The underhanded shooting gear marketing pressures

[Fester]

I don't think you will find too many blokes on a shooting forum who need $1,5000 thermal scopes.
I will stick to playing; I love my recreational hunting and shooting, enough to come to forums and discuss it as well.
If I just did it for pay, I likely wouldn't enjoy shooting so much, and shooting stuff.
Likely just learn what I need and just do it because I need to.

I had the same fishing boat for about 30 years, and the motor only saw a shop in the first couple of years, when I was a newb.
I always maintained my cars and bikes, including an Italian superbike.

We all have different opinions, interests, and needs.
Mine are just things I can justify and afford for my interests and hobbies.

I do use my toys, and one mate explained it like "He who dies with the most, Wins"

[fussy]

My shopping trips, even for groceries, are a bit slow, as I check the country of manufacture, eg., Where was it grown (as opposed to being extruded through NZ to give it some legitimacy and wipe off the panda fur).

Boots: Aussie made, thanks, Pays for itself over the next 2-3 years.

As for warranties: do they have a PHYSICAL address at which I can knock on their door, and stand there, waiting to be served while I tell the other customers, "I'm still waiting for the warranty to be honored."?

[tuknal]

The fact that most professional shooters (Men off farms or doing their own work for either money, stock protection and both) use spotlights because they are faster.
Eye colour, the right k of light holding an animal, the eye colours and shapes they've spent many years recognising as they quickly swing a good light left-and-right, is way faster. As is a good pair of sharp eyes looking at a real image and transmitting it to a brain to download instantly.
And the fact that their cash-disposable income is usually bugger all, so they hang on to what they are experts in using.
Sitting in the dark, without light, well that's a different story.
Yes I have thermals, two, but when running in a vehicle I will never swap out my HID light.

absolutely !!
im in contact with around 6 other roo shooters all use thermal monoculars ,some scopes as well ,1 of the better bloke around will not go back to a thermal scope ,yes they are good for some nights but over all hes says there more hassle than their worth
but every shooter has a light ,, one thing i will say wapiti ,,ditch the HID and go back to halogen they are way faster and better light i did years ago and ill never go back

this thermal game is good (when they work as described ) ,,but the ppl selling them are still just salesmen theyll take your money promise the world and half have no idea how to use the s**t they are selling 100%
ive been through 7 thermals 3 were mine 4 were different models of loan units trying to solve wifi issues in the last 24mth ,,started out with a infaray finder mk11 ,they both s**t themselves in 3mth ,so i upgraded to hikmicro (so i thought) the wifi to tablet/ipad was appalling i was given 4 different hikmicro units to test and all were not up to standard ,,all while my unit was back being looked at and told they cant find a fault ,,ive had 2 C ports replaced as well,,i will say that the importers and sales ppl were good and tried to help but still to no avail
ive heard every excuse in the book ,,oh your cars radio is interfering ( FFS i have to take my fuse out to make your U BUTE $3000 thermal work properly F OFF really !!) ,turn your phone off wifi/bluetooth ,it must be the model ipad /tablet you name it ive heard it,and when you get them on youtube telling you how 5ghz is the answer and watch while i drive up a road and use it for 10mins and nothing happened so its solved 5ghz WOO HOO ,,yeah go use it for 10hrs straight and see how you go,there is not a night EVER that ive used a thermal and there hasnt been some kind of freezing/glitching/or just shutting down
i have a nova now and yes they are better but far from what they are sold as ,,ie bomb proof wifi connection ,,i wont name ppl but the main ones on youtube getting the new gear are only telling you the good not the bad ,,cos their getting stuff for free
the bit that pisses me is i have spoken over the phone to ALL of the youtubers/salemen/importers/reps and they all admit they are not perfect over the phone
but never on youtube or in the sales brochure
but the issues ive had are RARE !!! bulls**t ,,i know plenty of hunters around here that ALL have some kind of glitch liveable to outright painfull

what ive come to believe is there is only 1 BOMBPROOF way to view a thermal on a screen/roof mount and thats hardwire but no one does it
the nova does it but its not reliable older hik stuff does it but on a monitor the detail just isnt there /the new hik stuff has issues with apps
and all have problems as soon as apple update their software
as soon as someone brings a a dedicated touch screen tablet dedicated to thermal use only hardwired with a cable to power AND charge BOTH devices ,,no apps just to view the thermal theyll kill it
i will say if you use them as just a monocular they seem be be very good ,but wifi to screen NONE are perfect
my experiance is with hik/infaray/nocpix i know ppl with pard and they seem to be ok with some minor connectivity issues
at the end of the day Australia is a very small market and we are i think the only one or one of a very few that use thermals roof mounted with spotlights so we are not that important ,,well that is what ive been told by at least 3 of the ppl anyone would be familiar with on youtube they all sell/promote thermal monoculars for roof mounting purposes as awesome

[niteowl]

This has gone off track a bit since my first comment, no problem though.
Any way I suggested that people will not get a real benefit from consumer grade thermals and still stand by that. If you can't afford them that is also fine, just be wary, I will never criticise you for that. The top end ones are EXPENSIVE but they will out perform the others. Even in really bad thermal conditions, mist, light rain and so on, you will still see animals clearly without any problems at the same distances, just the trees etc are harder to see. By adjusting the gain and using other menu settings to suit, makes things better too.

Re kangaroo shooters, I have not been one in the commercial sense since the '60 s when I was an apprentice. I / we shot them on a commercial licence on very part time basis to cover our "shooting" costs. Always back then, with a spotlight and would still do. Although I have no deisre to go back there.
I do not understand how a commercial roo shooter would go with thermal or any other Night Vision gear ????
Yes we do shoot roos on contract, but only under very specific situations (Govt only)
So I still stand by my comment regarding price, yes we do use those $14 - 15 K units (Plus, with some). Some years ago we started with commecial thermals, they were all you could get. They also kept losing zero. Don't know if this has been solved yet and don't care, we will NEVER go back
We have customers of all levels for these units, some are professional pest controllers too, and once having used one in the top end have sold all their "consumer grade" units, some now have 4 of the top end ones, and will never go back.

When we do Night Vision Workshops we do a hands on with NV of all types. We start people on the bottom end and have comments like "wow this is great". Then work up to the top end, and the normal first comment is "XXXX" that is outstanding.

Now remember technology (spelling??) changes quickly these days, so while even your top end unit will not be quite up to the same standard as a current model 5 years later. We have 14 year old units still in service.

I thank everyone who has gone to the effort to read all this ramble.