I was talking with a friend that’s just getting into thermal and mentioned that the first personal usable thermal unit I could remember was a handheld unit that registered heat sources with a set of lights, the stronger the source the more lights showing and you registered direction by moving the unit side to side and noting where it registered strongest

That’s about all I can remember about it no name no mfg and I believe it came out in the 90s

Anybody remember it and who made it

If I remember correctly it could also be mounted to a rifle scope

Maybe Game Tracker?

They made a hand held one that looked like a flashlight but they sure could have made one that mounted on a rifle.

Thanks 160 just looked it up and that’s the one I remember

I knew someone here would have the answer

I can remember reading reviews stating you could follow deer a hundred or
More yards away even in thick wood, I don’t know about that but back then I found it an interesting device but outside my price range at the time

My parents sold them in the gun shop when they first came out. Well, they attempted too. They didn't sell well at all. I tried one once and found it to be perfectly useless. Maybe if the blood is FRESH (as in still warm) it may have worked but after 30 minutes or whatever it was worthless.

I think it was called a Game Finder. They weren’t a thermal imager just a thermal detector. Back then real thermal imagers were extremely expensive so this was the next best option. I feel like they wouldn’t work except in the snow. It would detect heat off every warm rock.

I played with one of those in the 90s boss owned it , it had a vibrate setting it would vibrate in your hand , it looked like a 3 D cell mag light that would not turn on

he bet me I could not hide from it gave me a few minutes to hide on the dark I did hide from it for a long time they did eventually find me but the thermal was not overly useful I crawled under a brush pile unfortunately when they broke out the white light to find me one shoe was sticking out. it was the 1990s so of course it was a white sneaker that gave me away.

unfortunately I do not remember who made it , it was lost in a fire and the owner passed in 2024.