Pulsar Thermion XP50

Pulsar Thermion XP50, Thermal Imaging Rifle Scope.

This is the first review I have done in several months.
With the Covid-19 pandemic still hitting the world I had taken a break from doing some reviews due to lockdown and the fact I did not want to pester many of those who loan me their equipment, they had enough on their plates with Furlough and trying to stay afloat without me pestering them for review items.

As many sites throughout the shooting world have been focusing on the Highlights of the past, I personally have never been busier, so it was strange not to have anything on review.
Now things have settled down I managed to contact Thomas Jack Ltd, whom have thankfully still been managing to work throughout all of this, to see if I can finally get my grubby paws on a Pulsar Thermion.

I know I am a little late to the game on this, with the new next generation of Thermal rifle scopes ready to be released, but at least now with all the bugs being ironed out and the latest updates being installed I can tell you what I feel about the Thermion openly.
Lets get the geeky part over with for those who like all the tech jibber jabber.

Specifications (taken from the Thomas Jacks Ltd. Product page)
 Long detection range
 High magnification
 Smooth digital zoom
 High contrast thermal sensors
 Frost-Resistant HD AMOLED colour display
 50Hz Refresh rate
 Focusable lens
 Dioptre control
 High recoil-resistance (12-gauge, 9.3×64, .375H&H)
 Compatible with standard 30mm rings
 8 Colour modes
 Instant Start-Up & “Display Off” mode
 Auto-Shutdown
 Side incline indicator
 PiP mode
 Built-In photo & video recorder
 Audio capable
 16GB internal memory
 Stream Vision compatible
 User Friendly controls
 Stadiametric rangefinder
 IPX7
 Wide operating temperature (-25°C to 50°C)
 Metal bodyshell
 Built-In 3-axis gyroscope & accelerometer
 Four observation modes (Forest, Rocks, Identification and User)
 Three calibration modes (Manual, semi-auto, auto)
 Scalable reticles (9 colour options)
 5 Zeroing profiles (10 distances per profile)
 One-Shot zero function
 “Freeze Zeroing” Function
 Pixel correction
 Dual battery system
 Built-In, rechargeable APS3 battery pack
 Quick-Change, rechargeable APS2 battery pack
 MicroUSB port
 Retained lens cap
 Image Boost Technology

Pulsar Thermion, Aesthetics.

Whether it is Night Vision or Thermal, Rifle Scope or Spotter we all can agree there was nothing pretty about the units on offer.

They were all essentially boxes that housed the magic and sorcery that allowed us to work at night without the use of cumbersome lamps or even to have a buddy along with us. These thermal rifle scopes, albeit not too heavy, were always fiddly and ugly, whether it was the older Apex’s or the Trails, the box shaped diggery-do-da was the norm and we learned to live with it.
Now, being huntsmen and country folk, we never ever bother about how things look as long as the job we are paying for is being done and the tech works. We have, over decades of reprogramming, have learned to believe that tractors look nice and trucks so having a box on top of our rifles at night was never an issue.

You are wondering why I am going on about the looks of this scope so much? Be patient.

The Thermion is not your traditional looking Night Vison or Thermal rifle scope, it has lost its awkward bulkiness of the Trail or the Apex, no more do you have a unit on top of your rifle that makes your rifle look like a box on a thin piece of stick, something that has always made me giggle specially on smaller rifles such as my CZ455, the Thermion looks, feels and weighs like a NORMAL rifle scope. Frankly, it must be the sexiest Night vison/Thermal rifle scope on the market, the Gillian Anderson or Angelina Jolie of the night vison scope market. (probably analogy says more about me than the scope).

The sleek definitions of the Thermion are not just aesthetically pleasing but it is hugely practical too. The design of the scope means you are no longer finding yourself fumbling in the dark to press buttons that feel unusually out of place and unnatural when shooting.
The+

main function button, record, zoom, power/refresh, are situated on the dioptre bell of the scope just above the eye piece, easy to reach whether you are left or right handed, due to the small keypad area the buttons occupy the same circle so, unlike before, you don’t have 4 or 5 buttons running almost the full length of the scope body. Something that often would catch you out.
The main menus can be accessed using the left turret, traditionally used on some scopes as the parallax turret or the illuminator adjustment, this allows for one touch access of the menus, set up like the Trail and other Pulsar products so not confusing, and scrolling through the menu is smooth and seamless using the dial, so no more tapping the button to run through the options then over tapping and having to go back and forward, then you mistakenly click off the menu to have to go back again, the menu selections are very easy and smooth.

As a left-hand shooter, albeit ambidextrous, I find the Thermion far easier to use than my Pulsar Ultra N450 and I put this down mainly to the design of the scope.

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With the Thermion being more like a rifle scope everything feels more natural, being a left hand shooter but mainly using my right hand to work functions, with the Thermion I can pretty much cup my whole hand over the scope tube to work all the functions while still looking through the scope and if need be have my left finger close to the trigger ready if needed, that, for me, is a very big deal.
(I will show all this on the video review.)

So for those who are wondering, why does the Thermion have an elevation and windage turret? It doesn’t, this is more Skulduggery and deceit from the trickster that is the Thermion, quarter turn and pull off the top turret cap you will find the very sleek APS2 rechargeable battery (charger and battery included but we will come to that later) and quarter turn a pull off the windage turret you will find the USB port.

While we are talking about the aesthetics let me talk about how refreshing it is to see that Pulsar have finally sorted out the USB port problem. Nearly every Pulsar device up until now has had an issue with the USB ports, whether it is location or just how tight it is to insert the cable or even how annoying the port cover is (stupid little rubber cap that keeps coming off) they have all had an issue. Now with the Thermion and Digex models the port is COMPLETELY and SECURELY covered with a physical cap and it is so easy to get access to. All you do is quarter turn the windage turret ( or should I say what is traditionally known as the windage turret) pull off the cap and it exposes a very easy to get to USB port, Perfect! why something like this was not designed before is beyond me?

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One thing though I did struggle with a little is the front parallax/focus, I found it very tight or should I say heavy when trying to turn it, to the point I felt I was putting way too much effort into turning and having the fear I was going to break something, and on a £4500 scope that is a bit of a worry even though in reality I probably could not damage it.

I do have to stress that Pulsar have put the same traits into the Digex Nightvision device and other Thermions, although the Digex does need the use of an IR and the Thermion obviously does not.

Zeroing and Mounting

One of the beauties about the Thermion being like a “normal” rifle scope is the versatility of how it is mounted. In the past with “Most” Pulsar units you would need to have to have some sort of rail mounted to the action so you can house the device, this is definitely the case with all the previous Thermal rifle scopes, with exceptions from the “add ons”.

Being shaped like a normal 30mm tubed scope means you can use medium scope rings, whether that being the ones specific to your rifle or the ones that sit on a rail, thus making life a lot easier for those who do not want to go through the hassle of changing their whole set up.

Basically in layman’s terms, if you have a 30mm rifle scope on your rifle just with a 30mm tube then the Thermion should fit, Medium and High mounts are needed though, without the additional cost of adding an expensive good quality rail.

I have a rail on my .17hmr CZ455 so I used a set of Warne Medium height scope rings to mount the Thermion.

I chose the .17hmr for several reasons, the .17hmr is a good little calibre for close range pest control, whether for rabbits of foxes. Although I shoot a lot of deer and some under license it is still illegal in Scotland to shoot deer using ANY enhanced digital scope day or night, so I seen no need for to put the Thermion on any of the bigger rifles.

Zeroing ANY Thermal takes a bit of thought, you cannot just put a target up on a white back-round and hope it is going to show up through the scope because the likelihood is that it will not. So to set up the target you need to set it up in a way that the main “bull” of the target is at a different temperature than the back-round. There are many ways of doing this, some use little hand warmer heat pads or gel, I find these are not the best for multiple shots, others use paper cups that have hot liquid in it etc, I simply cut off the bottom of a fizzy drinks can I had in the car taped it to the centre of an A3 white piece of card and put it in the sun. The paper heat up quicker than the can and I could see a prominent black circle with a white back-round.

Like nearly all Pulsar units now the Thermion has the normal “one shot zero” albeit it and I am not going to lie, one shot zero depends on how fickle you are over your zero.

I chose to zero the .17hmr at 50yrds, thus giving me straight shooting to 120yrds without need of significant hold overs etc. I also chose this range because of the weather, over the couple of weeks of having the Thermion the forecast was not great, wind and rain was forecast, so I had to make the most of the unit while I had it on loan.

I settled down to zero the rifle to the Thermion, the weather was perfect with no wind and the sun was shining. I always upon always go through the procedure of bore-sighting all my scopes at the time of fitting so I do not have to in the field. When I bore sight I do not use any fancy equipment, I usually pick an object that is around 25yrds away and line that up by looking through the barrel of the rifle, granted you cannot do this technique with a rifle that you cannot remove the bolt from like a semi auto, and fix it into that position, while fixed into position I then look through the scope and line that up with the object that I have lined up with looking through the barrel, pretty simple really.

The first shot hit paper, mainly down to the bore sighting, impact was about 4 inches from the tin can to the right, elevation was pretty level but obviously the windage was off. Unlike when zeroing a normal Night vision device you cannot just walk up to the target and put a piece of tape over the impact hole and then drag the crosshairs to that, you could however if you had a piece of hot pad or paper but I did not so a little bit of educated guessing is needed to get the next bullet to hit the base of the can I was using as the bull. I adjusted to where I thought the impact hole was and then took my second shot and it hit the bottom edge of the base of the can approximately 1” below the centre, perfect. Like I mentioned before, due to the design of the scope, operating the menus and the zeroing functions was very easy and smooth using the wheel instead of constantly having to tap buttons, so navigating through the menu even when your prone was effortless.

Technically me hitting the bottom of that can base after one shot would be classed as a “one shot zero” as it is on target on a sub 2 inch bull, but that kind of zero is not good enough when your shooting a love animal so with a little adjustment I was able to raise the elevation of the shot and put 5 rounds into the centre, where it needs to be.

Let me add this little piece of advice to those that are new to the night vision and thermal world, unlike using a normal “day” scope digital scopes in general do not give you 100% accurate image of your target when it comes to shooting on paper so getting within a half inch of the bulls eye on your paper target at zero could be the best your going to get, it takes a little time to get used to these set ups and with experience you can increase the accuracy but do not get disheartened if the best you can get is a quarter or half inch from the bull. With this in mind always try have your zero elevation a little higher than the bull and your windage to be spot on, the windage is more important that the elevation for accuracy on these devices, especially if your looking to shoot out to longer ranges.

After being happy with my zero, 15 rounds of messing about and making sure it was spot on, I was ready for a night in the fields.

Field Test

As before I decided to use the Thermion XP50 on my .17hmr.
Reason as explained before, in Scotland at the moment it is illegal to use a digital enhanced scope on your rifle to shoot deer, which means that although that although there is no law against spotting and viewing deer my quarry is limited to Rabbits and Foxes, and the .17hmr is good for both.

Weather was an issue, throughout the whole period of this review there was barely a dry day, giving me a perfect chance to use the Thermion in the toughest of conditions.

First night out I went out I went to the rabbit grounds to drop a few bunnies, that proved very easy work for the thermion even in the rain.

Spotting and shooting bunnies was easy with the Thermion. Even in longer grass was no match for the thermal and within a couple of hours I already had 50 bunnies in the back of the truck.

On arriving to the grounds, it was still daylight. First bunny was spotted at 50yrds and the second almost immediately after was over 100yrds.

Spotting and shooting in this environment was easy and on smaller closer game the images were clear and undeniably identifiable. Throughout the early part of the evening rabbiting was very easy, and proving on occasion, better than digital night vision. I was still using my Helion XQ38 to spot for safety, but once a target was identified the Thermion made light work of getting on target.

I prefer my setting to White Hot although the Thermion works well on all the usual pallets.

I then went onto my other foxing properties, where there is little in the way of rabbits. On arrival to one of the fields a fox was immediately in front of the gate around 30yrds from where I stopped the vehicle, this was not expected. I spotted it originally using the Helion as I was scanning the fields on the way up to the entrance to the property before seeing it hidden in the long grass. I quickly reached for my rifle took aim and turned on the Thermion, and although it took only a few seconds for the Thermion XP50 to turn on I barely had enough time to cycle the bolt before the fox took flight. Even as the fox bolted to the right then changed direction to the left, I was able to keep track of it before it disappeared out of sight. The lack of speed for the shot was not the Thermions doing it was mine.

Boot up time for the Thermion is very fast, albeit not immediate. I was able to power up and hit record within seconds of getting the rifle to my shoulder, the cycle of the bolt is what scared the fox and this can be seen on the recording. With this in mind it really did give me a lot more confidence.

I entered the fields where the fox was in hope that I was going to see it again but to no avail, it was gone. On looking back up the field I saw a rabbit appear out of the wood. It was about 130yrds away so I put the Thermion to use and tried out the PnP display hit record and took the shot, The rabbit was hit on the head and died instantly. The PnP accuracy was very good.

Moving on to the next property, a fox was crossing the field in front, I was quickly on to it and shot it at around 100yrds, this time though I paid more attention to shooting the fox and forgot to press record.
The night seemed to go on like this and followed into the early hours. 64 rabbits and 2 foxes all shot with the .17hmr in various locations so I decided to head home. On the way home I always scan through the fields of my permissions as I pass them.

Just passing one of the smaller properties I spotted a fox crossing the road in front of me. I quickly stopped the truck and tried to gain the foxes attention by simulating a mouse squeak. I managed to pull the fox back to around 100yrds, as it creeped over the top of a dung mound, obviously thinking that is where the squeak came from, it looked down and I quickly shot it on the top of the head.

The Thermion was working perfect even just on the first night out I had 64 rabbits and now 3 foxes in the back of the truck, fruitful pest control night.

The second night I wanted to see what it would be like on different cover. Less open areas and fields but longer grass, scrub and trees, more like what my normal environment is like.

I started off at one of the crofts, thick bracken, rank heather and long grass is common in this area and always deer at night.
Spotting deer just with the Thermion is safe in this area, but obviously still illegal to shoot but I wanted to test the visual capabilities of the unit. Immediately I was able to spot clearly a group of hinds and calves, albeit I could not tell what species, they were pretty clear. All of the deer spotted were standing and offered good visibility. This was a good start.

For a couple of hours, I visited more properties, although no foxes were seen I did get the chance to shoot some more rabbit. As I was patrolling one property, I looked over one little rough field that I know Roe deer frequent. On approach to the field I scanned the rough area with the Helion and picked up a trace of a head above the long grass. Instead of just relying on the thermal to confirm my suspicion on what the signature was I decided to use the lamp to spot and confirm using the binos.

Like I thought it was a Roe deer and kid.

I decided then to see if the image was clear through the Thermion XP50, when I say clear I mean clearer than the Helion, it was but not by much. What the thermal picked up could be easily mistaken as a fox lying in the grass and not a Roe Doe lying with her head up.

This was a perfect example of what I was looking for and have video footage in which I will publish in the video counterpart to this review.

Don’t get me wrong, I know and understand how thermal works so it is not unusual for all digital devices to give readings that are had to explain so it is always best to double check in those situation.

After another couple of hours I managed to bag yet another fox and some more rabbits before calling it a night.

For the next week the Thermion consistently performed in all weather and there was some hectic weather, albeit the fox count after that night was low I did manage to bag about 50 or so rabbits.

Conclusion

A few weeks using the Thermion I have taken to like using it.
Although a little tricky to zero, once zeroed, the Thermion from day one worked accurately and effectively in most of the tasks I asked of it.

Picture clarity is excellent, Design and handling is excellent, functionality is excellent, menu navigation and usability is excellent but all in all it is not the be all and end all.

The Thermion is a rifle scope, yes, it is a state of the art piece of equipment that provides day and night hunting, but it is just that in the end, a rifle scope. The Thermion XP is not the only tool you need when hunting and that I have proved in some of the footage I have obtained, it is not replacement for common sense and caution. On flat open fields where all you see is arable stubble and the odd rabbit or hare the Thermion is in its element, target acquisition and identification is phenomenal and provides you with that much needed incognito shooting that even Digital and IR cannot give, but, when the cover is high and the trees are thick the Thermion has all the flaws of of a Thermal. A lamp can pick up eyes through long grass and even a good NV with an IR can the thermal can only bring up the heat signature and in cover that is its flaw.

In saying that, as part of a list of tools the Thermion is unbeatable performance IF you understand its flaws. The Thermion is by far better than most digital devices although it does not provide the clarity of identifiable feature pictures like NV does, it can penetrate fog and rain better with no glare back or over exposure, and, in open terrain it will still identify what you looking at even in those harsh conditions.

Pros.

Design is amazing and is like a normal scope so easy to store and carry and the shooting position is more natural.

Menu functionality during set up and easy to use menus makes it a pleasure to use.

Fantastic in adverse weather like rain and fog and penetrates very well where the lamp and the NV/IR scopes fail.

Lightweight.

Capable of going on higher calibre rifles

Can be used day or night and in England can be used on deer during the day or at night with a license.

Picture in picture display is highly functional and accurate as well as a good feature.

New Battery is very good and neatly stored. I like how you can use the unit with or without the external batter.,

USB cover design is perfect and should have been done like that on many of their older products.

Cons.

Price, it is far from a budget item at £4500 but there are cheaper models also, when it comes to Thermal optics of this quality the Thermion XP 50 is at about right in regards to being priced alongside its competitors.

Still has very much all the same problems all Thermal units have, thermal bleed covering up environmental obstacles such as branches in front of the target, and identification of animals in thick ground cover.

Front focus is very heavy/stiff to turn.

Not legal to use on deer in Scotland as of the time of publish.
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All in all though I have very little bad to say about the Thermion XP50, would I own one? HELL YES! Can I afford one? Sadly NO! but if you can it is an amazing tool and will see you very well.

I like the battery set up and the functionality of everything on this unit and as long as you know and understand its flaws and do not use it as the only tool you have then you will have an amazing experience in using this product. Honestly once you start using thermal the world at night does open up to you. My suggestion though is if you work this unit along with an external thermal spotter and, for back up identification, a lamp and bino package you will never go wrong and obviously when using any thermal, check before you shoot specially if your un sure.