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B&C's new statement still allows for thermal devices to help recover game, but makes it clear that using thermal devices to locate game is not fair chase. Andrew McKean

Thermal riflescopes, binoculars, and hand-held units are beco*ing cheaper, more abundant, and widely available. Which one is for you?

The post Best New Thermal Optics 2021 appeared first on Outdoor Life.

                   

B&C's new statement still allows for thermal devices to help recover game, but makes it clear that using thermal devices to locate game is not fair chase. Andrew McKean

Until just a couple years ago, Texas hog hunters had the market on thermal rifle sights and handheld monoculars. In fact, more than half of all America’s thermal optics went to Lone Star State shooters and hog-control agents.

While Texas still dominates—thanks to a target-rich environment and permissive laws that allow and even promote night hunting—thermals have beco*e more widely adopted and deployed in other states and seasons. Brands that have never ventured into optics are co*ing out with thermal product lines, and traditional optics co*panies are accelerating their introduction of brand-new thermal products.

Some of this market activity is the result of the rise in AR-platform sales. Thermal sights are a good fit for ARs and AKs, which allow quick follow-up shots and chamberings in hog-shooting calibers such as .308, .300 Blackout, and 7.62-39. Affordability, too, has increased demand. You can now buy a reliable thermal for under $1,000, providing additional options for hunters and shooters who have all the traditional riflescopes they need.

How to Choose a Thermal Optic

But what type of thermal is right for you? Do you need a handheld thermal monocular or a clip-on unit that allows you to convert your traditional riflescope into a thermal sight? Maybe you’d rather have a rangefinding binocular with thermal capabilities? Or a self-contained thermal riflescope?

Given that you can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a high-end thermal, or as little as a couple hundred on a pedestrian handheld viewer, you need a guide to the categories, their capabilities, and real-world performance of thermal sights and viewers. That’s the intention of this piece.

But it’s equally important to ask: do you need a thermal at all. My experience with them all spring and summer is that they are powerful tools, indeed, and can give shooters and hunters a shocking degree of advantage over the animals we hunt. But even where it’s legal, is it ethical? Is shooting a coyote or a hog through the use of this audacious technology somehow cheating the experience of the hunt? That’s not for us to say, but it is a question worth considering as you imagine how you plan to deploy a thermal.

Thermal Sights vs. Views

The first distinction to resolve is between thermals that simply allow you to see heat signatures and those that have a reticle or aiming point superimposed over the digital image.

Handheld viewers have been around for years. One of the most familiar is FLIR’s Scout, which costs around $600, is a pocket-sized thermal monocular that has simple controls and basic still and video image capture. Similarly, the discontinued Leupold LTO-Tracker is a flashlight-looking thermal that projected heat signatures on a small screen in a configuration that could fit in your pants pocket.

The heir to these handy handhelds is Sector Optics’ new T3 thermal imager. With a 2- to 4-power zoom and sensor and display resolution that are anemic but sized about right for the 1-inch screen, the unit records photos, but not video. This is the smallest thermal in our roundup, but also the one that I took everywhere, including to the Alaskan bush to scan the brushy neighborhood of my caribou camp for bears. It doesn’t have a reticle. It isn’t designed to be mounted on a gun (though it can be). But it’s a great example of a go-everywhere, do-anything thermal viewer. Real-world price for this 5.3-ounce, 3-inch unit: around $1,500.

On the other end of the utility spectrum is Pulsar’s Thermion 2 thermal imaging digital riflescope. Designed to be mounted with standard 30mm scope rings as a stand-alone sight, the unit can detect heat signatures out to 2,000 yards. This is the co*plete package for night hunters, a powerful thermal co*bined with the aiming capabilities of a riflescope. The unit has a number of customizable reticles, color palettes, and both video and still-image recording capability that can be stored on board the scope or transmitted via WIFI to shooters’ devices.

I used the Thermion 2 on a Texas hog hunt this summer, and its sensitivity and aiming precision allowed me to make head shots on 100-pound pigs out to 250 yards. At 2 a.m.

Then there are clip-on thermals. These are thermal viewers that attach to standard optical riflescopes via some sort of adaptor, turning standard riflescopes into thermal sights. We evaluated Blaser’s Liemke Merlin-13 with a clip-on attachment that mated with any 50mm objective lens. The advantage of this system is that you can use your daytime scope for all the hunting and shooting for which it’s designed. But then you can simply clip on the thermal to transform your daytime rifle into a nighttime jagermeister. Price for the Merlin-13 runs about $2,000.

Best Handheld Thermal Monoculars

We tested a selection of thermal monoculars. Here are the best of the best.

Zeiss DTI 3/35

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Zeiss

     

             

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