GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Hunting Gate => Topic started by: Steelontarget on December 24, 2021, 09:58:48 PM
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Last night I went coyote hunting with a powder-burner but they weren't cooperating. The mice and rats were frolicking in the darkness in the field that I was next to. So I got out the TalonSS with a Burris Thermal scope.
I got 8 mice and one rat in rather short succession. I was hoping to use the thermal optics to locate them and gather them for the usual trophy photos. However, their little bodies cool off so fast that I wasn't able to locate most of them.
Attached are some photos. The last photo is rather interesting considering that you cannot see any rodent. This picture is of some pipes laying beside a barn. A mouse or rat ran inside the pipe to hide. Notice the white spot on the pipe in the photo. That's the heat signature from the little creature inside.
I thought about sticking the muzzle in one end of the pipe and shooting but decided to give the little bugger a sporting chance.
After I put the air rifle away, some mice and rats decided to come back out and play. Here's a link to one of the videos of a mouse scurrying about. It's no wonder that I had more misses than hits.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12g-WRryfkJrXe9aCyCvoXPEilXJ6436U/view (https://drive.google.com/file/d/12g-WRryfkJrXe9aCyCvoXPEilXJ6436U/view)
The TalonTunes silencer really quiets the gun down. It's so quiet that the mice don't know they've been shot at even when I miss and they don't realize that death is seconds away with a subsequent shot.
Don't tell my friends that drive big pickup trucks, chew tobacco and drink straight whiskey that I had more fun shooting mice than hunting coyotes.
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Mike, that is so cool! That Burris thermal scope is no joke! Seriously fun stuff trying to snipe meth mice and rats with a PCP! LOL! Well, if your friends tried it I'm sure they'd be converted over! 😂 Happy Holidays!
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Great and fun shooting on them mice and rat Mike !!! Thermal scopes sure are neat, I just never wanted to fork out the money for them.
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WOW! Would I love to have one and do some night hunting. The least expensive one that I have found and has great reviews, is a Sightmark Wraith HD Night Vision scope at Midway for $500.00. It looks like I will have to sell a few air guns.
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I read a lot of reviews on thermal scopes and I'm sure that there are better options than the Burris. I won't go over a big list of pros and cons on the various brands and models but I'll list a few things that I like and dislike about the Burris thermal scopes.
First: It's not made in the US. We're not supposed to get political on this forum. So I will refrain from criticizing another country. With that said, I could catch some grief from folks that say "you bought a cheap, made in _______, piece of &^^&."
To a certain extant they make a good point. However, it's not cheap. I don't think it's a piece of &^^&. Yes, I don't like the government of the country of origin. I've nothing against the people and would like to see them have more freedom than what they have now.
Regarding US made products. They can be very, very expensive. The night vision and thermal products made in the US are excellent quality but WAY out of my price range now. I'd like to buy US made products when possible but give us some competitive pricing.
Besides, the people that criticize imported products and want to boycott the products because of where they are made forget that a lot of Americans earn their paycheck to transport, warehouse and market those products to us.
That's one of the criticisms I have for the Burris. The other is that I wish the resolution was better.
Let me temper that by saying that I have some really good daytime scopes. I confess that I'm a scope snob. I do buy the best that money can buy. This comes from a man that never use to trust scopes. I use to do all my squirrel and big game hunting with iron-sighted rifles.
As we all know advances in manufacturing technology has changed all that. So my criticism of the resolution might be due to the fact that I'm an extremely spoiled scope snob.
The one feature that I really wanted out of a thermal device was waterproofing. Regardless of whatever you buy, make sure that it is waterproof.
I won't go scuba diving with the thermal scope but keep in mind that water and electronics don't work well together. Think about the last time you were hunting and got caught in the rain.
If you have never been caught in the rain while hunting, then you really have not hunted enough.
Burris didn't say anything about whether their thermal scope is waterproof. However, I did see, on the box that it was IP67 rated. I had to look that up. For your convenience, here is the link.
https://www.setra.com/blog/what-does-an-ip67-rating-mean (https://www.setra.com/blog/what-does-an-ip67-rating-mean)
As you can see, I'm comfortable with risking a rain shower with the Burris thermal. I did take it shooting one day when the humidity was 100%. There was condensation on everything. I didn't have a problem for that entire day I was at the range.
The other factor I wanted was confidence in the electrical source. The BTS series of thermal scopes (not the monocular and clip-on optics) uses the 18650 batteries. I really like those batteries except for one thing.
I have a lot of the 18650 batteries for the predator lights but they have the button top.
The only 18650 batteries that will fit in the optic are the flat-top batteries. The thermal scope comes with one but I purchased some more with a higher capacity online.
The reason that I like the 18650 battery option is the longer run time. If the charge gets low while out hunting, I pull another one out of my pocket and replace the spent one in the field.
I don't like attaching an external battery pack to the rifle and risk getting tangled up in the wires. When I was younger, I could trek through the woods like a cat on the prowl with the reflexes to match.
Now that I've aged, I can look like one of the three stooges on safari if I'm not paying attention or watching where I step. Trying to find everything in the dark by feel is bad enough without extra wires hanging off my rifle.
Speaking of battery replacement. Burris has made this easy by placing the battery compartment on top of the scope. It's easy to reach, remove the cap and tilt the rifle so the battery can slip out into your hand.
Even though the battery is a flat top, I'm able to feel the difference in the dark for the correct end that goes in first. The cap is a little tricky to get screwed back on. Take your time and when any resistance is met, back it off so you don't cross thread it. When the threads match up correctly, you will be able to feel it turn easily and know you're not cross threading it.
If old fumble-fingers like me can do it, then anyone can.
The scope has two power saving features. The first one is the automatic shutoff. When the unit senses that there hasn't been any activity for a pre-determined and programable amount of time it will shut off completely. Turning it back on requires a spool up time of about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.
The other one is when you press and hold the power button while looking through the scope just watch the power-off status boar scroll to the right. If you want to shut the unit off completely hold the button till the status bar reaches the end. If you are done hunting this turns the unit off completely. Remember that when it's first turned on it has a spool up time of a minute or two. That's not good when your quarry appears for only a fleeting moment.
If you want to reduce the power consumption, hold the button down and release it before the status bar gets to the end. This reduces power to the screen saving a lot of battery consumption.
When the critter appears, pressing the power button instantaneously restores power.
The one thing that the thermal scope shares with the daytime scopes is fatigue. I'm talking about the fatigue you feel by keeping the rifle to the shoulder and eye to the scope. I won't elaborate on that as anyone who has hunted for any length of time will agree. Don't forget that you have a little television screen a few inches from your eye.
With that said, I got the Burris hand-held thermal monocular. I could not afford the thermal binoculars. So half of a binocular is better than one.
It's more expense but scanning the area around me is so much easier than staying on the rifle. Prior to that, I was using an inexpensive night vision camera.
IMHO, thermal is so much better for finding critters. If it will detect a mouse at 100 yards it will detect larger game. A few nights ago, I was able to see a cow or a horse at about 800-900 yards away. I couldn't tell whether it was a cow or a horse at that distance but there was no way I'd find that with night vision unless it was extremely expensive and out of my budget.
So if anyone was contemplating a thermal scope, you might want to plan for a future expenditure for a thermal monocular.
Burris has the clip-on thermal scopes to mount in front of the daytime scopes. The selling point with a clip-on is that it can be used as a monocular then clipped on the rifle when game appears. Remember that takes precious time and your quarry could disappear while attempting to mount the device. Burris also does not have the mounting hardware available. That's like selling razors without the replaceable blades.
I will want to, eventually, get some clip on thermal scopes but it will be a while.
So far the Burris thermal scopes have served me well except for a couple of things. The rubber ring that slips over the objective focusing ring fell off the other night. Fortunately I found it and slipped back on without any problem. It seems to be affixed rather firmly so it must have been my fumble fingers that somehow caused it to slip off. I just need to be careful in the future.
The other problem that I had was turning the unit off the other night. I was scrolling through the menu and selecting different options the other night really fast. I've got so familiar with it that a lot of the operation is second nature and apparently too fast.
Remember that this thing has a computer inside it. So just like any computer, it needs time to perform some tasks. That's when it locked up on me for a few minutes. The processor need time to catch up and I was able to turn the unit off without removing the battery; which I don't like to do.
The reticles are graduated in MILS. However, each of the indices or dot in the various reticles (#4, 6, 9 & 10) is worth TWO mils. Reticle #2 uses one MIL divisions with the smaller hash marks representing 1/2 MIL.
I could go into a very long explanation of how I know that but I'm tired of typing now. Attached are my notes for the reticles. Not all reticles are included as some options do not have indices or are not spaced uniformly, resembling a BDC.
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Neat pipe picture! How much did your scope cost? I got the Wraith IR scope for $475 from my local gun shop that records video and I like it but it can be hard to spot critters when they're motionless standing in place. Shot at a skunk the other night and it ran off. Turns out after watching the recorded footage that I shot the tail believing it was the body. A thermal cam would've prevented that.
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Coyotes mostly eat rodents, so you were in the right neighborhood. You're basically baiting the field. If you wait long enough they may move in for a free meal. Especially if one of your kills was noisy as it expired. It's a natural coyote call.
Good luck on the next hunt.
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Very neat optic and great post. I'm sure your friends would have a blast doing the same thing.
I could definitely put one of those thermal optics to use, as we have many many field mice in the area and my property, as well as the usual things that go bump in the night.
Thanks for posting this, take care.
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Howdy Mike and Thank You for the cool hunting story and of course the last pic is super cool but pretty sure I wouldn't have been "sporting" about it ;) Be cool shoot the bugger and have it pop out in Dirt Nap state.
I am a huge fan of the 18650, own 20 of them, and have NV device that also requires a flat top of which I have very few. Perhaps grind off the 'nipple' a few of them. I'll look at one and see.
Most of my NV + IR devices, maybe all, can tolerate a battery without the nipple.
It's $5 experiment ;)
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One of the brands appears that the nipple can easily be reomoved.
On the flip side I have soldered a small nipple onto one of the flat tops and that worked fine.
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Here's an article about the 18650 batteries. According to the article, the button top batteries are protected, whereas the flat tops are not.
https://commonsensehome.com/18650-battery/ (https://commonsensehome.com/18650-battery/)
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Here's an article about the 18650 batteries. According to the article, the button top batteries are protected, whereas the flat tops are not.
https://commonsensehome.com/18650-battery/ (https://commonsensehome.com/18650-battery/)
Thanks Man!
According to the linked article a protected battery deals with the following potential issues:
"“over charge”, heat or “over discharge”, over current and short circuit."
Overcharge is controlled by the charger, in may case, pretty sure as I test the voltage before and after.
I am most worried about over discharge and ruining the battery bit I babysit them.
No thermal here just an ATN 4K Pro - Love it.
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Neat pipe picture! How much did your scope cost? I got the Wraith IR scope for $475 from my local gun shop that records video and I like it but it can be hard to spot critters when they're motionless standing in place. Shot at a skunk the other night and it ran off. Turns out after watching the recorded footage that I shot the tail believing it was the body. A thermal cam would've prevented that.
Sorry for the late reply. I got the scope from Optics Planet. They had the best deal going at the time with a 10% discount.
https://www.opticsplanet.com/burris-bts-35-1-7-6-8x35mm-thermal-riflescope.html (https://www.opticsplanet.com/burris-bts-35-1-7-6-8x35mm-thermal-riflescope.html)
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Thanks Mike. Currently looking at their cheap handhelds.