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thermal monocular (nv)

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thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Wazowski » 11 18, 2019 •  [Post 1]

Hi everyone,

I'm an amateur hunter and i have no experience in night hunting, unfortunately. Next month we are going to hunt with my wife's family, and i want you to recommend me good thermal monocular. I feel great potential in night hunting, so i'd like to have a good device. I tend to choose pulsar, because i reckon that it's a cross between quality and price. Am i right? ATN is quiet expensive brand.
I like Pulsar Helion, what do would you say about this one? It's expensive too, but i consider this option. There is little info about it, i'll be grateful for comments.
Any suggestions? All feedbacks are welcome!
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 11 18, 2019 •  [Post 2]

I’ve got nothing for you on the night optics buddy (I’m sure others will chime in tho). Welcome to the forum ;)
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Swede » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 3]

There is a lot to consider when thinking about hunting using infrared. I would start with generation 3 or better. Like anything else optical, you get what you pay for. I do not know what you plan to hunt or how. Hunting big game is illegal. You are in for a rude awakening if you think that a night vision is going to open up the night and you can walk around the forest in the darkness. Your depth perception is all messed up and you need to refocus continually between close in and distance. They are great if you sit in a blind and watch around you, but you need a way to sight in on what you want to shoot. That too is expensive.
Anyway, welcome to the forum.
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby wawhitey » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 4]

Swede wrote:They are great if you sit in a blind and watch around you, but you need a way to sight in on what you want to shoot. That too is expensive.
Anyway, welcome to the forum.


You can get thermal monoculars that are weapon mountable with reticles and zoom. I have a nivisys tam-14.

Incase op didnt see my pm, youll find a lot of guys knowledgable about night hunting gear on predatormastersforums.com
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Swede » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 5]

Waz asked about a monocular. How does the Tam-14 work as a monocular when it is mounted to your weapon? I am not sure if Waz's weapon is a rifle, slingshot, shotgun, bow or pistol. If you are trying to use your scope for viewing and spotting in the dark, you are making things quite difficult. A good night vision monocular costs several thousand dollars. Likewise a good scope. Together we are talking very expensive coyotes or opossums, or deer???
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby wawhitey » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 6]

Yeah its not cheap stuff. But the scope can be used as a monocular. You can run a quick disconnect mount on it, or just use it as a monocular and have a spotlight mounted on a regular scope on your rifle. Ive got the green coyote light, its pretty damn slick. Use a 2 piece rail for my .243 and i can mount and unmount the coyote light without taking the scope off. Also had high rings on my ar and could do the same with that.
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Wazowski » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 7]

Hi everyone, thank you for welcome!

Swede wrote:There is a lot to consider when thinking about hunting using infrared. I would start with generation 3 or better. Like anything else optical, you get what you pay for. I do not know what you plan to hunt or how. Hunting big game is illegal. You are in for a rude awakening if you think that a night vision is going to open up the night and you can walk around the forest in the darkness. Your depth perception is all messed up and you need to refocus continually between close in and distance. They are great if you sit in a blind and watch around you, but you need a way to sight in on what you want to shoot. That too is expensive.
Anyway, welcome to the forum.


Nothing illegal of course, just sporting interest :D
I understand what you say, thank you for good thoughts, i got them.
As for "generation 3 or better", sorry my stupidity but which of these monoculars are belong to generation 3+? Just for my understanding, how do you determine it?
And my question about Pulsar Helion still being unanswered. One guy from another forum advised me to take a closer look at Pulsar Axion, it is much cheaper and has better resolution. What's the catch?

wawhitey wrote:You can get thermal monoculars that are weapon mountable with reticles and zoom. I have a nivisys tam-14.

Incase op didnt see my pm, youll find a lot of guys knowledgable about night hunting gear on predatormastersforums.com


I saw pm from you about 10 minutes ago, i'll check that forum, thank you.
I didn't hear about nivisys tam-14 and i can't find it on Amazon. Hmm... Where did you buy it?
http://www.nivisys.com/en/products/ther ... s/utam_32/ nothing about tam-14, i managed to find only this (utam-32)
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby wawhitey » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 8]

I ordered it from nivisys. You wont find it on amazon. They make stuff for military and law enforcement. They seemed kind of weirded out when i called them. Had to do the itar paperwork or whatever its called. It was kind of a hassle.
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Swede » 11 19, 2019 •  [Post 9]

I have not looked into a night vision monocular for several years, but they still classify them by gen.1- gen. 4. The best indicator of what you are dealing with may be price. If what you are looking at in under $2,500 it is probably gen. 1 or 2. The gen. 3 plus monoculars are usually advertised for what they are. Expect to pay $2,500 or more. Generation 4 is over $5,000. Maybe you can a quality night vision monocular for cheap, somewhere. I have not been looking, so I can not be positive. BTW: The military and law enforcement use gen. 3 for a lot of their work.

Whitey, it is interesting that you had to do a lot of paperwork to buy them. Are you a registered owner now? That is something I never heard of. Of coarse there is a lot I have never heard of. :D
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby wawhitey » 11 20, 2019 •  [Post 10]

Yeah, i believe its called itar, something treaty in arms regulations, something like that, cant remember... anyway i cant sell it without getting approval from the feds first, and apparently i cant take it out of state. Kinda weird for something that isnt even a weapon of any sort. Be easier to kill somebody with a hammer.
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby Swede » 11 20, 2019 •  [Post 11]

Is your night vision monocular registered because it has some high resolution, or is that the case for the ones you can buy for under $1,000?
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Re: thermal monocular (nv)

Postby wawhitey » 11 20, 2019 •  [Post 12]

I dont know, but mine certainly wasnt under a thousand bucks. The border patrol uses them, and an agent let me play with one, and he told me nivisys had 2 demo models available real cheap, so i called them up. They basically said they dont really do retail / civilian sales. I said, but you legally can right? Well yeah i guess.. had to call somebody else up in texas, do the federal paperwork crap, dont really remember, just that it was kind of a pain.
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