Night vision vs Thermal

Grayman

Grayman

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Joined
Apr 18, 2019
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Location
Mount Holly, NC
I am in the market for one of these. Do to my financial constraints I can only get one, and I need it to be multi purpose. I need it to be handheld and weapon mountable, so I am looking at monocles. I have a few questions, and I can't seem to find any answers on it. I know they make monocles in both, I know my optics are nv rated, but I do not know if a thermal monocle would work with my optics. if I look thru it to look at my red dot, will it pick up the red dot? Also any recommendations on either would be great. Thanks in advance
 
The thermals I have seen won’t pickup the red dot. One of my friends just bought a Halo thermal scope and it is impressive. However it is a stand alone scope. I want a trijicon thermal(like used by military) with the flip mount but cannot budget it right now.

These were from his Halo thermal
7A1FCA72-09E4-44BD-9173-A8112045ABA6.jpeg 2C1B1A5A-D5EF-4ABB-B2A4-8EE6CBC14D43.jpeg
 
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I have also been wanting to get into the night time fun but I have the same dilemma money wise. From what I’ve read I think the thermal would be best for me. I’d be using it mostly for hunting at night but it would be cool to check things out in the middle of the night without using a white light.

Good luck op and thanks for starting this thread. Looking forward to what others have to say.
 
I started with night vision. I only have thermal now. If I was fresh and starting anew, I'd go thermal. A FLIR PTS-233 or Pulsar RX30V would be a decent dual purpose sight. They are both small enough that you can pull them from the weapon and use as a handheld. Between the two I stuck with the FLIR (although I think they are discontinued now).

CHRIS
 
I recently bought a FLIR PTS233. I am quite happy with it.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
Buddy recommended an ATN Thor 1.5x5.
 
With good camo and staying very still, someone MIGHT hide from night-vision.
It's nearly impossible to hide your thermal signature from a Flir.
But, both will decrease your natural night-vision (naked eye).
If I could only have one, it would be thermal.
 
I would recommend thermal also. I went with the pulsar XQ38 and with the recent firmware update image boost it’s pretty impressive for the price. Can easily pick up on animals from long distances.
 
I asked my buddy who has some really high end thermal and high end NV what his opinion was. He said for strictly hunting at night Thermal, hands down is the bees knees. He said night vision isn’t in the same class. But buy a very good unit. He said the clarity of good Night Vision at sub 100 yard range couldn’t be matched by thermal. He stressed it is for when things go bump in the night or you need to clear a building.

He said if you wanted to add on to a rifle with a red dot, NV is the only way to go. But he did recommend the Thermion and above for thermal. He has bought and sold many units ( he is a distributor of both NV and thermals). He had a Trijicon Flip mount unit (like the military uses) and said the were very limited on range but more sensitive in picking up differences in heat.

He spends 10s of thousands to go hunting out west and down in Texas and Louisiana every year. He has 8 personal thermals.
 
charliedeltajuliet said:
I asked my buddy who has some really high end thermal and high end NV what his opinion was. He said for strictly hunting at night Thermal, hands down is the bees knees. He said night vision isn’t in the same class. But buy a very good unit. He said the clarity of good Night Vision at sub 100 yard range couldn’t be matched by thermal. He stressed it is for when things go bump in the night or you need to clear a building.

He said if you wanted to add on to a rifle with a red dot, NV is the only way to go. But he did recommend the Thermion and above for thermal. He has bought and sold many units ( he is a distributor of both NV and thermals). He had a Trijicon Flip mount unit (like the military uses) and said the were very limited on range but more sensitive in picking up differences in heat.

He spends 10s of thousands to go hunting out west and down in Texas and Louisiana every year. He has 8 personal thermals.
Click to expand...
Thats what i am looking for, thanks. Now to find a good nv monocle.
 
InvisibleOne said:
It's nearly impossible to hide your thermal signature from a Flir.
Click to expand...

Harder to prevent detection vs NV, but with a little ingenuity and relatively inexpensive materials, it can be done and done pretty effectively.

When I was still at the FD, I experimented around a bit with our FLIR cam. A mylar casualty blanket / Heatsheet, a rain poncho and natural vegetation work pretty good.
 
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As with anything, mission drives the gear.


If competition shooting, like the After Hours match I’m hosting next month, is your goal then NV is definitely the way to go. Thermals simply don’t pick up steel and paper targets.
 
Since this thread appears to have been resurrected, I'll add:
  1. IIRC, Flir discontinued some of its products and, with few exceptions, focuses only on military/LEO-type sales as of early 2020. (Citation: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/02/06/flir-focuses-on-le-military-sales/)
  2. If you need to be able to see, drive, and positively identify targets that aren't coyotes or hogs -- night vision is the go-to
  3. If you need to be able to detect (regardless of cover) without needing to differentiate different targets of the same species terribly well -- thermal is the go-to
  4. If you need both, blend the two, as each makes up for the weaknesses of the other (i.e. Night vision can see into/through water and glass; thermal can't. Thermal can defeat typical camouflage, which works as usual against night vision.)
  5. Digital night vision and thermal don't hold a candle to analog night vision in terms of battery life; one AA or CR123 can last multiple (full) nights in an analog device but tends to last mere hours in thermal and/or digital night vision devices (assuming a single AA or CR123 can power such, at all).
  6. Contrary to the opinion of some, you CAN move about using only thermal for visual enhancement, but you have to be slow about it as the DSP can only render so quickly. (I can jog with my Jerry C...)
  7. Contrary to the opinions of some, above, night vision works just fine for targeting/shooting at night provided you have a designator and/or a night-vision capable optic (that is appropriately mounted -- i.e. high enough) on the firearm.
  8. Nothing is cheap in the [REAL] night vision and thermal world ... and you tend to get what you pay for. Buy the best you can afford for a given need/mission. (i.e. Buy once, cry once.) You'll be glad you did.
I write the above as someone who has (and uses a fair bit) both helmet-mounted night vision (BNVD's) and thermal (Jerry-C) devices. (i.e. This isn't insight from a buddy telling me things ... or reading online.) A thermal scope is in my future, as well, but I'm glad I didn't start with just that, as situational awareness with just a thermal scope is very poor (I know from bumming one for a bit), AND it's patently unsafe to point a firearm with a thermal scope at anything one doesn't intend to destroy. (One shouldn't be scanning about with a thermal device mounted on a firearm unless it's removed from said firearm (a la clip-on thermal) to do so. Safety, alone, should dictate this.)
 
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Yeah after getting a Wraith I went off researching a proper passive NV monocular for giggles.

Not even close to my budget lol. Guess my "I'm here!" illuminator and digital scope will have to do.
 
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