Thermion.

[Tony Z]

Bit more of an update since I'm getting to use the thermals a fair bit in the cane and mango crops. Having seen an XP i feel the specs on the Thermion line is somewhat fictional. The XMs are said to have a longer detection range but a narrower field of view. The XPs are stated as having a shorter detection range but a far better field of view. Having 20/20 hindsight, the XP 38 would have to be the pick contrary to what you may read on the spec sheet. Lower magnification with wider field of view but with more than enough detection range. Actually i saw no difference in detection range.
The detection ranges stated may seem a bit of throwaway gimmick but i can tell you virtually every time i go out i find animals at 1000 to 1500 yards away, or even further. At that range you always have the advantage. Up close the low end of 4x on my XM38 and the narrower field of view can be rather testing as i saw on Boxing Day night with a boar i shot in the mangoes at less than 20 yards. But at longer ranges the XM is very good. I think if you are looking at a Thermion and you want to take shots up close or further out, get an XP even though they are a grand or more dearer.
I have yet to have a play with the new Thor 4s but reviews i have read indicate they are a very good unit aswell.

[Tony Z]

We have had a huge storm come through a couple of hours ago and as is usual the hogs come out to play looking for nutgrass along the riverbank. We spot them from the upper deck of the mates place where we can scan a long way up or down river. Thermals are made for this type of shit. Elevated view means nothing can hide and tonight was the perfect time to try the Thermion in the rain. And as stated, rain, smoke or fog at night, thermals see it.
This fellow walked through the neighbors front paddock that parallels the river bank, at around 700 yards from where we were viewing from. From there he walked down the driveway, then out onto to the access road where i shot him from the mates letterbox at a range of a 100 yards and as usual, he had no idea of his fate. The photo does no justice, this is a big boar with a huge head and fat from a good season of mangoes and rockmelons. I could just drag him off into the drain where i will tow him away in the morning. The Thermion has been transferred to my stainless Tikka 595 in 22/250, 55 grain roo load at 3800 fps.

[17REM]

Mmm, he would of taste good!
Nice work.

[macca]

Very nice work Tony.
Fat "little" bugger.
Cheers

[trevort]

Good stuff. One day I’ll get one of those


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tony Z]

Trev if you are looking to go to the Cape to get some hogs next year or whenever, and you're short on takers, talk to me, i am keen to go again.
Cape pigs are better for hooks. Cane and melon pigs rarely have really big hooks due to the soft soil. No need. Cape boars live in some tough country and grow decent hooks on even average boars. This is a big boar with juvenile hooks. Typical of the coast.

[barryb]

Tony , back to the Thermion, I'm currently playing around with an XQ50 & the last couple of nights I have been trying to get a "line" on some flying foxes for re-location purposes as they are making it impossible to sleep . For some reason the XQ 50 doesn't seem to bring them up , any light you can throw on that or maybe I need to do some more adjustments
Barry

[Tony Z]

Barry we are talking fruit bats, flying foxes, rats with wings here?
I'm puzzled as to why you're not seeing them with the XQ. As you would have read the mates mango groves is where we get the pigs this time of year. Fruit bats love mangos, they are protected and with low numbers bordering on the endangered list, apparently, there are about 50 million on the mates groves alone. Through the Thermion and XD they literally glow like a Christmas decoration. We can see them in the trees at 1500 yards or more. If you can't see them with the XQ, there has to be a reason like as you said, settings or possibly the rats grow thick fur down your way and are screened from view. For example, cats, dogs and foxes with bushy tails and or ears cannot be seen, the ears or tails that is. It is funny looking at a cat or fox through thermal with the image showing no ears or tail. Easy to mistake them for a pig at longer ranges when in long grass.
Back to your XQ, it should show up the body at least. Their wings are very thin and have little heat so when the fly, the image is that of a rat floating in the air because the thermal often does not see the wings. A very weird image.

[barryb]

Thanks Tony - like you I was aware they are nearly endangered & as I found out a few years back when I volunteered my services with surplus 17 Rem rounds to the NSWNational Park to scare off a heap of them that were polluting the river just upstream of one of our popular ( for the area ) caravan parks. He suggested it was $2400 I think per bat & when I said ammo wasn't that dear he pointed out he was talking about the fine & not ammo. We got to talking a bit & he said they wouldn't be there for long as all they were after was the blossoms from the gum trees , BUT 2 years plus later they are still there , no blossoms & not much left of the trees in any case.Enough ramblings about my favourite species - I'll have another go tonight & come back.
Barry

[Tony Z]

Barry not that may years ago the Charters Towers council were supplying shotguns and ammo to civilians to go to the parks, right in the town center, and scare off the cute little fruit eating creatures. Katter had some input into this somewhere along the way with a possible view to rid the parks of the other noisy smelly rodents crapping in the garden beds. As one can imagine, the Greens had kittens once they heard and the scheme was very short lived. Katter offered to move the bats to Melbourne and Adelaide, with little reply. Easy to love them from afar, no picnic when they nest beside the bedroom window.

[Tony Z]

Bit more of an update on the Thermion XM38. It has been on the Mini 223 since i got it in early July last year. Out with it last weekend on a mates farm who has had two families of hogs destroying large areas of laid plastic in search of ??? in the moist soil. Got onto one of the families and got six of the seven pests. Five three parts grown boars and one sow which i assume are the porkers left to live from last seasons detruction of some bigger hogs. They do get educated by previous generations to wait till evening, come up the creek, walk past the homes on the highway which is lit up like friggin daylight, sneak past the grid, enter the fully mesh enclosed farm, do a heap of damage, get extremely fat and then leave before daylight. There is no accidental entry here, these are educated pigs. Like the crows, see my car and head west for safety. Seriously, animals are way smarter than some humans on the dole.

Closest shot was 150 yards, longest was 275, all head shot. The second family i saw in the exact same location at around 2am the same night but as pigs often do, they vanished into thin air, even with all the advantage of a thermal sight and scanner, a farm fully enclosed by netting, though it is a very large acreage with some thick bush areas to hide in.

From the day i set the thermal on the Howa, i have never needed to touch it except to adjust for a point blank of 250 yards (225 yard zero) from the original 200 yard zero. So anyone wondering about reliability, i see nothing to indicate anything but a routine of charge the batteries, turn on and shoot.

I have in recent times taken out a few fellows i know well or through connection to one of the local gunshops. All but one now have thermals. The last one is the mate who owns one of the farms i frequent, but as of last week he has ordered a new T3 and is about to get a thermal sight and thermal monocular. Possibly both from Night Tech which is what i am looking at currently. The MS 42 specifically. The ATN Thor 4 i am not keen on as it has an internal battery only where ATN state the scope will have to be returned to replace in something like seven years. That is at best and to me is an oversight by the company. I like the battery system on the early ATNs and current Pulsars.
The moral of the story. Don't come out night hunting with me. Don't go out hunting with a mate who has a later generation thermal. It will cost you. Be smart like macca, do not take up an offer to borrow a thermal

[macca]

Don't go out hunting with a mate who has a later generation thermal. It will cost you. Be smart like macca, do not take up an offer to borrow a thermal

And my bank account is happier for it. Though it may be in my future when i sell some gear. I was worried I would like it that much I would have to buy one.
Cheers

[crackers17]

What kind of run time do you get Tony

[Tony Z]

What kind of run time do you get Tony

Around 4 1/2 to 5 hours on the internal and first external battery with no video or wifi. Two hours approx on each replacement external battery after that (2000 mAh ea).
Best to just leave it on. Turning on and off uses more power and can cut it back to around 4 hours and 1 1/2 hours per spare external battery.

[Tony Z]

There is one thing i have completely overlooked to inform people of and something that i have been using of late.

In the wifi Stream Vision app that is free to all Thermion owners, you can set motion detection notification to your phone or tablet. So how it works is you set the rifle as i do on a tripod, Thermion turned on and wifi on, overlooking an area. You can observe, increase or decrease magnification, alter reticles and configure a ballistic solution without touching the scope. There are even kits available now to aim and shoot the rifle remotely and there are youtube vids of vehicle mounted units doing just that with the user inside the cabin out of the cold. Semi auto ARs of course. Bloody yanks.

If and when the app detects motion in the scopes arc, it vibrates the phone or tablet. It also highlights on the phone or tablet screen the object that has moved by surrounding the moved object with a red square. Basically a neon sign that says, I'm a big fat boar, come shoot me.
There is a sensitivity adjustment to tune out tree and branch movement. It is quite extraordinary that the rifle sits on a tripod in a hog saddle overlooking a hotspot like a dam or carcass and you don't even have to be awake to be notified.