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Night Vision Halo 25mm Running Review

NFAJohn

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Minuteman
May 7, 2018
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East Bernard, Texas
Full disclaimer: I'm a regular dude with a regular job who doesn't get paid jack shit for my opinions on guns or gear, unless someone wanted to holllllaaa at them PMs because the oilfield is looking as promising as a ticket to the titanic right now. My intention is to write down my thoughts and experiences with the halo 25 as I use it because in my opinion, mind you it's a free opinion, it's a pretty good optic for the spend. The reality of the situation is I'll update this as I have time and make hunts, so buckle up for infrequent poorly written post.


How in the hell did you wind up with the 25?
I've been on alot of hunts and used alot of different optics at one point in time I have owned or used the following: flir pts 233, pts, 536, pulsar n750 (junk), pulsar thermal (I think it was a XQ 38 but the nomenclature confuses the shit out of me), mk3 60, reap 35 and halo lr. I would say as a commercial user I've used a pretty wide selection of gear from good to trash. Prior to the bottom falling out of oil we've taken clients out with outfitters who ran the mk3 60mm and the halo lr. Being around those units really got me itching for a nice thermal. I have access to some large rice and turf farms in South Texas and I figured stepping up to a nicer thermal would make hunting those properties into a good past time. So I started researching this until my eyes bled and I came to the conclusion that the halo lr was the ticket. 100% no wavering, halo lr is the ticket. Trijicon level performance, 5 year warranty, CS seems to be fast and responsive to customer input and it's priced right. Soooo I call up a local dealer I've done business with for years, he orders one and I twiddle my thumbs and wait.
A few weeks go by and I wonder into my dealers place just to bs and he goes hey check this out and hands me a halo 25. We walk outside and start looking at stuff and it's pretty impressive. We live in roughly the same area and he informs me he is running a 25 and loves it. We go back inside and I'm poking around and I find a lwrc razorback 6.8 gen1. It's used, but clean and I get to thinking...shit I bet i can get out the door with this rifle and that 25 for the cost of the lr. And that is how I wound up with the 25. I've been doing business with my dealer for 10 years or so and I trust the guy, we shake hands and he says if your disappointed in it just bring it back and we'll work it out. Cool deal off I go.

Halo-1.jpg


Review: At this point I've had it about a month so here are my thoughts to far.

-The box, packaging ect are all pretty top notch. Especially the nvision challenge coin, that shit is gonna come in handy when I have to trade it off to operators after we insert into some war zone. The instructions are nice and laminated, good deal can't eat or loose them. My one gripe with the instructions is that the instructions to zero the optic don't spell out how to use the manual nuc to do a one shot zero. Youtube fixed this, but I feel like they could have made more effort to explain the process. Also included in the box was one set of batteries, cleaning cloth, eye cup thingy and a usb to nvision cord for dvr or powerpack.

-The mount is america defense and so far has returned to zero really well. No complaints here concerning the mount.

-Battery life has been good, I don't see myself running an external power pack at this point. The battery holder seems rugged and the threads are fine, but no fine enough to cross thread. I hunt by setting up on top of a levee or hill, spotting pigs and then walking to them with a pvs 14. In a typical night I hunt sun down to 1-2am, I would say the unit is on 60-70% of the time. A set of batteries last me 2.5 nights of hunting. Not the most scientific way to measure this, but that's what I have so far. If i can remember I'll try and set a timer on my phone, but that probably wont happen.

-Reticles are good and you get several choices. I like the fact that the reticle changes color when it hits a hot target and that you can adjust the sensitivity of this feature. It seems to make shooting runners easier. It holds four different weapon zeros and swapping between guns hasn't caused loss of zero from profile to profile.

-Optical performance is great, but it's not a LR. I have places I can look at cows from 1500 yards, with the 25mm its like yep some stuff is over there, that being said I'm not sure the LR would make out cows that far out either. Inside of 600 or so I can look at cows and go yep...thems cown, hmmm are those little things to the right pigs or calfs? Oh wait that pig is nursing that cow, guess that makes it a calf. About 350 you get clear I'd on that's pigs to the right of those cows. NOW this is still the pretty decent part of Texas weather, as it gets more humid I'm sure performance will degrade some, but we'll just have to check that out in a few months. I have had it out in a pretty decent rain before and it didn't seem to degrade the image too much. Smaller targets like skunk, raccoons, armadillos ect can be detected wayyyyyy out there, but you need to be around 150-175 to id them.

Side tangent, I'm ranging stuff at night by finding it in the thermal, looking through my PVS14, walking the pulsing dot from my laser range finder onto the target, then looking into the laser range finder to get the distance. It's white trash wilcox raptar.


-Durability. Ya I know what your thinking, durability how can you test that in a month? Welllll I had just finished laying into my first sounder with it day after I bought it and I was pretty stoked. It was a text book, spot them from 5-600 yards, drive the ranger to within 300 yards under pvs14, stalk to within 60 yards and light them up. I mean just an awesome text book, wished it went like this every time run. I had 5 down solo and was walking to check on the last one and I fell HARD onto the rifle and optic. I knew for sure it was going to be snapped off of its mount, looked down and it was in one piece, still turned on. I looked it over really hard at the house, nada, little wear on the finish. I took a micro fiber town and cleaned all the dirt and dust off, other than that and loosing the eye cup somewhere were good to go.

Halo-2.jpg


Image-1.png
Zoomed all the way out, pic taken with an iphone. Cows on the left are at around 500, right side cows are further out, bridge in the back is right at 1033. Hard to explain, but it's clearer in person.


Overall I'm happy with the optical performance, this thing SHINES at shooting pigs from 20 to 200 yards. When the wind is right I can get to around 50 yards before I light them up and it's a bad day to be a pig. I hunt on foot in alot of river bottoms and wooded area between pastures and it really excels at operating in a cluttered environment. If I was out west coyote hunting I think I'd opt for the LR, but for my use jacking with pigs its pretty damn awesome. The five year warranty and cost are what really pushed me to the 25mm, I'll try and update as I keep rolling along and the conditions in Texas get more humid.
 
Sweet review! Im a regular joe as well. Decided on(with help from wig) a halo lr as well, but would settle on the 25 if i had to. Unfortunately, my funds for a thermal are getting eaten up by a couple things, but eventually ill get one.
 
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Sweet review! Im a regular joe as well. Decided on(with help from wig) a halo lr as well, but would settle on the 25 if i had to. Unfortunately, my funds for a thermal are getting eaten up by a couple things, but eventually ill get one.
Fingers crossed they will roll out an even bigger and badder optic in the next year or so and the LRs will float around at a reduced price! Wouldn't mind having one, but the smoking deal I got on the 6.8, optic, mags and ammo made it hard to walk from considering how I hunt.
 
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Fingers crossed they will roll out an even bigger and badder optic in the next year or so and the LRs will float around at a reduced price! Wouldn't mind having one, but the smoking deal I got on the 6.8, optic, mags and ammo made it hard to walk from considering how I hunt.
My hunting will be within 200 yards, but id’ing critters at distance would be nice. What do you think the distance you could identify a coyote vs a fox vs a domestic dog?
 
My hunting will be within 200 yards, but id’ing critters at distance would be nice. What do you think the distance you could identify a coyote vs a fox vs a domestic dog?
In wide open desert maybe 200 ish? I know that I can spot blobs of heat wayyyyyy out there when it's smaller stuff, but telling an armadillo from a raccoon at 150-175 is where I start to feel comfortable going that's an armadillo or that's a possum vs that's a raccoon in a tree.

I've got a GSP that is the size of a big yote, I'll cut him loose on the levee this evening and try to get a pic.
 
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In wide open desert maybe 200 ish? I know that I can spot blobs of heat wayyyyyy out there when it's smaller stuff, but telling an armadillo from a raccoon at 150-175 is where I start to feel comfortable going that's an armadillo or that's a possum vs that's a raccoon in a tree.

I've got a GSP that is the size of a big yote, I'll cut him loose on the levee this evening and try to get a pic.
I just have an issue with the neighbors dogs running amuck and don’t want to put a bullet in one unless i intend to. The foxes don’t bother me, nor do the bobcats yet, but the coyotes and lions concern me the most as i have dogs. I know thermal isn’t the end all to night vision, I already have a pvs14 and need to get a better ir flashlight, but those will help identify. Obviously im not yanking on the trigger unless i am positive of my target.
I like the wide view of the 25, but like the long range capabilities of id’ing with the lr.
 
I just have an issue with the neighbors dogs running amuck and don’t want to put a bullet in one unless i intend to. The foxes don’t bother me, nor do the bobcats yet, but the coyotes and lions concern me the most as i have dogs. I know thermal isn’t the end all to night vision, I already have a pvs14 and need to get a better ir flashlight, but those will help identify. Obviously im not yanking on the trigger unless i am positive of my target.
I like the wide view of the 25, but like the long range capabilities of id’ing with the lr.
Man with worrying about dogs like that I’d be tempted to opt for a decent hand held thermal and a PVS30 or similar. I think IDing a yote from a dog might even be a challenge with the lr. Could be wrong tho. Got a call from a landowner the pigs are back in the hay patch so I’m gonna try and run on them this evening. I’ll see if I can do some ranging on dogs out there and let you mow what I think. For 100% ID at 500 on dog vs yote I’m thinking for the same spend as a LR you can get a pvs30 and decent scanner.
 
Pretty good run tonight, wound up with 7 dead on the spot and 3 that were leaking bad and running on two wheels. Need to get a dvr pack, took these pictures after I was done for the evening. Deer at 400ish
78489D14-150C-4EB9-B76F-ED4292C9C65E.jpeg

Same but at 8X
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The pictures don’t really do it justice. Don’t get me wrong it’s 8X digital magnification, it’s pixilated, but I could clearly tell that it was a deer looking at the length of the neck and distance from the the belly to the ground.

The halo worked great on the runners, was even able to dump some piglets at around 175 as they were scooting out after momma got a facelift.
CF393906-98C9-4D56-A4BC-930A40834FEF.jpeg

The S&B 6.8 110pts is working so well I don’t see myself switching rounds. Was 18 bucks a box before the pandemic. Got complete pass through on every pig, largest being a bore that went around 125 or so.
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Overall another enjoyable evening, no issues. Temp showed 74 degrees with 87% humidity. I’ll start trying to remember to bring the kestrel today get that data.
 
Man with worrying about dogs like that I’d be tempted to opt for a decent hand held thermal and a PVS30 or similar. I think IDing a yote from a dog might even be a challenge with the lr. Could be wrong tho. Got a call from a landowner the pigs are back in the hay patch so I’m gonna try and run on them this evening. I’ll see if I can do some ranging on dogs out there and let you mow what I think. For 100% ID at 500 on dog vs yote I’m thinking for the same spend as a LR you can get a pvs30 and decent scanner.
To be honest, the dude has been told a dozen times to keep his dogs on his own land. His 4 large dogs terrorize the wildlife and peoples pets(on their own land). I am surprised nobody has put one down yet. This is very rural area. 20-120 acre parcels. If one catches a bullet, ill lose no sleep. But if someones dog got loose(not the problem neighbor) i would hate to accidentally shoot it.

i have a pvs14, but need a better ir torch, it will help eliminate bad calls on domesticated critters. Just curious how good the image quality was on these units.
 
To be honest, the dude has been told a dozen times to keep his dogs on his own land. His 4 large dogs terrorize the wildlife and peoples pets(on their own land). I am surprised nobody has put one down yet. This is very rural area. 20-120 acre parcels. If one catches a bullet, ill lose no sleep. But if someones dog got loose(not the problem neighbor) i would hate to accidentally shoot it.

i have a pvs14, but need a better ir torch, it will help eliminate bad calls on domesticated critters. Just curious how good the image quality was on these units.
I mean let it rip....3 dogs would be less of a problem for sure.....if you look at the deer pics from last night I could tell what they were, but it took a second to go yeppp that pig had a long neck and it’s belly is wayyy off the ground, that’s a deer.
 
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...coyote vs a fox vs a domestic dog?

Personal opinion here...

Thermal is not the best choice if pets are mixed in with coyote

Normally people's pets have different mannerisms than a coyote or fox and after observing the canine for some time, you usually get a pretty good idea of which one it is.

I hate to admit this, but...

With that said... I came REALLY close to pulling the trigger on one person's pet. If it wasn't for the fact that my partner for the night had night vision and when running the illuminator on the dog there was a reflection of some sort from the collar. He ended up saying "it has a collar" as I was taking the first stage out of the trigger.

I've called myself being pretty good at calling a shoot / no shoot based off of how the canine looks and acts with the Halo LR. I was only a couple pounds of finger pressure away from trying to put a hole in someone's pet in that one instance though.

(Below % numbers are made up)
I think >95% of the time a GOOD thermal alone with time watching the animals will get you the right answer. I think the % goes down with lesser thermals... Maybe >70% with lesser thermals... I'm making these numbers up because they get better or worse with distance. When it comes to coyotes that are being hunted frequently though you may not be able to close the distance before you want to take a shot.

Thermals are a 100% more effective at finding living things you may never have known was there with NV alone though.

Now to a another example close to the discussion...
I took a new thermal user out to hunt...
I am using the Halo LR and he is using my 25mm Halo. He called "bobcat in the beans" and started fishing for a steady perch to fire from. I do a 180 with the tripod to inspect and it ends up being the most hop happy rabbit I have ever seen. He was convinced it was a bobcat though based off of how it was moving through the beans and size. I had to let him look at it through the LR before he would believe me
 
Personal opinion here...

Thermal is not the best choice if pets are mixed in with coyote

Normally people's pets have different mannerisms than a coyote or fox and after observing the canine for some time, you usually get a pretty good idea of which one it is.

I hate to admit this, but...

With that said... I came REALLY close to pulling the trigger on one person's pet. If it wasn't for the fact that my partner for the night had night vision and when running the illuminator on the dog there was a reflection of some sort from the collar. He ended up saying "it has a collar" as I was taking the first stage out of the trigger.

I've called myself being pretty good at calling a shoot / no shoot based off of how the canine looks and acts with the Halo LR. I was only a couple pounds of finger pressure away from trying to put a hole in someone's pet in that one instance though.

(Below % numbers are made up)
I think >95% of the time a GOOD thermal alone with time watching the animals will get you the right answer. I think the % goes down with lesser thermals... Maybe >70% with lesser thermals... I'm making these numbers up because they get better or worse with distance. When it comes to coyotes that are being hunted frequently though you may not be able to close the distance before you want to take a shot.

Thermals are a 100% more effective at finding living things you may never have known was there with NV alone though.

Now to a another example close to the discussion...
I took a new thermal user out to hunt...
I am using the Halo LR and he is using my 25mm Halo. He called "bobcat in the beans" and started fishing for a steady perch to fire from. I do a 180 with the tripod to inspect and it ends up being the most hop happy rabbit I have ever seen. He was convinced it was a bobcat though based off of how it was moving through the beans and size. I had to let him look at it through the LR before he would believe me

all to real. been in this exact situation with my halo and my trijicon. if theres a possible farm or house dog in the mix its just too easy to make a mistake. part of the reason nv will always hold a spot it my kit.
 
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If I was predominately chasing predators I'd want some sort of good NV to pair with the halo, but with my focus being mainly on pigs the worse thing that can happen is I false stalk up on something and go ahhhh shit, I just walked a long ways for nothing. Gyms are closed, I could use the walking lol. There are times with the halo when I definitely make a decision about what something is based off body mechanics and educated guessing. The deer I took a through screen picture of the other night are a good example, I could detect them, when I zoomed in it was heavily pixilated, but just looking at the length of the necks and distance of the belly off of the ground I felt really confident those were deer. If I was chasing a more mixed bad of critters I think for the same spend I'd have really considered a nicer hand held scanner and PVS27 or PVS30.
 
3 down this evening. We need a good rain to get them out of the river bottoms. Halo worked great tonight and I was able to make short work of the pigs despite them being really close each time I got into them, one was killed less than 30 yards from where I set up. Zero issues with identifying anything this evening and didn’t have any false stalks

Did manage to recover a bullet from one of the pigs, first time I’ve recovered one of the S&B 110gr pts bullets. It looks like it shed a lot of weight, I’m not totally surprised, with the ranges all sub 75 yards tonight I figured the round was going to hand grenade. I’ll keep running them for the time being, but when ammo supply catches up I’ll give the bonded 90gr a try. I’ll weigh it tomorrow.

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Hunted in less than optimal conditions tonight. 92% humidity, 54°F and intermittent rain. Detection range was 8-900 yards, but IDing wasn’t for sure until around 300 or so. I didn’t false stalk up any cows, but I spent more time looking at stuff and trying to decide what it was for sure. It all fairness I did still manage to kill 3 pigs and I think any unit would have had a hard time in those conditions.

FA96A6D3-EBDA-4643-8F0B-6AA8559B2F8E.jpeg


Zero is holding perfectly, big bore was shot from 150 and impact was just behind the ear as intended. Overall I’m satisfied with how the optic did in shitty conditions, going to be interesting to see how it does this summer in the God awful humidity.
 
Had a string of one and two pig hunts, noting to write home about. Looks like for now the hunting is working, the wheat crop is in and taller, time to hunt a different spot for a bit. Unit is still running great, battery life seems to be longer with the Surefire batteries instead of the energizer lithium, but that purely subjective as I haven't really timed it.

Only thing I've changed is I added a Butler Creek flip cap (#16) to the rear. The places I hunt are pretty dusty and I was getting tired of blowing crap out of there with a can of air.

Halo 5.jpg


Had the rifle up on the tripod last night and got this pic. Fence on the right ends at 375 and the tree line beyond it are at 600, ranged using the white trash raptar (look through the pvs 14 while walking the ir laser from the sig range finder onto what I want to range and then look in the eye piece of range finder and see what the range is)
Halo 3.jpg


When the pigs don't come out to play you can always take pics of your gear with your PVS14 and think about how everything on that tripod cost more than your first three vehicles combined. Fucking pigs
Halo 4.jpg
 
Still smashing on them with the halo. Hunted right after a thunderstorm last night and the conditions weren’t optional, but the optic performed well. First group we spotted was at about 400 yards down a hill. We got to within 150 and a big bolt of lightening illuminated everything around us. I don’t know if the pigs saw us or the lightening spooked them, but my partner and I decided we had better go ahead and send it because they all perked up and we’re looking our direction. We did the old 3,2,1 and started shooting. When the dust settled we were shooting cleanup and I was able to shoot one right in the melon from 205 off of the the pig saddle.
I’m still super impressed with the 25mm, shooting runners is where this thing really shines. When we were shooting clean up I increased the magnification to one notch bellow max and anchored the pigs. Had one false stalk last night on a lone calf wayyyyyy out in the middle of a hay patch. Spotted the calf at 8-900 yards, drove to within 400 and closed to 250 on foot before it was absolutely clear it was a calf. It was about a 50 pound calf bedded down in tall grass by itself, oh well I could use the walking.

The butler creek cap on the back was awesome for keeping crap out and cutting down on light when moving around.
DE598277-E301-4261-99AB-C6881DE9109A.jpeg
 
Full disclaimer: I'm a regular dude with a regular job who doesn't get paid jack shit for my opinions on guns or gear, unless someone wanted to holllllaaa at them PMs because the oilfield is looking as promising as a ticket to the titanic right now. My intention is to write down my thoughts and experiences with the halo 25 as I use it because in my opinion, mind you it's a free opinion, it's a pretty good optic for the spend. The reality of the situation is I'll update this as I have time and make hunts, so buckle up for infrequent poorly written post.


How in the hell did you wind up with the 25?
I've been on alot of hunts and used alot of different optics at one point in time I have owned or used the following: flir pts 233, pts, 536, pulsar n750 (junk), pulsar thermal (I think it was a XQ 38 but the nomenclature confuses the shit out of me), mk3 60, reap 35 and halo lr. I would say as a commercial user I've used a pretty wide selection of gear from good to trash. Prior to the bottom falling out of oil we've taken clients out with outfitters who ran the mk3 60mm and the halo lr. Being around those units really got me itching for a nice thermal. I have access to some large rice and turf farms in South Texas and I figured stepping up to a nicer thermal would make hunting those properties into a good past time. So I started researching this until my eyes bled and I came to the conclusion that the halo lr was the ticket. 100% no wavering, halo lr is the ticket. Trijicon level performance, 5 year warranty, CS seems to be fast and responsive to customer input and it's priced right. Soooo I call up a local dealer I've done business with for years, he orders one and I twiddle my thumbs and wait.
A few weeks go by and I wonder into my dealers place just to bs and he goes hey check this out and hands me a halo 25. We walk outside and start looking at stuff and it's pretty impressive. We live in roughly the same area and he informs me he is running a 25 and loves it. We go back inside and I'm poking around and I find a lwrc razorback 6.8 gen1. It's used, but clean and I get to thinking...shit I bet i can get out the door with this rifle and that 25 for the cost of the lr. And that is how I wound up with the 25. I've been doing business with my dealer for 10 years or so and I trust the guy, we shake hands and he says if your disappointed in it just bring it back and we'll work it out. Cool deal off I go.

View attachment 7283061

Review: At this point I've had it about a month so here are my thoughts to far.

-The box, packaging ect are all pretty top notch. Especially the nvision challenge coin, that shit is gonna come in handy when I have to trade it off to operators after we insert into some war zone. The instructions are nice and laminated, good deal can't eat or loose them. My one gripe with the instructions is that the instructions to zero the optic don't spell out how to use the manual nuc to do a one shot zero. Youtube fixed this, but I feel like they could have made more effort to explain the process. Also included in the box was one set of batteries, cleaning cloth, eye cup thingy and a usb to nvision cord for dvr or powerpack.

-The mount is america defense and so far has returned to zero really well. No complaints here concerning the mount.

-Battery life has been good, I don't see myself running an external power pack at this point. The battery holder seems rugged and the threads are fine, but no fine enough to cross thread. I hunt by setting up on top of a levee or hill, spotting pigs and then walking to them with a pvs 14. In a typical night I hunt sun down to 1-2am, I would say the unit is on 60-70% of the time. A set of batteries last me 2.5 nights of hunting. Not the most scientific way to measure this, but that's what I have so far. If i can remember I'll try and set a timer on my phone, but that probably wont happen.

-Reticles are good and you get several choices. I like the fact that the reticle changes color when it hits a hot target and that you can adjust the sensitivity of this feature. It seems to make shooting runners easier. It holds four different weapon zeros and swapping between guns hasn't caused loss of zero from profile to profile.

-Optical performance is great, but it's not a LR. I have places I can look at cows from 1500 yards, with the 25mm its like yep some stuff is over there, that being said I'm not sure the LR would make out cows that far out either. Inside of 600 or so I can look at cows and go yep...thems cown, hmmm are those little things to the right pigs or calfs? Oh wait that pig is nursing that cow, guess that makes it a calf. About 350 you get clear I'd on that's pigs to the right of those cows. NOW this is still the pretty decent part of Texas weather, as it gets more humid I'm sure performance will degrade some, but we'll just have to check that out in a few months. I have had it out in a pretty decent rain before and it didn't seem to degrade the image too much. Smaller targets like skunk, raccoons, armadillos ect can be detected wayyyyyy out there, but you need to be around 150-175 to id them.

Side tangent, I'm ranging stuff at night by finding it in the thermal, looking through my PVS14, walking the pulsing dot from my laser range finder onto the target, then looking into the laser range finder to get the distance. It's white trash wilcox raptar.


-Durability. Ya I know what your thinking, durability how can you test that in a month? Welllll I had just finished laying into my first sounder with it day after I bought it and I was pretty stoked. It was a text book, spot them from 5-600 yards, drive the ranger to within 300 yards under pvs14, stalk to within 60 yards and light them up. I mean just an awesome text book, wished it went like this every time run. I had 5 down solo and was walking to check on the last one and I fell HARD onto the rifle and optic. I knew for sure it was going to be snapped off of its mount, looked down and it was in one piece, still turned on. I looked it over really hard at the house, nada, little wear on the finish. I took a micro fiber town and cleaned all the dirt and dust off, other than that and loosing the eye cup somewhere were good to go.

View attachment 7283096

View attachment 7283097 Zoomed all the way out, pic taken with an iphone. Cows on the left are at around 500, right side cows are further out, bridge in the back is right at 1033. Hard to explain, but it's clearer in person.


Overall I'm happy with the optical performance, this thing SHINES at shooting pigs from 20 to 200 yards. When the wind is right I can get to around 50 yards before I light them up and it's a bad day to be a pig. I hunt on foot in alot of river bottoms and wooded area between pastures and it really excels at operating in a cluttered environment. If I was out west coyote hunting I think I'd opt for the LR, but for my use jacking with pigs its pretty damn awesome. The five year warranty and cost are what really pushed me to the 25mm, I'll try and update as I keep rolling along and the conditions in Texas get more humid.
Very nice and interesting review. I learnt a great deal of new information from this review. Thanks for sharing.
 
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Last night was the best conditions I've had the unit out in to date. 55 degrees and 41% humidity, felt like I could see forever and a day. First pig was spotted at around 900. At that distance I couldn't positively identify it, but watching how it moved, how low it was to the ground and that it was by itself made me pretty sure it was a large lone boar. We walked down from the hill and at the second little rise in the ROW stopped and took another look. At 400 it was pretty clear that it was a big lone boar. The wind was in our favor so we closed on foot as close as we could and made it to 50 yards or so.

Exhibit A:
Capture.PNG


So were set up on tripods, both shooting 6.8 and I'm thinking were about to bang flop this pig hard.....wronggggg.

Pig is perfectly sideways, I'm holding eye socket and I count down. 3,2,1 and we both open up and Mr. Pig runs straight at us while eating a truck load of rounds. When he falls, he's 20 yards from us. My fist rounds went through both his eyes and did not really do much else, my partners shot was too high on the shoulder and just left a nasty wound above the spine. As he was running towards me I went semi auto cyclic tagging him in the chest and that was a wrap. All in all pretty fun, but mad stupid....moral of the story: don't be cute and aim for the neck or skull like normal. Do I think the pig was charging us? Not really. I think he was blind, pissed off, running from the loudest sound (rounds impacting him) and he just happened to pick our direction to run.

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The halo keeps trucking along, the low base magnification is super useful for how we are hunting, when timing is right I'll pick up another form the wife. I really think had I been using the LR or another optic with higher base magnification, shooting that pig as it ran at us would have been tricky. My partner was shooting a Flir PTS233 and it was equally good for the shots we took up close last night and general detection duty, but lacking in longer rang IDing. I think that having one really dope thermal and another serviceable thermal is another really good option for deciding on a second unit for a wife/kid/buddy/freeloadingassholeswhodontbuytheirownshitbutpayforbeer.
 
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Well boys, the 25 has been a ball of fun, but time to play with the LR. Got some new property to hunt that is a turf farm and the shots can get stupid long. I was going to keep running the 25, but I have some work coming up in West, Texas this month and we have access to some large ranches out there that are ate up with yotes....everything is pointing to taking longer and longer shots so time to change up the gear a bit. So long 25, been a great unit, wouldn't hesitate to pick up another some day.
 
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Well, the stars aligned, and I’m now the owner of this bad boy. I’ve wanted to get into the thermal game for a long time. This is my first thermal experience period. You guys convinced me to wait, and it appears to be worth it. My poor Grendel has long waited to serve it’s purpose blasting hogs. Plan is to sight in tomorrow before the rain, then get out tomorrow evening after it stops.

I will try to take y’all along on this introductory journey into night hunting. A buddy has an ATN Thor IV. Maybe I can try a comparison at some point.

Like @NFAJohn said in the OP “The reality of the situation is I'll update this as I have time and make hunts, so buckle up for infrequent poorly written post.” Lol I’ll try to make you proud!
 
Damn way to bogard that sweet 6.5G upper you know I would have taken as a partial trade :ROFLMAO:

lol yeah that upper was the first step in a 3 year process to build this setup. Cans/stamps took forever.

With the Ultra 5 and 10rnd mag it’s a light/nimble setup for walking the roads and swamps. The 338 Ultra and 17rnd mag are more cumbersome, but more pleasant to shoot from a blind or stand.
 
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Sighting in: I followed the Lone Star Boars - Huey Outdoors method to sight in. (YouTube) Stapled a small piece of foil to a big piece of cardboard and shot. I hit low right, and covered the hole with another piece of foil. While holding my initial point of aim (top foil) I nuc’d it, then entered zero mode. I moved the crosshairs to the center of the bottom foil (over the bullet hole) and saved it. Aimed at the top foil again and center punched it. The 1 shot Zero claim is accurate...2nd shot to confirm 😉 I swapped cans back and forth a few times and put 5 shots total into a sub 3/4” group.

This was at 35 yards, which according to Ballistic AE puts me 1” high at 100yd, on at 150yd, 1” low at 175yd, 2.5” low at 200yd. I’ll confirm on steel later.

Rain is rolling in. I’ll try to walk the roads this evening if it slacks off.
 
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Man, I’ve done a terrible job with the ongoing review 🤦🏼‍♂️ mostly because I havent had time to run the unit, and the hogs have disappeared for several months. I’ve watched a few deer from the porch, but that’s about it.

I’m actually considering selling it since I’m not using it. I need a tractor, mower and boat, and think I’d get more use out of each of them.

Will probably list one the EE soon.
 
Man, I’ve done a terrible job with the ongoing review 🤦🏼‍♂️ mostly because I havent had time to run the unit, and the hogs have disappeared for several months. I’ve watched a few deer from the porch, but that’s about it.

I’m actually considering selling it since I’m not using it. I need a tractor, mower and boat, and think I’d get more use out of each of them.

Will probably list one the EE soon.

Selling just in time for the Big Igloo?

I’d hold off just a bit until at least November 4. ;)
 
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