Something that is quickly becoming more mainstream in the gun industry yet still has a lot of mystery shrouding it is night vision and thermal optics. You see it in movies, maybe one of your former military friends used some, or possibly you have a friend who owns some. In any event, it has a lot more uses than people fully realize. It is used by firefighters to identify hot spots on the scenes of fire because heat signatures (fire) can be detected through sheetrock and inside walls. Law enforcement will often use thermal optics to help find people. If there is a missing person, someone who has been abducted out in a field, or a runaway fugitive, thermal optics can help detect, recognize, and identify those people to recover them even if they are concealed to the naked eye.
So, while thermal optics are used by firefighters and law enforcement, what about you and me? We can use them in similar ways, too. If someone is trespassing on your property at night you could detect their heat signature at night in the bushes and call the cops. If you lost a child at an outdoor park and it is getting dark outside you could quickly find them and get home. While hunting, if could help you find, harvest, and recover wild game. Thermal optics have many uses. The only limiting factor might be your imagination. The most important thing to know when using thermal optics, and purchasing them, is there are 3 metrics by which they are judged: Detection, Recognition, and Identification.
Many thermal optics will advertise that they can detect a heat signature out to 1,500 meters. This simply implies it can pick up heat at that distance. You do not know what it is that far away, but the optic can detect some type of heat signature. Second, would be recognition. That is the ability to discern whether something is a mammal or not (cow versus campfire, child versus hot motor, etc). The ability of a thermal optic to allow you to recognize heat signatures might be an intermediate distance of 400 – 600 meters. Finally, there is identification. That is the more finite ability to say exactly what something is. Like, “that is definitely a whitetail deer; an 8-point buck.” Or, “that is the neighbor’s dog, I still need to figure out where mine ran off to.”
When it comes to thermal optics a lot of marketing and buzzwords can get confusing, but the 3 you need to know are Detection, Recognition, and Identification. These are key phrases in knowing what heat signatures are both near and far. Until next time, continually check out our blog, join our newsletter, and watch the website for new and exciting updates! As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below. We love it when you participate in our articles and keep the conversation going!
