Thermal/night vision

[Nash]

I’m looking at getting a thermal or night vision scope. Looking for first hand recommendation on which way I should go and models. No plans on spending thousands of dollars. Wondering what the difference is between a $500 and $1800 thermal scope is. Thanks guys

[fowl smacker]

You get what you pay for in thermal scopes.  Cheap ones are very grainy and seem almost delayed.  Very happy with my ATN Thor 4.  It may be more than you want to spend, but very user friendly, very detailed and some nice options.  Buy once, cry once.  You'll wind up spending as much looking for a good cheap one.

[JohnVH]

Where did you see a $500 thermal scope?? Ive researched a lot and used a buddies. Thermal is amazing. But expensive. You can do an ATN 4K PRO with an IR light and be in it for a fraction of thermal costs.

[JohnVH]

Ive hunter with both. Hands down thermal is king for detection. But unless they are closer or you spend ALOT it can be harder to know what looking at. You sure it’s not someones dog? Maybe it’s a cat. Rabbit?

Night vision. You can see exactly what your shooting. But harder to detect initially. Especially if their eyes don’t light up. 

I went with the ATN 4K Pro. With the ABL range finder attached and an aftermarket  Xxl reaper ir. I can see 600yds in our darkness. And use my gun all day. Thermal sucks during the day if it’s warm out. I hunt with a buddy that has thermal. So he detects the far out stuff. Then I can find it easier.

[Nash]

Where did you see a $500 thermal scope?? Ive researched a lot and used a buddies. Thermal is amazing. But expensive. You can do an ATN 4K PRO with an IR light and be in it for a fraction of thermal costs.

The $500 scope was probably night vision not thermal. I’m not sure what I was looking at, there are 1000s on amazon.

[KFhunter]

I wouldn't even mess with thermal unless you want to start with a minimum $1800, but honestly I think I'd be prepared to drop $4k or so and get a good one. 

I'd stay away from ATN stuff, spend more time dinking around with it, doing updates and patches hooking it to your phone...sure a lot of messing around with buttons and gizmos when you just want to wack a yote


I bought the atn $500 ATN scope, then dropped $50 on special kentli batteries (make sure you get the bigger 3000mah ones not the 2800 or less) the special batteries are higher voltage but have a regulator to keep them a true 1.5v output.  The ATN scope demands a full 1.5v from each of the batteries and regular AA's or even rechargeable AA nimh or even lion batteries are more like 1.3v so the scope glitches out and shuts down a few minutes into your hunt.  Then I was using a charging pack for a cell phone and that was great, but its a pain to plug that into your scope and tape to your stock...the Kentli batteries are a must have for ATN scope that takes AA batteries.  They last a long time like 8hrs scope time I think,  dunno for sure I haven't run them out yet in a single hunting night. 

I have a handfull of cows, had some rabbits, pigeons so the NV scope is good for keeping raccoons out of the hen house but falls short for serious yote hunting. 

then I bought a coyote kill light that had IR850 light  (Odepro amazon) and it has been fantastic, it really increased the distance I could see with the ATN scope but any bushes or trees and the light blooms bad, but the stock IR illuminator isn't up to the task of shooting something 100-200 yards out, but probably OK for the hen house.

The coyote kill light kit (Odepro) and Kentli batteries + $500 scope now I'm into it $650ish for the package. 

I wacked a few yotes on the red, then I just used the white light.  Found that the yotes were light shy on red, green but the white they were used to, they see white lights on houses all the time.   I shined it in their eyes and they kept a long ways off, but then got used to it and came in about 15-20 minutes of continuous shining on them then they ignored it and came within 75 feet. 


The odepro kit comes with several mounting options, I found that just the one piece fits the side of the ATN scope and has kept the light aligned perfectly.  I circled it in red, the other stuff I don't use. 

[JohnVH]

Disagree on the ATN info in above post. My 4K Pro has been awesome. Zero problems. You don’t need to use a phone for anything. Batteries last forever (18hrs they claim, internal rechargeable). Above poster must have had an old model or something. My .02 as I own one and use it.

With the factory IR light you could easily shoot 200yds in the dark. With the ABL attached it’s a simple push one button and range the target, the reticle automatically moves for the distance, hold dead on and hit.

[KFhunter]

That's nicer pic than mine will take so you have a higher model than mine, but my IR light is far brighter in the illumination department. 


I have the ATN X sight II  3-14  they sold a couple years ago for $500, the new X sight HD has higher resolution and sells for $600 I see


Maybe I should do a firmware update, haven't done that in a while.  They had issues with the cross hair not holding zero so guys were writing down the X/Z cross hair axis locations.   
As for the "range finder" it's only as good as your ballistic inputs so you need true bullet speed and weight and BC and it does like a ballistic calculator built in, but it's not a "range finder"

If a guy is tech savvy the ATN can be fun. 

[KFhunter]

I see they added ABL to the latest firmware update for my scope too,  I don't have an ATN rangfinder though. 

[Nash]

Thanks guys. Looks like I just need to save my pennies a bit longer and go big.

[KFhunter]

Thanks guys. Looks like I just need to save my pennies a bit longer and go big.

I don't know your situation or how much you'll actually hunt with it, but you could get a entry level scope for $5-600 bux, have fun with it, then sell it for 50-75% value when you're ready to go big?  (depending on how long you keep the scope)

I'd sell mine in a heartbeat if I were ready to "go big", but I'm not there yet so I'll cling onto mine and have fun with it.  I'm still putting coyotes in the dirt but its not near as sexy as those $7,000 - $9,000 dollar rigs you see on youtube.   

I like to watch those hog/coyote slaying vids, then I find the scope they use in the comments and google the price   

[Nash]

Good point KFhunter. I like to think I’ll use it a bunch but I’m reality....probably not.  I’ve got plenty of coyotes around the house, once I knock over a handful of them it maybe slim pickins’.

[Nash]

You guys have pictures of your setup?

[birdshooter1189]

The area I normally hunt on my property is 50 yd shots average, some up to 100yds, and 300 yds would be absolute max. Mostly just protecting the chickens from coyotes and racoons.

I'm using a Sightmark Photon 4.5x zoom nightvision, with a T50, 10W infrared flashlight mounted to the side. The scope itself has a small infrared illuminator light that is good for about 50 yds.  When i click on the T50, I can see 100 yds clearly.  I haven't tested it much beyond that yet but have seen videos showing that you can detect a coyote at up to about 300 yds with this setup.

My setup was just under $500.

Like others, I wanted the $5000 range scopes, but couldn't afford it and for now i'm happy with what I've got.

[JohnVH]

You guys have pictures of your setup?