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Night Vision Halo LR running review

NFAJohn

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Minuteman
May 7, 2018
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East Bernard, Texas
Going to do a running review on the halo 50 like I did with the 25. Same full blown disclaimer: regular dude with a regular dude job, these thoughts and opinions are mine. If someone wants to pay for my thoughts and opinions please PM me, I'll be more than happy to accommodate as the outlook in the oil word is ummmm bleak.

Recently swapped from the halo 25mm to the halo 50mm in anticipation for taking longer and longer shots on some new property that we are about to start hunting. Nothing wrong with the 25, it's a great scope, but when the guys tell you that 300 plus yard shots are pretty common you bump up your glass. I don't have a ton of thoughts just yet, but the scope did have a great first weekend out. 19 total hogs down in 2 days with a kill at 386 yards.

First thing I did when I got home was to take it out and look across the pasture....I was blown away that I could see the flags across the pasture and highway. Those flags are 1050 yards away and I could watch them flapping around easily.
LR-1.jpg
LR-4.jpg


I mean damn, I was blown away just how clearly I could see the flags. Later that afternoon the wife, kiddo and myself went out to one of the ranches I've been hunting to spend the weekend riding horses and me hunting in the evenings. Scope zeroed no problem and returned to zero when it was removed and reinstalled.

With the scope zeroed and ready to go I set up on a hill and started my overwatch, I had the ranch owner in tow outfitted with the Armasite Zeus mounted to a 10.5" 300blk. We sat on the hill and about 2130 the pigs came out of the brush and started working on the freshly disced right of way near a pond. Group was 20-25 strong, but made up of mostly 100-150 pound pigs and piglets. I could tell very easily at 570 yards that it was pigs, no body language interpretation was needed. The wind was in our favor so we started out walking down the gravel road, I was in front running a thin filmed pvs14 and Mr. Rancher was in the back. After about 200 yard we stopped and set up on tripods to see if the pigs had moved and they were continuing to filter out of the brush and down to the pond. While scanning the pond to our left, we detected another sounder. I decided we should stay on HOGS 1 as they were in a more open field. We closed to 75 yards and set up on shooting sticks.

LR-5.PNG


At 75 yards I could see what hogs were wet from being in the pond, clearly defined facial features and the organs/ skull were significantly hotter than the rest of the body. It was video game cool to look at the pigs at that distance. I gave the 3,2,1 and we started hammering on them.
1589254670237.png

When the smoke cleared and we had 7 down dead. The halo was less of a hindrance than I had though it would be shooting runners, but I was more difficult than shooting runners with the 25mm. Mr. Rancher hangs tight while I walk back to the ranger, it's not uncommon for piglets to come back out when the shooting stops to look for momma, so leaving a man behind for clean up makes sense. As I'm walking back to the ranger I stop and look back at HOGS 2 and the are gone except for one lone pig. I know that firing up the ranger is most likely going to push him out so I set up on the pig saddle in a seated position and gear up to take the shot. I had left the range finder in the ranger, but I figured I was looking at 400- 425 yards. I held a little over two mils elevation and a .5 mil for wind on the second zoom setting and slowly broke the geissele trigger. I heard the round impact and sent a second round as the pig staggered around. Pig dropped out of sight and I actually laughed out loud.

We rounded up the pigs from HOGS1 and then went to look for the pig from HOG2. It took a while, but we found him about 50 yards away from where I thought he had dropped. Both shots were basically in guts, but up high around the spine. Complete pass through from the 110gr S&B pts, but the wounds were pretty unremarkable. If he had been bigger than 75-85 pounds I doubt it would have been lethal.
LR-3.jpg


Overall it's too early to really have some in depth thoughts about the LR, but it's first night out was epic. The one bitch I have is that it seems to consume batteries way faster, if I wind up with a battery pack, I'm going to need to build a new rig because the LWRC razorback was already chunky with the halo, but it's even chunkier with the LR.
 
Last edited:
Can you use a battery bank and plug it into the instead of using batteries?
 
Is that a hog pipe pictured? I always go nervous the cows would fuck it up so we never use em. Looks like yours works.
LR-6.png

Yep, we make them with the thicker schedule 80 pvc pipe and they hold up to cows just fine. Now the cows will straight fuck up a camera given a chance so I try and put those well up into a tree facing down.
 
Going to do a running review on the halo 50 like I did with the 25. Same full blown disclaimer: regular dude with a regular dude job, these thoughts and opinions are mine. If someone wants to pay for my thoughts and opinions please PM me, I'll be more than happy to accommodate as the outlook in the oil word is ummmm bleak.

Recently swapped from the halo 25mm to the halo 50mm in anticipation for taking longer and longer shots on some new property that we are about to start hunting. Nothing wrong with the 25, it's a great scope, but when the guys tell you that 300 plus yard shots are pretty common you bump up your glass. I don't have a ton of thoughts just yet, but the scope did have a great first weekend out. 19 total hogs down in 2 days with a kill at 386 yards.

First thing I did when I got home was to take it out and look across the pasture....I was blown away that I could see the flags across the pasture and highway. Those flags are 1050 yards away and I could watch them flapping around easily.
View attachment 7323718View attachment 7323719

I mean damn, I was blown away just how clearly I could see the flags. Later that afternoon the wife, kiddo and myself went out to one of the ranches I've been hunting to spend the weekend riding horses and me hunting in the evenings. Scope zeroed no problem and returned to zero when it was removed and reinstalled.

With the scope zeroed and ready to go I set up on a hill and started my overwatch, I had the ranch owner in tow outfitted with the Armasite Zeus mounted to a 10.5" 300blk. We sat on the hill and about 2130 the pigs came out of the brush and started working on the freshly disced right of way near a pond. Group was 20-25 strong, but made up of mostly 100-150 pound pigs and piglets. I could tell very easily at 570 yards that it was pigs, no body language interpretation was needed. The wind was in our favor so we started out walking down the gravel road, I was in front running a thin filmed pvs14 and Mr. Rancher was in the back. After about 200 yard we stopped and set up on tripods to see if the pigs had moved and they were continuing to filter out of the brush and down to the pond. While scanning the pond to our left, we detected another sounder. I decided we should stay on HOGS 1 as they were in a more open field. We closed to 75 yards and set up on shooting sticks.

View attachment 7323738

At 75 yards I could see what hogs were wet from being in the pond, clearly defined facial features and the organs/ skull were significantly hotter than the rest of the body. It was video game cool to look at the pigs at that distance. I gave the 3,2,1 and we started hammering on them.
View attachment 7323739
When the smoke cleared and we had 7 down dead. The halo was less of a hindrance than I had though it would be shooting runners, but I was more difficult than shooting runners with the 25mm. Mr. Rancher hangs tight while I walk back to the ranger, it's not uncommon for piglets to come back out when the shooting stops to look for momma, so leaving a man behind for clean up makes sense. As I'm walking back to the ranger I stop and look back at HOGS 2 and the are gone except for one lone pig. I know that firing up the ranger is most likely going to push him out so I set up on the pig saddle in a seated position and gear up to take the shot. I had left the range finder in the ranger, but I figured I was looking at 400- 425 yards. I held a little over two mils elevation and a .5 mil for wind on the second zoom setting and slowly broke the geissele trigger. I heard the round impact and sent a second round as the pig staggered around. Pig dropped out of sight and I actually laughed out loud.

We rounded up the pigs from HOGS1 and then went to look for the pig from HOG2. It took a while, but we found him about 50 yards away from where I thought he had dropped. Both shots were basically in guts, but up high around the spine. Complete pass through from the 110gr S&B pts, but the wounds were pretty unremarkable. If he had been bigger than 75-85 pounds I doubt it would have been lethal.
View attachment 7323774

Overall it's too early to really have some in depth thoughts about the LR, but it's first night out was epic. The one bitch I have is that it seems to consume batteries way faster, if I wind up with a battery pack, I'm going to need to build a new rig because the LWRC razorback was already chunky with the halo, but it's even chunkier with the LR.

How much battery life are you getting a few guys said 4-6 hrs
 
How much battery life are you getting a few guys said 4-6 hrs
Haven’t killed a set 100% yet. Last Saturday I hunted 4 hours and it wasn’t dead, but it was on the last bar of power so I swapped them before Sunday’s hunt. Didn’t run it much Sunday as I had someone else onboard with a scanner. From what I saw 4-6 hours seems about right.
 
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Haven’t killed a set 100% yet. Last Saturday I hunted 4 hours and it wasn’t dead, but it was on the last bar of power so I swapped them before Sunday’s hunt. Didn’t run it much Sunday as I had someone else onboard with a scanner. From what I saw 4-6 hours seems about right.

On and off for 4 hrs or 4 hrs straight
 
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Only off when I moved between spots. Or was rounding up pigs after shooting. Maybe 3.5 hours total run time? One of these days I’m gonna set the time on my phone and stop and start it to get a real number, than that’s alot to manage on top of staying well hydrated 😉
 
Thanks for your input on the Halo 25 thread and then starting this one. This info has real value for those trying to figure out the best bang for the buck and being able to obtain first hand data from real users is priceless!
 
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@BamaSE no problem man. When I was getting ready to buy the 25 I felt like there wasn’t a lot of info out there on them. I mean there are a handful of review videos on YouTube, but for the most part not alot of info. There is a lot of info on the 50, but I figured the more info the better. Might be my only decent contribution on here lol.
 
@NFAJohn, Halo and Halo-LR and electronically the same. You may want to confirm that your video output is set to OFF. Even when there is no video recorder connected to the scope if the Video output is set to PAL or NTSC the chip inside consumes some noticeable power.

The one bitch I have is that it seems to consume batteries way faster, if I wind up with a battery pack, I'm going to need to build a new rig because the LWRC razorback was already chunky with the halo, but it's even chunkier with the LR.
 
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Maybe a dumb question, but can you carry the battery pack in your pocket and run a micro USB into the HALO and plug it in or does it not work that way? That’s what I do with my FLIR
 
Proactive customer service at it's finest! @Max_R I powered up the unit and video and picture were set to "off" and "no" respectively. Could be the batteries, going to swing by the lgs and get a new box before I get concerned.

@djarecke I'm sure you could, but I would think mounting the battery to the stock or handguard would be less awkward. You wouldn't be literally tethered to the gun. Most of the recorders seem to include provisions for weapon mounting them.
 
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which reticle has mils and is it "FFP" lol do they change with magnification?

I'm waiting in mine
Deleted my comments, covered better here.
@Killswitch Engage has a good write up of the topic on here.

 
14 May 2020
85 degrees F
82% humidity
winds 9

Kind of a slower night last night, wind wasn't great for hunting most of the hog tubes, but we managed to put down one decent sized boar, a lone piglet and some trophy raccoons. We spotted several sounders, but the wind kept screwing around and switching what felt like every time we closed to inside of 300 yards.
LR6.jpg


I grabbed a fresh box of Surefire batteries from the lgs and they seemed to last longer than the other set of Surefires I was running. After 4.5 hours I still had two squares of battery life left. I saved the batteries and will run them to failure sometime this weekend. I wouldn't think batteries would fatigue in storage, but there is no guarantee the first set of Surefires I tried didn't get previously used in a flashlight for function checking or something as the box was open when it was "discovered" in the bin oh parts.

Overall the LR just continues to absolutely stun people who look through it, my buddy last night just muttered "fuck get that thing away from me" last night :ROFLMAO: . The dew usually sets in around 3 and the performance when the dew is coming in is really awesome. This deer was right at 200 yards and I could see the ears twitching very very clearly. I was able to easily tell a raccoon from an armadillo at 250-300 yards all night long.
LR5.jpg


The real test is this coming up week when I roll to West, Texas for a few days of hunting. My hopes are really high that in the arid climate this thing is going to be an absolute stunner.
 
Can you use a battery bank and plug it into the instead of using batteries?
Yes but be very careful as it is common to lose your zero while running external power. Any glitch from the external battery pack and your shooting blanks. I found this out the hard way.
 
How much battery life are you getting a few guys said 4-6 hrs
During winter months my halo lr is lucky to make it two hours. I don’t have enough experience in warmer months to say what it will do but I would be hard pressed to see it go 6 hours.
 
During winter months my halo lr is lucky to make it two hours. I don’t have enough experience in warmer months to say what it will do but I would be hard pressed to see it go 6 hours.
How cold is winter in your area? What batteries? I know cold degrades battery run times, but I’m hoping my Texas “winter” temps don’t blow batteries in two hours.
 
Can you velcro a pouch with a pocket warmer to the battery compartment?
 
How cold is winter in your area? What batteries? I know cold degrades battery run times, but I’m hoping my Texas “winter” temps don’t blow batteries in two hours.
Average night lows are in the teens but it’s not uncommon to have a few weeks on and off where the lows are -20f or colder. I checked my video output settings last night and the factory default was set to ntsc. I put the setting in the off position and also disabled the photo setting, I am very happy to have potentially discovered the battery issue. I was running the energizer lithium 123s.
 
Average night lows are in the teens but it’s not uncommon to have a few weeks on and off where the lows are -20f or colder. I checked my video output settings last night and the factory default was set to ntsc. I put the setting in the off position and also disabled the photo setting, I am very happy to have potentially discovered the battery issue. I was running the energizer lithium 123s.
Jesus Christ, that’s cold. Winter here is like 40s and dipping into freezing less than 10-12 days a year.

In the 25mm halo I had I always felt that the energizers wore out faster than the surefire batteries. I never put it on the clock to the min, but I remember powering it up and inside of a 1/2 hour I’d be down one square. I’m going to stick with surefire from here out personally.
 
Jesus Christ, that’s cold. Winter here is like 40s and dipping into freezing less than 10-12 days a year.

In the 25mm halo I had I always felt that the energizers wore out faster than the surefire batteries. I never put it on the clock to the min, but I remember powering it up and inside of a 1/2 hour I’d be down one square. I’m going to stick with surefire from here out personally.
Thanks I will be sure to try some surefire batteries. I got 3 sets of fenix rechargeable batteries waiting to to try as well. I am hoping the rechargeable 123s work out.
 
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22 May 2020
88 degrees F
94% humidity
winds 8-14

Well the West, Texas run was a bust, wound up having to work and couldn't chase yotes or pigs. Hopefully be making another run out there this week sometime. I had some pretty good size boars on camera and decided to make a run on them last night. Was the first night I've spent an extended amount of time running the Mod3Bravos and it's a total game changer. Driving, walking, moving over rough terrain and avoiding snakes is a thousand times easier running dual tubes. The WP tubes preformed awesome even when walking and driving trails with 100% overhead canopy. It was black as a sack of black cats and I was able to see a big ass water moccasin on the bank near a pond.

Obligatory gear flex photo:
LR-7.jpg


First pig we got on was spotted from the top of a hill at 530 yards. He was by himself and kept ducking just over the top of the next hill, problem was the wind was nearly full value to our back. Choices were skirt around him via another trailer or hug the tree line and hope to get a crack at him. We decided loosing sight of him and going for a walk was riskier that hugging the trees and going slow. The whole walk down I could easily see the top of the hill and would catch little glimpses of him rooting. When we got 50 yards short of the crest of the hill we set up on the hog saddles and didn't see anything for 10 minutes. The consensus was he winded us and since we were here it wouldn't hurt to crest the hill and just overwatch. We'd been set up about 5 mins when he started peaking in and out of some brush across the right of way. I moved us down about 40 yards off the crest of hill to giving us a more favorable wind and we set up for the shot. My partner this evening was running a 308 with a pulsar 50mm (not exactly sure that model) . With the pig peaking at around 100,125 we set up and waited for him to get a little too brave. He hung out a little to long and we pulled a nice simo shot. I held neck and my partner held shoulder, both rounds found there mark and exited. Good sized boar was drt.
LR-11.png

LR-8.jpg


Next pig up was a super text book down wind run up and get done up face lift. This pig was significantly bigger than pig one, but the simo shot didn't quite work out. My partner's round didn't find it's mark, but my 6.8 round went just behind the ear hole so it was a drt. He did get one security shot for the gat when I walked up to him as he was still breathing. The american eagle varmint 6.8 ammo is still leaving nasty exits and dumping pigs, it's 76 cents a round and works just as well as the PTS 110gr did.
LR-12.png


Got my steps in tonight for sure, phone said 13k steps.
LR-9.jpg


Both pigs side by side on the trailer, I don't know the exact dimensions of the trailer, but it's a good sized goose neck.
LR-10.jpg




Overall all a great evening with the LR. Battery life seems to be better when I just turn it on and leave it on all night, that or the fresher set of batteries has a little more juice to them. After being on 3.5 hours last night I still had 2 squares of battery left. Detection was cake all night long, at no point did I have to do any body language interpretation on those boars. The second boar was mixed in with some cows and stood out like a sore thumb despite being about the size of a calf. When pig two got shot I could see a mist of shit blow off of him at impact. Despite it being hotter n shit and humid the image was great. There was noticeable image degradation around 0230 when the dew set in, but it was still smoking the pulsar unit and I had no issue calling deer/ no deer when we were scanning some hay pastures. The mount is still returning to zero and I haven't broken the lens cover yet so life is good. I do have a complaint about the Mod3Bs tho.

It's impossible to drink a crown and coke from a yeti cup while your driving. You gotta roll them up to hydrate, bunch of bullshit, I'm not getting a damn straw.
 
22 May 2020
88 degrees F
94% humidity
winds 8-14

Well the West, Texas run was a bust, wound up having to work and couldn't chase yotes or pigs. Hopefully be making another run out there this week sometime. I had some pretty good size boars on camera and decided to make a run on them last night. Was the first night I've spent an extended amount of time running the Mod3Bravos and it's a total game changer. Driving, walking, moving over rough terrain and avoiding snakes is a thousand times easier running dual tubes. The WP tubes preformed awesome even when walking and driving trails with 100% overhead canopy. It was black as a sack of black cats and I was able to see a big ass water moccasin on the bank near a pond.

Obligatory gear flex photo:
View attachment 7334057

First pig we got on was spotted from the top of a hill at 530 yards. He was by himself and kept ducking just over the top of the next hill, problem was the wind was nearly full value to our back. Choices were skirt around him via another trailer or hug the tree line and hope to get a crack at him. We decided loosing sight of him and going for a walk was riskier that hugging the trees and going slow. The whole walk down I could easily see the top of the hill and would catch little glimpses of him rooting. When we got 50 yards short of the crest of the hill we set up on the hog saddles and didn't see anything for 10 minutes. The consensus was he winded us and since we were here it wouldn't hurt to crest the hill and just overwatch. We'd been set up about 5 mins when he started peaking in and out of some brush across the right of way. I moved us down about 40 yards off the crest of hill to giving us a more favorable wind and we set up for the shot. My partner this evening was running a 308 with a pulsar 50mm (not exactly sure that model) . With the pig peaking at around 100,125 we set up and waited for him to get a little too brave. He hung out a little to long and we pulled a nice simo shot. I held neck and my partner held shoulder, both rounds found there mark and exited. Good sized boar was drt.
View attachment 7334059
View attachment 7334060

Next pig up was a super text book down wind run up and get done up face lift. This pig was significantly bigger than pig one, but the simo shot didn't quite work out. My partner's round didn't find it's mark, but my 6.8 round went just behind the ear hole so it was a drt. He did get one security shot for the gat when I walked up to him as he was still breathing. The american eagle varmint 6.8 ammo is still leaving nasty exits and dumping pigs, it's 76 cents a round and works just as well as the PTS 110gr did.
View attachment 7334061

Got my steps in tonight for sure, phone said 13k steps.
View attachment 7334063

Both pigs side by side on the trailer, I don't know the exact dimensions of the trailer, but it's a good sized goose neck.
View attachment 7334064



Overall all a great evening with the LR. Battery life seems to be better when I just turn it on and leave it on all night, that or the fresher set of batteries has a little more juice to them. After being on 3.5 hours last night I still had 2 squares of battery left. Detection was cake all night long, at no point did I have to do any body language interpretation on those boars. The second boar was mixed in with some cows and stood out like a sore thumb despite being about the size of a calf. When pig two got shot I could see a mist of shit blow off of him at impact. Despite it being hotter n shit and humid the image was great. There was noticeable image degradation around 0230 when the dew set in, but it was still smoking the pulsar unit and I had no issue calling deer/ no deer when we were scanning some hay pastures. The mount is still returning to zero and I haven't broken the lens cover yet so life is good. I do have a complaint about the Mod3Bs tho.

It's impossible to drink a crown and coke from a yeti cup while your driving. You gotta roll them up to hydrate, bunch of bullshit, I'm not getting a damn straw.

Do you guys carry a tripod while stalking?
 
Do you guys carry a tripod while stalking?
Yep. I have a carbon fiber tripod (can't remember model) with a short ball head and hog saddle from Shadowtech. My partner had an unknown tripod with a hog saddle and it was significantly heavier. We also each keep a set of the Jim Shockey shooting sticks in the buggy for closer stuff, but since getting the carbon fiber tripod I haven't really screwed with it.

We keep them all the way extended in the bed of the buggy. When pigs are spotted the order of operation is slinging rifle, grab tripod and open up all legs, walk you nuts off, get to shooting spot and get on the sticks. I'm using a rapid adjustable two point sling that I don't unsling when shooting, having the sling in conjunction with the tripod is super sturdy. Once you get a few dozen reps of working the tripod in the dark it's pretty second nature, was def a learning curve to it.
 
Yep. I have a carbon fiber tripod (can't remember model) with a short ball head and hog saddle from Shadowtech. My partner had an unknown tripod with a hog saddle and it was significantly heavier. We also each keep a set of the Jim Shockey shooting sticks in the buggy for closer stuff, but since getting the carbon fiber tripod I haven't really screwed with it.

We keep them all the way extended in the bed of the buggy. When pigs are spotted the order of operation is slinging rifle, grab tripod and open up all legs, walk you nuts off, get to shooting spot and get on the sticks. I'm using a rapid adjustable two point sling that I don't unsling when shooting, having the sling in conjunction with the tripod is super sturdy. Once you get a few dozen reps of working the tripod in the dark it's pretty second nature, was def a learning curve to it.

I'm kinda going that route now.
 
Do you ever consider talking to the ATF to see if you can get grenades legally?

I mean either that or land mines and you have your hog problem solved...
 
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Do you ever consider talking to the ATF to see if you can get grenades legally?

I mean either that or land mines and you have your hog problem solved...
🤣 man I oughta send em an email, a couple of claymores would be way more efficient.

Dear Mr. Rancher:
The ROE has changed and claymores are now in use. Please inform your cows to stay clear of all pig tubes, most trails and the ponds.
 
Not dead, just been busy as hell. Work is ramping back up, but I’m still making hunts here and there. The one big thing I’ve changed is the rig I’m running it on. The 16” lwrc, plus can got heavy quick with the LR and the summer heat became a major motivator to put together a lighter rifle.

I had a spare form oned lower in the vault and decided to go with a 12.5“ 6.5 Grendel from PSA. I’ve got a buddy with one and it shoots pretty well, figured what the hell. Total weight with a loaded 10 rounder is 8.9 pounds. The lwrc shorty stock keeps it nice and short in the buggy and the little proprietary buffer worked out just fine with the adjustable gas block on the PSA upper. I gotta admit there is something a little silly feeling about mounting a Gucci optic to a PSA upper, but ya know what? I kills shit just fine.
2DD42352-EF4B-4A20-B443-7E80E0B86A8F.jpeg


So far I’ve been running the 123eldm hornady black factory load and it works great. Haven’t cronoed it yet, but the consensus online is 2250-2280. The kestrel calls for 3.5 mils to 400 (50 yard zero) and it seems to be spot on, groups are grapefruit sized. The reduced velocity from the 12.5” barrel has the little eldms preforming just right. I’ve killed a handful of pigs with them and have always gotten complete pass through with nasty exit wounds. Performance on coons and other little critters has been
as well.

The LR continues to truck through the crappy conditions and just amaze me. When I zeroed the new upper it was 3pm on the kind of Texas afternoon where it’s so humid your nuts just stick to your leg. I had a 1” square piece of aluminum duct tape on a cardboard box 50 yards from the end of the carport. I put the unit on white hot edge detect (about the only real use for edge detect I’ve come up with so far) and I could clearly see the square. I was able to zero with 2 shots and the third hit steel at 400. Really hard to be mad at that.

At night with the temps running 75-80+ and humidity in the 70-90% range performance is still good enough that I haven’t had a false stock on a calf and can id targets called out as “something over there” by my buddies running various units. I watched a buck last night that was in velvet and could clearly see the horns from 350ish yards. Overall I’m still really happy with the halo. The mount is dead bang reliable and the performance in crappy conditions is where it really pulls ahead of the similarly priced units......
 
Love the write ups man. I’m getting my LR in the mail today. Can’t wait. Is that a butler creek flip on the back? What size?
 
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@HenryTheAce badass man, I’ve loved the shit out of mine. Yep that’s a Buttler Creek cap on the back, #16 if memory serves me correctly. The rubber eye cup deals don’t really work for me. The humidity is too high and I’m too sweaty, all they seem to do is instantly fog when I look through them. The Buttler Creek is nice because it protects the optic from dust while riding around in the open air ranger/Jeep/highrack and it cuts down on light emitted from the rear of the optic when your moving from A to B as stealthily as possibly (usually not very). I’ve gotten to the point that I can fire up the unit and nuc it without flipping up my NVGs. My sequence is to open the rear cap, hold the optic so that it’s not really pointing back at me, but I can see light being emitted, hit power, upon powering up if observing through NVG focused to infinity you’ll see a bright light, one flicker and then a dim light, then hold down nuc until it flashes one time and now your ready to open the front cap and use the optic.

I don’t like going from seeing everything perfectly with the Mod3s to staring into the power up screen waiting for the chance to nuc.
 
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@NFAJohn nice thanks! Solid tip! I’m a glasses wearer so I already have a feeling that rubber cup and my glasses won’t go together nicely, for sure going to get a flip up cap like that for the ocular. Pumped to get out there and slay coyotes. This is my first thermal and I’ve never even looked through one, just NV. If only I was down south and could eradicate pigs.
 
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@NFAJohn nice thanks! Solid tip! I’m a glasses wearer so I already have a feeling that rubber cup and my glasses won’t go together nicely, for sure going to get a flip up cap like that for the ocular. Pumped to get out there and slay coyotes. This is my first thermal and I’ve never even looked through one, just NV. If only I was down south and could eradicate pigs.
Man this is your first thermal and you started with a LR?!?!?!?! You Sir are my hero. In all honesty skipping the progression of buying and selling increasingly higher preforming units to get to the LR, MK3 60 ect playing field probably saved you THOUSANDS in the long run.

If your a glasses wearer the rubber eye cup is a no go for sure, but with that brings up the issue of the buttler creek cap rotating and changing your ocular setting. The ocuar adjustment ring on the LR, and the 25, is sufficiently stiff to avoid accidentally moving it, but the buttler creek cap provides additional leverage where everyyyyyy once in a while it will catch something just right and twist the ocular. I usually don't notice it, but it can be annoying. To remedy the situation I took a graphite pencil and made a small mark on the buttler creek cap and a small mark on the optic body indicating where they should be aligned. If the reticle is wonky looking I always start by checking the alignment of the ocular mark before anything else.

Personally I wear contact lenses and have the ocular adjusted to my eye when wearing a contact. If you are going to be working in and out of vehicles or in high humidity environment it may be beneficial for you to adjust the ocular to your eye without the glasses. The reason I say this is nothing is more of a bummer than hoping out of the nice ac in the truck, having your glasses fog and trying to look through an optic....this was one of the factors that drove me to getting contacts. If you set the ocular to your eye without glasses you can always roll your glasses up as you get into the scope and avoid the possibility of having a glasses related issue.

You'll mess around and figure out what works for you, good luck bud!
 
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@NFAJohn I figured to just go all in and go for it, been wanting to get into the thermal game for a while. Pretty pumped to try it out tonight out in the back. The glasses fog is the worse!!! Thanks for the info!
 
In all honesty skipping the progression of buying and selling increasingly higher preforming units to get to the LR, MK3 60 ect playing field probably saved you THOUSANDS in the long run

This is true. I started out with a FLIR 536 I got a great deal on. I am just going HALO or Trijicon for my next one.
 
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I recommend skipping the BC caps for the Vortex Defender. The Halo-LR uses size O-32.

100x better than the Butlers. Night and day.
Any idea what front cap would replace the junk one they send from the factory? I ordered a rear 0-32 per your recommendation.
 
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