Red, I’d be more upset someone thermal hunting in my yard. I don’t know if anyone that’s gonna shoot a dog in someone’s yard next to a house.

If only everyone had a 640 or 1280 thermal...both scope and a scanner....and hunted only on large properties far away from residences...and learned what their targets look and act like beforehand....and made sure of their targets b4 pulling the trigger.....

If you're trying to the make the arguement that a thermal image is as safe, or safer, than a night vision image with respect to identifying the target, you are wrong. Maybe you get it right 99 out of 100 times with a thermal. But you can't mistake a target with night vision when you can see it in real time and in color.

I know a guy who's been hunting with thermals since they were available to the public. Has won many Midwest predator tournaments. He shot a racoon by mistake a few years ago. He thought it was a bobcat. It stepped out of some brush, came in facing him, and then sat down and raised up on its haunches. He said under thermal it looked like a bobcat sitting down and facing him. This was with an agm Adder 384. Target was about 150 yrds away. Not a big mistake as they were both legal to shoot, but nonetheless and misidentified target.

ol' dad

Thanks for the replies, looks like I have some scopes to check I hadn't before, again thanks

One of those big ole owls looks like a bobcat too when sitting beside your caller…until it moved its head, lol.

Same as daytime hunting…the OP is from Montana I’m guessing and can see coyotes farther than we can hear them down here. So yeah, he really needs something “better” for his area. If he’s in a part of Montana where on flat ground he can see 100yds max like us, then go with something “cheaper”. They hunt a lot of public ground out there. Seeing something in the scanner then checking it with the rifle could have you putting crosshairs on another hunter. Think that’s frowned upon in every State.

I've been lurking again for a while. I have been pretty intently in the thermals for a few years and seen a bunch of other scopes. Some mornings I think about hitting those crisp trap lines. I started with NV to begin with and would never go back. I would also still avoid any ATN. I know this post was a while back but I've had the AGM 35-384 for a number of years and it's done the job without issue. Still runs like when I bought it I believe about five years ago. There's been crazy improvement in thermal since that time but I never really needed to upgrade. I recently purchased the Rix Storm 6 while on sale. For $2400 its one of the only 640's below that 3k mark on the market. I don't hit them hard enough to justify a whole lot more. I believe I paid $2500 for my AGM back in the day, crazy how time flies. I do have a scanner which makes life much easier on the joints and I feel like I don't miss much with a handheld scanner. I'll see if I can dig up a few recent videos of us out and post them. I'm running suppressed on everything and day/night doesn't matter suppression is a game changer. 640 is also a game changer in clarity alone but the ol 384 will get the job done. I've only taken the 640 out one night and have one coyote on video with it but it's really pretty neat. We've put down 24 coyotes already this month. We've only been out around 4-5 times.

Hard to beat a rix in my opinion.

Let us know how that Rix works out. There was a reason I didn’t go with one and can’t remember why.

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/yvYfv_47gYM?si=aq38sBjEw9gTkX59[/video]

Iray in 384. One of the better 384’s out there in my opinion.

Here’s the only video on the Rix so far. He was about 75 on impact. I don’t know how to upload without going through my YouTube.

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/4dIPg5LEJBY?si=yui5Aks62kaS5DTl[/video]

I didn’t read all the comments… but will say I am a fan of Rix. I run there stride as a head unit and the leap 6 on the rifles. Now I’m looking at buying the storm 6 just to be lighter… not that it matters cause it’s on a tripod.

If you are ganna buy thermal… buy a scanner.
I’ve shot a lot of critters I wouldn’t have seen if I was in the scope.