NV or Thermal monocular

[dax2323]

be at shot show weds-friday, gonna check out all the new gear and figure out what I'm getting. .. Not sure if I want NV monocular or a thermal monocular. Got a thermal scope, but gets heavy looking through it all night. Like night vision for navigating , but not as good at spotting hogs at distance. Any recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Thermal.

 

[pruhdlr]

I have been using a thremal scope for hunting for some time now. I have been contemplating picking up a thermal viewer. There is no way that I would have a NV type viewer. Will gladly wait until I find something (in thermal)that fits my needs.

Will try to stay away from the higher end viewers. Wanna spend <$3000. if possible. Pls keep us informed as to what you find and the features. I have NO expierance with a thermal viewer. --- pruhdlr

 

[Brian Shaffer]

pruhdlr, I was just talking with folks at a FLIR booth at the Dallas Safari Club show. The FLIR P32 has been upgraded for this year to include a better screen and video out capability. It has a list price of $2995 (5 hour internal battery). This is the same price it was 2 years ago. Sometimes you can see them on sale. The old versions will undoubtedly be marked down as well (which is what I have).

The X320 by Eotech is running a bit more, but you can change out the batteries for longer hunts.

Both are 320x240 resolution monoculars and I would not want to go below that resolution. I suspect there are going to be some new options after the Shot Show and that prices may even come down a bit as more companies start offering products.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I guess it depends on how you hunt but a night vision monocular is a must for me since thermal can not see through glass. There are also times where I want the nv to 100% confirm what I am looking at. Saying that the thermal is much better at spotting.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

Are these companies focused on one or the other. NV or Thermal? Hand held or weapon mounted? It would seem to me that if you really need a hand held unit and a scoped unit that they would put out package deals that are designed to work in conjunction.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

Are these companies focused on one or the other. NV or Thermal? Hand held or weapon mounted? It would seem to me that if you really need a hand held unit and a scoped unit that they would put out package deals that are designed to work in conjunction.

It seems to me the major focus right now is thermal. Thats where all the major advances and price drops are coming. Fused nv and thermal is the next wave its price is still very high but will drop like everything else. All the units are designed to work in conjunction but a package deal is out of most people reach. Im sure most dealers would give you a discount if you bought a pvs-14/thermal monocular/thermal scope all at once.

My ideal package would be helmet mounted pvs-14/thermal monocular for scanning spotting/thermal scope for shooting. If you plan on doing any moving around I think the pvs-14 is the first priority over the thermal monocular. If you sit in one spot then I guess just a thermal monocular will work but again sometimes you just cant tell what it is with just thermal. Like the time I caught a guy doing the nasty with a fat girl for the life of me I could not figure out what that was through thermal it was just one big hot moving blob in thermal. Of course it was summer in texas and temps were in the 90's with high humidity and I was using a 320 unit.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I see what you are saying. Not about the fat girl ... but about price restricting your customer base. I have a new business and affordability is limited but if I was focused on buying one unit I could make it happen if my heart was in it. That being said...what would be the point at looking at hogs at night if I did not have the capability to shoot that hog. So you could make do with a scope only if you have strong arms and a lot of battery life which seems to be an issue with some units if not all?

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I started with the pvs-14 you can navigate, scan , and shoot with it behind a compatible optic. Is it ideal no but it gets the job done, next I would add the thermal scope, finally the thermal monocular.

 

[rgilbert]

I agree with Todd. I have a PVS14 now, but I'm going to a thermal unit for the weapon.

 

[sjb67]

I too started with a PVS14/helmet and Dloc weapon mount to transition from helmet to weapon. I also use my Dbal laser some while stalking rather than move the PVS from helmet to my rifle. I am now to the point where I am pretty comfortable with all of that and looking at getting a thermal unit a little ways down the road.

As TLM says the PVS works. Not ideal but is adaptable to most situations I have encountered. I really agree that it should be the first step in the journey.

 

[FrankT]

Thermal, if you have the$$ is the way to go, dedicated scope and a thermal mono for stalking.

 

[hdfireman]

As others have said it depends so much on how you hunt. My opinion, first mono would be NV and first weapon mounted optic would be thermal. The combo of thermal and NV is the best setup. The hunting style you do would dictate which to buy first.

 

[BigRedDog]

When fusion technology is made available and affordable, night time will be a fond memory.

 

[dax2323]

As others have said it depends so much on how you hunt. My opinion, first mono would be NV and first weapon mounted optic would be thermal. The combo of thermal and NV is the best setup. The hunting style you do would dictate which to buy first.

Do a lot of stalking. Sit on a tripod once in a while too. Think I'm gonna get thermal monocular.

 

[FrankT]

Thing about a thermal monocular, is you should never lose another animal after shooting, if you can follow them. I do believe thermal allows you to see animals you may never see otherwise.

 

[hdfireman]

Again just my opinion but with a lot of stalking and moving I'd rather have a PVS-14 over a thermal monocular. You'd be surprised at what you will find while walking with helmet mounted NV. I'd scan with a thermal scope to get a big picture then navigate with the NV. It's very effective. Just my .02

 

[FrankT]

I can see navigation will be much easier with the helmet mounted NV...all depends on how you hunt.

 

[Ncorry]

I started out following everyone's advice on getting hte PVS14 helmet mounted first. I now have 2 PVS14 helmet set ups and a thermal rifle scope. If I am hunting with a buddy that has his own NV, I always take the thermal scope on the AR and take a helmet set up maybe half the time. My normal hunting buddy has a NV scope on his AR. On nights with no moon and just starlight, he and I can see well enough unaided to walk around the fields we hunt. I keep finding myself using the helmet set ups with PVS14 less and less. I find myself taking the thermal off the weapon and using it as a scanner more and more. I might reallocate some resources and sell the back up PVS14 (or both of them) to fund a thermal upgrade or a hand held thermal. If I were hunting and walking around in the woods more often, I'd use the PVS14 more, but my typical hunt just doesn't need the helmet set up very often.

 

[pruhdlr]

Just gotta say ..... with thermal scope I have found quite a few animals that I either would have never found with NV ... or ... would have taken me much longer to find with NV. Not just my own animals but wounded deer at my hunting club.

I made the "mistake" at a club meeting to bring my thermal and let some of the members look thru it. I told the members that I would be most happy to help them retrieve an animal with my thermal if they needed help. I have since gotten quite a few calls to do just that. Have also helped a couple of guys find their deer dogs.

Just wondering now if I could go down from 60Hz in my thermal sight to 9Hz i a viewer. --- pruhdlr