JoeHeugh
Super member
Disclaimer - this post is about my set-up only, not about unmentionable activities. Pictures were taken from my upstairs window, no shots fired and the subjects chosen solely for their thermal contrast. So no talk of hunting here.
I would love a thermal scope but in all honesty I can't afford one, I'm reluctant to get a more affordable one of less than 640x512 given I shoot at rimfire ranges and while the new thermal / NV picture in picture scopes look like a good alternative I just don't get on with digital. So I'd been playing with the idea of clipping my Hik LE10 to the scope but once I'd tried that the Hik Falcon went on and this is what we end up with.
It took me quite a while to find this rifle and the choice of stock was deliberate, not because of the tactical cool factor but because to my mind it's exactly what a night rifle should be. Most of my after hours shooting is done sat on a bucket seat with the rifle clamped onto a tripod and I find a full pistol grip far more comfortable than a sporter stock while the adjustable length of pull also helps immensely especially when I need to hunch into the scope with it's minimal eye relief. The forward rails are also very handy, it's an ideal position for the lamp, easy to reach out to turn on and off and there's no back scatter of IR from a hand or parts of the rifle as there might be if it was on top of the scope. The foregrip was added for an easy grab handle and is more useful than it looks. It's even got a folding stock but in all honesty that's absolutely useless, I prefer them long and slim rather than short and fat. I've probably said far too much about the scope already on here, suffice it to say it's an 6x70 Generation 2+ image intensifier.
I've got to admit the idea of bolting a thermal on the side seemed silly and impracticable but you know what it's like when an idea takes hold and just won't let go.
Ugly ain't it? There's a length of picatinny bound on with two fishing coasters and the thermal fixed to that via a picatinny camera mount. Fortunately it's quite solid, the thermal clips on and off easily enough and I've left enough room to access the scope battery compartments although it has a run time of about 40 hours so not something I have to do often.
Fortunately my eyes are not quite that far apart but it's easy to move between one eyepiece and the other. In a way that's the whole point of this set up. If I'm sitting up holding the thermal then I have to get in position to find the target which is not only lost time but then it can also be hard to actually find the target especially if it's partly concealed, this should make everything a lot faster.
One foible of mine is the use of astronomical filters in the eyepieces, a high contrast in the scope reduces the scintillation and "fizzing" this type of NV is renowned for. I find a green filter in the thermal makes it easier to view for extended periods and my eye is not losing any more dark adaptation than it already is by looking through the scope. Red would seem a better choice but I find it harsh and hard to use for any length of time. The thermal images have been coloured green to show the view I get.
I would like to get the thermal closer to the scope and rotate it to it's proper orientation but I've yet to think of a simple and workable way do it. I intend to get rid of the coasters and have a shorter run of picatinny permanently fixed to tidy everything up but first priority is getting it out in the field and giving it a proper shakedown.
Some test pictures from this evening, range to target 40 yards, pretty poor thermal conditions with some ambient light. First thermal on x1.8 for a "wide" field view (and the rabbit did move between shots).
And here, thermal at x3.6 for a better match to the scope, and the IR lamp on for eyeshine and a bit more detail.
I wonder if anyone else here has tried something like this before?
I would love a thermal scope but in all honesty I can't afford one, I'm reluctant to get a more affordable one of less than 640x512 given I shoot at rimfire ranges and while the new thermal / NV picture in picture scopes look like a good alternative I just don't get on with digital. So I'd been playing with the idea of clipping my Hik LE10 to the scope but once I'd tried that the Hik Falcon went on and this is what we end up with.
It took me quite a while to find this rifle and the choice of stock was deliberate, not because of the tactical cool factor but because to my mind it's exactly what a night rifle should be. Most of my after hours shooting is done sat on a bucket seat with the rifle clamped onto a tripod and I find a full pistol grip far more comfortable than a sporter stock while the adjustable length of pull also helps immensely especially when I need to hunch into the scope with it's minimal eye relief. The forward rails are also very handy, it's an ideal position for the lamp, easy to reach out to turn on and off and there's no back scatter of IR from a hand or parts of the rifle as there might be if it was on top of the scope. The foregrip was added for an easy grab handle and is more useful than it looks. It's even got a folding stock but in all honesty that's absolutely useless, I prefer them long and slim rather than short and fat. I've probably said far too much about the scope already on here, suffice it to say it's an 6x70 Generation 2+ image intensifier.
I've got to admit the idea of bolting a thermal on the side seemed silly and impracticable but you know what it's like when an idea takes hold and just won't let go.
Ugly ain't it? There's a length of picatinny bound on with two fishing coasters and the thermal fixed to that via a picatinny camera mount. Fortunately it's quite solid, the thermal clips on and off easily enough and I've left enough room to access the scope battery compartments although it has a run time of about 40 hours so not something I have to do often.
Fortunately my eyes are not quite that far apart but it's easy to move between one eyepiece and the other. In a way that's the whole point of this set up. If I'm sitting up holding the thermal then I have to get in position to find the target which is not only lost time but then it can also be hard to actually find the target especially if it's partly concealed, this should make everything a lot faster.
One foible of mine is the use of astronomical filters in the eyepieces, a high contrast in the scope reduces the scintillation and "fizzing" this type of NV is renowned for. I find a green filter in the thermal makes it easier to view for extended periods and my eye is not losing any more dark adaptation than it already is by looking through the scope. Red would seem a better choice but I find it harsh and hard to use for any length of time. The thermal images have been coloured green to show the view I get.
I would like to get the thermal closer to the scope and rotate it to it's proper orientation but I've yet to think of a simple and workable way do it. I intend to get rid of the coasters and have a shorter run of picatinny permanently fixed to tidy everything up but first priority is getting it out in the field and giving it a proper shakedown.
Some test pictures from this evening, range to target 40 yards, pretty poor thermal conditions with some ambient light. First thermal on x1.8 for a "wide" field view (and the rabbit did move between shots).
And here, thermal at x3.6 for a better match to the scope, and the IR lamp on for eyeshine and a bit more detail.
I wonder if anyone else here has tried something like this before?