuse this with the cheaper 177187 model that has even less resolution.

At 320x240 resolution, it will have less resolution than your RQX30V (384x288) and with a smaller lens, have a poorer ability to 'see' thermal.

There aren't too many options in this price range for thermal. I would NOT get anything with any less resolution than 320x240.

[2damnold4this]

Once again, thanks for the time you are taking to help a cheapskate like me.

I looked up the Leupold LTO Tracker2 HD 177188 Thermal Viewer which advertises a 390x390 display and goes for $1,400. Is that one you are recommending?

If the budget went to $2k, that would put some of the lower end Gen2 NV tubes in play. Would they do any better with the splash back than the old low end tube I had or is it just thermal all the way for an application like my back yard?

[Double Naught Spy]

I looked up the Leupold LTO Tracker2 HD 177188 Thermal Viewer which advertises a 390x390 display and goes for $1,400. Is that one you are recommending?

The 390x390 display is pretty useless information. The critical information is the resolution of the thermal sensor which is smaller than that.

I take it that you didn't look very hard.
https://www.tequipment.net/Leupold/L...2b6daed7c1e28b

Either way, you are at the way cheap end of the spectrum. I would not expect anything too amazing. Getting into thermal for <$1000 is about trying to find a large capacity semi auto self defense pistol for $200. Your choices will be severely limited and not that great.

[2damnold4this]

The 390x390 display is pretty useless information. The critical information is the resolution of the thermal sensor which is smaller than that.

Gotcha. This is the information I should have been looking for: Thermal sensor 320x240.

I take it that you didn't look very hard.

Not hard enough, it seems. Thanks for the tip.

Either way, you are at the way cheap end of the spectrum. I would not expect anything too amazing. Getting into thermal for <$1000 is about trying to find a large capacity semi auto self defense pistol for $200. Your choices will be severely limited and not that great.

I appreciate your help and patience and I agree that I'm being cheap and shouldn't have big expectations. If the budget went up to $2k would that make any difference? Would some of the gen2 NV tubes be in play or would the splash back be a disqualifying factor for them as well?