Can anyone tell me the difference between NV and Thermal and what is best route to go?

C

CaliCoyoteCaller

New member
I dont know anything about NV or thermal, except I know Id like to do some night hunting with this equipment. I still night hunt with a red light, but Id like to put some money together and try it with NV or thermal but I dont anything about either one. A lil help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
Thermal detects heat. It is great for detection.
NV amplifies light. It is great for seeing in the dark and positive identification.

I use a FLIR PS32 for scanning and a dedicated rifle mounted gen 3 NV scope for ID/killing. This set up works well for me.

Some guys like the thermal scopes. I have never used one but I can say that with my PS32 I cannot positively ID much of anything predator sized. I can tell you that it is an animal, and PROBABLY what it is, but not with absolute certainty if it is small coyote, a dog, or a fox.
Here we can hunt coyotes year round, but there is a season on foxes, and we do have lots of dogs around. I won't take the chance of pulling the trigger unless I know for %100 sure what my target is. That is why I use the NV scope.
A more high end thermal might give you the ability to ID, I don't know.

There is a lot of information on both thermal and NV on this forum, use the search engine at the top. There are also tons of videos available to show you the difference.
 
In california you are pretty much limited to thermal if your going to put it on a rifle. Any ir light combined with a night vision scope is considered a "sniper scope" and is illegal. Penal code is pretty easy to look up.
 
1trkyhntr gives good advice in regards to searching this forum. It's a great source of information with a lot of opinions. My opinion is that it is best to simply buy a decent thermal scope and save the money you would have spent on Night Vision devices. I bought night vision and did well with it, but moved on to thermal and did better. If I had followed my advice, I would have saved a lot of money. I now hunt with a PS32 Flir Monocular and an Apex XD50a thermal scope. ID is a challenge with the PS32 but doable. The XD50A has a greater definition and clarity and is much easier to ID with. Hunting with the XD50A will beat any night vision device hands down. The reason it works so well is that it defines an animal from it's heat signature. Natural camouflage has no impact on the view that you see in a thermal scope. In night vision, even though you can see at night, the animals natural camouflage serves to make it more difficult to see. You have the benefit of shining eyes from reflection from an IR light source, and that does give them away, but not as well as a thermal device. With thermal, you simply see more animals out there than you ever do with night vision. It is handy to have a thermal monocular along with the scope as it is easier to hold and scan with. When you make the switch from monocular to scope after you've located an animal, you don't have any difficulty picking up the target. Switching from thermal monocular to a night vision scope can sometimes result in the loss of view of the target animal. With a thermal scope you do not need any kind of other light source. You simply use the animals heat signature to find it and target it. You can get into a decent thermal scope for about the same money as you can gen3 night vision and the thermal is a far superior system to use.
 
This video our sister company, TNVC put together, illustrates the differences very well CaliCoyoteCaller.



In this video, we are observing an armed individual walking in field of tall grass. Again, we are using the IR Defense IR Hunter Thermal Weapon Scope and the D790 Magnus Night Vision Scope. This scenario was inspired by our customers, many of whom deal with trespassers and poachers on their land. The first half of the segment shows a loan individual walking a field against a tree line. The subject is obviously armed with a rifle and wearing a helmet with a night vision goggle. The thermal image instantly detects the subject whether they are moving or standing still. Even when they crouch down behind a berm, the subject’s head is incredibly easy to spot against the rest of the scene. While their face is not at all identifiable, we can clearly see they are wearing long pants, a hooded jacket, and a backpack. As the subject stands up from their position behind the berm, we are able to easily identify the weapon as an AR15 with a suppressor.

After changing the scope’s polarity to black hot, we can still clearly see the subject – maybe even more so. Black hot tends to increase the contrast of images and can make detection in open areas even faster. The rest of the thermal footage continues to illustrate how easy it is to detect subjects through thermal. As mentioned, this scenario was inspired by many of our customers who own large amounts of land. These customers are often looking for night vision devices that will help them detect interlopers so they can avoid a possible violent confrontation with poachers/smugglers, alert authorities, etc. Simply using a flashlight lets everyone in the area know you are there. The use of night vision and thermal equipment allows you to maintain stealth, increasing safety.

Next, we see the same scene, but through night vision. While the subject is still seen amongst the grass and tree line, they are not as quickly detectable as they were through the thermal imager. The video is focused on the subject, but we can imagine it would take some more effort to detect them if we were simply scanning the field. The subject’s face is a little more visible through night vision. However, the main point of this exercise is to detect subjects on the property who should not be there. In this case, thermal is the clear winner.

Let us know when you have more questions.

 
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