Thermion.

[Tony Z]

Pulsar has put out their latest firmware in the last week or so. It upgrades the sound and video functions but most importantly it changes the resolution on the sensor quite considerably. The imaging was very good before and now it is a lot better being sharper where you are able to see far more detail. I used it over the last three days hunting hogs and i can see it is a significant improvement.
I have emailed them about the issues with the accelerometer where if you dry fire the action, sometimes it would turn on and flatten the battery. Also of note is that a number of people have lost or snapped off the front lens cover. I personally cannot see how one would do this, but if you contact Pulsar they will send out a new cap for free,

[Tony Z]

A couple of days ago Pulsar announced that the XM30 is to be discontinued. Actually none were sent out to anyone anywhere it appears. I saw that there were a lot of pre orders for this scope at a number of outlets here is Aus, so i wonder how long it will be before those people are notified. They retailed at around the $4K mark.
Seemed a bad option from the start to offer a thermal scope in that magnification range and not have any adjustable focus. No point of having a 1300 meter detection range when you can't focus past 150 meters. Easy to see why it was dropped when many in the retail game questioned its viability.
Now if they offer something in a 2-8x or 3-6x like ATN does with the Thor LT, but in the Thermion arrangement, that would sell very well i reckon. Perfect for a 22lr rabbit rifle.
The LTs retail for about $1200 USD, but i have yet to find one here.

https://www.atncorp.com/channel/video/565
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrjqLaoNj8o

[barryb]

Tony - no real experience with the thermal as yet but I did have a 1/2 day "play" with the ATN 4 K pro 5-20 yesterday doing their One Shot Zero scenario. Not suggesting it's in the same race as the thermal but I was quietly impressed once we got it up & running & hooked up to an I pad. Yet to be tried in the night time but that's to come in the next week or so.
Barry

[Rabbitz]

Sorry for the hijack but every time I see the title of this thread I think it says Theremin, a weird musical instrument played by not touching it...

https://youtube.com/ZnTLZtZzrWU

[kickinback]

Tony, in your search for this scope did you consider the Trijicon IR Hunter?


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[Tony Z]

Hi kickin, no i didn't consider the Trijicon or even the Flir mainly because no-one regularly stocks them, just has them as POA. I think if i were in the US, i would buy the Flir over the Trijicon purely on equivalent performance less the price tag that comes with buying off a military supplier. Trijicon is actively trying to get their thermals into the military.
Barry i have had a bit of a play with some of the new digital type scopes like the X Sight. They are interesting and some of the features would be very welcome on traditional scopes. The multiple reticle options and X Y coordinates make for easy dialling in of different loads/ranges or if transfered to different rifles. Can you do a bit of a report on your unit? There would have to be a bunch of people on here interested in this gear.

[Tony Z]

Rabbitz i know where you're coming from. Everytime i saw the thread titled "Brittany Spears moment", i had visions of a scantily clad Trev, Guiness in hand, stepping out of a limousine whilst not wearing any underwear. Brittany, i could watch, Trev would be a gouge your eyes out with a hot poker moment

[trevort]

Rabbitz i know where you're coming from. Everytime i saw the thread titled "Brittany Spears moment", i had visions of a scantily clad Trev, Guiness in hand, stepping out of a limousine whilst not wearing any underwear. Brittany, i could watch, Trev would be a gouge your eyes out with a hot poker moment

I had to read that out to kerriet so we could both have a laugh

[Tony Z]

Just a bit of an update. There are quite a few Thermions being used up here of late, possibly due to a local shop getting people access to view one at night courtesy of one of the salesmen at Halls Firearms. The XM 38 seems the popular choice but a couple of XPs are about as well.

Anyway the cane growers up here are having real issues with both mobs of pigs and scrub cattle destroying new cane with the common winge from growers being unable to get reliable shooters to cull. With all the tacticool gear out there surely one would think this was not an issue, but it is.

Last night we went out to a couple of paddocks a 100 ks up the road north in Ingham. We got the drop on a big boar from the moment we set foot on the place. I walked up to around 150 yards and smacked him behind the ear. That is where the story ends and the lesson starts.
A bit of a circuit and we picked up another signature down a cane run. I looked at it and came to the assumption (wrong, again) that it was a somewhat smaller boar at around the same range. Fired with the dot just behind the ear and then no whack like before, just a tearing noise with a wildly leaping boar that immediately brought to my attention,(realization of another major fuckup) that this was a huge pig at a much longer range that is now dying of a ruptured throat and arteries caused by a low shot. Never found the corpse but heard the death throws in the still air in some thicker cane. The first lesson is, once again, never second guess the size or range of an animal using a thermal devise in a near moonless pitch black night where you have little to nil objects to do a perspective of size or range with in a dead flat paddock of cane that is 800 meters or more across. The 223 is great at head shot kills, within its range, but outside of that, not good medicine on a solid boar with inch thick gristle plate and hard bone. So it has to be a head shot which i prefer over chasing wounded animals cross country in the dark.
The second lesson is going to a far flatter and harder hitting set up. A 6x47 with 75 Vmax at 3650 fps with POI set to 250 meters, not 200 with the 223 and 55 grain Roo load. Been saying i am going to do this for a while now. Last night made it very clear it will be done before we go out again in the next few nights.

I have said this before. A laser range finder works at night. When is anyone going to put in a proper range finder, like they already do in digital scopes, in a quality thermal scope and then have it for sale here in Australia? I need one.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?t ... ng.845092/

[macca]

Interesting write up Tony.
Integrated range finder would seem to be a sensible addition. The scope sounds like it works well though.
Cheers

[Tony Z]

Grant Pulsar do make a sort of integrated thermal LRF scope in the Trail. It is essentially a LRF bolted to the left side of the thermal. Hideous in both appearance and cost. The LE-032 has been around for a while now, a digital readout only LRF that bolts onto your traditional day scope, NV or thermal that can be aligned to the reticle. Hideous box looking thing that looks fragile. The poms use them a fair bit with their NV ratting, rabbit and foxing rigs. Cheap enough at $139USD. I may try one until someone comes out with something a little slicker looking. It will happen as the demand is there in the US. Around 99% of the thermal market is the US and the yanks usually get what they ask for.

https://www.amazon.com/LaserWorks-Rifle ... B077M4BF7T

[Glenn]

The second lesson is going to a far flatter and harder hitting set up. A 6x47 with 75 Vmax at 3650 fps with POI set to 250 meters, not 200 with the 223 and 55 grain Roo load. Been saying i am going to do this for a while now. Last night made it very clear it will be done before we go out again in the next few nights.

I have just started using my 6x47Lap again after having the scope fixed.

Put the scope back on, sighted at 1" high at a hundred and checked the speed!

.18 3 shot group at 100yrds!

Have to be happy with the ES!

It has a zero of 300yrds

It is extremely destructive!

I can see a Thermion in my future for this gun.

Glenn

[trevort]

What pill Glenn


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[Tony Z]

Good to see a smart fella on the Re15 train. Well done Glenn.

[Glenn]

Good to see a smart fella on the Re15 train. Well done Glenn.

Trevor,

67grain Copperhead!

Yeah I have only just started using Reloader powder in the 6x47Lap and seems to be working well.
I was getting 3700+ with 2208 so it a bit more speed.

The 6x47lap really dose make a spectacular varmint gun!

I have been using RL33 in me 338 Lap Improved for a while and it made a big difference!
RL33 is the go to powder for 338 Edge too!

Glenn