The 2020 Thermal & Night Vision Thread

[BrianL]

Just bought a XQ50. Finally get to shoot piggies in the dark without a flashlight!

[Fordnandez]

We cover a LOT of ground in a night (20-30k acres with a lot of multiple passes). With Trijicons we can look over a field, and tell if it’s worth putting in the legwork. I’ve had a couple Trail XPs (both 640) that 80% of the time I could positively ID the animals at distance (600+ yds), but plenty of times I would’ve been putting a stalk on had it not been for the couple of Trijicons we ran as well. They’ve saved a lot of footwork and disappointment. I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been with a lesser optic. On an average night we will kill on 4-5 sounders, and are only limited by time we spend on foot. If we were wasting time stalking animals that weren’t our target we’d do a lot less killing.

I don't disagree with anything you said above. I will say that you are in a very unique situation that most guys on this site are not in. I would venture to say that the majority of the hunters on this site are hunting within 200 yards but lets say that it is 400 yards. There are still a bunch of 320/384 units on the used or new market that will allow you to ID animals out that far or even out to 600+ (not many units can reach out this far) and you don't have to spend $5k+.

Also lets not get confused on magnification vs resolution. Your Trijicon for sure has a better image quality than the Trail XP50 but the Trail has a base mag of 1.6 and the Trijicons are 2.5 or 4.5 which even the extra 1x is a big deal. For what you are doing the Trijicon is the way to go for sure but if you had a guy that doesnt have Trijicon money there are cheaper options out there for him to ID hogs 600+ yards.

My only point to all of this is that for the majority of hunters that hunt at night is that there is nothing wrong with a $3k scope and you will be very happy with it. I heard a dealer say the other day he sells 320/384 units 4 to 1 over 640 units and if that many guys were unhappy with 320/384 units that number would reverse or at a minimum even out and it has not.

I would still be in my Flir 536 today if I had not gotten a good deal on a used Thermion XP50........... and I was a D bag and I wanted to have better video's I could show my friends and family with the better image quality and has sound lol.

[TX03RUBI]

I don't disagree with anything you said above. I will say that you are in a very unique situation that most guys on this site are not in. I would venture to say that the majority of the hunters on this site are hunting within 200 yards but lets say that it is 400 yards. There are still a bunch of 320/384 units on the used or new market that will allow you to ID animals out that far or even out to 600+ (not many units can reach out this far) and you don't have to spend $5k+.

Also lets not get confused on magnification vs resolution. Your Trijicon for sure has a better image quality than the Trail XP50 but the Trail has a base mag of 1.6 and the Trijicons are 2.5 or 4.5 which even the extra 1x is a big deal. For what you are doing the Trijicon is the way to go for sure but if you had a guy that doesnt have Trijicon money there are cheaper options out there for him to ID hogs 600+ yards.

My only point to all of this is that for the majority of hunters that hunt at night is that there is nothing wrong with a $3k scope and you will be very happy with it. I heard a dealer say the other day he sells 320/384 units 4 to 1 over 640 units and if that many guys were unhappy with 320/384 units that number would reverse or at a minimum even out and it has not.

I would still be in my Flir 536 today if I had not gotten a good deal on a used Thermion XP50........... and I was a D bag and I wanted to have better video's I could show my friends and family with the better image quality and has sound lol.

I don’t disagree with you at all. Just mentioned it to give a different perspective. I’ve hunted plenty of places that a 384 would’ve been sufficient. A few years ago we hunted a 200 acre wheat field, and all I had with me was a handheld Breach. My buddy didn’t have any thermal, but had a rifle mounted light as did I. The Breach has horrible resolution lol but we killed 15-16 hogs that night on that field alone. Granted we walked back and forth a lot for cattle trying to get close enough to identify them, but without it we would’ve killed a lot less.

We hunt multiple wheat fields that are over 1000 acres. Our biggest field alone that we kill 20+ hogs on a night is a bit over 4000 acres. 600 yds is just about where I start having issues depending on the behavior, stance, and weather conditions with my XP50. On perfect nights with hogs moving and keeping their heads up in short grass I can ID to 800-900 yds. In chitty conditions cut that number well below half. Ive had access to a large arsenal of NV and thermal gear besides my personally owned stuff over the years. I’ve used cheaper and higher end gear. Can I make do with lesser optics and still enjoy it? Absolutely. Your original question was would you kill less animals with a $2000-3000 optic. My answer to that is also absolutely. Like you said I’m in a unique situation though.

[Fordnandez]

I don’t disagree with you at all. Just mentioned it to give a different perspective. I’ve hunted plenty of places that a 384 would’ve been sufficient. A few years ago we hunted a 200 acre wheat field, and all I had with me was a handheld Breach. My buddy didn’t have any thermal, but had a rifle mounted light as did I. The Breach has horrible resolution lol but we killed 15-16 hogs that night on that field alone. Granted we walked back and forth a lot for cattle trying to get close enough to identify them, but without it we would’ve killed a lot less.

We hunt multiple wheat fields that are over 1000 acres. Our biggest field alone that we kill 20+ hogs on a night is a bit over 4000 acres. 600 yds is just about where I start having issues depending on the behavior, stance, and weather conditions with my XP50. On perfect nights with hogs moving and keeping their heads up in short grass I can ID to 800-900 yds. In chitty conditions cut that number well below half. Ive had access to a large arsenal of NV and thermal gear besides my personally owned stuff over the years. I’ve used cheaper and higher end gear. Can I make do with lesser optics and still enjoy it? Absolutely. Your original question was would you kill less animals with a $2000-3000 optic. My answer to that is also absolutely. Like you said I’m in a unique situation though.

I am jealous of the amount of acreage you get to hunt man and I am also jealous of your equipment. One of my family members has a Reap IR and the MK3 60mm and the only way to describe it is unbelievable. I look forward to the day that I can get into a situation where I could take 20+ hogs out of one wide open field like you guys have.

I will say that in your situation you will kill more hogs with a higher end scope but I think for the overwhelming majority of hunters a $3k scope is going to kill just as many as a $6k and it for sure wont kill twice as many.

[gingib]

One of my family members has a Reap IR and the MK3 60mm and the only way to describe it is unbelievable. I look forward to the day that I can get into a situation where I could take 20+ hogs out of one wide open field like you guys have.

I will say that in your situation you will kill more hogs with a higher end scope but I think for the overwhelming majority of hunters a $3k scope is going to kill just as many as a $6k and it for sure wont kill twice as many.

One of my best friends also has the same 2 scopes.

We also have stacked up 15-25 hogs on numerous occasions and I 100% agree, better optics is normally more pigs

[BrianL]

Question... I can mount my xq50 on a Savage 12 308, or an AR platform in 5.56 or 7.62x39. Many if not most of my shots i think will be 100-200yds based off terrain and location etc... Which gun?

[duckmanep]

Question... I can mount my xq50 on a Savage 12 308, or an AR platform in 5.56 or 7.62x39. Many if not most of my shots i think will be 100-200 based off terrain and location etc... Which gun?

is your focus on pigs or yotes? if pigs... then AR all day (either cal is fine).

[BrianL]

pigs

[duckmanep]

pigs

If you wanted to shoot a bolt action at some pigs 100-200 yds away you could have bought a Wraith and saved about $3200.

I would put it on whatever AR you have the deepest stack of ammo for.

[BrianL]

If you wanted to shoot a bolt action at some pigs 100-200 yds away you could have bought a Wraith and saved about $3200.

I would put it on whatever AR you have the deepest stack of ammo for.

Hmmm might get one of those too

[duckmanep]

Hmmm might get one of those too

I'm your huckleberry.

[TX03RUBI]

Question... I can mount my xq50 on a Savage 12 308, or an AR platform in 5.56 or 7.62x39. Many if not most of my shots i think will be 100-200yds based off terrain and location etc... Which gun?

7.62 x 39 just for cheap ammo.

[TX03RUBI]

One of my best friends also has the same 2 scopes.

We also have stacked up 15-25 hogs on numerous occasions and I 100% agree, better optics is normally more pigs

If we end up less than 30 we’re having a slow night lol but it’s about covering ground, and making our shots count. Best sounder we’ve had got 18 out of it. No way we could kill that many covering a field or two. We went about 10-11 hunts straight without killing less than 32 this year, then I had to hang it up. I was invited on a couple of hunts they went 94 and 96 on, but I had some side work lined up I couldn’t miss. That wasn’t our normal land though. I do wish it was lol

[gingib]

If we end up less than 30 we’re having a slow night lol but it’s about covering ground, and making our shots count. Best sounder we’ve had got 18 out of it. No way we could kill that many covering a field or two. We went about 10-11 hunts straight without killing less than 32 this year, then I had to hang it up. I was invited on a couple of hunts they went 94 and 96 on, but I had some side work lined up I couldn’t miss. That wasn’t our normal land though. I do wish it was lol

Yeah thats incredible and so much fun!

I know where yall went to kill those. I follow them on IG. They stack them deep and have some loaded fields.

I wish I had more wide open crop fields, but I don't have that many.

[gonehuntin68]

I’d be interested in some hunting footage with that

If you wanted to shoot a bolt action at some pigs 100-200 yds away you could have bought a Wraith and saved about $3200.

I would put it on whatever AR you have the deepest stack of ammo for.

100-200 yards with Wraith and the stock light, get our Coyote Cannon light and you will be able to see out to about 1000 yards or our 66LRX light and see out to about 800 yards with the Wraith. If you want to see hunting video's of the Wraith or other digital night vision scopes, just go to our YouTube page "Sniper Hog Lights" as we have a lot of them with our various lights. You can also go to our Facebook page "Sniper Hog Lights" for some video's and also see what a lot of our customers are saying about our lights and some of their hunting video's.