Has anyone any experience with thermal scopes

[snipermarksman]

Hi guys,

I was looking on youtube at videos for thermal scopes.

The quality of the video seems very poor in most cases.

I know there is a loss of quality in the transfer but Im wondering about identification distance.

Does anyone own a thermal scope and would you recommend it.

 

Many Thanks

[MBW]

The older models of pulsar scopes aren't great, very grainy and easy to miss identify stuff, the quantum are a bit better, however the chance of a bad ident are still there. The best thermal scope I have used is the front mounted add on by pulsar, a fox looks like a fox in that, whereas the dedicated thermals it's still easy to confuse a Badger and a fox or a hare at times. I have never used the latest generation of thermal scopes however, but I hear they are slightly clearer the thing to bear in mind is with a thermal scope, you are firing at a white blob that looks vaguely like a fox, you are really only using its behaviour as an indicator as to what it is.

[Dougy]

Go with thermal spotter and a good NV scope. Tubed or digital.

You'd need to be bloody quick to stop that bullet once that triggers been released.

[welshwarrior]

Thermal can be great but good thermal cost a huge amount still. The other issue you can't see wire fences etc.

 

So as above spot with thermal mix ID behaviour etc then switch to NV to double check ID and shoot imho.

[Edinburgh Rifles]

I ran a test on the XD50

 

used it on a QR mount as a spotter and a scope

Clear in daylight, easily pick out and ID badger/fox/hare and smaller sized quarry out past 300m

 

I zeroed in the rain on a black and white target, no hot spots required.

You can see fence wire as it has a different thermal profile and often shows up much darker (or lighter depending on how you have set the hot to show!)

 

nice bits of kit

not for me though

too large, too expensive and realistically I would prefer a dedicated spotter and either use a NV scope or add on (because they are much cheaper, not because they are better) or a lamp

 

[jimmyb79]

I used to own an Apex XD75 and it was superb. Foolishly sold it to buy the new Trail XP38 from Pulsar which was a big step down in terms of identification capability. The picture was superb to about 100yds but rapidly declined after that. The XD75 was great to 200yds.

Net result, I now use my old Pulsar Quantum XD50 spotter with traditional scope/lamp to shoot.

[Mini Magnum]

I find the Apex XQ50 is better than the Apex XD75 to be honest, very slight different in magnification but the XQ models 17 micron sensor gives that bit more detail, less grainy and slightly sharper.