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Hello. I am seeking some advice on night scopes. I want to mount a good quality compact night scope on one of my rifles so that I can shoot at night on my farm. I looked at the NightTech MS-19 thermal compact but at $3399 I want to get some opinions first. Anyone have experience with thermal / night scopes please.
Much appreciated,
Attila
ATN, well built but battery hungry
Can’t beat pard, they do both night vision and thermal. Talk to @faregame on here
Night vision scopes (non thermal) are relatively inexpensive, most have active near-infrared illumination (the infrared light between the visible spectrum and the heat spectrum) animal eyes are helpfully reflective in that spectrum too if you are scanning for prey, just identify your target.
You can add a NIR torch to your night vision scope for increased illumination range.
Skip in 10 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DEVC_O_Bn0
But if you have two scopes on your table, IR/thermal and NIR/night vision, I suspect you'd end up using the thermal scope more. What can you justify to your accountant?
PARD 008 IR
[QUOTE=Cordite;1128882]Night vision scopes (non thermal) are relatively inexpensive, most have active near-infrared illumination (the infrared light between the visible spectrum and the heat spectrum) animal eyes are helpfully reflective in that spectrum too if you are scanning for prey, just identify your target.
You can add a NIR torch to your night vision scope for increased illumination range.
Skip in 10 minutes:
Wish I had such a steady hand !!
The NV are fantastic that 1st hour of darkness - just amazing
So these less bulky ones that can be used in daylight then that 1st hour or so of darkness (usually heading home) is a huge bonus
Many of choices now - Which one ???
Go for importer backup I suggest for any "pending" warranty issues
+1 for thermal - if you can afford it . Those things are amazing ..... and entirely unfair on your prey . They don't stand a chance ....
Top shelf units can see game from kilometers away in the open if large animals . And as an extra bonus are also useful during the day unlike night vision .
I borrowed my boss's thermal monocular and sat for ages one night just watching a Morepork tracking and catching bugs on the wing , and I could see the bugs too , like little stars flitting around .
That was incredible to see and is something I will never forget .
Never used night vision but after using the thermal I wouldn't hesitate in buying one should I win lotto .....
The Pard 008 has a day time mode, so you can put it on and sight and use day and night also has 5 profiles so you can switch between rifles if needed
Are the PARD & ATN same units - just repackaged ??
Burris is doing Thermal now (maybe NV too)
They are a GUIDE with only diff being the name - "apparently"
Add to his if anyone can
Pulsar
Pard
ATN
Burris
Guide
Bushnell
Konus
Zeiss
Leica
Infi Ray
Night Tech
GSCI
DALI
That even surprised me at the #
GSCI is probably the ultimate - but at a price !!
China is banging these out at a warp speed rate now
So @Ftx325 you wont need LOTTO to get one in a couple of years or maybe even less ??
It is the $10,000 pulsar monocular/bino that I have had the pleasure of using a few times .
Definite lotto win required for one of those ..... or possibly sell one of the kids ..... but i doubt they are worth that much.... ;)
You don't need a 10K unit
Commercial - pet food guys yes
Nothing is 10K now anyway apart from the GSCI - I think
For a hand held - you do not need to count the hairs on its neck - just identify its there and it is what you want.
Then finish off the old way with a goot light setup or NV
Better to spend top $ on NV Scope and lower end on the Handheld Thermal
4K for both !!
The ATN xsite 2 I had was totally different from my current Pard 007. ATN is american, Pard is chinese from what I know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarvo
I’ve had the gcsi, have moved onto a pard thermal. The warranty on the gcsi is amazing but it doesn’t have rangefinder or Picture in Picture and the clarity isn’t as good as my pard. Have a look at the pard website there is some comparisons between the different brands for both thermal and nvg.
I extensively tested the PARD 008 recently on .22LR, .223 and .243. Used it with its own inbuilt torch for the rimfire and added an torch for centrefire.
I was surprised how effective this device was for lining up both rabbits and deer. But I think it is absolutely essential to have the model with the inbuilt rangefinder, PARD 008 LRF. The one I was testing didn’t have that and I was constantly frustrated especially on the rabbits with the rimfire, shooting subs.
In the past I have used a thermal monocular for spotting and then a simple flashlight arrangement once you’ve worked out where your quarry is, got to where you need to be and then set up. To be honest that’s how I would do it again, I found it more effective. I did not like having to search for my quarry using the optic on top of the rifle as it’s just nowhere near as efficient.
I did think ATN was USA tooQuote:
Originally Posted by Joe_90
Just don't know these days - but not that it prob matters
China appears to be doing a good job this far
Some of the Pulsar coming out of there too (not sure whole units but deff parts of
Really - that is interestingQuote:
Originally Posted by Fat ninja
GSCI is Canadian isn't it ??
Sounds like the Pard is the pick over the latter entries
Yip Canadian, I’m really happy with the pard units. They are Chinese made but have French internals same as the pulsar units
Still good money for the Pards. And for that money you'd have thought they could sort out the absolute crap owners manual. Garbage. There's YT guys who run through all the really useful stuff, plus Owl Optics have some decent info and links
Yes - but isn't that typical with all Chinese mauals - absolutly uselessQuote:
Originally Posted by XR500
Thank God for U Tube
Been using a pard nv008 for a while now. Daytime mode is a gamechanger, especially when it starts to get dark. It allows you to clearly make out game well after a top end scope has given up.
As a NV scope it's light, and compact with it's built in IR illuminator. (which turns out to be a better than the Yukon one), has video recording, Wifi so you can see the screen from a phone or tablet, has a true one-shot zero, and happily works out past 200M without having to buy anything else.
Downside will be the minimum magnification of 6.5x which makes scanning a large area painful. I'm getting a handheld thermal to meet the "scan a large area fast" requirement.
Atn makes theirs in China - certainly the x sights etc - USA brand and marketingQuote:
Originally Posted by Sarvo
Funny as I get emails from the ‘old’ atn factory offering us the old x sights ...
PARD is its own brand; a lot try to copy them : seen some shockers
Happy to talk to people if you want to know something - really open about that online - but won’t say much here as I’m the PARD agent :)
And not going down that rabbit hole
PARD pulsar and gsci all get their thermal cores from France
Agreed on that - I’m re-writing it for them :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarvo
Nz copies are online now under support
@faregame, if you have any influence with PARD this is what I would change in a heartbeat. A 1x or 2x option for scanning an area would be a game changer. I tried with purpose made sticks for the standing position and I still found 6.5x far too much mag for picking out rimfire targets, not just FOV but DOV.Quote:
Originally Posted by quentin
I do and will pass that onQuote:
Originally Posted by Flyblown
i can assure you the only issues with chinese ATN scopes is owner based, leaky batteries and stuck sd cards (usually with very rough housings)
On deer there seems to be less recovered animals than when using a spot light...different blokes, calibers, areas...don't know why but maybe shooting from too far away.
Can 100% say that the handheld thermal is worth it's weight in dead rabbits. Went out shooting a few paddocks that were showing no rabbits when scanning with the NV gear. Got out the thermal, and hey presto - there they all are.
Interestingly I could walk up on the rabbits when just using the thermal, but as soon as I flicked on the NV with the 850nm illuminator, they were off. With the 940nm illuminator - just dead rabbits, shot from really close.