Sometimes I think I should pinch myself. My job exposes me to all kinds of new guns, ammo, optics and gear priced high to low. Sometimes I love the stuff, and I vow to add it to my collection. Sometimes I could not care less about seeing another AR or another bino harness or pack or pair of boots. But every time I handle thermal optics, I am reminded just how much new technology is to be discovered, and just how much I would love to have such equipment in my repertoire.
Ahh, but the price …
That’s exactly what crossed my mind last spring, when American Rifleman Managing Editor Chris Olsen and I joined friends from Sellmark, the parent corporation of several brands including Sightmark, Pulsar and Kopfjager, for a night pig hunt at Sellmark Ranch, south of Dallas. The setting was cool, the people were super-cool and there certainly were enough targets—we couldn’t shoot enough pigs to make a dent in the population, but we tried.
But it was the equipment, which was off-the-charts cool, that really blew me away. Excuse me, then, for this story about high-tech gear that reads more like a “Hardware” piece you might find in the back of AH, not in the feature well. Readers looking for scintillating adventure won’t find it here. However, gear geeks who like nomenclature—this is right up your alley.
I’ve long been a believer in using sticks, or some kind of rest, almost every time I take a shot at game. I always carry one or two options: flip-out sticks, a bipod for the fore-end of a rifle or a bipod or tripod I can stand behind. Lately I’ve been checking out shooting saddles, a cradle to hold the fore-end of your rifle that replaces a standard ball head on a tripod. Such a rest can be great when set up in a blind; the right one allows you to mount the gun and go hands-free until a shot is imminent. It can also come in handy when the shot is long and the game doesn’t know you’re there, and you have plenty of time to set up a perfectly rested shot. So during an afternoon sight-in session I was pleased to be handed a Kopfjager tripod and shooting cradle (kjrests.com).
Kopfjager is German for headhunter—a good name for a product line that helps hunters make precision shots. Its Reaper Grip is the way to go if you want an absolutely rock-solid rest. It’s an easy add-on to any tripod as it mounts directly to the ball joint. A thread insert is included for mounting on 1/4-20 studs. The Grip maximizes your chances for any number of shooting positions beyond the supported prone. Sitting, kneeling, standing, sitting in a blind—they’re all doable. Its non-slip sleeve with six “fingers” anchors most tapered and straight fore-ends, locking down to just the right amount of tension; loose enough to cradle your gun with room to push and pull; tight enough to let go completely. It pans 360 degrees and tilts up to 109 degrees. The offset mount allows for magazine changes. Alone, the Reaper Grip is $265. Better yet, Kopfjager packages it with its K800 carbon-fiber tripod for only $399, not a bad price for equipment you can use the rest of your life in many hunting scenarios.
Into the Reaper Grip Chris and I each threw a Rossi R5 lever action chambered in .45-70 fitted with a Sightmark Wraith Mini thermal riflescope. Wow, what a setup for quick shooting.
Sightmark makes many sighting systems including daylight and thermal riflescopes, gun sights, laser sights and digital night vision. The stuff performs excellently, hits the mark price-wise and includes a limited lifetime warranty. Its Wraith Mini Thermal is a digital thermal riflescope with high-tech thermal sensors on HD digital displays. Its 35mm objective lens, 384x288 sensor resolution and 1024x768 OLED display ensure enhanced imaging and crisp pictures, and a built-in video recorder with sound captures every shot if you’d like. With a detection range up to 1,400 yards, 2X optical magnification and 1-8X digital zoom, this is the perfect little setup to launch your thermal collection. Other features include five color palettes, 10 reticles and nine reticle colors. Weight is less than 20 ounces, length is less than 7 inches—not bad for all the technology at your disposal. Two CR123 batteries run the unit for about four hours in video mode. This little thermal scope is ready to throw atop any rifle with a built-in Pic rail mount. The Wraith Mini Thermal 2-16x35mm retails for $1,499.97, making it perhaps the most attractive unit here to a hunter looking to enter the world of thermal.
Then we took it up a notch with Pulsar thermal riflescopes. This is a whole other level of performance, and the prices reflect it. Pulsar backs all its thermal devices with a five-year warranty, as a factory three-year warranty may be extended two additional years upon registration in the United States. With these optics we used semi-custom AR-15s. On one setup, Chris used an F1 Firearms HDR. On the last night, he used a Watchtower Firearms Type 15, and I used an LWRCI piston-driven SIX8-A5 Razorback II. Both of these guns were chambered in a proper pig-killing cartridge, the Remington 6.8 SPC. Both guns wore suppressors.
Chris used a Pulsar Thermion Duo thermal riflescope. From the outside every Thermion looks like a standard 30mm daylight riflescope, albeit with a few bulges that hint at the technology inside the unit. Pulsar bills the Thermion as the world’s first multispectral hunting riflescope as it combines high-tech thermal imaging the company is known for with the clarity and vivid picture found in a full-color daytime scope. Thermions can withstand harsh recoil, even from a .375 H&H Mag. They’re waterproof, too.
Long-range digital zoom and crisp thermal sensors coupled with high-definition digital displays deliver to night hunters optimal visibility, even in absolute darkness. A 640x480 high-sensitivity thermal imaging sensor and 2X-16X magnification are at your fingertips after a four-second startup. Three sensor sensitivity levels help you adapt to a variety of environmental conditions.
With eight thermal color palettes and five shooting profiles compatible with multiple rifles, hunters can fine-tune the scope for maximum effectiveness. Of the eight colors, white hot, black hot and red hot are optimal for object detection. Zeroed settings are saved in a shooting profile. The scope’s memory contains up to five shooting profiles for several different guns or cartridges, and each profile can hold up to 10 zeroed distances. Ten shape- and color-customizable reticles (including a ballistic reticle) can be set up in nine color options.
An included wireless remote allows you to adjust settings without ever pulling your head out of the scope. It’s Wi-Fi ready, too, and it’s compatible with the Steam Vision 2 app, and with 16GB of cloud space you can store and share many hunting conquests via video. Two rechargeable batteries are included: one with a built-in capacity of 4.9 amp hours, the other replaceable with a capacity of two amp hours. A single charge permits up to six hours of life, good enough for just about any night hunt. Weight is just a little more than 2 pounds. The Thermion Duo DXP50 thermal riflescope Chris used retails for $4,700 right now on Pulsar’s website, which certainly takes it out of the “impulse buy” category. But for that price it’s got it all.
On the LWRCI I carried the last night I used a Pulsar Talion XG35 thermal riflescope. As the name implies, it’s a thermal scope that isn’t far removed from the Thermion line. Inside this scope you can also save five individual shooting profiles and 50 zeroes. It, too, offers 10 reticles in nine colors. It also offers video and photo capture. It stands up to extreme recoil, and it’s waterproof. It’s powered by Pulsar’s APS5T rechargeable battery, which provides up to seven hours of operation on a charge.
The Talion uses an uncooled sensor, with a resolution of 640x480 pixels, a magnification range of 2X-16X and a 35mm objective lens. Video and photo resolution is 1024x768. Video files are stored as mp4 and photo files are stored as jpegs, two formats I am used to seeing in the rest of the world.
I like the form factor of this scope’s magnesium alloy body, which is another way of saying I like its size, which is 13 inches long, and its weight, which is less than 1.5 pounds. It offers many mounting options including numerous Weaver footprints and a handful more. I also like its price at “only” $3,000. Yeah, that may sound like a lot, but a quality daylight riflescope from many high-end optics makers these days can easily surpass $2,500. In that light, I don’t consider the Talion too expensive, not with all the technology it puts at your fingertips. This is an aspirational purchase, to be sure, but one that probably lies in the future of many hunters.
Like I said, this story wasn’t about high adventure but rather high tech—in spades. I could go on about all these optics, but my eyes, like yours I’m sure, are rolling back in my head. There is so much to learn about thermal imaging. I need to get cracking, frankly. Do you want to own the night? Check out Sightmark and Pulsar thermal riflescopes.
