Well built tool - Armasight Contractor 320 6-24x50mm Thermal Rifle Scope

I have played around with thermal monoculars and scopes for a while, professionally and as a predator hunter. Most of those that were worth mentioning were either outside the affordability range for an average mortal, or/and out of reach for those working outside the government sector. That all changed about 3 weeks ago for me when l pulled the proverbial trigger on this Armasight Contractor thermal weapon sight. From the moment I opened the package it was very obvious to me that the unit was quality built. One of the best things right out of the box, that jumped at me was: the owner’s manual appeared to be just a few pages. I think 20-ish or so. Almost to a point where l believed that they may have forgotten to include the full manual with it. Soon, I discovered why. The unit is so intuitive and simplistic that the two round knobs out of 4 total buttons on this scope take care of all but two functions, and are so easy to navigate that no complicated explanation is really necessary! The remaining two buttons are a “Push to record” button and an “On-off” button. Everything else is managed by two large “jog-shuttle”- like knurled knobs, easily manipulated even with a winter-gloved hand. The sighting in was literally 5 rounds at 50 yds, last 3 punching the center of the target out. The 6X magnification might be a bit, too, much for a hunter shooting at moving targets, but that’s, I guess, why they named this model Contractor and not Hunter. I have used it in the hunting fields and it provides a great clarity, superb target detection and recognition up close and at a distance but it is probably more at home in the field of Law Enforcement. The battery life in close to zero temperatures proved to be about 2.5 hrs of continuous running time, and about 4 hrs in temperatures hovering around the 40’s. I have ordered an external, rechargeable power bank which should extend the run time by several hours. I am very pleased with the unit and would highly recommend it. Only a couple of years ago a unit like this would have cost $14,000-$19,000. I am glad l waited!