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Hunting Thermal or Digital Scopes What You Using.

DS35 50 for mixed use but put it away for glass in summer.
Hik spotters (one bought secondhand off here).
Have a couple of older items lik ATN 4K 3-14 - that is a slug, especially with the rangefinder, Infiray TD50 (secondhand, on here), OK but heavy again, and tech moves on.

More recently a Hik Panther 2 Thermal, Ex Demo, most expensive bit of airgun kit I have, and sods law the perm closed.
Thermal at lower resolution is tricky, no eyeshine, and hard to make some vermin out if obscured.
Dead easy to spot items, not so easy to identify and ensure safe shooting, among other stock animals or where cats get in.
 
I’ve got 520 Zulus had it for about a year still havnt worked out the ballistic thingy but been on all my rifles and worked well
Maybe il be brave when I set it up on the v3
 
My setup is a little different. For ambush work with a narrow field of fire I use an old style Gen 2+ image intensifier with a HikMicro FQ35 mounted to one side.

multi-scope3-mini.jpg


It's easy to switch the eye from one to the other with the thermal used to find targets and the IIT for positive identification and aiming. Generally the IR only gets turned on if it's really dark or eyeshine is needed.
It is cumbersome and heavy but that's not a problem as its invariably sitting on a tripod and the thermal unclips quickly if I need to walk. I've tried digital and while it offers much higher magnification it just doesn't do it for me, a good quality thermal might but then my pockets just aren't quite deep enough at the moment.
Of course it's only good for night work but I much prefer a lightweight sporter with decent glass for day.

2.jpg


As seen through thermal and IIT with a touch of IR. The thermal image is false coloured as I use a green filter in the eyepiece. Lastly, this picture shows why I really like the IIT, a barn at 500 yards umder a starry sky. Just visible at about 850 yards are sheep in the field behind.

1.jpg


No LRF or ballistic calcs mind ;) and the ret is some obscure Russian design, probably 30 line per 100 yards!
 
How do you find the ots xlt mate ?

To be honest, it's not too bad for the type of shooting I do (50 yards or under). It's more than capable of scanning fields etc. but the problem I have is anything over 100 yards is just a small, white dot, which leaves me asking myself..is that a small rabbit or a large hegehog? I am considering either the DNT Thermnight 225R or 335R though, just to try and cut own on the kit, like an 'all-in-one does all' sort of thing.
 
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My setup is a little different. For ambush work with a narrow field of fire I use an old style Gen 2+ image intensifier with a HikMicro FQ35 mounted to one side.

View attachment 697591

It's easy to switch the eye from one to the other with the thermal used to find targets and the IIT for positive identification and aiming. Generally the IR only gets turned on if it's really dark or eyeshine is needed.
It is cumbersome and heavy but that's not a problem as its invariably sitting on a tripod and the thermal unclips quickly if I need to walk. I've tried digital and while it offers much higher magnification it just doesn't do it for me, a good quality thermal might but then my pockets just aren't quite deep enough at the moment.
Of course it's only good for night work but I much prefer a lightweight sporter with decent glass for day.

View attachment 697595

As seen through thermal and IIT with a touch of IR. The thermal image is false coloured as I use a green filter in the eyepiece. Lastly, this picture shows why I really like the IIT, a barn at 500 yards umder a starry sky. Just visible at about 850 yards are sheep in the field behind.

View attachment 697597

No LRF or ballistic calcs mind ;) and the ret is some obscure Russian design, probably 30 line per 100 yards!
Nothing wrong with that mate I still use a Kite Mk4 , suits my old eyes 👀
 
I use pulsar thermion pro xq 50 lrf
And a pulsar thermion xg60 lrf,scopes.
For spotters pulsar xq 35 lrf, and pulsar telios xg 50, and a new factory replacement ,alpex 4k lrf unused at mo
Nightowl
 
I use a pard-007addon 12mm on my hw100 kt .177 with a mtc 3x12x44 mamba lite,
a great rabbit shooting combo.
atb brian
 
Thermal or NV…… I f I’m on a new perm or as a guest on a new perm I would always go with NV
On a familiar perm I could be either….
Reason being, it can be difficult making out backgrounds with a Thermal, potentially dangerous.
If you know the enviroment and what’s about, not an issue.
 
I was going to buy a thermal scope last year UNTIL i had an experience using my thermal spotter spotted the rabbit amongst the vegetation, I couldnt see the full silhouette I put the cross hairs of my nv scope in the right place. I then had a what if moment! Eventually it moved it was somebody's pussy cat!! I am sticking with a Dnt zulus nv!

I've accidentally stalked a few cats using a thermal spotter e.g.

20221119195747.webp


The better the image quality the easier it is to tell what your target is from further away. This was with my Hik LE10, which I subsequently upgraded to an LH15. I wouldn't personally use a thermal-only scope as really you want a decent optical image to be 100% sure when out & about.
 
You could get the DNT Thermnight 225r for around £1000, or, for £1700, the DNT Thermnight 335r, and have an all 3 in one scope, day, night and thermal.
The 335 is certainly worth the extra, although the 225 is none too shabby either. (y)

Blackwood Outdoors give a forum discount which brought the 335R down to £1599 shipped.
 
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