Even if I'm happy with my digital scopes and I have a low end thermal monocular now. I'm looking to get another lower end thermal to scan with. Is there much difference in a monocular and a scope? Maybe in the future I might want to change scope to thermal. So would it be better to buy a scope now and just use it for scanning? Is the cost or view make buying a monocular better? My shooting range is 150 yrds or less most of the time but I do hunt fields that are 400 to 500 yrd s across.

I like to use monoculars as monoculars and scopes and scopes. They just work well and the buttons are laid out better for their specific use. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying something like the Pulsar Core RXQ30V for $1,899 and using it as a handheld for now but always having the option of using it as a scope if you wanted to. The most affordable budget monocular that will probably do what you are wanting is the Pulsar Quantum Lite XQ23V and it's $1,699, so that makes the RXQ30V a pretty easy upgrade.

Neither of those units are going to have the image quality of the $2,500 Pulsar Apex, but they are both small and affordable. At the end of the day, only you can really decide what to do, but I can see how it's tempting to buy something like the RXQ30V to use as a handheld with the option of mounting it later.

- Jason

I rented a pulsar 19 2 years ago. How does the xq23v compare to that one?

Friend of mine is selling his FLIR Scout 640. It's a monocular scanner. If you want high end scanner let me know. Used for pigs mainly. He wants a thermal scope now.

It really depends on which Pulsar you rented. There was an HD19A, HD19S, XD19A and XD19S. The S models had an OLED display and the A models had an LCD display.

I'd say the S models would be very comparable to the Quantum Lite XQ23V. The main difference is the XQ23V is 17 microns and the HD and XD models were 25 microns, so the image quality should be better on the XQ23V. Also the HD and XD models were 1.1x optical and the XQ23V is 1.8x optical.

It is a great entry level monocular for the price.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I just got this model back in stock after being on back order with Pulsar for the last couple months.

- Jason

spotters are great. I run my spotters 10 times as often as my scopes.

The xq23 is virtually the same unit as the old hd19s. Little better sensor and much cheaper.