I would like to get into thermal night hunting for coyotes. I’m not going to be on a budget and want the best I can buy. Planning on getting a helmet with monocular and a thermal scope for gun. And suppressor for gun. I know nothing on thermal.

If you have some suggestions and thoughts I’m all ears

If you can afford it, trijicon makes a very nice unit.

I would suggest you make a budget, due to so many different makers out there.

I would also suggest you check out USA makers first before going to out of country makers, some do not have
great support with problems on models

You should decide just how much range you need, as that is a big cost the more you wish, some come with the ability to plug and play take pictures as well a nice feature for your keep sake. Others on the high dollar line come with yardage help and hold over.

Others have the ability to switch from thermal to daylight and not have to switch scopes, nice feature and not lose hold on

Pulsar is one company that I'm watching they have a good selection and price ranges for several good models, though still high for the most part, I think them better than ATN who is getting a pretty big record of not supporting their work, I don't wish to worry about having a 4 or 8 grand scope failing and not being able to have it fixed in a short matter of time for that cost.

Lots of info on them, you really pay for what you want to have but now days they are much cheaper than 15 years ago and better made.

Ron, I have a bearing optics super hogster its a decent scope. I suppose it was3500. Resolution is like 340or maybe320 without looking it up. My next one will cost considerablymore.

Personally if the budget has the room I'd buy one with 640 resolution and a built in range finder. Halo makes a dandy .

Why a helmet mounted mono?

I've heard you can get 10-15k wrapped up in a rig pretty easily, but I DO have a budget so I will just sleep when it's dark. Lol

Suppressor you should have started a year ago, taking 1yr plus to get tax stamp

Trijicon is the best I hear on the thermals

No idea on monocular

You need to check out “The Late Night Vision Show” podcast. They discuss all things thermal and night vision. They just did a “Top 10 mistakes when buying a thermal”. One of them was not having a budget. The newest civilian model out is I think they said $18k. Another of the top 10 mistakes they mentioned was asking on a forum what was the best.

The Trijicon is what I was going to get about a year and half ago until I had some unexpected purchases, at that time it was going to cost about 10000 then not sure now what the cost is.

Halo

Pulsar or trijicon scopes, if you can get the best, get it.
A monocular scanner will do for scanning. Personal opinion.

Everyone likes trijicon and they are good scopes, but if you want the best go with nvision. Right now, I am running an Iray rico and love it but it's only a 384 resolution. I've been in the thermal game long enough and looked through enough optics to tell you that nvision is the way to go if you don't have a budget. A friend has one and was ranging animals in the dark well past 1000 yards, not practical while night hunting but still neat. The Halo-XRF is going to run you around $9500 but is unmatched in the sport right now. Unless you want to spend $18,000 on a new 1280 resolution Iray lol. I'd look into a Team Wendy helmet, and most people run one eye thermal and the other night vision. I don't know too much about that though. There's a lot to consider about what you want out of a monocular, most come with a base magnification of 2x plus but if going on a helmet and used for walking into stands you'll want one with 1x so you can tell where you are going. Get ahold of a dealer and tell them what you are looking for, most guys I have talked to are really helpful.

Suppressor will take a year as stated, I waited 14 months for mine. I went through silencer central, and the process was simple. There are better cans out there though.

Any more questions, just ask.

Its funny how the suppressor process goes. I ordered mine in Feb 2020, got it end of September. My buddy ordered one a month before sat the same place he got his a month after. Another friend ordered one from the same place a year later and it took 15 months.

I have a silencer Central banish 30. Silencer Central has a deal going Monday buy one get a free one that fits 22 rimfire. You have to pay the extra tax stamp fee. My banish 30 will fit anywhere from a 17 centerfire to a 30 cal..

I highly recommend silencer Central. No one else in the business has streamlined the buying process better. The owner of SC was in Black Rifle Coffee podcast not too long ago. Look it up it's interesting at least to me. I'd reconsider a helmet mounted mono and look hard at a hand held..

Put some money in to your spotter, that is what you will be looking through 99 percent of the time. Trijicon is nice, but heavy compared to the Nvision.

The Halo XRF is out of this world good IMHO, price tag is 9500, lower end Halo's will run somewhere in the 6500 range. Won't have a built in range finder but still 640 resolution. Trijicon's will run in the same price range. I can't say it enough Jacks, IMHO you want one with 640 resolution although I was unaware they make them with 1280 until now. IMHO a guy will want one with a minimum of 3x optical magnification. Mine is a 2.9 optical to 11 digital. Forget about the higher number digital zoom sucks. If you want you can take a look through mine, I could come home through your area one weekend. One thing to keep in mind is battery life on many of these suck and you'll want an external pack. Mine uses 123 batteries and they last less than an hour when it's cold. Trijicons use the same batteries. I had an ATN with an internal battery, that thing would go six hours plus. The halo advertises 6 hours at room temp so most likely an hour or two, they use an 18650 rechargable.

What type of rifle you expecting to install the suppressor on? Bolt gun? AR type? If it's a bolt type is you barrel threaded and if not do you have someplace in mind who can offer that service? If your going to install it on an AR type rifle keep in mind that is going to effect back pressure. Less if you are using a pass through type like a Thunderbeast more if using a baffling type like a SC. The increase in pressure could effect the reliability of the gun on an AR.

49'r What can you tell me about the Banish 30. Was just looking at buying one yesterday. Not sure about a multi caliber can though. Thanks for any info!!

Yeah not enough info to make a recommendation because we can go from homebuilt to every bit of $15k just for the rifle setup. What caliber, what type of rifle action, suppressor function wants, you want a clip on, perma mount, weatherproof or not.

Thanks for the info, Below is some answers to questions from Steve, and a few others

Steve, I can’t say very well why the helmet mount other than a guy I met recommend it, and it seemed to make sense that you didn’t have to hold the moncolaur and when your walking out in field it bound to be better, just seemed to make sense.

Why do you recommend hand held?

Gun I’m thinking of an ar 10 in 6.5 creedmore

Like I said I don’t have a budget limiting me, but expect to pay 20-30 k all in.. maybe more.

On of my downfalls is I don’t have a lot of time to research this info, so it’s usually buy the more expensive and hope I made the correct choice.

What do you guys consider more important to spend the most on the monocular or the scope.

Steve the 1280: you mentioned is that the infray brand ?

Jacks I’ve shot a good plenty at night the old fashion way, the new thermals are incredible. For personal reasons not financial I’m holding off, but I have been out with others who have geared up. Impressive.
At this time the prices are significant, but the product is remarkable and seems to get better year by year along with the methods and accessories. A lot of it outdates quickly.
I do question your rifle choice. Others may differ in opinion but when I’ve been out with the guy with all the bells and whistles the goal was still to bring them in as close as possible, same as day shooting. Bold in darkness they do come on in if your set up right.
I have been forever a .243 guy on coyotes and that won’t change but were I the more involved night hunter as we are talking about here I would arm up with something softer like a 223, 222, etc. Getting on or staying on for the follow up shots on more multiple situations would be far more important than trying stretching any great distance in the dark.
Multiples are plenty common at night and remember all the videos of guys whacking them using thermals seem to be on very smooth flowing fields. Most fields, pastures I seem to get on have dips, irrigation ditches, humps, grassy fence lines, all sorts of things that make long shooting at night a crap shoot even with good thermals.

Osky

Osky

The reason why I was thinking that size of caliber is the gentleman I talked so said he use to do a .223 and find that to be too light on coyotes at times. I know a .243 would be better on fur than 6.5 but I feel the fur days are over and will never come back or make it less interesting for me to bother going through the effort to put it up. so if fur damage is not a concern the 6.5 would make it better for things like hogs if I want to go south later or larger gun if I remove the thermal and use it as deer gun, or out west gun which I know a .243 is capable also.