I would like to get a feel for what anyone is using to help them 'see' better at night time. Fur season is fast approaching and I'm thinking about trying to up my game on coyotes specifically with a new scope. Night Vision, Day/Night digital scopes, Thermal.
I saw ATN introduce some new day/night scopes last year, and this year of course SightMark answers with the Wraith. But if I do this, I'm thinking of taking a real 'buy it once' type approach.
The thing with where I hunt is that the ranges can be extreme. So I'd like something that could pick up potential targets out to 1,000 yards, then be able to crisply ID out to say 300 yards. Most shots then will probably be in the 100-250 yard range.
ATN I see also makes Thermal scopes (ThOR 4 I believe they call it). But I've heard some not so great things about ATN too. What about Pulsar, Flir, ?
I wear glasses, so I'm not sure how anything but a traditional style rifle scope would work for me. I see these eyepieces on Thermals, and well - like I say, not sure how I would get along with one of these. Anyone else with glasses using one?
This scope will also be going up on a bolt gun, either a Tikka 243 with EGW rail, or I might even just dedicate an old Rem 700 BDL in 222 rem and put a rail on it if need be.
I'd love all the features possible of course, but then again - my family won't ever want to watch any of these hunt videos, and I won't be live streaming to anybody's iphone in the field with me, so the most important thing is warranty (given the high cost), customer service, rock solid dependable, durable operation that isn't overly complex or cluttered, that gives me hot white and hot black imaging, good zoom/focus capability, great battery life, and like I say the ability to ID small targets as far out there as possible. This is not for hunting wild hogs at 40 or 50 yards, this is for foxes and coyotes... where the coyotes around here are real good about hanging up in finger woods and in fence rows versus coming out in the nice wide open fields where I literally would have 1,000 yard unobstructed views in the day time.
Ease in zero'ing, buttons layout that makes sense and is easy to use in the dark, a range finder would be a nice addition, I've seen Pulsar's Pic in Pic and that seems pretty straightforward and helpful (zoom with a wider field of view then also for any quick follow-up shots).
$2-4K is what I am thinking for this, where on the very low end maybe even something like the ATN ThOR LT 3-6x would be OK (ATN ThOR 4 384x288, 2-8x would probably be better though), and then on the high end, well... I don't know. XQ38 I've heard a lot of good things about, or could I get into an XP or something like the PTS 536? What about the XP Trails, or the really new XM series? (XM30, XM38... don't think I need or could afford the 22 power of a XM50), and I'm never crazy about being the first one to trial out some new design even though these look really great at first glance!
I think I am definitely leaning (right now anyway) in the direction of Thermal, but tell me what would be a better option or maybe some combination play that you've found that works great on coyotes. I know there are a lot of folks on her with wayyyy more experience than I have. Thanks in advance for your insights.
I saw ATN introduce some new day/night scopes last year, and this year of course SightMark answers with the Wraith. But if I do this, I'm thinking of taking a real 'buy it once' type approach.
The thing with where I hunt is that the ranges can be extreme. So I'd like something that could pick up potential targets out to 1,000 yards, then be able to crisply ID out to say 300 yards. Most shots then will probably be in the 100-250 yard range.
ATN I see also makes Thermal scopes (ThOR 4 I believe they call it). But I've heard some not so great things about ATN too. What about Pulsar, Flir, ?
I wear glasses, so I'm not sure how anything but a traditional style rifle scope would work for me. I see these eyepieces on Thermals, and well - like I say, not sure how I would get along with one of these. Anyone else with glasses using one?
This scope will also be going up on a bolt gun, either a Tikka 243 with EGW rail, or I might even just dedicate an old Rem 700 BDL in 222 rem and put a rail on it if need be.
I'd love all the features possible of course, but then again - my family won't ever want to watch any of these hunt videos, and I won't be live streaming to anybody's iphone in the field with me, so the most important thing is warranty (given the high cost), customer service, rock solid dependable, durable operation that isn't overly complex or cluttered, that gives me hot white and hot black imaging, good zoom/focus capability, great battery life, and like I say the ability to ID small targets as far out there as possible. This is not for hunting wild hogs at 40 or 50 yards, this is for foxes and coyotes... where the coyotes around here are real good about hanging up in finger woods and in fence rows versus coming out in the nice wide open fields where I literally would have 1,000 yard unobstructed views in the day time.
Ease in zero'ing, buttons layout that makes sense and is easy to use in the dark, a range finder would be a nice addition, I've seen Pulsar's Pic in Pic and that seems pretty straightforward and helpful (zoom with a wider field of view then also for any quick follow-up shots).
$2-4K is what I am thinking for this, where on the very low end maybe even something like the ATN ThOR LT 3-6x would be OK (ATN ThOR 4 384x288, 2-8x would probably be better though), and then on the high end, well... I don't know. XQ38 I've heard a lot of good things about, or could I get into an XP or something like the PTS 536? What about the XP Trails, or the really new XM series? (XM30, XM38... don't think I need or could afford the 22 power of a XM50), and I'm never crazy about being the first one to trial out some new design even though these look really great at first glance!
I think I am definitely leaning (right now anyway) in the direction of Thermal, but tell me what would be a better option or maybe some combination play that you've found that works great on coyotes. I know there are a lot of folks on her with wayyyy more experience than I have. Thanks in advance for your insights.