Thermal imaging.. it just sounds cool.. It is! We have all seen the police helicopter footage from a thermal imaging camera watching a suspect try to hide… between the thermal and the police dog, they flat out do not stand a chance. The military uses thermal in theater extensively. The gear that they use is beyond the reach of most average joe of course, but there are some small handheld units like the FLIR PS32 on the market, that while not cheap, are a fraction of the cost of the top end gear.
The FLIR PS32 Scout is both compact and light about the size of a small modern cam corder. It runs off an internal battery that will allow it to have about 5 hrs of run time. It features a 2x magnification that is activated via a button on top of the unit.
When you first power it on it is in the default detection setting which makes the hot images glow white and the colder images are dark. There are multiple setting you can experiment with such as inverting the colors, i.e., hot in black, cold in white. There is also a mode wherein the hottest detections are in red.
The unit works GREAT outdoors, especially looking down a dirt road or an open field. We ran it hog hunting and it was FANTASTIC when used this way. We would put out corn down a road in the middle of the place we hunt and get in the middle of the road and be able to view 3-500 yards either direction. We saw hogs, deer and racoons come out. You could certainly detect “something” several hundred yards but was it a raccoon or small pigs? Deer, hogs or a cow? We had to get closer to be able to positively id the animal. Once you got to within 200 yards you could tell what it was. We would then sneak up with the wind in our face and engage our enemy, er, uh, wild hog with the weapon of our choice. We took some with a 1911 and a flashlight, and a 6.8 SPC AR with NVG
This consumer unit will NOT see through glass, trees or house walls. It is not for true “tactical” use.
It retails for 3k which puts it right there with Gen3 NVG. Personally, I would take this over the latter for my uses. It doesn’t matter what the environmental conditions are like. One thing I don’t like about NVG is on a totally dark night where you need to use IR and you look into the trees, the IR creates a lot of back light at you. It can be very fatiguing to your eyes and kill your night vision when you stop using it. The PS32 doesn’t do that.
The FLIR PS32 Scout is VERY cool unit and everyone who has checked it out has wanted one!
ccoker
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no, can’t be weapon mounted..
I did some testing 🙂
One of the nights we had it out we had the Pulsar 750 scope and monocular..
Both nice units for sure
If you think it can’t be rifle mounted you’re not trying hard enough 😉
I like my LS64, and with a little work it can be done.
Oh, I could figure a way to mount it.
I was trying it in conjunction with scopes and my Aimpoint T1 either in front or behind it.
No go.
I really wanted to make it work!
That’s pretty sweet. Can this be weapon mounted with a scope? Maybe an Eotech or aimpoint??…I would think you would need something that has an illuminated reticle. You mentioned the reflection from tree’s using night vision. I bought a Pulsar 805 IR light. It is adjustable from beam to flood. I have been able to reduce alot of that reflection problem by adjusting the beam. You might try that. The unit is only $120. I could send it to you to try out first. The only thing I havent been able to compensate for is through the screen of my “hunting window” in the kitchen…LOL. In total darkness the screen reflects and makes for a total bright whiteout of the image.