Thermal Scopes

[jtdawson]

If you are new and looking to get into night hunting, I figured I would save you a little bit of time and money but sharing my findings through trial and error on Thermals.
There are a lot of options out there and I know it can be overwhelming to decide what direction to go with purchasing a thermal scope or scanner.
Whether you are looking for reliability, image quality, ruggedness, or just great customer service, Pulsar has you covered.
I began my relationship with Pulsar with purchasing a Trail xq38 (384) and have since upgraded a few times to now the Thermion 2 XP50 Pro.
I have only every had to make 1 warranty claim and it was something that was no ones fault but my own. The company was super understanding and worked with me to get my thermal fixed and back in my hands in a timely manner.
Not to mention, Pulsar seems to be ahead of the technological curve in their innovation, being in my opinion, the "frontrunner" of thermal / night vision hunting scopes and hand held scanners.
Although their units have proprietary batteries, the batter life is what has amazed me the most. Even on the coldest of nights, I have yet to have to stop my hunt for a charge up, or hook into a power bank.

If you run a Pulsar, drop by and leave a comment telling me what unit you have and what you love the most about it!
Maybe this thread will save someone some time, money, and heartache!

Keep killin!

 

[sghoghunter]

Back in 2018 I put together my first AR and bought my first thermal scope which was a Pulsar RXQ30. Didn’t have not one problem with it the whole time it was under warranty but after that ran out I sent it in for a few things with no problems at all and only had to pay for one cause I wanted to keep the same green background. I still have that scope on a backup gun. I replaced it with a Bering Optics Vibe 35 which is a very good scope also

 

[jtdawson]

Back in 2018 I put together my first AR and bought my first thermal scope which was a Pulsar RXQ30. Didn’t have not one problem with it the whole time it was under warranty but after that ran out I sent it in for a few things with no problems at all and only had to pay for one cause I wanted to keep the same green background. I still have that scope on a backup gun. I replaced it with a Bering Optics Vibe 35 which is a very good scope also

That's awesome! I remember those RXQ30s very well. Kind of wish I could find for just for the nostalgia of it!

 

[sghoghunter]

My brother still has one of the last ones that’s still being used. I’ve been trying to get him to upgrade a lil bit but he won’t

 

[Pig Predator]

I still use an RXQ30. I had to send it in after warranty expired and a year after they discontinued them. Wire in battery compartment came loose and the button pad at on/off button failed and was sticking. $38 repair and had it back within 2 weeks. I velcro taped the controller to the right side and use it almost exclusively now for going on 2 years trouble free on a 7 year old unit. I'm pretty rough on stuff also.

 

[sghoghunter]

I still use an RXQ30. I had to send it in after warranty expired and a year after they discontinued them. Wire in battery compartment came loose and the button pad at on/off button failed and was sticking. $38 repair and had it back within 2 weeks. I velcro taped the controller to the right side and use it almost exclusively now for going on 2 years trouble free on a 7 year old unit. I'm pretty rough on stuff also.

One of my repairs was the on/off button but it still don’t feel right. I also use to remote

 

[bighunter23]

Had a pulsar thermion, then a Agm rattler and now I have the rix leap 6. Had no problems with pulsar or Agm but that rix is hard to beat in my opinion. They just released the laser range finder and I’ll have that as soon as they have them in stock somewhere. Called their customer service twice with questions and got a real person who spoke English both times with maybe a minute on hold. Long term will be the tell tale sign on the rix but right now I am pleased.

 

[nix03]

Had a pulsar thermion, then a Agm rattler and now I have the rix leap 6. Had no problems with pulsar or Agm but that rix is hard to beat in my opinion. They just released the laser range finder and I’ll have that as soon as they have them in stock somewhere. Called their customer service twice with questions and got a real person who spoke English both times with maybe a minute on hold. Long term will be the tell tale sign on the rix but right now I am pleased.

I have narrowed my search for a thermal down to Pulsar and the Leap 6. Where did you get the Leap 6?

 

[Pig Predator]

One of my repairs was the on/off button but it still don’t feel right. I also use to remote

It wasn't the button but the rubber boot had worn and was catching on the edge of the unit making it stick. My fault because I would manually nuke instead of using auto nuke, thus wearing that part of the pad prematurely. No problems now that I use the controller and auto nuke.

 

[sghoghunter]

Had a pulsar thermion, then a Agm rattler and now I have the rix leap 6. Had no problems with pulsar or Agm but that rix is hard to beat in my opinion. They just released the laser range finder and I’ll have that as soon as they have them in stock somewhere. Called their customer service twice with questions and got a real person who spoke English both times with maybe a minute on hold. Long term will be the tell tale sign on the rix but right now I am pleased.

I’d never even heard of a Rix thermal till a couple months ago. IMO and this is just me but what little time they’ve been out I have seen a pretty good bit of complaints. Hasn’t been anything major just video recording problems and already having firmware updates. Kinda reminds me of Tactacam

 

[bighunter23]

I’d never even heard of a Rix thermal till a couple months ago. IMO and this is just me but what little time they’ve been out I have seen a pretty good bit of complaints. Hasn’t been anything major just video recording problems and already having firmware updates. Kinda reminds me of Tactacam

Yeah a few firmware updates have fixed it without a problem. I’m with you tho I wish everything in the tech world came out working perfect every time but I haven’t seen it happen yet. They are a new company but the people running the ship are not new to the thermal world. We will see.

 

[Yotedawg]

From various facebook groups, pulsar has had a bad point of impact shift in their scopes in the past that has tainted their rep in my opinion. I don’t own one but many people will let you know quick that they have experienced it.

Currently, my hunting buddy sent his pulsar axion scanner in for repairs on December 7th. It was in pulsar’s hands on the 10th. They never got with him till after the new year despite multiple emails sent by him. And then when they did make contact, told him it needs parts and they have no parts in stock. Now we are coming up on February and pulsar refuses to give him a timeline on when they will have parts or make repairs. It is days before two months since they have had it. This is totally unacceptable in my opinion and enough to make me run fast and far from pulsar. This may be an isolated case but pulsar’s customer service has failed miserably in both reaching out by email to the customer to keep him abreast of what is going on, and making the repairs in a timely manner.

 

[sghoghunter]

From various facebook groups, pulsar has had a bad point of impact shift in their scopes in the past that has tainted their rep in my opinion. I don’t own one but many people will let you know quick that they have experienced it.

Currently, my hunting buddy sent his pulsar axion scanner in for repairs on December 7th. It was in pulsar’s hands on the 10th. They never got with him till after the new year despite multiple emails sent by him. And then when they did make contact, told him it needs parts and they have no parts in stock. Now we are coming up on February and pulsar refuses to give him a timeline on when they will have parts or make repairs. It is days before two months since they have had it. This is totally unacceptable in my opinion and enough to make me run fast and far from pulsar. This may be an isolated case but pulsar’s customer service has failed miserably in both reaching out by email to the customer to keep him abreast of what is going on, and making the repairs in a timely manner.

Is he contacting Pulsar or Selmark? If I understand correctly Selmark is the distributor of Pulsar and they are the ones doing the repairs. The couple times I’ve called Selmark they was able to answer any questions and also called me and told me a price of my out of warranty work before repairing

 

[chase870]

Trijicon has repaired everything I have sent in warranty or not at no charge and done so in less than 3 weeks.

 

[sghoghunter]

Trijicon has repaired everything I have sent in warranty or not at no charge and done so in less than 3 weeks.

They should after the upfront payment on them things

 

[Yotedawg]

Is he contacting Pulsar or Selmark? If I understand correctly Selmark is the distributor of Pulsar and they are the ones doing the repairs. The couple times I’ve called Selmark they was able to answer any questions and also called me and told me a price of my out of warranty work before repairing

I assumed Pulsar, but it could be Selmark. He is swapping emails with whoever contacted him. Regardless of which one, pushing two months with no eta of getting it back is not a good look.

 

[Yotedawg]

Is he contacting Pulsar or Selmark? If I understand correctly Selmark is the distributor of Pulsar and they are the ones doing the repairs. The couple times I’ve called Selmark they was able to answer any questions and also called me and told me a price of my out of warranty work before repairing

Update on my hunting buddy’s Pulsar Axion. It is Selmark he is dealing with. He does not have his scanner back. He called yesterday and could get no one. He left a strongly worded message and received a call hours later. He was told they were out of stock of both that model scanner and out of stock on the parts needed to repair his. No indication as to when parts would be in stock so no eta on getting his scanner back. In the meantime, it has been over two months and the clock is still ticking. This type customer service is why people left ATN in droves.

 

[nix03]

Got a Rix leap 6 in yesterday and mounted, gonna set it and hopefully kill something this weekend.

 

[Keith Karr]

Nix03 give us a report on the Rix.

 

[Hunter/Mason]

I have a Berring Optics(Hogster) my wife bought me for our anniversary last June. I’ve killed 2 pigs with it so far. My son has ran off with it and took over the place i have permission to hunt as well. He has killed over 25 pigs and a few coyotes and bobcats so far. Maybe I’ll get to use it before too long. So far no issues and the only complaint is that it eats the CR123 batteries fast and I probably need the external batter pack but he videos everything so that’s probably why he runs through batteries