P&Y
Member
Thought I'd post my initial impressions of my new thermal rifle scope in the event anyone is interested. Anyone who has read my posts realizes I've had a poor track record with thermal optics. After many Pulsar fails I moved to an NVision LR then XRF which also didn't function as they should. I was set on having an LRF so I moved to iRay, the warranty was too good to pass bye. Finally got a chance to get it out last night. Beautiful conditions for calling (about -8F, very light wind and dark!) so I left work early and went to sight in. Excitement was off the charts for me. The NVision returns, scope change and constant wind we've been having have kept me from doing what I love. For perspective last year at this time I'd shot 68 coyotes. 15 so far this year.
To make a long story short I didn't kill any coyotes. The iRay was an absolute persnickety POS! I've come to the conclusion the thing is either haunted or simply has a mind of it's own. Although I'm not a techy guy I've dealt with more scopes and thermals than most. There was something about pressing the buttons and imputing data that is straight bonkers. Sometimes you had to push the menu to sort of "wake it up" and then it would function. Other times one press seemed to equal three. Numerous times the reticle changed when I was simply trying to zoom. I was bound and determined and kept after it shooting prone on a snow bank. 40 rounds later I got a group 2" high at 100 and called it good enough.
I should have quit there but like I said, I was determined. I've killed a lot of big bucks with my bow over the years on persistence alone, it's just how I roll (my wife would use the word stubborn here lol). My night continued it's downward spiral. Despite all the reviews on this scope being "intuitive" I humbly disagree. Ultimately, I could not get the rangefinder to work. As a matter of fact the [beeep] thing fell off towards the end of the night. I followed mounting directions religiously and used a torque driver when I mounted it. Apparently the 223 recoil was just too punishing for the funky mount.
Besides the rats nest usability I'd say optically the scope has fatal flaws. I had to literally touch my brow to the scope to see the full view. The focus window is minute and no matter what I did I couldn't get the contrast reasonable (way too much). The background was always next to black in white hot no matter my settings. This made range estimation a total guess. Figured out the hidden pip function but then could never get the same cross hairs in the zoom screen as I had in the main field? Among other issues I could never get it into standby mode or take a video. I lost cross hairs periodically, really just frustrating and very glitchy. I suspect this has to do with the ghost keying issue idk.
All in all, I think I jumped from one gutter to the other. Wouldn't recommend the ADM qd mount either (tiny, soft screw heads) it's probably better than the proprietary piece of garbage utilizing a miniature tuning fork that came with it. Pick you poison type of deal there. Sadly I don't see myself being able to kill coyotes with any consistently here. I was optimistic for this company and their products but thought I'd share my epic fail maiden voyage. I plan to keep struggling with it but my quest for a reliable LRF thermal appears to continue.
To make a long story short I didn't kill any coyotes. The iRay was an absolute persnickety POS! I've come to the conclusion the thing is either haunted or simply has a mind of it's own. Although I'm not a techy guy I've dealt with more scopes and thermals than most. There was something about pressing the buttons and imputing data that is straight bonkers. Sometimes you had to push the menu to sort of "wake it up" and then it would function. Other times one press seemed to equal three. Numerous times the reticle changed when I was simply trying to zoom. I was bound and determined and kept after it shooting prone on a snow bank. 40 rounds later I got a group 2" high at 100 and called it good enough.
I should have quit there but like I said, I was determined. I've killed a lot of big bucks with my bow over the years on persistence alone, it's just how I roll (my wife would use the word stubborn here lol). My night continued it's downward spiral. Despite all the reviews on this scope being "intuitive" I humbly disagree. Ultimately, I could not get the rangefinder to work. As a matter of fact the [beeep] thing fell off towards the end of the night. I followed mounting directions religiously and used a torque driver when I mounted it. Apparently the 223 recoil was just too punishing for the funky mount.
Besides the rats nest usability I'd say optically the scope has fatal flaws. I had to literally touch my brow to the scope to see the full view. The focus window is minute and no matter what I did I couldn't get the contrast reasonable (way too much). The background was always next to black in white hot no matter my settings. This made range estimation a total guess. Figured out the hidden pip function but then could never get the same cross hairs in the zoom screen as I had in the main field? Among other issues I could never get it into standby mode or take a video. I lost cross hairs periodically, really just frustrating and very glitchy. I suspect this has to do with the ghost keying issue idk.
All in all, I think I jumped from one gutter to the other. Wouldn't recommend the ADM qd mount either (tiny, soft screw heads) it's probably better than the proprietary piece of garbage utilizing a miniature tuning fork that came with it. Pick you poison type of deal there. Sadly I don't see myself being able to kill coyotes with any consistently here. I was optimistic for this company and their products but thought I'd share my epic fail maiden voyage. I plan to keep struggling with it but my quest for a reliable LRF thermal appears to continue.
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