Night Vision VS Thermal for hunting??

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You're in ND. Scheels in Bismarck has a large selection of thermal units sitting on the shelf covering all price ranges. I'm sure they'll take 'em out of the case and let you take a close look.

Go thermal. You have the best furred coyotes in the country. Coyotes at distance and airgunning under 100 yards really call for two different scopes. BUT you're in the wide open plains of ND... For a single thermal purchase I'd gear up for coyotes at distance. I would go 3x base mag at a minimum and make it work for the close stuff. You can kill buckets of mice in those fields with an airgun and a thermal like that.
 
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woogie_man said:
I have used some very high end thermals and night vision units when I was deployed. Each unit kept getting better and better. But when you look at the prices of those....my wife would filet me if she found those in the house. Lol

I will look at the guys there in TX and see what they say.

A range finder isn't a "gotta have" thing, but it would be nice. I am guessing with the airguns it will be max around 100 yards. On a coyote gun my Creedmoor is fairly flat shooting ;)
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Distance estimation is nearly impossible when looking at a thermal/NV screen unless you know the ground you're shooting really well. It is a 2 dimensional image.
 
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So here is my take, having two Day/Night Scopes and have owned a 384px Thermal Scope previously, and currently own a 640px Thermal Scope and a 256px AGM Taipan thermal monocle.

I wrote an article on What Thermal Optics Bring To Airgunners over on the Reddit airgun sub. Not that you need to know this, as I think you have a good idea about what this brings, but I do have a few comparison images between my AGM Taipan 256px monocle and my ATN THOR 4 2-25 640px scope. This will help you decide how much resolution you really need. I will include a few of the images here just in case you prefer not to go over to reddit.

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Images taken with my Samsung S23 Ultra that is approximately what I see with my naked eye.


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The same shot with the AGM Taipan 10-256px monocle.

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The same shot taken with the ATN THOR 4 2-25x 640px scope.

As you can see, the higher resolution thermal provides a significant increase in resolved detail.

But here are some things that the spec sheet can't let you know about that I think is important between a Night Scope and Thermal:
  • If you are hunting/pesting where you would like to detect prey at very long distances (500-1500 yards), thermal wins hands down.
  • If you want to easily spot prey that is not facing towards you, thermal wins. Oftentimes, with Night Scopes, you get the longest detection range from the IR Light reflecting from your prey's eyes. This is harder to do if the prey is moving away from you.
  • If you want to easily detect if your shot connected, themal is the best. Blood trails and impact splatters are easily visible on thermal optics.
  • In some cases, I have been able to detect prey not directly visible to me, because their body heat warmed up their enclosure. Night Scopes with IR illuminators must project infrared light directly onto it's subject for it to be visible.
  • Identification is far easier with IR Night Scopes. Full Disclosure: I once mistakenly killed a pregnant possum using my 640px Thermal Scope because I was certain it was a raccoon, and this was just at 25 yards!
  • The quality and viewing distance of an IR Night Scope can be improved greatly by using an aftermarket IR Light. With a Thermal Scope, it is what it is.
  • Aftermarket IR Lights consume a significant amount of power, so battery life is always a concern. A Thermal Scope has no need for power hungry IR illuminators.
  • An IR Night Scope can easily be blinded by IR Light reflecting off of tall brush, trees and other foliage. Thermal has no such issues.
  • Depth perception with an IR Night Scope is significantly better than with a Thermal Scope when viewing items of similar temperature.
 
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Something else to note about thermal scopes. One night I was in a tree stand overlooking a small pool by a culvert that went under a road. The hogs loved to wallow in the pool when it was hot, then rub the mud off on nearby trees. We had placed a feeder there and trail cameras revealed an abundance of hogs using the area. So while I'm waiting for the hogs to show up a bullfrog starts croaking in the pool. I looked and looked through my thermal scope but couldn't see him! Why? He's the same temperature as the water! No temperature difference for the thermal to pick up on. Weird, but makes sense if you think about it. You won't see cold blooded animals in a thermal, so gators, snakes, frogs etc. will go undetected.
 
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HOCK08 said:
Something else to note about thermal scopes. One night I was in a tree stand overlooking a small pool by a culvert that went under a road. The hogs loved to wallow in the pool when it was hot, then rub the mud off on nearby trees. We had placed a feeder there and trail cameras revealed an abundance of hogs using the area. So while I'm waiting for the hogs to show up a bullfrog starts croaking in the pool. I looked and looked through my thermal scope but couldn't see him! Why? He's the same temperature as the water! No temperature difference for the thermal to pick up on. Weird, but makes sense if you think about it. You won't see cold blooded animals in a thermal, so gators, snakes, frogs etc. will go undetected.
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This is a great thing to take note of and why I think the new ThermNight TNC225R will be a great tool for some people. It's a 256 sensor yes but paired with a digital image you have the best of both worlds so in a situation like you described you can use the night mode to spot those cold blooded guys. It works the same on thr NV side sometimes your in a nice open space where that IR light can do it's Job and than you move position and now you have IR bounce back from vegetation, you can either swap to just thermal or run both images at the same time so you can see if you have any obstructions.
 
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HOCK08 said:
Something else to note about thermal scopes. One night I was in a tree stand overlooking a small pool by a culvert that went under a road. The hogs loved to wallow in the pool when it was hot, then rub the mud off on nearby trees. We had placed a feeder there and trail cameras revealed an abundance of hogs using the area. So while I'm waiting for the hogs to show up a bullfrog starts croaking in the pool. I looked and looked through my thermal scope but couldn't see him! Why? He's the same temperature as the water! No temperature difference for the thermal to pick up on. Weird, but makes sense if you think about it. You won't see cold blooded animals in a thermal, so gators, snakes, frogs etc. will go undetected.
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Well...... Not Exactly. 🙃

A thermal will love it if the target is hotter than ambient, but I can also clearly see any temperature differences, even if the temp difference is just a 1/20th of a degree on the surface of the same object. I just took some photos outside of my home with various objects that should be the same temperature, and you can see that the detail in these items is clearly visible. All photos taken with the ATN THoR 4 640 2.5-25x scope at 2.5x zoom. I have no clue if my scope can detect a bullfrog in a swamp, or other cold blooded animals. But I can clearly see things that should be very close to the ambient temp.

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My neighbor's trashy garage and broke down car: Each plank on the garage are clearly visible even at 11pm.

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The bark on my tree is clearly visible.

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Even more temperature differences are detectable when using a different thermal profile.
 
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