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Handheld Thermal #7434450 02/15/19 02:21 AM
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Which dedicated handheld thermals are the preferred? Researching for the work place

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7434462 02/15/19 02:33 AM
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Fire Storm if you can find them, see if MDMORROW has a lead on any.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: BigPig] #7434511 02/15/19 03:12 AM
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Who makes it

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7434556 02/15/19 03:59 AM
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It would be helpful if you described what it is that the thermal was supposed to be doing. Are you looking for game animals at 1000 yards? Are you looking for hot or cold spots in walls or structures? Is this for security on the property?

The "Firestorm" thermal noted above appears to be a knockoff of a FLIR PS/Scout series unit. It was made by P2M, a company nobody has heard of.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Double Naught Spy] #7434590 02/15/19 04:50 AM
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Mostly security reasons. Mostly urban environments ranging from open, creeks, golf courses, shorelines, woods.

Not sure if we need a monocular or binocular.

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7434604 02/15/19 05:30 AM
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I am of no help brother. I use my pts233 as both and it works. You just have to tune it to the current conditions.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7434614 02/15/19 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Brother in-law
Mostly security reasons. Mostly urban environments ranging from open, creeks, golf courses, shorelines, woods.

Not sure if we need a monocular or binocular.


I have to make fun of some of the optics companies. They market biocular thermal units as binocular thermal units. The difference is that with a biocular, you have only one objective lens and so do NOT have stereographic vision. With actual binoculars, you have stereographic vision because you have one objective lens for each eye. http://www.army-guide.com/eng/article/article_585.html

I would suggest that if you need to preserve your personal night vision, that using a monocular is better than using a biocular or binocular (though I am not sure of any actual civilian binoculars offhand). Using a monocular will save you some $ plus only have the vision of one eye temporarily night blinded by used of the device.

The next question for you would be whether you are generally looking at shorter distances or longer distances and how much detail you need. If you are looking at distances inside 100 yards, a lot of the 1-3x 320/336/384 resolution optics will generally work well enough for you at a more reasonable cost. They will see farther, no doubt, and may be sufficient for your needs (depending on what they are) out to over 300 yards. If you need to really see well beyond 100 yards, or just spot things at many hundreds of yards, a 640 resolution scope is going to be more useful and you will need to balance out how much magnification you need as a base level versus the field of view. As magnification goes up, field of view drops.

FLIR has some interesting handheld optics, but FLIR seems to be going through some growing pains right now.
Pulsar has the Helion series you may want to look at or a new budget oriented line called Axion.
Trijicon has their IR Patrol series. These are going to be some of the best, and priciest options and the level of image improvement may not be in line with the additional money you pay. I really like my Trijicon gear, but a lot of what I do could be accomplished very well with less expensive gear.
There is a company newer to thermal called N-vision that has a Atlas biocular that they are calling a binocular. This is good quality stuff.
Pulsar also has the Accolade that is a biocular marketed a a binocular.
Armasight had a mammoth Helios biocular (marketed as such) that may not be made anymore since FLIR took over. It was not a great seller and was just too darned large.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7434625 02/15/19 10:51 AM
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Might want to look at the MTM monocular. I think it also goes by AN/PAS 23. Good handheld unit you can find on the secondary market for 3-4K.

It is state-of-the-late-2000sish, but has worked well under 200yds well for me.

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7435327 02/15/19 11:24 PM
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Pulsar Helion XP38 for an all around great quality monocular. That's my all around favorite spotting mono at the moment.

The Firestorm was really good for cheap. They sold for 895. I wouldn't call it a quality thermal but for what it sold for it was a bargain. They can still be had but we won't be importing any more. Sellmark imported a hundred of them for a branding project with someone and the deal fell through. They contracted me to liquidate them. That's why the ones we sold were backed by warranty from them and had our logo on the side. Chinese P2M brand ones direct from China won't be warrantied by sellmark. That's why we only did that batch and then no more.

If you want a binocular I'd take a hard look at the Atlas. It's the best image of any thermal I own. BAE core same as Trijicon but focusable. It's also a 5 year warranty and waterproof and floats. I tested it in my pool. I have video of it getting thrown in and N-Vision gave me the green light to do it beforehand. N-Vision isn't a new company but they are new to the civilian market. They've been a military provider for a long, long time. They will be a major player in hunting thermal now with the new Halo coming out. They're a really good company to work with and strongly stand behind their stuff. I'm going to do a live feed coyote and pig hunt through the new Halo LR next week sometime on our facebook group. If you'd like a link to that, shoot me a pm. I have a loaner production unit coming to me today or tomorrow and will be putting up some info on there on it.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7436965 02/18/19 03:23 AM
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Good advice so far but there are two huge factors that are really needed before good suggestions tailored to your needs can be given....

What will the budget be and will you be looking for a close range optic (0-125 yards), mid-range (125-250) or a long range optic (250+)? There are a lot of good handhelds out there but like DNS mentioned, there is/was a sub-$1,000 extremely basic model and there are $10,000 Trijicon models and obviously a whole lot in between.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7439078 02/20/19 01:33 AM
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I had a handheld Helion XQ38F out over the weekend..
Also a PTS233 which had much better resolution looking at deer and hogs out to 300

If you plan to shoot something and you need to absolutely be sure that is a pig and not a calf you need to get within a hundred yards with the PTS233

I have ran mine as a handheld with a QD mount an put back on the gun for shots

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: ccoker] #7440077 02/21/19 02:11 AM
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This is off the hand-held topic, but it is related. I hope OP doesn't mind. I would like to be able to hunt axis at night out to 150 yards. I need to be able to ensure that it is an axis and not a WT. Is this even doable and if so, what would you recommend?

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: TXNDN] #7440225 02/21/19 09:16 AM
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You can't do it unless they are in velvet. That would be the only time you could see the axis deer antlers. Once the velvet is gone, bucks, does, WT, axis, they all look the same. Very hard to see antlers at distance in a thermal.


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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7440532 02/21/19 05:33 PM
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Looking at the new Axioms from Pulsar

Last edited by Brother in-law; 02/21/19 05:33 PM.
Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7440854 02/21/19 11:11 PM
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Here is our preview of the Axions we released today on The Late Night Vision Show



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Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7441101 02/22/19 02:45 AM
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I like my flir

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7443814 02/25/19 06:11 PM
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FLIR scout 2

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Outdoor Legacy] #7460513 03/17/19 06:55 AM
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#smallhogslivesmatter

Re: Handheld Thermal [Re: Brother in-law] #7462577 03/19/19 06:57 PM
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I still vote Helion XP. Axion is super cool and we've pre sold a mountain of them. But for myself, I can't get away from 640 resolution, which the helion offers. Once the axion has a 12 micron 640 then its game over.


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