Long time listener, first time caller.
I have spent the last two weeks following a similar jump into the world of thermal optics this past summer and all I manage to do is confuse myself. I’m posting because I’m just frustrated and tired of running in freaking circles…I live in a small town so it’s not like I can run down to (fill in the blank) and handle/try out anything; I’m entirely reliant on the internet/forums and I’m just getting nowhere.
I’m looking for two things. The first and one that’s confusing me is a thermal weapon sight. I’m north of 50, I’ve learned to buy the one I want first because it’s far more expensive to ladder my way up and I’ll end up with that one way or another anyway.
Best example is probably early in my hunting career, also optics. I bought three sets of binos up until I finally got what I really wanted…a nice pair of rangefinder binos. Would have been way less expensive to just save up and get what I wanted although it’s nice to have a couple of pretty good binos for the kids or friends who forget or don’t have them or whatever. Also I never wonder if I could see better with a little bit better glass.
This stuff is far too expensive to go jacking around with and I don’t want to buy three to get the fourth that I really want, so here I am. I cannot be the only one who finds this incredibly confusing.
Plan is to buy Pulsar XR50’s for scanning and a dedicated weapon sight for rifle(s).
I think I’ve learned enough to know that 640 is an important number, I don’t care whether I can record video at all, in fact I won’t use that feature at all. I just don’t want to have buyers remorse. I’ll shoot inside of 300 and may swap between a .300BO and 6.5 Grendel, both are AR’s but primary is .300BO. I’d like it to range whatever I’m looking at and would like to zero a couple of reticles to my rifles/loads.
Of course the first question back at me is probably, “What’s your budget?” The answer is I don’t know. Maybe below $8k? $5000? No idea. Brand? Don’t know, don’t care. I like and run Trijicon and EoTech among other brands on different rifles but I’m not married to any of them. My open tabs on my ipad right now are, “I Ray”, “Trijicon”, “Halo-LR” but because I’ve got over 100 tabs open that’s just the start. I’m not above buying used either.
Would one or more of you who knows this stuff be so kind as to throw two or three brands/models out there that you believe will fit the bill? Say run the spectrum of $3500-$8000.
I should have done this about July so I could shop and potentially grab one at some sort of a decent price. Now is most likely the time that demand is strongest so I suspect price is not moving around much.
Will probably buy this first and wait on the binos…it’s a lot of $ and I dang sure want to know I’m going to use this stuff enough to justify the spend.
Since I’ve got you…are the Pulsar binos I mentioned what I ought to be looking at? Are there others/as good/better at roughly the same price?
Thanks guys, and I’m sure thankful for forums such as this where others give so freely of their experience/knowledge. I’d chime in if I thought I’d be helpful but since this stuff is NOT my specialty I just keep my mouth shut and am thankful for those who give so freely of their experience/knowledge to complete strangers. If you want to know something about inshore gulf coast fishing or smoking ribs…happy to oblige with what I know. That’s all I’ll claim to be half good at.
I have spent the last two weeks following a similar jump into the world of thermal optics this past summer and all I manage to do is confuse myself. I’m posting because I’m just frustrated and tired of running in freaking circles…I live in a small town so it’s not like I can run down to (fill in the blank) and handle/try out anything; I’m entirely reliant on the internet/forums and I’m just getting nowhere.
I’m looking for two things. The first and one that’s confusing me is a thermal weapon sight. I’m north of 50, I’ve learned to buy the one I want first because it’s far more expensive to ladder my way up and I’ll end up with that one way or another anyway.
Best example is probably early in my hunting career, also optics. I bought three sets of binos up until I finally got what I really wanted…a nice pair of rangefinder binos. Would have been way less expensive to just save up and get what I wanted although it’s nice to have a couple of pretty good binos for the kids or friends who forget or don’t have them or whatever. Also I never wonder if I could see better with a little bit better glass.
This stuff is far too expensive to go jacking around with and I don’t want to buy three to get the fourth that I really want, so here I am. I cannot be the only one who finds this incredibly confusing.
Plan is to buy Pulsar XR50’s for scanning and a dedicated weapon sight for rifle(s).
I think I’ve learned enough to know that 640 is an important number, I don’t care whether I can record video at all, in fact I won’t use that feature at all. I just don’t want to have buyers remorse. I’ll shoot inside of 300 and may swap between a .300BO and 6.5 Grendel, both are AR’s but primary is .300BO. I’d like it to range whatever I’m looking at and would like to zero a couple of reticles to my rifles/loads.
Of course the first question back at me is probably, “What’s your budget?” The answer is I don’t know. Maybe below $8k? $5000? No idea. Brand? Don’t know, don’t care. I like and run Trijicon and EoTech among other brands on different rifles but I’m not married to any of them. My open tabs on my ipad right now are, “I Ray”, “Trijicon”, “Halo-LR” but because I’ve got over 100 tabs open that’s just the start. I’m not above buying used either.
Would one or more of you who knows this stuff be so kind as to throw two or three brands/models out there that you believe will fit the bill? Say run the spectrum of $3500-$8000.
I should have done this about July so I could shop and potentially grab one at some sort of a decent price. Now is most likely the time that demand is strongest so I suspect price is not moving around much.
Will probably buy this first and wait on the binos…it’s a lot of $ and I dang sure want to know I’m going to use this stuff enough to justify the spend.
Since I’ve got you…are the Pulsar binos I mentioned what I ought to be looking at? Are there others/as good/better at roughly the same price?
Thanks guys, and I’m sure thankful for forums such as this where others give so freely of their experience/knowledge. I’d chime in if I thought I’d be helpful but since this stuff is NOT my specialty I just keep my mouth shut and am thankful for those who give so freely of their experience/knowledge to complete strangers. If you want to know something about inshore gulf coast fishing or smoking ribs…happy to oblige with what I know. That’s all I’ll claim to be half good at.
as so eloquently described by 
