I am looking at getting a monocular for scouting hogs and coyotes. Most of the land will be open wheat fields and CRP, not much brush or trees in the way. I would like for the monocular to be able to detect the hog or coyote out to about 600 to 700 yards and be able to recognize what it is for sure at about 200 to 300 yards. I am open to either thermal or night vision, but I am leaning towards a thermal based on other threads/reviews that I have read, but was curious if anyone has any real world experience with a thermal monocular for this scenario. I would like to keep the budget around $2,500 or below. The main thing is that I don’t want to spend that much money and be disappointed with the monocular. I currently have a Gen 1 night vision monocular and on a full moon night, I can see good enough to tell there is something out there for about 200 to 300 yards. My plan would be to be able to detect something is out there at the 600 to 700 yard mark and then stalk up closer to recognize what it is and then stalk even closer for the shot. Most of my shots are within 100 yards with my scope/green light combo. Thanks for the help.

Keep your eyes open for a Pulsar Quantum XD50A at that price - it'll do what you are looking to do

BUT

You're going to need to spend a good sum of time behind the optic to correlate common animal behavior to assist ID past 200 yards.

I have an XD50S and I can ID pretty easily out to about 500 yards. You'll learn to tell the difference between deer and hogs pretty quickly. What gets difficult for me is inside 250 yards it can be hard to get your depth perception right and telling the difference between say a big raccoon and a small hog because of their body shapes. It helps to have a reference for your distance, once you get that down it becomes much easier.

Here are some still images I took with the (not yet released) Pulsar Helion XQ30F. It's going to be $2,499, 384x288, 17 microns, 50Hz, 2.5-10x magnification and a 985 yard detection range. It also has Pulsar's new Stream Vision, which allows for connecting to your phone/tablet via wi-fi, built in video recording and still picture saving.

The human target in this images is standing at exactly 150 yards and is about 6ft tall. If you will look off past the person to the left you will see the faint image of a square. That is a 2x2 steel target hanging at 250 yards.

Hoping these pics will help you a little. This definitely lets you get an idea for what you are going to be seeing at around 150-200 yards. If you've got any questions, feel free to ask, I'll do my best to answer them.

The new pulsar products are going likely be unbelievable for the price. The fellows at Pulsar are supposed to bring these units up to the ranch next month for a pig hunt. I'll report back once I've actually used them but Pulsar stuff is usually very good and priced pretty fair.

Anybody have prices on the new Helion line?

I am interested in these three:

Helion XQ19F
Helion XP28
Helion XQ38F

I would like a thermal monocular for scouting and possibly thermal or 3rd Generation weapon mount. If money were no object, I'd get thermal for both.

Any folks on here care to comment on pros and cons of thermal vs NVG for mounting on a rifle?

You'll see things with a Thermal you wouldn't even know we're there with NV.

If you can only afford to spend extra coin one time, buy the Thermal monocular and get a NV scope.

Thermal Pros:

Amazing ability to detect heat
Useable in daylight and effective
Digital and can have other data and multiple pallets, etc.
Ability to record or output video

Termal Cons:
Not as much identification clarity as high dollar NV

NV Pros:
High end gen 3 is good for positive identification

NV Cons:
Detection is very difficult compared to thermal
Needs an illuminator usually
No data overlay or ability to record to a dvr
Cost compared to thermal, high end gen 3 scopes are as much or more than a lot thermals.

I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. Very well said.

There is a reason that Gen2/Gen3 is becoming much less popular every day within the hunting community and MDMORROW's pro/con list shows why. I'm not saying Gen2/Gen3 doesn't have it's benefits or uses, but the pros of thermal, along with it's steady price decrease makes is much more attractive all the time.

One additional NV Con: Should not be used in daylight

Only applies to tubed NV.

Sensor based NV scopes with magnification can be used in daylight and are often marketed for use as a day-capable optic.

That is true. Such as the Sightmark Photon and ATN X-Sight II. They're decent for what they are but I think the OP was really asking more about traditional night vision of which is not useable during the day typically.