Anyone have first hand experience with COTI fusion? I have an ir patrol, not sure if this would just be redundant. Feedback would be appreciated.

I have one on a pvs14 thats a dedicated head mount.

it gets bulky and you feel the weight after a few hours.

One the other hand, I use it in either patrol or outline and NOTHING escapes it. I love it because I can actually see at with night vision and if something is hiding in the shadows the thermal points it out.

Ive been all over with night vision since 1988 and this with a good filmless tube is my choice. Rifle mount, I've have gone full circle night vision thermal back to night vision. I like to shoot thumpers (45 raptor, 50B, etc etc) They've eaten about every 18mm tube and a thermal "most" covered under warranty.

For me the best setup has been the pvs14 with a clip on to equal a poor mans fusion unit. Flip it up to shoot, and shoot with a PVS4. Poeple snark at me on the pvs4 but it works and none of them will loan me a tube to put on a thumper. Plus the 4 is about to be gen3

Running a COTI with a 14 or similar will show you so much more than the Patrol will when helmet mounted.  

I run a Mod 3 with a COTI attached to my left eye.  Yes this requires more counter weight than normally needed which makes the whole helmet setup rather heavy, but it's more than doable.  I regularly wear it for 3-5 hours at a time and have had nights where it didn't come off my head for up to 8-9 hours.  I also rarely use the chin strap even when running around blacked out in the side by side 4 wheeler. The ability to not only see the detail of the trails and everything around that you'd normally see with I2 on your head as well as all the thermal signatures around is incredible.  Seeing all the critters that are bedded down just inside tree lines while you're moving past them a trail is hard to beat......  

Nothing wrong with the Patrol or any other current generation helmet mounted thermal, but the fusion combo is amazing.  When stationary and scanning it's not as big a difference.  However if you are mobile in any way, including just walking around your immediate area fusion really shows its benefit.  

Here's a quick video I took on a night with no moon.  I'm standing right at a treed pathway between two open pastures.