Thermion.

[B4408]

Good pics. What distance were the deer?

Bruce

[Glenn]

First picture is around 180 yards and the second is 80 is.

[Tony Z]

Good write up Glenn. Good pics.

[Glenn]

Thanks Tony!

Your help was invaluable!

I would never have taken the plunge if it weren't for you, thank you!

Glenn

[MISSED]

Those pics are amazing Glenn not at all like I was expecting.

[crackers17]

Hi Glenn
Do you all way use red hot..
I find white the best for me..

[Tony Z]

I suspect different areas and climates utilise the different palettes available. Up here i pretty much stay on black hot. Used Sepia to good effect to zero at various times but for hunting pigs and deer, black hot just seems to find them quicker for me.

[Glenn]

Thanks Missed!

It take a bit to get them that clear but the results are worth it!

Yeah I seem to leave it on red hot, I tried white seem to go back to red to find deer in the bush.

I use white to shoot it in.

Glenn

[crackers17]

What other settings have you made changes too..
I changed the refresh to semi auto.. I found the some times when just about to shoot it would freeze and shutter...

[Glenn]

Yeah I have mine on auto and have had that happen!

The only thing I adjust is the brightness!

Glenn

[Tony Z]

Crackers that NUK can be a royal pain at times but i have left it on auto and watch the timer at bottom left run down. I found the worst case is when you fire the unit up it will NUK half a dozen times and then settle. I simply turn it on 20 minutes or so before i start the night, and off at the end. At times i will change out the battery and keep going. I find leaving it on gets more battery time than switching on and off all the time.

Just as a matter of point Glenn, you may have noticed the XM line, now discontinued, the units left for sale are bloody expensive and getting up there with the XPs. For long range work i know they are highly sought after in the US. I was looking to offload mine and get the XG if it ever gets here, but i decided to hang onto it and get the XG anyway. At longer range the XM has better resolution than the XQ and head to head i see nothing in it with the XP. Actually the only gain i see with any of them is FOV for general hunting. The XPs kill it there.

I will mention also that i got to play with the new BTR 50 from Burris. Identical to or one in the same as the Guide. Good eye relief, and the OLED screen is on another level. No details as yet on detection range, field of view is at 8x6 degrees or similar to the XQ38. But what is exceptional is the battery time. Turned the unit on at 9am in the shop and turned off at 4.30 pm after i fucked with its settings for a good hour and it still had charge left. The battery is a single 18650 which can be bought anywhere.

Essentially a Pulsar menu where it has the PIP, but in the top right which is a head fuck, but the rest is like if you can drive any Pulsar, the BTR is a few minutes of getting used to the slightly different layout. Clips on and off to run as a monocular or rifle scope and is fucken tiny and weighs fuckall. But it takes 15 seconds to fire up!!! The deer are in the next shire before it gets itself ready to shoot. The other issue is the frame rate. It claims 50hz but when panning you could see the frame lag like a bad TV screen trying to keep up with the cars at Bathurst, not a good thing for running game up close and nothing i have seen since i got rid of the FLIR. At $4800 not a bad buy if you can get your head around the cantilever mount rail like on the NiteTech MS line. I'm no fan of the cantilever setup, but that's just me and why i prefer the Thermion with its traditional riflescope setup.

[Glenn]

I have three large batteries now because of the power issue Tony!
I was going to sell my XM38 and get a XP50 because of the small field of view.
I talked to a bloke from the importers he said, "is the field view the only issue"? Yes!
Once you're on the animal the scope works really well.
He said I was better keeping the XM38 and get a hand held with a wider field of view and a rangefinder!
I could not argue with with that!
I will have a bit more money in the scope and the handheld than the XP50 but the convenience of the
handheld will be a huge benefit!

Shot distance was one of the things I was concerned about because of where we shoot.
I have shot deer from 20yrds to 350yrds with high magnification, 22X, spotlighting for years.
After getting the thermal scope an actually using it I ended up running the scope on 4X,
with the screen in screen on 8X for a smaller aiming point!
It goes to 16X but pixelates badly! Never used it!

After rebarreling the gun to 308Win I had told myself it was a 200yrd gun because of
the lower magnification. Yeah, nah!

As I have said judging distance can be really hard and because of this I have shot a fair few deer over 300yrds!
I just have to remember to aim high with the 308!

The other thing that I have had to adjust to is how much time you have to shoot!
Most, if not all the deer we see are running so you had to be right on them and wait for them to look
back to shoot, there were times I did not get shot.
Now, wow, you really do have plenty of time to make a good shot!

They are an investment because your shot to kill ratio improves!

Glenn

[Tony Z]

Thought I'd keep this thread going. Good mate sent me this pic last night. He was watching the footy and heard the dogs barking so he walked out onto his veranda and spotted over 20 pigs rooting up the house paddock looking for nut grass. They had dozed the paddock earlier in the week.
Anyway he got 6 with his XQ38 on the 6.5x55 varmint using 123 SSTs. A couple of nice boars with this runt of the litter amongst them.

[barryb]

Ole mate has done well Tony & thanks for revitalising the thread. If these bloody mice don't start going away I'll be bringing out my XM50 to tidy them up with smaller bullets than the Swede.

[crackers17]

So I sold my thermion
To.get a iray Rh50
So far I'm very happy with it soo clear ..
Yea like everything tech got good and bad but I feel I and just get I out of the safe and good shoot foxes
Il.try and get some pictures up soon