Hunting & Hikmicro - thermal scopes (Hikvision)

[pinko]

Hikvision have started to make entry level thermal scopes for firearms under the brand name Hikmicro.

I am considering the clip-on version. They are a little expensive here in Australia at around 2.5-3K, given the specs. I'd sure love to try one if the price is right..... Has anyone come across any these at a reasonable price in the US or China?

I'm not that keen to buy a Pulsar Thermion @ around 8k.


HIKMICRO THUNDER TH35/TH25

HIKMICRO

HIKMICRO specializes in designing thermal imaging & night vision products for outdoor and industrial solutions. Offer a safe environment for outdoors & industry.

www.hikmicrotech.com

 

[bigredfish]

Interesting,
I was just beginning to look into thermal scopes and being a Sig fanboy was looking at their new Echo3

ECHO3

 

[pinko]

I'm seriously thinking of pulling the trigger on a Thunder TH35. If I go ahead, I will do a review and post my findings.


FWIW I do have some reservations on dropping just under 4k (AUD) on a thermal scope. At this price point it they all seem to be lacking in the specs or features I have on my checklist.
I'm optimistic that HikMicro as a new player, can potentially disrupt the market, given the amount of R&D they could throw behind these type of products.

Interestingly, I'm starting to see some of the lesser know companies releasing Thermals with a 640×480 sensor & pixel pitch of 17μm or 12μm which would be perfect for my application. I don't want to feel like I'm playing minecraft......
Some of the Thermal scopes on the market already have ballistics data on board and one shot zeroing. Those type of features which would be right up there for me. The ability to move scope to a different caliber rifle would be quick and painless, which is something I'd really like.

I'd mostly be doing feral pest control at night up to 250 yards, but the bulk of relocations would be done at 150 yards or under.

Just out of curiosity are there any restriction in the US in regards to hunting at night?

 

[bigredfish]

Depends on where in the States you are but generally speaking you cant.

One exception is hog hunting on private land, at least here in Florida, which is what my application would be. Like you, mostly under 200 yds..

 

[sebastiantombs]

Here in NJ hunting at night is referred to as poaching and a really big no-no.

 

[bigredfish]

I'm very much still in learning mode, but here's a good quick resource. This was written up before Sig came out with the newest version of the Echo3
17 Best Thermal Scopes in 2021 | Ranked by a Marine

 

[Jessie.slimer]

In IL we can hunt coyotes 24 hours a day from Nov through mid March.

 

[pinko]

17 Best Thermal Scopes in 2021 | Ranked by a Marine

Ah yes, I'm familiar with that article. It's a great resource. Certainly helped with my thermal scope research.

Sadly some of the models listed are not available in Australia for various reasons such as US export restrictions, or no local distribution.
A few of the scopes like the Pulsar's are well regarded in Australia and are often used when comparing other thermal scopes.
The new Pulsar thermion 2 XP50 pro is around 8k here and very popular. It sit's very high on my wish list.

Here in NJ hunting at night is referred to as poaching and a really big no-no.

Poaching in Australia is illegally hunting on private land without permission, or public land like National Parks. The punishment for either is a great deterrent and keep most people on the level.

 

[pinko]

Interesting,
I was just beginning to look into thermal scopes and being a Sig fanboy was looking at their new Echo3

ECHO3

I have a Sig BDX scope & spotter on the way, (non-thermal) have you ever tried one of these scopes and if so, what did you think? My kids are going to love the automatic holdover for longer shots.

In IL we can hunt coyotes 24 hours a day from Nov through mid March.

Interesting, would have thought that there would be little to no restrictions on Coyotes in IL. I assume each state regulates and have sound reasons for this type of restriction.

 

[Coltect]

I have been looking at Thermal scopes for a while now.
Like @pinko I can't drop $8-9,000 on a scope, so last week I settled on an iAiming iA-317.
It is the bottom of the iAiming range but seems to work fine so far.
I have it attached to a .22 at the moment as it is much cheaper to learn how it works than anything else and have the paperwork in to buy a 6.5 Creedmoor to use it with also. Probably also mount it on a .223.

Where I live we are having a large increase in foxes, feral cats and wild dogs. There has been a pretty fierce mouse plague for about 6 months and the foxes and cats have bred really well. Now the mice are dying out and our lambs seem to be the main target for the foxes and dogs. Feral cats just need to die.
Spotlighting has become useless as the light spooks everything.

So I've had the iAiming on a .22 and walking around at night looking for rabbits and had a bit of success, but even the best scope doesn't make me any better shooting without a rest at a baby rabbit about 120 metres away.
These are a couple of videos I've captured so far. I'm fairly sure I can make the picture better with all the contrast / brightness type controls.

Note the video with the Picture in Picture and the crosshair in the PiP windows was not the same place as the main window. Not sure how that happened, but I'll be watching for it again. The cattle in the background are about 400 metres away.



View attachment Mickey Rabbit 001.mp4


























View attachment Mickey Rabbit 002.mp4



























View attachment Mickey Rabbit 003.mp4



























View attachment Rabbit 60Metres and cattle in background - Offset PiP.mp4

 

[bigredfish]

Good shootin!

 

[sebastiantombs]

Poaching here is a general term for any illegal hunting. Night hunting is colloquially referred to as "jack lighting".

 

[pinko]

@ Coltect great videos. Thanks for sharing! I think most of shared video from many of the thermal scopes are not the greatest quality. That seems to be pretty common comment in most of the shared content.

When we're bunny busting kids love to call the shots on bunnies after they are hit like "ridin' the bike", "sling shot" and "lights out". I was calling that in my head out watching your videos.
I do like that the ballistics info is easy to set in thei Aiming scopes and its displayed in the shared video. How did you find the one shot zero? How do you like the image through the scope @ 100 to 150yards?

 

[Coltect]

When we're bunny busting kids love to call the shots on bunnies after they are hit like "ridin' the bike", "sling shot" and "lights out". I was calling that in my head out watching your videos.
Yep.

I do like that the ballistics info is easy to set in thei Aiming scopes and its displayed in the shared video.
I have this set to 22, but it has 8 ? Custom ballistic settings you can manually fill out. I have a few different 22 boxes that go from subsonic up, so might have a play with setting some custom 22 stuff, but doubt it would make much difference under 100 metres.

How did you find the one shot zero?
I didn't understand how it worked at first and went through about 30 shots. I think it may have worked the very first shot but it was very confusing. I was shooting at a 6 wine bottle cardboard box off a car door frame (not ideal for sighting in, but quick and easy) The first shot hit the very bottom left corner and when it did its calculations it had moved the crosshair to near that point, I clicked OK and then took another shot at the middle of the box and it went in exactly the same place, bottom left corner. Eventually I realised that after the auto calibration, I had to get right out of the menu and then it was correct and pretty much spot on. Hence using 22's to learn how to drive it.

How do you like the image through the scope @ 100 to 150yards?
If you move slowly it is really quite clear. I can see roo's on the neighbours oats about 1.5 -2km away.
Give me a few minutes and I'll grab some footage. Currently no moon, clouds, pitch dark outside.
Besides, I haven't played with it tonight yet ...

 

[Coltect]

So a few quick videos of the thermal scope. You'll have to put up with my wobbling at full zoom.
First one is showing our front gate. The White is gravel on the other side about 950 metres away.
Second is No Zoom, so default of 2.7x optical and just panning around. Can see for kilometres just like daylight. Unfortunately no critters in that video.
Third and fourth is Sheep about 150-200 metres away. One video with default zoom and one with full zoom.
I tried to pan slowly to allow the scope to get a crisper picture, but is very difficult freehand at the full 10.8x zoom.


View attachment Full zoom 950 metres.mp4
























View attachment No Zoom can see light daylight.mp4

























View attachment Sheep 200 metres full zoom.mp4

























View attachment Sheep 200 Metres.mp4

 

[Coltect]

Watch the timer at the bottom right. It is an automatic refresh thing that freezes the screen every 3 minutes (adjustable) and rebuilds the picture. It seems to only happen at a bad time. Need to learn to watch that timer.
Also and a very big also, the eye looking through the scope becomes completely night blind. I have started to close my right eye after looking through the scope for at least 30 seconds. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere.

 

[Teken]

In the grand scheme of things more competition is great to drive innovation and hopefully price. Having said this Hikvision could have offered a lot more but this is a first pass so let’s see what comes later!

All of the current so called market leaders offer a shit product while asking for insane prices?!?

For those who had the opportunity to use the 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation of NVG that were issued to the military. Know first hand how shitty the NVG tech was.

Comparing the latest generation of NVG that use almost every known tech is truly breathtaking and makes the past 1-3 generation seem like a 1980 child’s toy.

This is where we are at with uncooled thermal hardware now on the market. The advent of bi-spectrum integrating thermal with optical for many of us a huge progressing even if it wasn’t.

What needs to happen is IR, LLO, Thermo, and Laser be integrated. The latest technology has all of them but now incorporates radar / infrasonic.

This has been in place (ultrasonic) for the last eight years to detect and pinpoint a location of bullets / bombs.

Everybody’s probably used or seen a range finder. Think about something so beneficial to determine the range of your prey / target. Yet nobody in the consumer market has released a thermal scope with ranging?!?

The ones I’ve ever seen at CES never came to market!

 

[pinko]

Hey Guys,
It is amazing how fast the outdoor thermal market has been moving. Both the Monoculars and scopes have been under heavy and rapid development. I've been watching HikMicro and other companies' offerings expand over the course of 2021, and I'm ready to take the plunge.
Full disclosure, I've managed to get some HikMicro products on loan for testing and review (scopes and monoculars). I will post some reviews here early next year after I put them through their paces. I'm not a pro hunter or in this line of business, I'm just an ordinary guy IPCAM enthusiast & hunter!
I do go out hunting quite a bit here in Australia, so It will be nice to be able to share some footage of the thermals and Australia with you all.
Cheers Everyone, see you all in the new year!!

 

[garycrist]

@pinko You lucky guy!!!

 

[pinko]

@pinko You lucky guy!!!

Yes, so lucky, really can't wait.
Initially will be testing an LH19 Monocular and TQ50 scope. This TQ50 scope looks like it going to be pretty versatile. Can use it as a scope, clip-on and monocular, and it has a 640x sensor!

THUNDER PRO TQ50C 50mm Thermal Rifle Scope/Clipon/Monocular - Huntsman

THUNDER TQ50C 50mm Thermal Rifle Scope THUNDER TQ50C 50mm Thermal Rifle Scope/Clipon/ Monocular The HIKMICRO THUNDER Pro TQ50C Thermal Scope is for the real serious shooter, it has a large 640 × 512Vox thermal detector with a 12 μm pixel interval which gives you incredible detail. Your able to...

www.huntsmanoptics.com