You know, if digital is all you can afford or have need for, then it will work. If you have greater need or just have the $ for the better stuff, the better stuff is wonderful, no doubt.

If I night hunted only a few times a year, I would not bother with thermal. And things get even pricier when you realize that for night hunting, you probably should be running 2 scopes. You need a spotting scope to do the majority of your spotting, be it NV or thermal, then a weapon sight, be it NV or thermal. It just gets too tiresome and is obviously less safe to be pointing a scoped weapon in every direction that you want to see in the dark.

I know you can spot with thermal and hunt with NV and that results in being able to spot things that you sometimes can't see to shoot. You can spot with NV and hunt with thermal, but that means not seeing some of the things you would like to shoot because they are too hidden from view to spot with NV, but you could definitely shoot them if you saw them with your thermal weapon sight.

Every decision you make will have advantages and disadvantages. You gotta figure out what will work for you, your style of hunting, and your hunting circumstances.

As for "trying to get one easy pig," it has been my experience that is exactly what hunters prefer. We all would like the pig to come out and stand still, broadside, and at the distance for which we have sighted our rifles. And if the pigs runs after being shot, we would prefer that it run to the truck.

Well said ^^^^

It's always better when animals run toward the truck after being shot LOL especially heavy ones.

Am I the only one here that uses a Flir E series for a handheld spotter?

Ditto...I have the same setup as Fred. Here in Michigan hunting coyotes we run into many different situations...tall weeds...thick timber...open fields. The thermal monocular has proven itself invaluable to spotting the coyotes long before we would have seen them with just NV or even red lights mounted on day optics.

With the right IR and NV scope adjustments you can still get a good image in timber and such areas. I can adjust brightness and contrast plus the IR Illuminator on my NV setup to help with the washout that occurs with IR.

I am not saying this is better than a good thermal scope because it isn't but it is more affordable and works well.

Pulsar 19a thermal for spotting ($2000ish)
Sightmark photon XT digital for shooting ($450)

The pulsar thermals are very good for the money. I also have gen 3 NV but could live without it. I couldn't go back to hunting at night without a thermal. Its the game changer.

Agree 100%. Thermal scanning is super useful.