Thread: Carrying thermal monocular in the bush

Thanks to the other thread, I've ordered a Sytong thermal monocular for bush hunting. Just wondered how you guys are carrying yours. Pouch on belt, pocket, bino chest case or something cleverer? Needs to be easy/quiet to get out, but not flopping all over the place.

What model did you get?

Sytong XS03-25. The cheapest! It's primarily for bush hunting and I don't need a range finder 95% of the time.

I put a lanyard on mine and wear that around my neck and poke it in my chest pocket, easy to pull out and hard to loose

One of my customers that I sold one of these to informed me that he ordered a small pouch from Twin needle that attaches to his bino chest pack. Works real good.

Twin needles or Bushlife will have what you need.

Originally Posted by MB

Sytong XS03-25. The cheapest! It's primarily for bush hunting and I don't need a range finder 95% of the time.

I would be interested in some feedback on your thoughts of this, especially as you see more real world jungle than most here.

Mainly can you make out an image through and beyond the undergrowth even if only partial image. where the eye could not make out in a normal situation.

I second the above. A review would be great if you can spare the time. If your busy a simple yeah or nah would do

Sure. It hasn't arrived yet and I don't have a trip planned, but when I do, I'll report back on the usefulness in the jungle.

Here's a few things to ponder. No advice as such, but just an experience.
I was using mine yesterday morning, shooting hares. Not in bush, but out in the open, in drizzle that turned to rain. The thermal comes with a front lens cover, but not one for the rear. I have a pouch for mine, on a chest harness, that sits vertically, front lens pointing down. I ended up putting it in my pocket as in the chest pouch the rear lens was getting water on it, as I leave it open when in use as I'm always taking it in and out (it has a zip closure). I think in this situation it would have been better to have it mounted horizontally, sliding in/out from the side with a flap closure, so you can get it out without having rain falling on the lens. Or somehow make and attach a rear lens cover, though then its something else to do before using it.

I haven't alot of experience hunting in close bush (except with a mate with a dog, which made it MUCH easier!), but yesterday I was in rolling terrain, with tussock and matagouri, so I was often taking a few steps, then scanning, then taking a few more steps, scanning, looking through the rifle scope, so the thermal was continually being taken out and put away. I ended up ditching the chest harness into my pack (I wasn't using the binos much anyway) and just using the "belly" pocket on my fleece swandri for the thermal.

Incidentally, there were 4 times that I could see what I could identify as a hare through the thermal, in part cover (tussock/matagouri) that I could not for the life of me see through the scope.

I have the sytong XS03-35-LRF the rangefinder sticky outy bit makes a pouch pretty awkward - I ended up buying a pouch from Alaska guide creations which pairs with my bino harness and its fits really well.

I brought one of these from Temu, mate got one as well and they go good. Have enough room in the front for a spare battery, knife and sharpener
https://share.temu.com/aHmGEovDGRA

In the bush i have my thermal on a bino lanyard (nicely padded) around my neck. I tuck in in my partly zipped open shirt (or swanny) chest to restrict it flopping around as needed. Easy access and i can drop it to shoot fast without worrying about losing it. Rain hasnt been a problem like that for me.
I dont use a bino harness in the bush as it gets in the way of the rifle and when ducking/bending forward all the time.

Originally Posted by Roarless20

In the bush i have my thermal on a bino lanyard (nicely padded) around my neck. I tuck in in my partly zipped open shirt (or swanny) chest to restrict it flopping around as needed. Easy access and i can drop it to shoot fast without worrying about losing it. Rain hasnt been a problem like that for me.
I dont use a bino harness in the bush as it gets in the way of the rifle and when ducking/bending forward all the time.

This is the way I am going to try next time I'm out shooting hares. Quite a different situation than hunting large animals on the tops in south island. I'm planning on ditching the chest harness next time, as hardly used the binos, will go back to the old belt pouch (i.e. bumbag) instead. I'm going to see if I can find a bottle cap that will fit snugly on the (soft) eye cup on the thermal to keep the rain off the lens if need be...

Can anyone enlighten me please as to whether the colour temperatures on any of the thermal imaging handhelds owned and used for hunting are manually adjustable? Or are they typically fixed and factory preset? Or do they move based on the average IR frequency & intensity being received across the sensor?

If factory preset then presumably it can be observed that the colours have indeed been "hard wired" while being optimised for distinguishing the body temperature of mammals, perhaps in a surrounding environment that goes down to 0°C? This might mean that typically objects above say 35°C would all be of the one colour (of what ever colour palette has been selected) and 0°C and below would also all be the one colour, with the image being made up of the colours between these two extremes.

If operating in an environment where the overnight temperature only dipped to 15° (setting aside radiated losses to below this for now) then it seems that a chunk of the palette would no longer be available in contributing to the image. So perhaps the imagers instead are self-calibrating based on averaging, with the palette being automatically allocated to better depict IR frequencies that are typically emitted from objects between 15°C and 35°C?

Anyone able to offer any insights please ?