My first 3ish years with REAP-IR...

Schneeky

LSB Member
LoneStarBoars Supporter
Got a REAP-IR back when it was still IR Defense. It was my first thermal and a leap of faith at the price. After several years of field use I hafta say I have zero regrets with that purchase thus far. It was impressive to me when it arrived and I'm still impressed with it every time I use it. It's functioned flawlessly and the D-Loc has held "practical zeros" thru hundreds of optic swaps on both SCAR and AR. I mostly use it at night hunting pigs but during our deer season I also use it during first light to scan the big cutovers for deer before the sun gets over the horizon. I still use it after that occasionally but it gets a lil more "involved" when stumps, logs, trees and rocks start warming up. It's also handy in the woods for spotting thru the foliage. I'm always amazed at how close a standing still deer can be and I can't see it outta the Leica 'noc or rifle scope, but can easily see with the thermal.

..Didn't really ever wanna hafta hassle with the batteries so I rigged it up to run with a lipstick power charger from the get-go. That's worked out very well as I've yet to run out of power while out in the field.

..Bout the only hassles I've had with it were minor. The rubber boot on the back was constantly gettin knocked off. A piece of inner tube stretched over the joint fixed most of that. I later discovered that I liked it better w/o the boot in low light situations. And recently the USB power cable got a bit flaky so till I get another one in I hadta run it the other way around the unit to reverse pressure on the break and it's been running like that for a coupla weeks now. It worked out "neater" wrapped the other way. New cable will be on order ASAP.

...Can't say anything about customer service as I've never needed it and IRD is history. I'm hoping that in the event I do need service that Trijicon will be better than FLIR **spit** to deal with. That's a big matza ball hangin' out there if they ain't. :(

...I purchased this and a Pulsar Quantum 380 spotter of some variety at the same time. They were a great combination. But I got to thinkin that the Pulsar was a little too bulky for my tastes and sold it. Bought a FLIR TK Scout **spit** for a smaller foot print and regretted that immediately (but that's another post). I still like the idea of a separate spotter used in conjunction with a sight. Not so sure that an "ok" sight with a higher res spotter wouldn't be just as effective. Most shots have been well under 100 yards and didn't really need the great res of the REAP.
...I know I2 has it's own advantages and I've owned several. I'd still like to have another PVS-14 or some kind of dual I2 setup for wandering around the woods and fields. But for now a decent thermal 320-ish spotter that could be mounted for hands free use is on my mind. As the pigs get thicker I'm sure it'll see more and more use. d:^)

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Bowers

New Member
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage from a FLIR breach and pvs-14 paired on a bridge.

I’m running a green pvs14 (definitely recommend White phosphor!) with the breach so I normally close the thermal eye while moving about and switch to the thermal eye to scan as needed. It’s also nice to be able to turn off the breach, flip it up and use your thermal scope while still having the i2.
 

Schneeky

LSB Member
LoneStarBoars Supporter
I like the inner tube hack. I have been using a releasable zip tie (trimmed) for the job.
It makes the eyepiece stay on much better, IMO. To make reinstall easier I fold/roll it back on itself from the front of the inner tube section. It'll go on n off w/o that, but it seems to work better if the tube overlaps from the eyecup to the ocular of the device. Now I rarely use it at night. The pigs ain't got I2 even if they could see worth a toot.:D
 
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