I was looking to get a thermal monocular for spotting deer in the timber as I am color blind and this would help spot game tremendously for me. Was looking to stay around or under $2k.
Also, I thought about getting a lower end monocular around $1k just for spotting and then just get a thermal scope later. Would a $1k priced unit get me something good enough to spot animals in the timber or stay with the $2k budget?
I've never had thermal before.

We have a couple of very experienced, very good thermal guys on the Forum, and I'm sure they'll chime in. One of our supporting organizations is Outdoor Legacy and they specialize in all things night hunting related. Call them and ask for Jason, he'll help you match your need with your wallet.
https://outdoorlegacygear.com/

1k thermals , study the lens size , most likely they’ll be 19-25mm. This will equate to just over 1x magnification so you’ll see but not far

2k thermals , 25-35mm you’ll see further but perhaps not necessarily clearer.

ALOT of folks I’ve helped through this tell me all day long they don’t need to see far they just want to know if something is there and then after a night of use of the lower end thermals they say , I wish I could see further with it.

So be honest with yourself and your dealer and get what you want upfront in your first thermal buy …..

Don’t tell us 50 yards if you’re really interested it IDENTIFYING a deer at 200 yards

Goodluck

P.S. if you do call a dealer don’t pick their brain and then buy from a cheaper no name outlet to save a few bucks or get a free shirt - trust me you’ll need the dealer again later for that thermal rifle scope purchase

Great advice has already been given so far.

I'm an absolutely huge advocate of using a thermal handheld for deer hunting. I believe (where legal) it is the most important tool a deer hunter can own outside of his rifle and scope. I will gladly leave my Zeiss binoculars at home as long as I can take a thermal handheld. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the thermal should replace the binos but if I can only have one, I know which one it will be. Now before I go further, I understand that as someone who owns a thermal and NV optics business my comments are very self serving. But I promise you, any serious hunter who uses thermal a few times on the stand or in a deer recovery won't leave home without it.

Without going into a bunch of long drawn out stories here I'll say this, we've killed 5 deer this season in my immediate family and we've used thermal on every one of those kills to quickly and immediately find the animal without even blood trailing and we spotted the deer long before they actually got to us and came out of the woods. It's a huge tool but I know you already suspect that since you're looking to buy one. Enough rambling for now.lol

I don't know enough about your terrain or hunting conditions to offer any firm advice but generally, for Southern hunters that might be in or near any woods, brush, smaller fields (under 300-400 yards) I'd advise a 1x (no magnification) monocular. This gives you the widest field of view and is ideal if you're ever in tighter quarters where you can see less than 100 yards and it's greatly preferred for finding dead deer.

If you're in wide open farm type country I think you could get by with a 2x or 2.5x max magnification but even then, I'd really lean on the lower magnification units. Again, I'm speaking to deer hunting, my advice might change a little if we were talking about hog or coyote hunting but if deer hunting is primary, you can make the same handheld work for hogs and coyotes.

Under $1,000 the options are super limited and quite honestly....I'd say to save up and go for the larger budget and you'll be very glad in the long run. At $1,295 you can get the AGM Taipan TM15 1.5x fixed focus monocular that is a nice little unit and would probably serve you really well. You could move up to the Taipan TM19 1.9x for $1,595 with a much better image quality and a focusable lens but again, I feel like you're pushing it on the magnification unless you're in the wide open country, which I don't really know.

I also know of another option that might be available soon at about $2,000 and if it hits that price point it will be perfect for deer hunting but I might not know what's going to happen on pricing for a few more weeks.

Feel free to give us a call anytime and my salesman Hans or myself will be glad to help. Feel free to tell one of the ladies in my office you'd like to talk to me if you want to.

Good luck!

Jason

That's awesome advice, I know exactly what you mean about the ID'ing range etc.

And myself and the other dealers out there who spend 50 hours a week helping people on the phone, email, PM's etc find the right optic for them....we all say thank you on your last comment. That really means a lot.

I am very comfortable spending $2k-3k if thats what I need to be happy. No sense in throwing $1-1.5k on something that will not do what I want.
i live in NE Louisiana so hardwood trees and flat farm land. This will initially be used for hunting in the woods to spot deer around 300 yards and closer. As I give it more thought, I would like to be able to coyote hunt with it also as a added bonus but my primary use will be for deer hunting as I dont have access to good coyote hunting(will probably change when someone hears that I can bring thermal lol). I have a tracking dog for recovering wounded game but using thermal would be nice for that to i suppose.

I honestly don't think you have to spend over $2,000 to get what you need. I don't think you'd see a huge benefit until you get into the 640x480 resolution and that's all going to be north of $3k right now and again, the big thing for deer hunting is low magnification and wide FOV. I wish I could say more about the optic I'm thinking of but I'm not at liberty to say more but I'm hoping to know something in the next 2-3 weeks or less. But if waiting isn't something you're looking to do, then I really think one of the AGM Taipan 384 resolution units would do you well.

Jason

I am currently 120 miles offshore and will flying in Tuesday. I will call you then to discuss my options. All things come to those who wait. I don’t mind waiting for good things!

Looking forward to our conversation,
Matthew Herrington

I hunt in South Carolina, varied terrain. Hardwoods, field edges, clearcuts, pasture edges etc. You can’t go wrong with the Pulsar Axion 30S. It’s awesome. I agree that it makes my binoculars way less important. I see so many more deer now, and also see deer much sooner as they approach. I agree lower power is best. I keep it at its lowest setting, which is 4.6 I believe.
It’s $2000. But worth every penny. As one member suggested, attach it to a saxophone lanyard. It stays around my neck for the first several hours until mid morning, or last hour of daylight. But buy several xtra batteries. I use about 1.5 every morning, and usually one per afternoon hunt. It does eat batteries, so you learn to switch off the screen every time you scan.

Many times I see deer that are very hard to spot with binoculars. Of course, you can’t tell if it’s a buck or doe , or what size buck at distance. So often I use binoculars in one hand and the thermal in the other. It really adds lots of fun to the hunt,

Can you shed any light on the availability date for that agm 640 "fuzion" LRF scanner? I can't find a single thing but some pics of the housing. I need a lrf scanner pretty badly. swapping back and forth between optics and showing up blind at new properties it can get hard to be "on" with the range calls without extensive gps scouting.

post
pm
email
or I can call in.
either way I'd prefer to send my $$ your way than to the couple sites I can find anything on it.

Ok, quick update, the optics I was referring to are the iRay Minis. I knew there was a price drop coming but I wasn't 100% sure what was decided on and I wasn't at liberty to discuss it. Yesterday they made it official and the 384x288 ML19 is now $2,499 (formerly $3,000) and the 640x480 MH25 is now $3,999 (formerly $4,500). These are high end, tiny little thermals that are the size of a PVS14. I wear one on a lanyard around my neck for deer and squirrel hunting and it's a giant tool. I like them for that use because they are 1x and have a super wide FOV.

iRay just got a new shipment in after them being out of stock for awhile so we'll have them again later this week but at the new prices.

https://outdoorlegacygear.com/produ...-helmet-mountable-monocular-384x288-19mm

Hey sorry I just now saw this comment.

I don't have any ETA on the Fuzions other than it was supposed to be "soon" before the end of the year. I've yet to see or test one so I really don't know any more about them than what's out there. I do know that they don't have an IR illuminator build in, so they aren't really going to do much "fusing" since the digital NV probably won't do much at night with no IR illuminations. Kind of weird.

I'm testing the AGM Varmint LRF right now and I think it's supposed to be released before the Fuzions if I'm not mistaken but I think it could be a couple weeks before the Varmints hit the shelves as well. I'll have a call with AGM later today and see what they say now that Thanksgiving is behind us.

Jason

Thank you Sir for the reply.

I broke down yesterday and called in. I got forwarded to Hans. I probably spent more time star struck like a 12 year old girl getting to talk to my favorite boy band singer than I did talking equipment unfortunately 🤣

I am interested to hear about the LrF scanner you mention above.

As I read the product release tease the Fuzion sounded more like a deer hunter targeted device to fuse daytime image with thermal overlay vs a digital NV image like the trionix, but as you mentioned info is SPARSE.

My big concern was if we may be looking at another 7ish month wait for FDA approval like we had to ride out with the modular Rico LrF unit.

If you have a Varmint in hand I’m going to assume that process is complete. You’ll probably be selling me one of those first units in. I don’t need the Fuzion features as I read them but if it’s a digital NV I may be tempted to wait some more even without an attached illuminator

You got Hans? I'm so sorry, we'll try to do better next time. We were both swamped on the phones yesterday and today. Absolutely insane and both days we were still calling customers back well past 5pm. If you have more questions or feel like you didn't get all the info you needed, call us back any time.

I was on the phone with the National Sales Manager for AGM today and I asked him about the Fuzions and he said we should be seeing them in a few weeks. He said he'd be shipping us some for testing asap. He said to expect them on the shelf before Christmas. Then when we hung up I realized I didn't specify that I was asking about the LRF models, but he didn't say they were coming at any different time so I'm assuming they should be here before Christmas too. We talk daily so I'll try to remember to ask him tomorrow.

Also, just to be clear (and I might just be misunderstanding your comments) the Varmint LRF is a scope, not a monocular. The Fuzions are handhelds only. I'm sure you know that, I just want to be sure it's clear to everyone.

Jason

Yes, you are correct Sir.

I was too excited and read too quickly without taking time to absorb. I missed that the chosen name for the scopes was Varmint because I've been solely focused on the 2x scanner since you brought it up on LNV podcast a few weeks ago. I picked it up on my gaff a few minutes later after digging more for the fuzion specs (which I did end up with)

I hate to add to the call volume but I'll be calling you tomorrow.