Pulsar Trail 2 XQ50LRF has arrived

Finally, after placing the order Jan 2020, I have my new thermal.

First impressions other than the fact it looks nothing like the image on Pulsars website, and doesn’t appear to have the magnesium housing, it’s very clear unit. The definition is very intense, almost better than last models XP line, might be better but it’s been a while since I’ve looked through an XP. The color pallets are definitely cool, but not sure how useful they will be in the field. I do like the vastly different reticles and reticle colors. The LRF is the main reason I wanted this unit. Since thermal shows 2D vs 3D it makes ranging things very difficult and that resulted in missing some coyotes which really pissed me off. Still trying to figure out the videos and still images, so do now here’s the obligatory counter top photo

(Drool)

(a little jealous though)

Sweet!!!!! Interested to know if what they say is true about it performing much better in crappy thermal conditions.

Well I forgot to bring it to work tonight. Will have to wait until tomorrow night. I can tell you the definition during the heat of the day was always terrible with my last thermal and is very very clear with this one. Surprisingly my last one never looked terrible in humid conditions and even a drizzle

Looking forward to seeing some of your recorded videos - that’s quite a scope with a bigger viewing screen all new housing to resist zero drift and LRF . Plus the new core .

Yah, tagging this thread

The screen is big, almost too big and actually requires head movement

You can't just move your eye?

Not without the eye cup covering up part of the screen

I thought the larger screen was the reason for the much longer tail, but apparently those have been held for just the European market

The bigger screen (longer tail) is for all markets - where’d you hear of a difference between EU models and US models ?

I can ask the guys at pulsar if you’d like me to find out for sure

I asked my rep at Sellmark. So far all the Trail 2’s I’ve seen stateside have the regular tail piece

Mine:


Euro model:

Well... you are correct sir - different eyepieces between the EU and US models.

My guy at Sellmark says the longer eyepiece gives a little better edge clarity on the screen but due to length the decision was to shorten for the US market due to the prevalence of AR style guns requiring less eyepiece length versus bolt actions which the EU folks use more.

Curious if when you get it mounted on a gun if it requires less head motion to view the screen - usually when holding scopes in hand it’s does require head movement ....

Learn something new everyday - thanks for sending the photos

Go kill something and press record please !

I’m itching to kill something. Really wanting to get on some coyotes

I have been running the Thermion XQ50 (same internals as the Trail XQ50) and the 384 with the 3.5x base mag is a happy medium for me for my type of hunting. Pretty impressed with the detail in the new core so far. Not sure what concessions were made with Pulsar not getting the 40 Millikelvin in these like they said they would at SHOT, but for the most part I’m pretty happy with its performance.

Wow , 20% increase in field of view on the longer (EU version) eyepiece

Minute mark 3:10

I’m tuning in for your report back from the first few hunts behind the scope and what your thoughts are on seeing the full screen without tilting your head ...