Tomorrow is the last day of the last full week of work for me. I will enjoy a week of paid vacation all of next week and then report for work Monday and Tuesday following...that's all by design to fully exhaust my vacation time and retain all my insurance benefits as long as possible. I may go and do something elsewhere for a year or three, but if I do it will not involve a commute amongst the urban zombies driving the highways and biways of the metromess.

Anyway, I am currently on my second thermal sight. My first was a Pulsar XQ30 Trail...it was a very decent thermal, I think...I just never used it enough to get used to the UI (user interface)---I always struggled trying to mash the right buttons to make things happen without hosing up the entire works. I missed a few kill opportunities due to that over the years I had that optic.

I replaced it with an AGM Adder TS35-385 just a few months back. I think I might have given up a bit of optical performance making that move, but since I never made a side-by-side comparison I really don't know. I like the AGM. It's very easy to use and I have had a lot of success with it already.

Both of those optics are rated at 384 thermal resolution, or however that figure should be expressed. It's certainly adequate for shooting pigs at 100 yards, and once in a while at 200 or 300 yards, but I watched a video a while back featuring a new iRay thermal that was just fantastic. I think it's resolution was 1080 or even 1280 or something ridiculous, and identifying hogs and hitting them with a certain amount of precision at 400 yards plus was NO problem. I think those thermals are available for about $7 or $8 k (maybe more) and while I'd love to have and use one, it's just not practical for me in economic terms and it would be waaaaay overkill for my needs.

I spotted the Pulsar Thermion XG50 3-24x42 Thermal Riflescope (PL76529) the other day for a fairly reasonable price and the seeds of lust were planted firmly in my heart. I resisted. Then I lusted. Then I resisted. Then I lusted some more, and thought maybe I should give myself a retirement present.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Really, though, there's something about being able to see your target just a little better that is hard to disregard. I'll have to peddle my AGM but that should not be a problem. I do hope that going with a 640 vs. 384 really IS worth the expense, but I think I'll be happy with it. I doubt it will make me a better hog killer, but maybe I'll be a little happier hog killer, and that's what it's about, right?

Congrats on both fronts RR! I doubt you regret either of those decisions

Thanks Judd. I sure do hope you're right on both accounts!!

Good luck with the scope.

As for that iRay 1280....you missed a decimal point....it's $18,000. And yes I'm being serious.lol

Geeze, Louise. I musta been looking at one of their higher end 640s, then. I'll probably just stick with the one I've got coming! If 680 ain't good enough I'll just have to hang it up.

Congrats!!!

A present well earned, no doubt.

Haha! Exactly!

They say the gifts you give yourself are the ones you like the most . Treating yourself to something you really want can be a very good thing.

I have the Flir PST233, the Bering Super Hogster and the Bering Super Yoter. I usually get to my stand an hour before dark and many time stay till 2AM. I probably have 100 hours each, using the Hogster as a scanner and the Yoter as my dedicated Thermal.

I do not think that you will regret for a moment adding the 640 unit. You may even find a way to keep the 384 unit for a scanner.

Enjoy,

GWB

Those Super Yoters seem to be very nice, and I was looking at those too, but I like the form factor of the Thermion and the three-button user interface...at least I do on my current AGM Adder. I expect the Pulsar to be at least somewhat similar in terms of simplicity of operation.

I have an Axion Key for scanning and detection, and I'll likely just stick with that. It comes nowhere close to the Adder or the Trail (which I no longer have) for image quality, but all it's for is to see if there's something moving out there. It does that well enough...and I need to recover some of the cost of the Adder anyway. I may be retiring but I ain't made o' money.

Staying in the blind from just before dark until 2 AM can be tough. Just last week I was thinking how cool it would be to have a camera system that sends your phone an alert when there's movement at the feeder. If I had something like that I could stay until sunrise, maybe...I do wonder how many nice bucks came to my feeder while I was snoozing during deer season, but it's probably better that I do not know.

Congrats on all of the above RR

Thanks..I 'preciates it!

Driveway alarms will let you know when something is there. Many use them.

Cant wait for the reviews and picture to roll in. Congrats on treating yourself to some "love"

[quote=Buzzsaw]Cant wait for the reviews and picture to roll in. Congrats on treating yourself to some "love"[/quote

Thanks Buzz.

Maybe I'll upload a video one of these days. I accidentally videoed once on an evening when I had a sounder in the neighbor's wheatfield, and when I looked at it my shooting was nothing to be proud of. I was resting the fore end of the rifle on a fence, and that technique just doesn't work real well. I don't have the right location to utilize a good swiveling tripod and I think that would make it much, much easier. Actually, there is ONE field where I could do it but it's not often in wheat and it's only about 40 acres. I'd love to have 30 to 45 seconds to shoot before they're all out of sight but typically I get about 8 to 15 seconds if that much. I'll have to talk to the guy who grows the wheat to find out when the next planting will be.

Snapshots and a review should be a piece of cake, though. To top it off, on July 26 I have NO obligations from here on out.

So...while I still have not mounted the thermal, I can still begin a bit of a review.

First of all, about retirement: I have to say I am blown away. They put on a catered lunch for the whole facility on Tuesday---some good barbecue. I ate too much. I was then summoned to the owner and president's office for a little chat, then we walked down the hall to the vice-president's office where I was presented with a gift.



That knife is made of steel from WW2 M4 Sherman tanks. I shouldn't have, but I looked up the value. It's a $500 knife. I always knew Boker knives were very high quality stuff and not cheap, but they spared little to no expense. I am humbled.

This was my first day of having "nothing to do." It's weird. I guess I'll get used to it.

So anyway, I have a mount coming from SWFA and some spare aux batteries from Pulsar. I've been familiarizing myself with the scope, and the user controls seem to be pretty simple. I'm not sure I don't like the AGM interface a little better, but this one won't be hard to get used to and use effectively.

One problem I had with it: the objective focus was turned to a stop so hard I though that this particular model didn't have that feature. When I took it outside to look around everything was blurry and I still couldn't turn it. I was thinking I'd have to send it back, but then I kept trying (and hoping I didn't unwind something that should not be unwound), and I was finally able to get the objective focus to work. It turns with ease now. It was just turned too hard into the stop. So then I took it out to have a look around...and WOW. This thing is three times the scope the AGM is (and probably my old Trail XQ30, also). I am pretty sure I will be VERY happy with this one! Hopefully I will be able to put it to work sometime next week and file a bit better of a report. I'm just a bit tied up at the moment.

I thought being retired would mean I get to do whatever, wherever, and wherever I want. I guess it just ain't so!

I have a Thermion and use one of these clamps as a throw lever for the objective focus. Clamp
I put it around the objective lens and trimmed the excess. I really like how it works.

Also, that's a really cool knife!

Congrats on retirement. After a while you might start wondering how did I ever have time to go to work if you have enough projects.

RiverRider, that's a really nice looking knife.

Thanks, guys. I'm adjusting...slowly. It's weird waking up before 5 AM and being at a loss as to how the day will be used. I guess I gotta get used to planning stuff.




Thanks, MM. Before I looked up the value I was pondering whether or not I should start carrying and using it. When I realized what I had I stuck it in the safe, and as I did I wondered who was going to end up with it when I'm gone. That was a pretty easy decision, and obvious: when I took that job in 2006, my nephew (the one who owns the hunting property I haunt lately) had been in the Army a while and was part of an M1 Abrams crew in Iraq. I'd had this job for about a week when I found out he'd been badly injured while loading the .50-cal. The tank commander lowered the main gun while he was up in the turret and when the main gun barrel went down, the breech came up trapping his head and crushing his jaws. It messed him up bad and he nearly died from complications. When he recovered the Army planned to discharge him, but he wanted to stay in and fought for it. His chain of command fought right along side him and they won the argument. He was able to stay in and had the option to retire with full benefits anytime he wanted. He pulled the trigger on that opportunity five or six years ago, and is doing very well. It just seemed like a no-brainer that he should get the knife someday, and he will.

In the meantime I am itching to get this new thermal mounted, sighted in, and put to work!

Be careful with that whole nothing to do thought or you'll end up back in the workforce lol.

Congrats on the retirement!

If you are married, be very careful saying that you don't have anything to do or you will wish you were back at work just to catch your breath. Congrats on the retirement. Now the real work begins.