Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii.

[Tex Burnett]

I grew up in San Antonio in the 50s and early 60s, Southcross, Keystone and Alamo Heights/Olmos Park. Summers were split between riding fence and putting out salt blocks at one of Copeland's ranches and taking courses at College Station.

Them my degrees at UT/Austin; four years, three months and ten days in the Marine Corps (Viet-Nam '67-'69) and a career in Los Angeles as a Deputy Sheriff/Forensic Scientist (which looks sexy on TV, but isn't).

Now I'm retired, old, busted up and tired. I can't brush-pop anymore. I still shoot feral pigs when I see one in my yard, but excitement to me now is blue-water fishing because I don't have to walk there and back.

Local Hawaiians chase pigs down with dogs and knives. Seriously. I saw a sixteen year-old girl's camera footage. She got bored, loaded her boyfriend's dogs in the truck and caught a pig which she killed with a knife, butchered, and carried out half a mile. I don't like that because their dogs get killed quite often.

I came to this forum because I miss Texas although I'll never get back there; and because I was looking for inexpensive thermal scopes and y'all seem to have the best reviews and advice an occasional used one for sale.

Silly as this sounds, my problem is with mongoose during the day and rats at night. I have a couple hundred ducks running around this place and some chickens and geese. Hawaii has a feral mongoose problem as well as being overrun by Norwegian rats. Both of them want to kill the birds. Mongoose are diurnal. I can use a 10-22 on them during the day but the rats are nocturnal and, surprisingly to me, so are the ducks and geese. I can see heat blobs running around at night with an OLD imager but I can't identify them.

I need to be able to differentiate between a baby duck and a rat at night in the rain from about 20 feet to ~30 yards and shoot the rat. I don't have $10k laying around to spend on it. It's going on a 10-22. It doesn't have to be exotic.

I'm not asking for anything free - All I need is a good price for a simple, reliable, short-range thermal scope. Any assistance is appreciated.

Best Regards
Semper Fi
Please honor our lost warriors tomorrow on Memorial day - and every day.

Dr. Thomas C (Tex) Burnett
UT/Austin B.S., M.S, PhD.
A&M (3 summers)
USMC '66-70
LASD (ret)
NRA Instructor/ life member since 1962

 

[Ratdog68]

First off, welcome to the fray. I hear there's some great pig hunting where you are. I know of one fella who likes hunting them in avocado orchards. Must be some amazingly tasty meat.

FrankT had a W1000 thermal for sale in the classifieds now too long ago. M'be he'll sound off with an update on the status and yabber with ya on whether it's something you're interested in?

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Welcome Tex. At that distance, a 320/336/384 resolution scope would do the job well enough, no problem. I would suggest a Pulsar Apex XD38a, XD50a, Armasight Zeus 3 in 336 resolution (30 hz will work fine and save you $ over the 60 hz version).

Pulsar | Apex XD38A Thermal Riflescope | PL76416 1.5x native magnification
Pulsar | Pulsar Apex XD50A Thermal Riflescope | PL76426 2x native magnification
Thermal Imaging Rifle Scope Armasight Zeus 336 3-12x42 (30Hz) 3x native magnification

I would not suggest the Armasight Predator or IR Hunter model because at shorter ranges, you may have some focus issues that a fixed focus scope may not do as well for you.

ATN has their new Thor series out which would be nice in your budget and they have several lower end scopes, but they are still experiencing a lot of growing pains and have QC and reliability issues.

You might give ******** (Big Red Dog) a call at www.thirdcoastthermal.com .

When it comes to learning to identify your targets, you will learn a few things that are important. Thermal tends to present a very flat, 2D image, so you are basically working with silhouette images of chicks and rats. Profiles should be no problem and you will learn what other angles work well or don't. You will also learn that the different locomotion patterns of these animals will set them apart.

 

[FrankT]

Hey Welcome Tex! Thank you for your service!! Sounds like a fun project to get rid of the vermin, good luck to you!!

 

[Lancer]

Welcome aboard sir, thank you for your service and Brian summed it up pretty well above. I own the Pulsar XD38a from ******************* and highly recommend it.

 

[Chopperdrvr]

Welcome aboard and thanks for all your service. Rat hunting at night can be almost as much fun as pig hunting with a lot less walking.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Here are a couple of vids. The first one shows the Pulsar Apex XD50 being used, but distances are not stated. Sorry.

The second one is my attempt at a bit longer range and smaller mouse target and bigger scope.

 

[lonepunman]

As I recall, "Tex Burnett" was the original title, but for some reason they decided to go with "Hec Ramsey". Their loss...

There's a buttload (Texas metric measurement) of things to like about you - hope your quest is successful.

 

[ZenArchery]

Deep Sea Fishing and Mongoose Hunting. I can be about that life. Welcome.

 

[djones]

Now I'm... old, busted up and tired.

welcome to my hell!

ps - i won't hold those 3 summers at A&M against you

 

[Jake]

Welcome and thank you for your service! I have the xd50a and am pretty amazed by it. I'd wager the xd38a is all you need and will serve you well.

 

[scrmblr1982cj8]

Welcome! Thank you for your service!

 

[Cazz]

Greetings!