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I'll make one safe bet. Anyone who doesn't currently HAVE a thermal scope and buys one of the three listed by the OP will be happy as a pig in shit the first time they sight an animal through it.
The difference between everything else and thermal is conceptually similar to the difference between turbocharging and Warp Speed - there's no contest because once you see everything you were not seeing before when you look through thermal for the first time, it's like sex - you're going to want MORE.
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Yep. I used one many years ago at Wild River Ranch in Goliad, Tx. It wasn't weapon mounted, but we used it to spot hogs. It probably didn't remotely compare to this new unit, but at the time, according to our host, was a $14,000 or so unit that Victor at TNVC had sent to him to test in the field. We'd spot hogs with it (Not many, though. The hunting was bad that year. There was a drought and not many hogs around), and then use what I think was Gen II or Gen III night vision on the rifle to postitively ID the animal and then shoot it. At a distance, hogs and cows or even deer didn't look to different from one another in the thermal imager.
Anyway, I'm going from memory, and I remember it being amazing, but not nearly as sharp as what I see in the videos posted on this or even the ATN or Pulsar units. The Flir Thermosite, however, appears to be really smooth, allowing for running shots, as the demo video shows.
Anyway, I digress. If I was able to spend $2200 bucks right this second, I'd order the new Flir. I've got to see what I can do over the next few months. If my brother in law and I decide to hog hunt in October, I'll snag one before then and start learning how to employ it effectively. Otherwise, it may be December or January. I've got to be careful, though, because I'm ordering a Jeep in December, so I can't put too much stress on my wife's goodwill.