beginner budget handheld scanner

Plant.One

Plant.One

Well-known member
so i've been trying to do my homework and figure out a workable option.

its not that i'm adverse to spending $$ on quality product, but i dont want to jump in with both feet until i'm comfortable with what i'm doing and start having a little success at the night game - which other than hunting critters at the edge of the yard light with my 22lr - i'm totally new at.


i've got a Sightmark Photon for a scope, and a t20 for extra light.

it does well enough for the areas i'll be hunting so thats a good start for my optic.

however where i'm struggling right now is a handheld to scan with.


i've got about a $500-$600 budget to play with, and i did look through the sightmark Ghost hunters the other night at cabela's.... but the ones i was looking through fish eyed really bad on me and were all but useless with my glasses on. Now i suspect that may well have been more of a display model issue than a systemic issue, but i cant be sure since i've only had the chance to look through one pair of them.


the seek thermal XR handheld (not the smartphone one) meh - the auto color gradient and the fact that it destroys my night vision from the screen had it back to the store almost immediately (they didnt have a display model i could try before i bought or it wouldnt have left the property)


so generally speaking for someone just getting into this night game, what would ya'll recommend in my budget? should i just go pickup another photon and use it as a scanner unmounted? i would prefer something a bit more compact than that....

i'm not hoping for amazing, i'm just looking for something functional and reliable to get going. If i start having some luck i'll gladly find a way to budget something nice like a hd19 thermal, but i want some results before i go there.
 

Have you considered the Armasight Spark Gen 1 monocular? Check out Kevin's review of it.

I purchased one back in the spring and really like it considering cost and clarity. Your T20 will work fine with it too.

The Spark is plenty good enough for calling at reasonable ranges and well within your budget.

 
I've been thinking the same thing.
I had the photon xt for a year and liked it. Just too hard to scan with being 4.6x and weapon mounted.
Planned on using my red kill light for taking the shot, so I wanted something I could scan with that's not weapon mounted.
So I Sold my photon xt and bought the flir scout tk. Wasn't impressed with the scout tk, so I returned it to amazon and ordered the bushnell equinox digital monocular for $250.. It'll be here today, so I'll let you know if I like it.
 
Check out hightechredneck. Kevin has a thermal scanner for 1300 dollars. He also has the spark for 549 dollars, if you get the infinity IR which has a dimmer switch,you can adjust the ir light to just pick-up eyes only, or what ever degree of brightness you chose. The light Kevin uses in the video is not adjustable for brightness, only for beam width. I have an infinity & it works well.
 
I've also looked at the seek. My hunting partner has one and it did what I needed, but the backspill of light at night lights you up like a Christmas tree. Really need something that goes up to the eye and doesn't spill light.
The Flir scout tk is almost good enough for my use, but I could barely make out a deer at 100yds the other night so I'd like just a little more resolution. At least with my photon xt I could see eyes at 400+ yds with the extra IR illuminator.
I hope we'll be seeing some new stuff just like the TK from competitors soon and that's what I intend to get.

A lot of the guys here have good experience and knowledge, but I can't quite do the $1000 plus for my hobby. The wife and 2 kids wouldn't appreciate me blowing that much cash quite yet.
 
Took the equinox 4.5 out to the graveyard and it was incredibly clear. I would say it's every bit as good as my photon 4.6 was.
I was limited to 175yds because I'm in the city at the moment, but with an additional illuminator I think it'll be good for much further.
I'm returning the 4.5x and ordering the 3x since it'll be a little better for scanning
 
Originally Posted By: UndrcoverrednekHow many here are using night vision with an IR light for scanning?

When I hunt with a buddy he uses the thermal for scanning and I use a helmet mounted PVS14 with an illuminator. I see the animal coming in (eye shine) first about as often as he does with the thermal.
The thermal does see the target a lot farther out, but generally if it is in range and looking in my direction I can see it with the NV.
 
Originally Posted By: old catCheck out hightechredneck. Kevin has a thermal scanner for 1300 dollars. He also has the spark for 549 dollars, if you get the infinity IR which has a dimmer switch,you can adjust the ir light to just pick-up eyes only, or what ever degree of brightness you chose. The light Kevin uses in the video is not adjustable for brightness, only for beam width. I have an infinity & it works well.

if i had $1400 to throw at this at the moment, i totally wouldnt even ben considering something in the sub $600 price point.

id love something like the LD19A and at that price its a steal. but that outside the fun budget for now.


i happened to be near another cabela's last night and looked through another set of the Sightmark Ghost hunter bino's - again... bad fish eye vision in those for me. double so with my glasses on. so those are off the list for sure.

i did get to look through one of the night owl monoculars, but at 5x the FOV is a bit small (35' @ 100 yds) so that concerns me a bit for a scanner. Image quality looked pretty dang nice, a bit of fish eye on the edges, but not too bad. If their 3x is as nice of image quality as the 5x one is (and i can find one to look through before i buy) i may give that a try. Very few spots i'll be hunting will allow more than 150-200 yds and then all i'm asking for is to be able to see some eye shine at those distances.

it may well warrant going even below my budget and then saving up for nicer down the road.

TBD though.

Originally Posted By: 6mm06
Have you considered the Armasight Spark Gen 1 monocular? Check out Kevin's review of it.

I purchased one back in the spring and really like it considering cost and clarity. Your T20 will work fine with it too.

The Spark is plenty good enough for calling at reasonable ranges and well within your budget.



ill have to see if i can find anyone local with one of those Armasight Sparks so i can have a look through one of them. after going through the 'you have to buy it to try it, but feel free to return it' game already... well yea...

From the video that you posted it looks quite nice even if i wont need that kind of range out of it.

thanks for putting that on my radar. i emailed them to see if they can give me a list of brick and mortar's who might carry these anywhere close to me.
 
i would love a thermal handheld in the price point of a LTO or a Flir TK Scout, but from what i've read they struggle for smaller targets at distance.

im not expecting to be able to identify a target at 100 - 150 yds with that price point in thermal, but would you be able to see a warm blotch from a coyote sized target at that distance with one?

 
Shouldn't have any trouble seeing a coyote out to 200 yds as a hot spot with the lto. Of course you can't distinguish between a deer or yote at that range but it lets you know something is there for your scope to check.
 
i looked at a bunch of video footage for the FLIR TK Scout, and what i could find on the LTO. seems like from what i can find either will suit what i wasnt them to be able to do.

the thing that stopped me was i couldnt find a LTO in my budget.


optics planet was running a deal, so i ordered a Flir for $535 shipped (with a shipping upgrade)



as a side bonus - i just found another 280 acres to hunt (split between 3 parcels). was hopeing to go out this morning and just give a howl to locate a bit, but we ended up with a nasty day of freezing rain. slowly but surely i will load the gps up with waypoints though!
smile.gif
 
Been considering the TK for when I go home for Thanksgiving or next Christmas. Definitely look forward to seeing how the reviews of it and the LTO look by then.
 
I have an Armasight spark....it's a year old with less than 3 hrs on it that I'll sell. If you are interested let me know. I upgraded to thermal but the spark is clearer than my PVS 7s gen 2
 
Plant one.... any update on this? We have very similar hunting setup 200 yard shots max and I'm considering ordering a scout tk in the next day or too... its either that or a spark....
 
for the most part i'm quite happy with it.

as otheres noted, you cant id much past 100, but i've been able to find a hot blob that i could shine as deer at distances of 200+ and was able to make an outline on a deer in >30yd visibility fog that would have been 100yds or so out based on were we normally see them feeding in the cornfield.

there's a telephone pole there at about 80 yds that was like a nice straight beacon, and the deer was back behind it.


i was able to detect a red squirrel at 50 yds as well.
 


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