I bought an Athlon Thermal just to try out, I use it more for a handheld spotting scope then grab the 17hmr with the ir. I can clearly distinguish raccoons at 150 yards, deer out to 400 yards. It’s pretty handy to see rats hiding, rabbits & such.
I bought this one for $750, figured I would try it out before actually buying a significantly higher priced one.
I looked at a few models in the store and the agm I mentioned earlier was way more sensitive than more expensive brand/models. My wife says that is the one we are getting. They are supposed to have trouble on muggy/wet/hot/humid days, and the agm blew me away with the image and sensitivity. If that was it’s bad day, I can’t wait to see a good day!!!
A friend of mine has an AGM thermal scope. We were in Texas on a hog hunt, and he had some problems with it. They overnighted him a new scope. When he got home, he sent them the broken scope. They are definitely spendy, but you get what you pay for. My wallet isn't as deep as his go I have a night vision scope; it does pretty well TBH. I do use a handheld thermal to find the hogs at night. The thermal scopes are pretty worthless during the day due to objects absorbing heat. You'll need another setup if you want to hunt them during the day. My night vision works perfectly fine during the day, so I don't have to lug around two guns when we are in Texas.
Here is rat #57 checking out the new feeder we made yesterday….until he wasn’t… I try not to go near the coop while hunting them. I don’t want them to associate us with what is killing them. So far it is working ok. They do get a little spooked sometimes, but I think that’s normal for a rat. My son found the rat when closing the coop shortly after I shot it. He said it was definitely over a pound. He also said I blew the whole side out of it and put the insides on the outside. It bounced twice when it landed. There was another one on the right, just barely visible.
