Looking to get a thermal for some night hunting in the Carolinas in December for hogs. Anyone got recommendations
- Thread starter radical1911
- Start date
Look at he new thermal offerings from Steiner. The S-35 is the dedicated sight. THe C-35 is the clip on version. I just git the S-35 from @TheHebrewHammer and have been playing with it now for a few days. I have to admit its pretty impressive. I have been comparing it to my HALO-XRF and I have to say there is very little difference in the picture quality. The HALO-XRF has a 60Hz update while the Steiner's have 50Hhz and you can notice the difference when you pan around; i.e the HALO video is less jumpy than the Steiner's. The menu's and features on the Steiner's are much better than the HALO. But thats just bells and whistles. Doesn't really affect how they work, just how you interact with them. I got the S-35. @jwramp had a really nice vid of the C-35 behind a Vortex scope that looked really good.
do you use night vision scope?
Probably going dedicated would be advisable from a capabilities and price point view. Outside of somewhat restricted circumstances clip-on is a way to add huge cost and not get much for it. For me most everything requires clip-on because I'm trying to run with a single Desert Tech rifle with a gob of barrels as a one-and-done rifle and I really would rather not remove my day scope. This is expensive and unnecessary for Americans because we can mostly just go buy another rifle whenever the urge strikes us. For me it's simply a matter of storage space.
For the record I have a couple Hogster dedicated thermals and a C35 clip-on but I'm still somewhat new to this sort of gizmo so you can take my statements with a grain of salt.
For the record I have a couple Hogster dedicated thermals and a C35 clip-on but I'm still somewhat new to this sort of gizmo so you can take my statements with a grain of salt.
Bering Optics hogsters or yoters depending on your budget. Tons of video out there so you can get an idea what you're buying. New steiner stuff looks good as well. If you can swing it get a 640 core. Once you decide on the core it's just like buying any other scope. Look at magnification, fov, weight, features, etc.
Nvision and Triji stuff is really nice but $$.
Nvision and Triji stuff is really nice but $$.
Yes, I highly recommend the Armasight Zeus Pro (640x512) 30Hz 4-32x100mm made by Flir.
This thing is too amazing for words. The price has gone way down lately and you can get one with a coupon code most cases. Compared to many other thermals it beats them all.
Besides the device you'll ALWAYS want around a 100mm lens. The eye piece isn't too important as long as your image is 640px512p. Try to avoid 336p versions. They are not good. And the reason you want a 100mm lens is because it detects FAR more light at farther range. It a HUGE difference between 50mm and 100mm. Its all about your sensor and lens. Your sensor should be at least a flir tau2.
Next is refresh rate. you'll see a lot of hype on this. 60hrz vs 30hrz refresh rate. Stick with 30hrz. 60hrz will cost you like $1k to $2k more in price and its totally unnecessary. 30 is absolutely perfect. Anything lower like 20 or 10 is going to be crap. combine that with 336p or below pixels and you're in trouble. detection can suffer from the hardware or vise versa. your base line for any thermal should be minimum: 640pixels, 30hrz refresh rate, flir tau2 or equivalent, 80mm to 100mm lens. Your eye piece size should be somewhere very close to 30mm.
Stay in this range and you won't regret it. Thermals hold great resell value if not used for thousands of hours so spend your money right the first time.
Do not buy the Thor Thermal model. That thing looks cool and sucks.
Stick with Armasight or Flir.
They're built like tanks too and they have a bluetooth armasight app for Mils or MOA input. Plus you can register it still on Flir and its good for 3 years. anything happens you send it in with a RMA and in about a month you get it fixed or they send a new one. After 3 years you can pay $50 bucks for 10 year warranty if im not mistaken. I bought mine on opticsplanet and registered it on Flir.
Flir bought armasight.
Furthermore, the Zeus sights in super easy too. usually in 1 shot at 200 yards. remember if you cut cost by getting lower specs than what I mentioned you will regret it.
This thing is too amazing for words. The price has gone way down lately and you can get one with a coupon code most cases. Compared to many other thermals it beats them all.
Besides the device you'll ALWAYS want around a 100mm lens. The eye piece isn't too important as long as your image is 640px512p. Try to avoid 336p versions. They are not good. And the reason you want a 100mm lens is because it detects FAR more light at farther range. It a HUGE difference between 50mm and 100mm. Its all about your sensor and lens. Your sensor should be at least a flir tau2.
Next is refresh rate. you'll see a lot of hype on this. 60hrz vs 30hrz refresh rate. Stick with 30hrz. 60hrz will cost you like $1k to $2k more in price and its totally unnecessary. 30 is absolutely perfect. Anything lower like 20 or 10 is going to be crap. combine that with 336p or below pixels and you're in trouble. detection can suffer from the hardware or vise versa. your base line for any thermal should be minimum: 640pixels, 30hrz refresh rate, flir tau2 or equivalent, 80mm to 100mm lens. Your eye piece size should be somewhere very close to 30mm.
Stay in this range and you won't regret it. Thermals hold great resell value if not used for thousands of hours so spend your money right the first time.
Do not buy the Thor Thermal model. That thing looks cool and sucks.
Stick with Armasight or Flir.
They're built like tanks too and they have a bluetooth armasight app for Mils or MOA input. Plus you can register it still on Flir and its good for 3 years. anything happens you send it in with a RMA and in about a month you get it fixed or they send a new one. After 3 years you can pay $50 bucks for 10 year warranty if im not mistaken. I bought mine on opticsplanet and registered it on Flir.
Flir bought armasight.
Furthermore, the Zeus sights in super easy too. usually in 1 shot at 200 yards. remember if you cut cost by getting lower specs than what I mentioned you will regret it.
