See the invisible - FLIR Scout PS-32 Thermal Handheld Monocular

I am retired, nearly deaf, and live out in the sticks on a small Texas ranch. I can't hear the coyotes, hogs, and varmits: nor can I tell sound direction. I chose the PS32 from FLIR to help me regain the ability to know what is out there in the dark. What it sees is nothing short of amazing. I can see goat sized animals moving across the fields at 400 yards and see small birds roosting in dense cedar trees up close and unseeable with a white light headlight. You can see the heat from the nail heads under coats of paint on the house siding on a cool evening. You can stand a few seconds on a cool wooden porch, step away and see the outline of your shoes in the heat they left on the boards. Touch something cool and see the heat left from your hand. Sit in your recliner and view the ceiling and see where the batts of insulation are sticking up a bit at the corners in the unseen joist spaces.
For hunting, we used it to search for a deer after after a late day archery shot. You can see through dense cedars on a black night to see the heat of the silhouette jack rabbits and cotton tails hiding in the thick stuff. You can see the heat on the trunks of trees and rocks on the ground. I can see the water level in my rain water tanks, the water up high shows warmer than the water at the bottom. All this is visible looking at the outside of the large black poly tanks.
You can choose white hot, black hot. and 4 levels of red highlight on hotter areas to match your ambient conditions. I found that to hike in pitch black, use black hot and the terrain looks more like a full moonlit night, letting you move about with no light source emissions.
My lease hunter wondered of it sees blood trails. I said it only sees temperature differences. But I took a cup of warm water and dribbled it out on the ground across a dirt driveway on a moonless dark night, and he could clearly see every drop on the ground. So if you blood trailed a deer quickly, this might work for you.
The unit recharges in a few hours with the little usb plug and a house current adapter plug device. I used the unit for 1 and 1/2 hours steady hunting the deer and it still showed 3/4 battery charge.
When used continuously, it will signal shut down in 30 seconds after a few minutes use, just push any button to reset the shut off safety.
The unit will not record video, nor does it have a video plug. Gotta spend more bucks to get that.
Conclusion, if you really want to know if there is a "squatch in the woods", thermal vision is the only way to make you on par with night time predators. That's not all, it works in the daytime too.
This review is based on a few weeks use. I bought it from Optics Planet. It came padded in soft foam in a cardboard box, but I bought a Pelican case to store the PS32. This way it is almost bomb proof for outdoor travel. The biggest draw back is the price of this technology. I have waited for prices to come down and finally decided to take the plunge.


Pros: It does what it advertises. Easy to carry and use.
Cons: Battery is not user replaceable. Don't know how long it will last.

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.