FLIR shopping

pupchow

NES Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Messages
5,522
Likes
4,288
Location
CTRLGRP
Feedback: 19 / 0 / 0
Where have you gotten the best experience when $hopping for a FLIR product? With regard to pricing, I see a lot of MAP out there with nothing much differentiating the resellers.
 
Spotting scope or rifle scope? Also, is this for coyotes and other night hunting? Where you will be sitting and calling?
 
I've got a thermal scope mounted on a rifle, and I'm looking to add a thermal monocular for scanning during night hunting (predators). Ground cover ranges from thick understory in dense woods, to open fields up to 200 yards. I'm looking at the FLIR Breach, and would likely go with a helmet setup. I would also like to add an auxiliary power pack.
 
Saw sig had a $1500 for $700. Not sure if it any good. I am not sure weather thermal would be better than NV if I had to pick 1.
 
Saw sig had a $1500 for $700. Not sure if it any good. I am not sure weather thermal would be better than NV if I had to pick 1.
Thermal excels for detection. I've got the cheapest thermal scope going, and it kicks ass for detection. NV is better for confirming ID, as it provides an actual image of the target, but IR splashback in the woods makes it difficult to work with. And without IR, NV is mostly useless.
 
I ordered a FLIR PTQ136, and Armasight goggle kit to go with. Hopefully that works out, since I'm not anticipating any tactical rolls in the woodlands.
 
I hate to be the guy to say this, dont spend more than you can afford...... but if you dont spend as much as possible you'll regret it...
The basic stuff gets the job done... i think sometimes you pay for versitilty.... but no tool is a one size fits all..
 
I received the PTQ136, and it is TINY. While it's a minimalist, tactical device first, it will serve my purpose - scanning/detection of predators. The longest distances I'm working with are 200yds, with the effective range of any weapon I'm using at night being limited to inside 100yds.

I've got the Armasight nvg headgear setup with it now, and an external battery wired up from a pocket. While it does work, and it's a complete mounting solution, it's way too light duty. Eventually I'm going to go with a lid with NVG shroud. That'll ease the external battery setup, but now you're talking NVG mount and adapter for the PTQ136.
 
Got the FLIR PTQ136 mounted to a Team Wendy lid, with a Wilcox L4G24 mount, using an Armasight swing arm #172. The Armasight mini rail to dovetail adapter is a piece of shit. I had to file the dovetail down to get it to engage the NVG mount. And, there's a lot of slop at the rail mount. FLIR needs to get to work on that crap. I have no counterweight on the helmet, but I will be mounting a TNVC battery pack, which will offset the weight of the monocular.

TNVC Thermal Remote Battery (TRB) – Tactical Night Vision Company
 
Only thing I’ve seen that wasn’t junk basically ran around $5,000. My NV scope was about a grand. Good to maybe 100 yards with supplemental IR lite.
 
There's a fair amount of competition on consumer-targeted thermal imagers, including several devices using FLIR-manufactured cores. When shopping, check the specs for the actual thermal pixels, frame rate, FOV, and whether you can lock the displayed spectrum or it's stuck autoranging.

For example, many thermal scopes listed as 640x480 are interpolating a 336×256 thermal array,

Only thing I’ve seen that wasn’t junk basically ran around $5,000. My NV scope was about a grand. Good to maybe 100 yards with supplemental IR lite.
Prices have come down significantly since this thread started, 30 and 60hz models are under $3K.
 
Back
Top Bottom