Thermal monocular vs 15 foot drop: Place your bets...

[lonepunman]

Long story short - had three safeguards fail in succession and watched the Raymarine TH24 (rebranded less expensive Flir PS 24) drop like Clinton's trousers toward the rock factory below the elevated blind.

Landed lens end down, of course, but in the minuscule patch o' dirt betwixt the Blarney and Gibraltar.

The case and lens looked ok, but the humidity was about 85%, so I had to wait until the next afternoon to ascertain any germanium compromise.

Gentlemen, while I certainly do not endorse my field testing method, I am able to heartily recommend this particular model's ability to withstand substantial deceleration trauma without damage.

 

[FrankT]

whew..got lucky there!!

 

[Chopperdrvr]

Very lucky break there. I started cringing as soon as I read the title.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Notice that the unit has the lens deeply recessed in the housing. I believe that is an intentional design element to protect the lens.

Well, intentional or not, it has protected my PS32 from lesser drops.

 

[lonepunman]

How do you keep yours secured when you're spotting with it?

 

[Brian Shaffer]

There is a metal tab on the bottom with a crescent-shaped cut out. I took a piece of paracord, removed about half the strands from the sleeve, and threaded it through that crescent and tied it off to make a look. That loop I then attached to a neck strap. So the scope hangs off my neck like a daylight spotting monocular or binoculars. I can do a picture if this isn't clear.

 

[Afalex1]

I use an X320 and it comes with a neck strap. Anyone who touches the x320 must put on the neck strap before looking through it. No neck strap, no thermal.

 

[Delta4-3]

This could be a great horror story thread! I dropped an Armasight Zeus off of my tail gate on to a concrete patio at the SOWW (Special Operations Wounded Warrior) charity hunt. I just put it in my truck and refused to look at it for about 30 minutes. Well, it turned out fine.
I dropped my PVS-14 on the bathroom floor and destroyed the tube. No, I wasn't doing anything freaky, I was just testing out my MOD dual mount when I first got it, and pushed the wrong button. Like an idiot, I didn't follow my own advice and have it tethered to the helmet.
I burned another tube by hitting a mirror with an IR laser.
I fell through a 3rd story roof and broke a set of ANVIS 6-9's in half, and at the same instant, broke the turret off of a 6x NVEC Raptor. Fortunately, you guys paid for those two, not me.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

When I was new to hunting, I dropped a Russian Gen I scope from 14' into the dirt below the stand, soft dirt below the stand. It was fine, but at the time, I thought I was screwed. The benefit was that it did not land on the lens. The only damage of scuffing and dirt caked/packed into the battery compartment somehow. It was then I started with a lanyard (to heavy to hang from the neck) and later a neck strap for a Gen 2 monocular, then the FLIR.

 

[Delta4-3]

When I was new to hunting, I dropped a Russian Gen I scope from 14' into the dirt below the stand, soft dirt below the stand. It was fine, but at the time, I thought I was screwed. The benefit was that it did not land on the lens. The only damage of scuffing and dirt caked/packed into the battery compartment somehow. It was then I started with a lanyard (to heavy to hang from the neck) and later a neck strap for a Gen 2 monocular, then the FLIR.

I have found that if you get a belly button piercing, then tether your expensive optic to your butterfly belly button ring, you will never drop it after the first time. Not for fear of the pain....but for fear of loosing both a nice belly button ring AND a thermal. In fact, whenever someone buys a device off of me, I offer to pay for the piercing and the ring. It's a long term business plan, but basically it prevents me from having to pay for optics that customers now refuse to abuse. Let's hope no Ivy league universities are on here, I really don't want the hassle of them trying to constantly recruit me to run their business departments.

 

[Ratdog68]

Hey, wait a minute... I thought the BB ring was for hanging your spare mag from, and those bushings stretched into the ear lobe piercings was for hanging optics from? (I'm so confused....)

 

[Delta4-3]

Hey, wait a minute... I thought the BB ring was for hanging your spar mag from, and those bushings stretched into the ear lobe piercings was for hanging optics from? (I'm so confused....)

If you are not doing it my way, exactly, you are wrong. Completely objective though of course.

 

[Ncorry]

I dropped my 300BLK SBR with a suppressor on front and a Thor on top while climbing into a tripod stand in the dark. The sound of a nice-ish rifle and $4K optic going clank, clank, clank down the ladder rungs will make you nauseous. Total fall was about 12-14 feet. Landed on dirt/rock mix, but I don't know which part landed first- it was dark. Bottom line, nothing broken, scratched, or dinged and the Thor even retained zero. Now, ALL of my slings have had the ends where they loop back through something (ladder clip?) reinforced and sewn together with some extremely heavy duty waxed thread.

 

[BigRedDog]

I dropped my 300BLK SBR with a suppressor on front and a Thor on top while climbing into a tripod stand in the dark. The sound of a nice-ish rifle and $4K optic going clank, clank, clank down the ladder rungs will make you nauseous. Total fall was about 12-14 feet. Landed on dirt/rock mix, but I don't know which part landed first- it was dark. Bottom line, nothing broken, scratched, or dinged and the Thor even retained zero. Now, ALL of my slings have had the ends where they loop back through something (ladder clip?) reinforced and sewn together with some extremely heavy duty waxed thread.

Even if we didn't leave it out in the rain, one of us will still manage to introduce it to the local terra firma

 

[BigRedDog]

Or, it could be a message from God about not hunting with a 300 BLk!

just sayin'

 

[FrankT]

That would be frightening, dropping that much money!

 

[Ncorry]

That would be frightening, dropping that much money!

Frightening doesn't quite do it justice.

As for the 300BLK, I'm slowly coming around. Currently (literally) weighing 6.8 SBR upper vs. a DPMS G2 SBR AR10 in 308. Bigger hogs just need something with more ass to it than the 300BLK provides.

 

[BigRedDog]

yes, yes they do