Looking for entry level thermal to scan with. See the flir and leuopold options are about $600 a peace. Was able to play with the Leuopold in store today and seemed good on human targets at 10 yds but obviously not real likely use. I hunt semi-dense woods so everything's under 100yds.

Is one better then the other? Is there similar monocular in price I'm not looking at?

Thanks
Dale

Courious myself.

if your price range is $600, then you probably won't find much worth the money you are spending on it....

A decent thermal monocular is going to run about 2K.

I will say that using a thermal in dense woods is going to be a frustrating endeavor. Thermal gets blocked by brush very easily, and the trees and brush will put off thermal footprint as well, so if you are only hunting woods, it may be frustrating without having some clearings within the woods you will be sitting over.

Having said all that, a decent thermal for what you are looking to do (hunt woods) will need to have sufficient resolution to make out prey vs background. Thus, the cost will go up. Any of the sub 1K units will be useless for your application.

Nothing really in that price range unfortunately. Least option of any decent quality is the base model pulsar.

Dale, I'd like to hear a little more about what you are wanting to do with the thermal.

What animals will you be scanning for?

Is this primarily for recovering a dead animal or spotting animals for hunting?

How far will your open areas or thin brush/trees give you a clear line of sight?

If you are night hunting, what NV will you be shooting with?

Sorry for all the questions, but since it sounds like you are hoping to spend less than something like the higher end Pulsar XQ23V ($1,699), I want to see if the Leupold or Flir might work for you. Unfortunately there isn't much in between the $600-$700 options and the $1,699+ options.


Jason

Stay away from the $600 Flir, not really worth the money. That may be the wrong statement. I do not think it will do what you want, at least it did not for me. I sent mine mack.

Get into the bottom end of Pulsar. You won't be disappointed.

All night vision struggles when it comes to dense woods. Thermals are better then other generations of night vision but thick foliage is thick foliage. Once the foliage dies away in the fall/winter months it's awesome but dense woods is going to put off heat signature that will cover majority of the animal making it difficult to identify.

I don't find that be the case at all. Does brush block your sight? Sure, just like in the daytime but, heat still pops and your in total darkness and stand a good chance at a shot. Pick your woods, open is better for seeing but odds are you're going to call them in close.