There aren't many options right now for thermal clipons.
The pulsar fxq 38 and 50 are the "low end" ... though they are hunting useable if you work thru the mounting issues, but you're looking at 3x to 5x magnification on the day scope, which for most night hunting is actually plenty. And these are 384 units, but for those who have used them, they are darn good images for "320-ish" units. Street prices are the in $3800 plus or minus range.
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There are some older armasight apollo/apollo pro units around and those are hunting usable. I started with those. But those FLIR cores are, er, well, not really great. The 336 apollo can do 3x ... and the 640 5x.
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Then you get up to the SNIPE, the first one I'd actually want to own. I had one for testing a couple of years ago and I squeezed it up to 8x, though most people would probably stop at 6x or 7x. You can also hook them on your helmet as a spotter (they have a dove tail) ... or on your rifle as a clipon (their design purpose) or even as a dedicated scope ... and you can run them on 2x digital if you want more than 1x. They are basically REAPv1s with a collimating lens on back. And they have 12 FOV, which is better for most night hunting, compared to the "long distance" thermal clipons. Street price $8k plus or minus.
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Then we have the LWTS-LR, which is really the ONLY LDTC we can buy right now. Street price $15k plus or minus.
Their were rumors of FLIR restarting manufacturing on the T75s, but despite numerous "promises" from FLIR management that units were shipping our way, non-such every arrived ... and comms from FLIR did not not sucque.
There are also rumors of Trijicon starting up production on the UTCx again. If these rumors are true, we might hear an announcement at SHOT, and we might hear whether these would be commercially available. If they will be, I'd bet on late summer. Look at the pattern of the Skeets, ,SHOT announcement, shipping commercially in Sept. I'd bet on that sort of timeline. As to pricing, well the original BAE UTCx(s) MSRP was $20,500 IIRC, so probably somewhere between $15k and $20k would be my guess. Street price probably higher than the street price of the LWTS-LR. The UTCx has an FOV of 6 degrees versus the LWTS-LR of 7.4 degrees. So neither are ideal for hog hunting, at least not solo versus a field full of multiple sounders !
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But back to the point of this post, there just aren't many options in the thermal clipon space. The LWTS-LR owns the LDTC space as the ONLY option, other than used units some of which might be "grey" as they say.
The SNIPE owns the "intermediate" distance space ... and the Pulsars own the low end ...
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For most hunters the dedicated thermal is a better answer. Usually lower cost all other things being equal (which they never are) ... and the magnification is on the front end (not the back) so no degradation of image due to magnification ... and the weight is less. One dedicated scope weighs less than a clipon PLUS a dedicated scope. The few crazy folks (like me) that want thermal clipons, will just have to live with the few choices available right now and keep hoping for more choices one day !!
