A while back I had a lil windfall and purchased REAP-IR from the the original mfg IR-Defense prior to the Trijicon buyout.
It's a 640 unit that specs out nicely but doesn't have all the cute lil color palettes. It was used mostly on a SCAR17s but got swapped amongst several rifles. There are 4 memory locations for zero and it works great. The D-Loc QD attachment is easy to use and RTZ is excellent.
Get a quality QD for your day scope and you can swap with confidence.
In that same windfall I also picked up a Pulsar Quantum 384 spotter with video out. Which I foolishly sold off a bit later when my interest in stumbling around in the dark waned a bit. It was an excellent unit and the res was more than enough.
One thing I can say is beware of too much native magnification. The 2x of the REAP is about as much as I'd want on the bottom end.
Cause critters-in-need-of-ventilation will show up "right there" and that 4x native with bite ya in the ass way more often than native 2x will cost ya on "out there". The "4x" and "8x" may be useful for spotting but little else and ya really don't need a lot of "magnification" (read: pixelation) in a thermal. Stuff happens close in at night and it's amazing how much more you can get away with movement wise.
Beware the "greasy kid stuff". And yes, I'm lookin dead at you, ATN. The goofy crap is just somethin else to go wrong and complicates an already expensive device with a learning curve.
I tried the "spot with the scope then mount it when needed" gig. No thanks. Makes for a lotta fumbling in the dark.
The 384 res of the Quantum would have been more than sufficient for my needs if it was in a scope. I'd wager that 320 would be fine, too.
I also had one of the lil $500 guppies from FLIR **SPIT**. The low res/low frame rate were really wonky and ineffective even for spotting.
A good "budget" gig, IMO, would be a decent thermal spotter and a Gen 2+ I2 scope with a good torch. Somethin decent from both worlds and somewhat "budget" anyways. That said, I'm an old man and my info is old as well. Dunno what's going on currently. Don't care.
I do remember being amazed at what
wasn't "out there" in the darkity dark. It's not as "crowded" as I imagined it would be.
..Another thing. And this is important. Be
very careful in your decision. Once ya get into this price range for these toys your used market gets mighty thin and used thermal scares peeps I think. My REAP, which is, or at least was, a standard of sorts, cost ~$7500 new in 2016. Last year I had it on the market as low as $4k and crickets. My point being that ya need to really make an informed decision with these things. In the end I'm kinda glad it didn't sell as I really do like having the quality thermal option in my kit. It is a decided advantage in both night and day.
But once ya get it it's most likely "yours" unless yer ready to take a real bath on it. Mine wasn't so bad in my warped sense of value as I fell bass-ackwards into a bit of money and got to push the "
Fool Button" somewhat risk free. 🥸🤡🤖
YMMV..
