1st thermal advice

here are two photos from my axion xq38 thermal scanner its a 384

red fox

red fox rohdes 6-12-21.jpg


black bear

10-26-24 kibbe bear (1).JPG


sorry, no coyote photos from the scanner, to busy shooting but they look like this dead

1-27-2024 mike double at Dave Rodgers (2).jpg
 
lol Spurchaser sounds just like my wife! I was hoping to end up around 3K or so. I hunt mostly creeks and rivers in the daytime and usually down in the cover as we have a few cats here. I imagine that i would be hunting over fields/pivots or pasture ground at night though.

Mike
 
Hate to break it to you, but my “cheapest” rifle setup is about $5500. That’s just one rifle, not scanner/caller/second rifle setup.

STICK WITH DAYTIME CALLING!!!

And for sake of your marriage, tell the wife it’s barely $1K. But make sure your most trusted male child knows exactly how much so if something happens and momma goes to selling stuff that she’s not giving it away!!!
 
mbower said:
lol Spurchaser sounds just like my wife! I was hoping to end up around 3K or so. I hunt mostly creeks and rivers in the daytime and usually down in the cover as we have a few cats here. I imagine that i would be hunting over fields/pivots or pasture ground at night though.

Mike
Click to expand...

hunt open fields / pasture at night that border good coyote areas. call them to you out into the open. its way to hard to hunt the woods at night.
 
mbower said:
lol Spurchaser sounds just like my wife! I was hoping to end up around 3K or so. I hunt mostly creeks and rivers in the daytime and usually down in the cover as we have a few cats here. I imagine that i would be hunting over fields/pivots or pasture ground at night though.

Mike
Click to expand...
Amazon total for the AGM TaipanV2 TM15-384 and RIX L3 is $3,199.
5 year warranty, Both use 18650 batteries and the L3 has ocular zoom so taking longer shots with it is cake.
The attached video is of a longer range fox kill with the L3.
I thought it was about 100 yards away, ended up being almost 300.
The ocular zoom feature makes it possible to take longer shots with a 384 res scope.
SJC
 
Here's a video of my first mouse hunt with the L3.
What you don't see that I'm seeing with the ocular zoom is the mouse filling up the whole display.
When changing the color palettes, look how the Black hot pops.
There are other good performing scopes in it's price range, but the L3 was my choice because it has the ocular zoom for the same price.
SJC
 
jmeddy said:
So Ron, you got some 'barn yard' coyotes :)
Click to expand...
...yes. that was at the end of March in an abandoned barn(so she must have been bred in November) just farm equipment and old round bales.
I saw them when i pulled in and they ran off..and I'm actually standing next to my truck debating to kill them.
I had already shot an unbred female 2 hours earlier right across the road.
And a whopper preg female 6 days earlier 300 yards from the barn.
I also shot another female 2 months earlier as I was standing next to barn(snow was noisy, deep and frozen).
I didn't shoot those pups either.
 
I think once you start experiencing the world of night hunting, especially with a thermal, you will gravitate more towards night hunting, I know I did. I haven't day hunted coyotes in almost ten years... I just fell completely in love with all the aspects of the night time world.

I will piggyback on some points being made reference cost... I justify my nearly 10K rifle set up because I night hunt A LOT. My friends crap their pants when I tell them the cost of just the thermal alone but when I compare other sports (fishing, golf, etc.) and the gear package costs associated with those activities the night hunting cost is in line and stops being seemly "expensive"... that is IF you will use and enjoy it.
 
shoots100 said:
Here's a video of my first mouse hunt with the L3.
What you don't see that I'm seeing with the ocular zoom is the mouse filling up the whole display.
When changing the color palettes, look how the Black hot pops.
There are other good performing scopes in it's price range, but the L3 was my choice because it has the ocular zoom for the same price.
SJC
Click to expand...

Just to show how everyone's eyesight is different; A, I can't see the 'green' dot on the white target, B, the 'black hot' is far from jumping out for me--the only time I use it is in really dense fog where it works better than white for me.
 
..I'm not one to really go through the 3 hot options much on my Trijicons(shoot black hot) or the 4 options on the Nox18 but last weekend we had heavy fog and I switched the Edge effect on both and holy crap...what a difference.
 
limbhanger10 said:
..I'm not one to really go through the 3 hot options much on my Trijicons(shoot black hot) or the 4 options on the Nox18 but last weekend we had heavy fog and I switched the Edge effect on both and holy crap...what a difference.
Click to expand...
Ron, l will try to remember to try that on my st6 next foggy night
 
I use black hot in the woods and heavy cover for locating and switch to white hot when laying down the law.
Primarily use White and Black hot.
Maybe the OP will chime in and let us know what he thinks and is looking at after all of the recommendations ?
SJC
 
bohunr said:
i like the idea of the ocular zoom. the image stays sharp not digitized...right ?
Click to expand...
It still pixelates, bohunr. You are zooming in on pixels so you don’t get away from that visual. I feel like it may be slightly better than digital zoom in that respect, but it’s still there.

Pros… It’s faster and you can stop anywhere in the zoom. Not stepped incrementally like digital zoom. Maybe slightly better visually, but not extremely noticeable IMO.

Cons… When you zoom in you no longer see menu items outside of the view screen. So you need to zoom back out if you want to get into a menu or see battery levels etc.
 
jmeddy said:
All good info here. Never been to Neb, but all I have read, it is open country so you might get away with a scope only if the gun is mounted on a good tripod and you stand to hunt. Otherwise, IMO you will need a scanner! I WILL NOT HUNT W/O ONE. 640's are nicer than 384's but 384's get the job done quite nicely. I could ID past 400yds with my Bering r25 (1.4x) as a scanner which I used for over 4 years and still have as a b/u or loaner. I do now run a first gen Thermion xg50 on the gun and since last Feb. a Rix Stride ST6 as my scanner. I have no experience with NV but what has been said about inclement weather and brush, etc. I believe is true. I have found my Berings (3 diff ones, the Rix, and to a lesser degree the Pulsar) to penetrate heavy fog very well, though I have to go to the "black hot palette".
Click to expand...
Around here all night hunting is done in the fields. Call them out of the cover into the open fields.
I’ve never seen anyone without their gun on a tripod. So I guess I just took that as a given.
 
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