Thermals + Piston Rifles

Who is running a thermal on a pistol gun and are there any issues that potentially affect a thermal optic differently than a direct impingement AR?

Specifically either the PWS long stroke or the BRN180 short stroke-

I have an AGM Rattler 35 optic

I run nothing but 10.5" and 12.5" SBR's and pistols on all my night hunting setups and use every thermal and NV out there on them. No issues at all. Sight it in and get to shooting! Good luck.

Jason

I would likely reconsider running a thermal that you paid for on a piston “PISTOL.”

I considered the risks and decided I was not too worried about carbines and had 100+ rounds out of my personal SCAR17 & PWS .308 under thermal before I retired the round and looked for something with a little quicker shot recovery.

I’ve shot thousands of rounds through several piston carbines and the venting gas has eaten A LOT of gloves and caused wear on optic lens coatings.

I can only imagine what that vented copper and powder residue will do over time to a germanium lens sitting too close to the piston on a pistol length design.

Great info and considerations from you both-

Any obj lens cover/coating/cleaners that either of you would recommend?

I probably have a gallon or 2 of KAC optic mist cleaner mini bottles rattling around after collecting them throughout the years. Im not sure why looking back at your question because it’s rare that I’ll use anything but my breath, a fine bristle optic brush, more breath and or a little sprits of water and an appropriate optic cloth or tissue if I’m at a bench.
If I have a stubborn finger print etc Ill resort to the optic sprits spray cleaner or a Zeus wet lens wipe packet.

I think the germanium on most quality optics is going to handle cleaning pretty well as long as you’re getting the grit off before any friction is applied

Good luck

I didn't catch the piston....I just saw pistol.lol Good info.

It is worth noting the front lens on thermals is just good glass and it sits in front of the germanium lens and protects it. The germanium lens sits in front of the sensor and is a decent distance back from the front objective lens. Just a FYI. So however you'd clean a high quality daytime optic lens is how you can clean a thermal lens.

Jason

Interesting observation and something that should be considered. Very good!

Thank you. I consider it pretty high praise from you.


And Mr OLG Sir.

I admit that I am not a tech or subject matter expert in the engineering aspect of night optics.
I promise if you hire me as Hans’s or your understudy I will make myself one though. Will work for cheap😁

LOL! Listen you could put all of Hans' and my knowledge in a thimble and still have room to spare!

I'm pretty sure there's is no glass between the germanium lens and sensor. At least not on the Thermal sight I work on. There is a flat Germanium lens in front of the actual curved germanium lens/optical lens to protect it. The front germanium lens also acts as a filter to filter out unwanted light sources into the sight. In fact, to change the magnification of a Themal/FLIR sight the germanium lens is switched out to increase/decrease magnification. Otherwise, it would be easy to change the magnification like a regular rifle scope if you could use normal glass. Digital zoom is not true magnification.