My buddy is thinking about getting an ATN thermal. I have zero time behind one. Are any of them decent?

I think he is considering the ATN ThOR 4, 384x288

ATN customer service is a nightmare....nuff said.

Easy pass...
Couple locals have ATN products and they’ve spent more time back and forth to ATN than they’ve been hunted. There is a reason why reputable dealers don’t dabble with ATN.

George, I've had people I know use ATN's, and most all of them got rid of them for various reasons. Glitches mainly.

Not saying they can't make a good one, but ATN has a certain reputation.

To be trouble free for a bit more $$ would sure be worth it in my book.

Seen nothing but negative press about them on this forum.

ATNs can make a good thermal scope. Some are glitchy out of the box. As noted, their customer service often gives people fits, a significant percentage.

You can't spend more money for a thermal that won't give you problems. Sooner or later, they will all give you trouble. That is the nature of the beast. What sets companies aside is their customer service.

I have sent back ATN, FLIR, Pulsar, Armasight, and Trijicon for various issues. ATN refused to recognize the problem as a problem and told me that the scope was "normal" for having a bright green line down the left hand side of the screen. FLIR was a nightmare to negotiate their service program. FLIR no longer sells rifle scopes, but does sell other thermal optics. Armasight had great CS, but they were taken over by FLIR. Trijicon has great CS. Pulsar has great CS. I would assume that N-Vision does as well, but don't know for sure. Don't know about Bering Optics as I don't know anyone who has even returned anything to them.

As is oft repeated on this forum, Friends don't let friends by ATN. ATN screwed a lot of people on this forum after heavily promoting their X-sight series of night vision and then abandoned buyers who had quirky scopes that never worked as designed when ATN came out with the X-Sight II. It was like ATN just washed their hands of trying to make the original product work as advertised and threw all the owners under the bus.

Thanks, everyone. I kind of figured this would be the response, but told my buddy I would ask.

Amen. So many folks are new to the industry and haven't witnessed how bad ATN was. If you were one of the thousands involved at that time, you wouldn't forget or forgive it. Many of the same management remains. I'll never buy anything from them again-ever.

I guess i got the only good one, no issues so far.

Even a dying, disease ridden, half rotted oak produces a couple good acorns each year.

I've had great luck with my Thor 4 and really have no complaints. I've logged well over 30 hours and only had issues in Sub-Zero weather. I did however lose my zero fill once, now I always back it up on the sd card.

Friends don't let friends buy ATN.