Zeroing Thermal scope

[Webb1401]

Hi all,

After watching a number of videos of people zeroing thermal scopes I thought I’d share my method.
I’ve tried a number of ways even resorting to taking a blow torch and heating up a nail knocked into the centre of a target.
Now I use metallic repair tape cut into strips and stuck to a target as per the photos. This shows up really clear and you can see below the efforts of 3 shots at 100m

Hope this is of help to someone

 

[Rogerp]

Hand warmers taped to a box also work well

 

[Webb1401]

Hand warmers taped to a box also work well

Not one I tried but have seen it on YouTube. Does rely and having a stash of them.

 

[Long drag]

Do you find that if the tgt is not facing perfectly in line with you its impossible to see the aiming mark on the tgt.

 

[Wilbur]

Hand warmers taped to a box also work well

I find hand warmers are to big to get a tight group

 

[Rogerp]

The issue I have is when zeroing with one shot zero I find it hated to see my first shot

 

[Webb1401]

Do you find that if the tgt is not facing perfectly in line with you its impossible to see the aiming mark on the tgt.

I see where you’re coming from but no, that doesn’t seem to matter at all. It for sure wasn’t in line today and that was the result. I would assume it’s because the foil is getting hot rather than the thermal picking up the reflection ?

 

[Dazb1967]

Hand warmers work well for me, I normally fold them to make them as small as poss and if you buy them in bulk on. Amazon you can pick them up cheap as chips

 

[User00048]

Flask full of hot water and tea bags. Take one out and shape it so all the tea clumps into a small circle at the bottom of the bag. Use a pin to pin it to the centre of the board, from the empty part of the tea bag at the top. Stays hot for a while, gives a nice relatively small circular POA sub 2", especially when it starts to cool. Replace it when too cold, at the cost of pennies.

 

[finnbear270]

Lifetime supply, make them as big or small as you like.

 

[Steff]

Hi all,

After watching a number of videos of people zeroing thermal scopes I thought I’d share my method.
I’ve tried a number of ways even resorting to taking a blow torch and heating up a nail knocked into the centre of a target.
Now I use metallic repair tape cut into strips and stuck to a target as per the photos. This shows up really clear and you can see below the efforts of 3 shots at 100m

Hope this is of help to someone

This is a really neat idea and I'd much prefer it over the heat pad solution.
But don't you need to somehow heat the tape up prior to using it? I can imagine that it will not work once the tape has taken on the ambient temperature. Or am I wrong?

 

[finnbear270]

The ally tape works pretty much whatever the weather & temperature, no heating needed, but even better if your target facing is ever so slightly angled back to face the sky (couple of degrees or so).
(Note how sometimes your thermal scope / spotter will have a brightness change if you look up or downwards while scanning)

 

[Polar Lynx]

Also use metallic but kichen food folio works well. No need for heating.
Do the same as Webb 1401 but glue a small bit of whatever (paper) in the fine cross which then turn out as a black or white hole in the thermal and helps aiming.

 

[Steff]

The ally tape works pretty much whatever the weather & temperature, no heating needed, but even better if your target facing is ever so slightly angled back to face the sky (couple of degrees or so).
(Note how sometimes your thermal scope / spotter will have a brightness change if you look up or downwards while scanning)

I see what you mean. But as our range is an indoor tunnel this will most probably not help much. I'll give it a try anyway. Thanks.

 

[Shaun O]

A lit joss stick stuck in a polystyrene tile facing towards you gives a nice small target to aim at.

 

[Glevum]

Thermal imagers sense the infrared energy emitted from the surface being looked at.

If you have a matt black surface and a shiny white surface at the same temperature, then they will emit different amounts of energy.

The matt black surface will emit more energy than the shiny white surface and will appear hotter to the thermal imager.

 

[JTO]

Shiny bacofoil with a black circle stuck in the centre. Shoot with the sun behind you, preferably at a low angle, a few hours after daylight. Have the scope set on Black Hot. Looks like a normal target.

 

[Mungo]

Heat pad stuck to box. Creates a big hot patch - too large and fuzzy to be useful.

But! Get an old credit card or other bit of hard plastic. Cut to size you want. Use gaffer tape folded onto itself to stick to heat pad. Plastic stands proud of the pad, and if you dip it in cold water first, is a hard edged black object against the white background.

Shots that hit the plastic show up because they show the heat shining through from behind.

 

[finnbear270]

What is this "Sun" you speak of?

 

[Free range rob]

Lifetime supply, make them as big or small as you like.
View attachment 337393

That’s what I use and works perfectly good enough