Scout ii 240 - FLIR Systems Scout II 240 Thermal Night Vision Monocular

First off, my primary use for the device is hunting varmints/pest/predators at night.
I don't hunt "game" animals at all. I live in a rural setting with a lot of the aforementioned critters. Numerous ones dig holes in the property, others, such as feral hogs have "renovated" every square foot of 200 acres in the time I have lived here. Coyotes, and an occasional wolf or big cat have at one time or another wiped out our "barn cat" population. So, I hunt them when they come too close to our homestead. If they stay out away from us, I leave them alone.
Now the review. Thermal imaging devices are really amazing. Like everything else, they have limitations. When atmospheric conditions are good, the image is good. Increasing humidity has a drastic effect on the range, and clarity of the image. In good conditions, I have learned to distinguish between most of the night critters.
The scout II is advertised to "work" in light fog and haze. Well, it does "work", but even high humidity makes it hard to identify critters positively at 100yds. Since I don't have a thermal riflescope, I can't see to shoot in those conditions anyway, so it's not a "deal breaker". We had a run of armadillos attacking the yard recently, and one night I "dispatched" 5 in a couple of hours. I would likely not have been able to spot them with my "red LED HOG light" rig. It's a keeper. In good conditions, I can identify the animals I am familiar with out to 200 yds. Unfortunately, we have a lot of high humidity nights in south Texas.
There are a couple of things that are "negative" for me that probably are not for everyone else. The buttons are not easy to find by feel, especially with gloves on, and soon I will be wearing gloves when cooler weather gets here(S.TX). The main button for me is the "mode" button. Different situations and critters show up better in different modes, so I'm frequently clicking thru them. A "bump" on the button would make it easier to find. I will probably put a little bump of hot glue or the like on the mode button.
Would be nice to shut off the light coming from the ocular lens without turning off the entire device and having to re-initialize everytime you want to be "stealthy".
I carry mine with a strap around my neck, and it bounces around when I'm walking. May as well have a small flashlight dangling around flashing. A coyote can see that from a mile away. The little rubber cover over the charging port is a real pain for a "mans" hands to get undone, and when removing the USB plug, you can get hold of the rubber "flapper" as well, and pull it off. It also probably won't last forever opening and closing it all the time. I charge mine every morning after a nights use, and I use it almost every night. A lanyard/strap with a very reliable attachment would be nice. I "rigged" mine because the dinky one that came with it didn't look good enough for me to trust it to hold a 2000 dollar device. The pouch that comes with it is very nice, however, I haven't found a use for it, other than for storing it, and I don't store mine. If you try to use it to carry the device while hunting, it makes too much noise un-snapping it. Another negative factor is that I'm not getting as much sleep as I used to because I'm out "checking for critters" off and on all night long sometimes :) I'm waiting for the prices for thermal riflescopes to come down to my budget,,but probably won't live that long.