I’m going to throw my hat in this ring, because I feel I can now.
I looked through an i ray finder last night.
Initially we were on my drive, and I saw it in the last knocking of daylight, I was instantly impressed by its size, less than half the size of what I’ve been using for quite a few years now, the helion xq38.
I picked it up and was also impressed how light it felt in the hand, it’s very very similar to my daytime rf, compact light and fairly straightforward to use.
after chatting about thermal, Nv and shooting in genera, looking at a few other bits it was soon dark, I had another look through the i ray finder and was instantly blown away, I scanned around my outbuildings, across the street to the neighbours house, his cars, then at some nearby trees and into my garden, maximum range was 47 metres, this was confirmed by the inbuilt rf, but were known distances to me anyway. The level of detail was outstanding, ive not looked through anything thermal wise at this price point that has provided such a detailed picture, he’ll I was even looking at the brake pads on his car at 45 yards and could make them out perfectly, just like a black and white picture it was that clear
I kept playing around with this little unit as I liked it so much, the evening wasn’t even about the spotter, I was not in the market for one, nor had I looked them up or knew anything about them until this point.
i arranged the evening as I was in the market for a thermal scope, but I wanted real world comparisons, at night, looking at fields and animals, in familiar surrounding I had looked at through thermal previously.
so we had looked over the scopes, and this little spotter on my drive, I suggested we head out to the field to test the “Proper” stuff
out in the field I started handling the scopes blah blah blah…but the little sneaky spotter was also there so in between scopes I managed another look, I had a bit more time playing around with it, and I was straight onto a hedgeline 2 fields away, this hedge is known very well to me and what inhabits the area, immediately I scanned the hedge and could see 7nrabbits in the long grass, long because I’ve not been able to top it this year, and I know just how long it is, I also know the nearest point is 376 metres, (it’s the spot I nailed my longest ever fox at and it stuck in my head ever since) and the furthest point is in excess of 550, I was talking out loud and counting the rabbits, one guy stood next to me who shall remain nameless unless he wishes to step forward was also present last night, and just happened to have his axion with him, he was also scanning the same hedgeline but he struggled to see the rabbits for a moment, then he could see some, but not as many as I had counted, we were talking and directing whilst scanning.
I then grabbed a scope and looked again, won’t bore everyone with the results of the scopes.
The bastard cattle had done the usual jump the fence and were in the wrong field again, so we both sat looking at them, he ranged one at 164, so I tried and ranged it’s head at 164 and it’s Arse at 165.
The RF seemed to work fine, certainly out to 350-400 ish and was plenty accurate enough for my types of shooting at the ranges I shoot.
Now bear in mind this finder was totally new to me, I had been buggering around with settings and didn’t know what I was doing, I could clearly see targets upto 500 ish yards, yes conditions were pretty good, some damp in the air but no rain or fog etc.
I can honestly say I was more than impressed with it, done the job admirably, better than I believe my xq does (wish I had grabbed it and double checked, but I’m certain I was seeing a lot more than I normally would).
would I consider one, well oddly enough I shall be selling my xq soon and replacing it with one of these.
and for anyone selling a product, I will have the money ready and waiting for the right spotter
