Pulsar Thermion XM50

My hunting buddy Peter and I devote a fair bit of time into hunting the wild dogs in our area. These dogs wreak havoc on farm livestock and native fauna alike.

Not content with eating carrion, or their own kills, they regularly go on slaughter sprees to slay and maim anything they can catch. That includes a lot of cows, calves, pademelons, wallabies, tree-kangaroos and cassowary chicks.

In trying to catch up with and deal with these predators we make extensive use of trail cameras. These are a wonderful asset for determining just what predators are about and when they are raiding the farms and wildlife refuges.

However, the trail camera video and images are often frustrating as well, in that they show the most troublesome alpha dogs and large feral boars are conducting their raids at night. Peter and I have tried spotlighting, but the prime offenders are well educated and know what a spotlight is and the danger it poses to them. After kicking the idea around for a year or so, and doing plenty of research, Peter committed to setting up a thermal night shooting rig.

Spring Loaded Gun Shop in Mareeba came good with an excellent deal and Peter ordered a Pulsar Thermion XM50 and a new Sako A7 to go with it. The Thermion is mounted in QD rings on a Picatinny rail that allows it to be rolled off and replaced with a QD-mounted optical sight for daytime use, if desired.

There was a slight delay in the arrival of the Sako A7 so, in the interim, we mounted the XM50 on my Sauer XT 101. Pleasingly, after a succession of swaps between the Pulsar Thermion and my Zeiss 3-9×40 scope, both came back to exactly on point of aim each time.

After a lot of thought, Peter opted for .243 Winchester as his choice of calibre. A series of visits to the local SSAA range were made, with an optical sight on the Sako A7, to test a wide array of factory ammo and shoot-in the new rifle. That confirmed the heavier projectiles were the right choice, as we later nailed some hefty jungle boars using the 100-grain Fiocchi soft-points that shoot well in the Sako.

The Pulsar Thermion XM50 looks like a conventional optical scope in its design. However, it is purely a thermal imaging device and the sight picture you see is displayed on a small screen within the viewfinder. The XM50 has image and video capture capability with the simple press of a button. There is internal 16GB storage for video and images.

Even better, it is Wi-Fi capable to share the sight picture to an adjacent smartphone with real time streaming. In the pitch-black night you can follow exactly what your hunting mate is seeing through the scope. Apart from being able to record and share images and video of your hunting, it can be quite educational too. After an unexpected miss, the shot can be scrutinised on the video to discover why that was so.

The Pulsar Thermion XM50 is a physically large scope. Total length is 400mm and it weighs in at 900 grams. The objective lens is 50mm in diameter. The scope is rated to IPX7 water and fog proofing, which is more than enough to handle use in rainy conditions. Being in the style of an optical sight, it can be mounted to a rifle using standard 30mm rings. The scope is appraised for recoil up to .375 H&H calibre level.

The XM50 has a magnification range of 5.5 to 22X. The display screen is AMOLED 1024×768 pixel. This thermal imaging device has a range of 2.3km. In the country we hunt, the terrain only allows a clear line of sight out to a bit over a kilometre. The performance of the XM50 was outstanding at that distance and we could clearly identify small, rabbit-sized game and birds. The XM50 has an integral Lithium-ion rechargeable battery of 3200 mAh capacity.

There is also a removable, rechargeable 2000 mAh battery easily accessed within the top turret. The scope automatically switches between batteries as required and indicates which one is in use. For a long night out, you can buy a few extra batteries to extend the operating time. We found that with fairly constant use we managed about three hours from the combined internal and removable batteries.

The XM50 powers up and off quickly. The controls are minimal and intuitive. A well-designed menu system gives easy access to the scope’s broad features and options. Single shot zeroing is a useful alternative which allows the aim point to be adjusted to match the point of impact on the target. There are three pre-set terrain picks for forest, bare rocky ground and foggy/smoky conditions. There is also a fourth custom setting to allow the user to define their own settings.

There are various reticle types that can be chosen as well as a selection of eight colour pallets for the image. One feature I particularly liked was the ability to save the sighting for different rifles. That allows a QD mounted XM50 to be rolled off one rifle and onto another, then sighted immediately by simply selecting the rifle preset.

I have only covered the basic features briefly here. For detailed information refer to the multi-lingual guide that can be found at pulsar-nv.com

Thermal imaging scopes are game-changers for the eradication of pests at night, when they are most active. Image processing continues to improve and the XM50 proved capable of clearly differentiating our game from the surrounding terrain as night fell. Australian retail pricing for the Pulsar Thermion XM50 starts at about $6000.