OK Ballistics - Thats D.O.P.E. - Oklahoma Gun Forum
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This looks like a heck of a deal for a good thermal
- Thread starter Kingfish
- Start date
So I got my thermal a couple days ago and have had a couple of nights to try it out. I don't have any reference to judge it against since I have never looked through one until now. I have to say I am pretty amazed by the detail it shows. I showed it to a friend of mine and he said it blew away the one he has. Maybe I'll get the chance to compare the two side by side since he didn't say exactly what his was. The options of type of image it displays (white hot, black hot, red hot, rainbow, extra dark, plus sun and rain settings) is really cool. I really like the extra dark setting because it helps to preserve my night vision. The clip on adapter is due in today, so I'll see how that works. I probably will use it mostly as a monocular to scan around because all my hog shooting takes place within the range of my green lights. I really like the ability to easily distinguish between hogs and calves that are sometimes in the area.
One question that occurred to me was how well it works through fog. Yesterday morning we had early fog, but it began to lift before I got up and around to try it out.
One question that occurred to me was how well it works through fog. Yesterday morning we had early fog, but it began to lift before I got up and around to try it out.
Put that in front of or behind the scope?
Edit - If only there was somehow I could look crap like that up myself. Maybe a small handheld computer you could take everywhere. Someone should invent that. I think there's a market.
NM - I found some videos of them being used. Pretty slick.
Edit - If only there was somehow I could look crap like that up myself. Maybe a small handheld computer you could take everywhere. Someone should invent that. I think there's a market.
NM - I found some videos of them being used. Pretty slick.
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Speaking of LPVO, do you have to use a scope that goes down to 1x for it to work? I just found an adapter in the box that turned out to be for a 50mm scope. The only 50 I have is a 6-24. I put the thermal on in front of it and all I could see was a small circle in the center of the FOV and the screen was so magnified you could see the individual pixels. I have a 56mm adapter on order to use on a scope that is 2.5-10x. Will that still be too much magnification?
If it's a real clip-on, no you don't need any adapter. On 1x, the display will be small-ish but have the best image. As you zoom, the image will becomes less focused depending on how well the LPVO is made and where the eyepiece on the clip-on is focused. It's will probably look best at 2x-4x, maybe even 6x. The higher mag, the less focused the image will be. If the systems in optimized for a higher mag, like 8x-12x, when you're on 1x, the display will be tiny. It's a trade off. I'f the display is big enough to be used as a stand alone sight, the image will get worse when you zoom in. Nothing you can do about it.
If it's a fake clip-on, and has an adjustable diopter on the eyepiece, you'll be able to focus at multiple magnification levels, but you'll also induce image shift which can be significant.
Thank you sir. I guess I will just have to wait and see when the adapter gets here as to how it will work. May have to change plans and use it on a rifle with a 1-4x on it.
So JEVapa was spot on with his info. I attached the clip on mount to the thermal. If you haven't seen one in a video, it's a large ring about an 1 1/4" deep that slips over the end of your scope and has a clamp lever that tightens it down. It makes it really easy to take it on and off. The downside is you have to get a different one for each size of o.d. of your scopes you might want to put it on. The thermal has 3 different memories that store the zero correction if you plan on switching it a lot. I would have preferred a quick release picatinny rail mount, but one isn't offered from this vendor, just one with 3 clamp screws which doesn't make it very useful for quick removal and reattachment. The downside is with this clamp ring on it it positions your eye a long way back from the thermal. I wear glasses. If I take them off, I can still see the full display, but can't focus on the screen. With glasses on, I can see almost all the screen except the corners so it's not a big deal.
I put this on my Trijicon 2.5-10x. At the lowest power, I found the eyebox too critical to use. I found the sweet spot to be between 3 and 4x. Above that, the image begins to pixelate. I think it's going to work quite well on this rifle/scope combo for my hog and yote hunting. Quick to use as a monocular to scan the area for critters and throw it on the scope to take the shot. Like I said earlier, when I tried this on my 6-24x50 it did not work at all. All I could see at 6x was a small 3/8" circle in the middle of the FOV and the rest was black. Clearly there are design differences in the optical train that caused the issue and I know of no way to determine in advance whether a clipon will work with a given scope without trying it out.
So I’ll elaborate a bit. If a thermal sight has an adjustable diopter, it is considered a stand alone in the EOIR business. Companies will market them as a clip on and know it all LARPers push them as clip ons, but in real life they aren’t. Every time you adjust the diopter to focus the image when you zoom in or out on your scope, you induce mag or demag, and therefore image shift which will cause POA/POI shift. Sometimes it’s minimal (relative) and most times it significant. Like miss a target at 200m significant.
A real clip on will have a fixed focus eyepiece which when the whole system is focused and collimated, will be unity magnification, which is 1x. This allows the sight to move around without the image shifting. Think of looking through a toilet paper tube, look at a thing somewhere and move the toilet paper tube around and the image will stay the same. That’s what a real clip on should do.
Usually the mil standard will be something like 1x +/- .05x or something depending on what they want in the system. Each one is different for each system, some tighter tolerance and some looser.
Commercial clip ons are usually much looser because it costs a lot of money to make opto-mechanics have really tight tolerances. So you’ll see commercial clip on systems with a Unity spec something like 1x +/- .5 or .9x.
Also, clip on eyepieces will have a diopter set at -.05 ish diopter which the normal for 20/20 vision. This can change if there’s a specific DVO they may be optimized for but generally this is the diopter they are set to. Ish.
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Thank yall for the info. I ordered one yesterday morning so I suppose I’ll be able to answer some of my own questions when it arrives. But it sounds like this is not a true clip-on, and maybe not exactly what I want. It looks like a badass unit for the money, but maybe not purpose built for killing things in the dark. Their return policy has me a bit worried about mounting it to a scope to check viability too- any mounting marks incur a 20% restocking fee. I’ll put on my Kid gloves and see if it’ll work for me when it gets here. Again, thanks for answering my stupid questions.
