Reading the instructions on my Trijicon Hunter MK II thermal scope and it says it may take up to 3 NUCs/calibrations in the first five minutes to get your scope to work. It doesn’t say it takes 5 minutes but it obviously takes some time. So, this isn’t a scope that you just whip out and start using like a flashlight.

1.)  How long does it take you to NUC/calibrate your scope for use?


2.)  How long does the NUC/calibrations last? Will it work for the rest of the day/night or will you have to do it mulitple times during your hunt?

3.)  Do handheld thermals like Leupold’s have to be NUC’d/calibrated too?

You're over thinking this.

The scope will be working from about 5 - 10 seconds after you turn it on.
The image will slowly degrade and the scope will have to be calibrated. Takes me less than 5 seconds.

After a while the image will begin to degrade again, calibrate again.
The image won't just blank out on you, it's a rather slow process.

The image will deteriorate slower as the scope settle's out and after about a couple of hours shouldn't need calibrating
but every hour or so.

This is just my unscientific observation, but I think the greater the temperature differential between the scope and ambeint
the more calibrations are required. When I leave my nice warm house and it's 45 degrees outside it takes a while for the scope to settle out.

If I see a yote on my thermal security camera I jump up grab my rifle, turn on my IR Hunter MKII.  While I'm sneaking out the door, I turn the nob to calibrate.  It takes about 3 seconds.  I can shoot if I need to without the calibration, but a quick calibration makes the screen crystal clear.

If I'm on a set the temp outside will determine how often I calibrate.  I will calibrate some nights every 15 mins or so, others like tonight when it was humid I was doing it every 5 mins.  It's a 3 second process.

ETA: Kleeb described the image degradation pretty accurately.

About two seconds.

3-5 seconds for start up. 2 seconds or so per NUC.

Cool.

Didn't know you needed to continually NUC it throughout your night. Good to know.

Many nuc automatically.

It does it automatically, but if the image looks degraded; I’ll nuc it to see if i can clear it up.

Nuc is quick.. after that the increments at which you have to Nuc depend on environmental conditions and what resolution matters.  l can only imagine crap thermals are more finicky... while we all love these clear pics.. it comes down to what is functional in the field,,,
Its hard to compare crap thermal to good thermal or night vision.

Ah, ok.

Does anyone know if the Trijicon Hunter MK II nuc's automatically?

The Ird/Trijicon scopes require a manual nuc.   It’s really not anything to consider.  Flip ten cap down and 3 seconds later you’re back hunting.

Nice. Crazy how one of the most expensive scopes doesn’t automatically NUC.

Well, it happens, although rarely, that my Armasights will auto nuc when I’m about to shoot.  So there’s that.

Yes it does happen.

Nuc is is not a problem on the IRD/trijicon scopes.

Auto NUC is not really an upgrade, it could happen at a time you don't want it to.

You really don't want auto NUC on a weapons scope.

Good point. Never considered that.

I don’t know that it matters either way.  If you are shooting people yeah ok auto nuc may be bad.   For coyote and hog hunting you wait 3 seconds and shoot......on the rare occasion it nucs at that specific moment.   Owning and using both it’s just really not an issue either way....imo.

The auto NUC also uses some kind of shutter internally, I would imaging there might be some other factors at play, regarding lens size, recoil, shutter mechanism complexity, effectiveness vs external cap. Just spitballing because I don't know the fine details but there may be other limitations involved.

NUC'ing internally does use a  mechanical shutter mechanism.  Any moving part is susceptible to wear, but I know that FLIR tests their shutter mechanisms for millions of cycles.  Mechanical shutters also draw power.  The old R-Series scopes had the option to disable the manual shutter.  Nice feature, imho.  The newer PTS system is a bit different.  I've played around with manual vs. auto and internal vs. external using the Boson App.  Manual/external does produce a nicer image, but the system software still tries to command a flat field every so often.  Even with the Boson shutter disabled and in External mode, when the system decides it needs a NUC, you need to quickly install the lens cap, use the palm of your hand, or provide the camera with some other uniform source before the NUC fires.  Wish FLIR would change the PTS software so NUC is only controlled by the Boson.  Quality of the source has a lot to do with the quality of the post-NUC image.

Auto vs. Manual NUC should be a user preference.  Some folks don't want to be hassled with the operation, others want to control it.  Think it depends on the user and the situation.  I think the Trijicon products do a nice job with their NUC process.  Identifying the best target is the most difficult step.