Thermal Rifle Setups for Hunting Humans

Hey, what's up guys. Welcome back to the channel. So in case you guys were unaware, unless you buy the latest and greatest thing, you're going to die when ---- hits the fan. You don't have a 10 and a half inch AR-15 for CQB work, you're gonna die. You're not wearing level four plates, you're gonna ******* die, bro. You don't have access to food or clean water. Guess what? You're going to ******* die. That last part was real. Now, in reality, guys, I think that this type of mindset is pretty cringe, other than the food and clean water part, because most of the time the people who say this kind of thing don't actually have any type of experience or training that would actually lead them to coming out on top of that type of situation. And they're just going to die of dysentery anyway on the Oregon Trail. So don't pay attention to them. Focus on your own training and preparedness, Fairness because None of this cool gear or equipment matters if you are starving to death or dying from the parasites in the tainted water that you just drank. Now, I'm not saying to just ignore new technologies and capabilities that are available out there. I'm just saying kind of get your priorities straight a little bit, but I would say it is important to be aware of what is out there and what is available, not only for yourself if you want to purchase something like this, but also what is available to the enemy and how to best counteract that. Now, a great example that I have of this is when I was in the military on my second deployment to Afghanistan. I'm not sure if many of you guys know the story, but I got blown up by a grenade and the guy who threw the grenade at me and the five other Rangers around me was hiding underneath of a wool blanket because the Afghans knew that wool blankets would defeat our best thermal sensors that were from the drones and the AC-130 that was circling above us. And since he was hiding underneath that thing, we didn't know he was there until we were pretty much right on top of them. He popped up from underneath the wool blanket, threw the hand grenade at us. We swiftly turned on him. Burned them down, but before we can all get away, it blew up between all of us. Thankfully, no one died, but that is a good example of knowing how to defeat some of the technologies that are available to a superior adversary. Now, thermal technology is widely used these days, especially by modern militaries. And if you think of some type of situation where we as citizens here in the United States had to use the Second Amendment for what it is intended for, fighting off a tyrannical government, which I think is the most likely scenario if we ever had to do that, I don't I don't think that we're going to have to deal with some type of Red Dawn scenario where we're being like invaded by the Russians or the Chinese even because I consider those militaries to be near peer adversaries by the loosest of definitions, especially when compared to the United States. And to be honest, guys, the fake Russian airsofters that I lead at Milsim West most often have better ---- than they do. Now, with that being said, guys, this recent war in Ukraine has been a pretty good example of what it would look like if two countries that have internet went to war with each other. And in this war, we've been seeing thermal being used quite frequently, whether it be mounted on drones, On weapons, like you see right here, handheld thermals, bridge setups, like I did a video on a few months ago. And in this war, we've been kind of seeing how effective something like this can be on the modern battlefield. Now, when it comes to night fighting, I truly believe that having a weapon-mounted thermal, whether it be a clip-on solution or a dedicated thermal scope like you see right here, is Probably the best way to engage another enemy, especially in a near-peer conflict, due to signature reduction. Back during the GWAT, the hotness was to use active lasers. We never did anything else when we went overseas because our enemy did not have night vision. The problem with this is if the enemy is also wearing night vision, this thing is sending a line directly back to where you just fired from. So even if you handle the threat, if his buddies are around you and see you shoot him, they're just gonna converge on your position kill you most likely. You also have to think if you're up against a well-developed military who has things like artillery, if you do something as simple as ND your laser in a wood line and the enemy sees it, they could simply just dial in that position and nuke you from orbit essentially. I would say that having an active laser is a pretty bad option when it comes to facing up against a near-peer enemy. Now, another option, of course, is passive aiming. I've gone over this tons of times on the channel, where you're actually just using the optic on your weapon, like a red dot, and aiming through it with your night vision and using that red dot to engage the enemy. And this works out pretty good. I do this all the time at Milsim West, even though it is an airsoft event. It is a decent representation of what Force on force with a near peer enemy would look like because a lot of players out there have night vision and this is usually how I engage the enemy team. That way I'm not sending out a signature directly back to where I just shot from. The problem with this is the range because essentially if you get past a hundred yards, you're not going to see ----. And so it has to be fairly close for you to actually see. What you're aiming at, which is very important in combat, you know, PID. Now, this is where thermal optics really shine, in my opinion, because you can use something like this and actively engage an enemy at pretty much normal distances that you would during the daytime, but you're not sending a signature directly back to where you just shot from. And you're able to see what you're shooting at very clearly. Now, there's a couple of different ways to go about mounting a thermal to your rifle. You'll, of course, have your dedicated thermal optics or devices like you see right here with this AGM Clarion. You also have your clip-on options where you can clip on a thermal in front of your optic, like your Red Dot, your LPVO. I had a clip-on thermal a few times when I was in the military in front of my Elcan, mostly used in training. Use it once when I was deployed, but not in combat. It was like to scan people as we're pulling them out of their compounds. But when it comes to actually doing thermal things, dedicated thermal scopes, like you see right here are going to be better than a clip on option. Not saying that those clip on options do not have their place. We'll go over those in a separate video. But in today's video, we're gonna be going over a couple different setups when it comes to mounting a dedicated thermal to a rifle. We're gonna be going over an AR-15 setup, an AK setup, and of course, a bolt-action rifle setup just for funsies. Now before we get into it any further today, guys, I just wanna quickly mention that today's video is sponsored by Barbell Apparel. They make excellent athletic apparel like shorts and joggers, but they also make great pants and jeans that are tailor-made for those of you with a more athletic build, A.k.a. Skinny with a big butt. Now, I've been a fan of Barbell Apparel for quite some time. I've been using their stuff for years, well before they became a sponsor of the channel. If you follow my Instagram account, seeing my lift videos, 99% of the time, I'm wearing Barbell Apparel shorts. Now, other than their shorts, I'm also a huge fan of their jeans. Obviously, I'm the blue jean operator, and these are definitely the nicest jeans that I own. They have really good stretch in them, but I'm also a big fan of their Covert pants. So I know I'm kind of off-brand here because these are not blue jeans, but these are more of their hiking style pants, which also are very stretchy, which would be perfect for hiking or range time. Now, I have a link down below that has a list of all the products on their website that I personally All right, guys, for the first thermal rifle setup, we're going to be going over the AR-15, the one weapon that you should have in your household, especially if you consider yourself Prepared Citizen, and this is the most common rifle to be used here in the United States. So of course we have to go over this thing first. Overall, guys, I did not change much when it comes to this rifle and setting it up with a thermal. I literally didn't change anything. The same Unity risers in the exact same spot that I had it when I had an EOTech mounted on here. All I did was detach it with a QD lever and attach this optic right here. Again, this is the Varmint V2 from AGM. It has a QD lever here on the side, so it's very easy to install. And the reason why I kept it on this Unity riser is so that it could clear the iron sights that you see right here. Now the reason why being able to use my iron sights is very important is because thermal optics consume battery life like a ************. Each battery lasts about eight hours between this optic as well as that one that you see right there. They both use different batteries. They both come with two batteries when you buy these things. I'd recommend that if you're actually going to use these things in the field, get more. I would say get double that. Because you don't want to run into a situation where your optic dies and you don't have a backup on it. So what's kind of cool about these QD levers, so if the battery does die, I can take this thing off. And deploy my iron sights and at least I have something. Of course you can go with something like an offset red dot sight or offset irons. I don't have those things so this is the best option that I have. And it's better than nothing in case this thing does die which is highly likely especially if you're using it a ton. A cool thing about this particular optic as well as that one is it does have a sleep feature on it so once you power this thing on. If you tap the power button once, it shuts off the screen, so it's not going to consume nearly as much battery life. It's still on, so it's still consuming battery, but not nearly as much if you had it powered on with the screen active. One thing that I wish more thermals had, I'm not really expecting it out of this thermal because you could see It's more of a hunting-themed thermal. I would expect it on something like this one, the Clarion, which looks more of like a military-style thermal, is that it had an option to be able to mount a red dot sight on the top. I think that would be super badass. Running and gunning with these things is not nearly as easy as with a red dot sight or even an LPVO. It really takes a lot of training to get good at it. I'm still kind of learning it. So having an option that is a little bit easier to aim with. Especially during the daytime would be pretty nice. Now, as you can see on this rifle, I do have a laser aiming device on here. This is the GL4 Pro from Defense Distributors. This thing has been working out pretty good. And the reason why I have this thing on here is in case things get a little hectic or this thing goes down or something happens, I still have a means of... aiming this rifle at nighttime that's not solely dependent on the thermal. Now as you can see I have a suppressor on here for the whole signature reduction theme but this general setup has been working out pretty good for me. I did change out the buttstock to a more low profile Fab Defense stock. I had one that had a cheek riser on it and I found that having no cheek riser on here Made it a little bit easier to look down this thing. And as you can see, this thing is mounted pretty far back, pretty similar to like how you would have a prism optic or like an ACOG mounted. And you can see that this thing has an eye cup. This is not where like the optic is. You're not going to have this thing bashing into your eye unless you have it like really far forward. All you have to do is press your eye against this eye cup and you have a really good sight picture. All right, guys, moving on to the AK sub. And this is where things get... Pretty interesting. What I ended up going with was just with a good old trusty Texas Weapon Systems dogleg Gen 3 dust cover. Originally, I thought I was gonna have this super cool idea of how to mount thermals to an AK. Originally, my idea was to use a side rail that you see right here. And my idea was that with a side rail, you could quickly swap between a thermal and a standard red dot sight or whatever typical sight that you would be fighting with. I thought that this would make the AK uniquely set up to have like a quick swap method between a thermal and a typical you know fighting optic and the problem with this is when I went to test it is that the side rail specifically this Midwest Industries side rail the Gen 2 side rail It did not hold zero whatsoever. I couldn't zero this thing worth a ----. It looked like a shotgun blasted it and I was like is there something wrong with the rifle? I took the rail off and then shot it with the iron sights. I was like it wasn't the rifle it was definitely the rail and it was kind of let down because I thought it was gonna be a really cool idea and I ended up moving back to the good old trusty Texas Weapon Systems dogleg dust cover. This thing is totally fine able to support the weight of this particular optic. And yeah, Texas Weapon Systems dog leg, goated. I think this is probably the best option when it comes to mounting optics to an AK. It supports the weight well and holds zero very well. One cool thing that I was kind of nerding out about when I was setting this thing up was I was worried that I wouldn't be able to retain my rear peep sight that is on this Texas Weapon Systems dust cover. And when I went to mount it, the base right here Perfectly goes over this rear peep sight. It has just enough clearance underneath of this thing, this little space back here, where I can mount this thing, and I have this thing marked on the rail, that way I know where to actually mount it. And as you can see, it doesn't interfere at all and I'm able to retain my iron sight, which I think is important, just like on the AR-15, in case that this thermal went down, that you have access to at least some decent irons. Honestly, I was kind of bummed out that the whole side rail method did not work. I thought it was going to be a super cool idea. Of course, it might work with some other side rails out there, like the RS Regulate ones. I haven't tested those out, but when it comes to the Midwest Industries side rails, which I've had really good luck with in the past. I found that when you detach these things and put them back on, these things hold zero very well, especially when it comes to just standard red dot sights. But again, when it comes to a heavier optic like this thermal right here, no bueno. All right, guys, moving on to the final rifle setup, the bolt action rifle setup. So my original idea behind this was having some type of lightweight bolt action rifle that you could pack out And use as your dedicated throw. thermal rifle. That way you're not messing with your actual fighting rifle and doing stuff like we just went over. And I think that this could be a pretty cool setup, especially with something like this. This is actually an UltraDyne chassis, they are the sponsor of today's video. They did send this to me, so just know that. And overall, the setup is pretty cool. It's a free floated system. It is very light. The actual chassis weighs about like a pound and a half or something crazy like that. And overall, this rifle is very light. The weight really is in the thermal as well as the barrel. The actual rifle here is a Bergara rifle and 6.5 Creedmoor. I'm actually pretty new to bolt action rifles in general. So this thing has been a ton of fun Running this thermal on here, especially on this tripod. Now, this tripod is actually something I've been nerding out about a lot. It is very light. It's easily packable. So you could pack a rifle like this as well as the tripod, like on the side of your rucksack, something that hunters do all the time. And overall, I think this would be a pretty cool set up, especially when you suppress it. It's the time that I've been running this rifle, I've been running this can on here. This is my Dead Air Sandman S, and it's been working out great. Just changed the end cap to the 30 cal end cap that originally came. with. I was originally running the 5.56 flash hider on there and this setup has been working really good. I know people are going to argue about like semi-autos and things like that which could also be very useful as well but you know I thought this would be a decent setup especially for hunting if you're using this thing but also for tactical purposes and what you're going to be using thermal for. You're not going to be running and gunning with a thermal so having something Something like this. That is able to put down very accurate fire with a very large round as compared to like 5.56, or even 7.62 by 39. I know 7.62 is a 30 caliber round as well. We're actually able to reach out with this thing very accurately. And I think this could be a really good asset, especially if you're in a fixed position on a steady platform, like on this tripod, I chose to go with the Clarion thermal on here. And this thing is fantastic. And compared to the Varmint V2, I do prefer this one. And what's really cool about this particular thermal, even though it is bigger, it is heavier, it's a little bit more bulky than the Varmint V2, is it has actually two lenses in here. And when it comes to zooming in on a thermal, it doesn't act like a typical optic where you're actually able to zoom in optically with it. It's very much like a camera where you have one lens that is a fixed magnification. And when you would go to zoom in or do the digital zoom, you're literally just like blowing up a picture because you're literally looking at a computer screen in here. And what this thing has is two lenses. And when you use this lever on the side here, you swap between two different lenses. So if you're engaging something closer and you wanna get a very clear picture on it, you stick it to this one right here and you can really dial it in to get a very good picture of what you're looking at. And if you wanna shoot at something much further, Swap it to the other lens and then focus it on that and you have a much clearer picture than if you had just one lens on a typical thermal. Honestly, I think I'm going to take out this thermal to the next Milsim West event, even though when it's mounted to an airsoft gun, I do not need that much magnification to shoot somebody. I'm going to keep it on the lowest magnification. But the reason why I want to take out this one is because if I'm actually scouting out and like looking over an area. I can actually clearly see what I'm looking at. I've had many cases where there's been people around me using thermals, especially cheaper thermals, where they see heat signatures out there and we end up just like chasing deer for 30 minutes, so. Even though I don't need this much magnification to actually shoot my little BB gun, being able to clearly see what a heat signature is would be very, very helpful. Now, a few things that I would change when it comes to my ideal bolt-action thermal setup is something that has a foldable stock. That way, it is a little bit more easy to transport, and I would probably go with something with a little bit of a shorter barrel. Don't really need this long of a barrel when it comes to engaging things with a thermal. It's gonna be a little bit closer than if you're engaging something with a typical rifle scope. The whole idea behind it, at least in my mind's eye, is something that you can easily pack out, still carry your primary weapon with you, have this thing kind of strapped to the side of your rucksack. And when it goes to change over to the thermal, when it gets dark and you want to use thermals for what they're good for, I think that a rifle like this or something similar to it can be very useful. Well, guys, that's about it when it comes to my thermal rifle setups. This is just a couple different options for you and kind of like what I came up with. If you have a different thermal setup, Please let me know down in the comments. I'm always interested in hearing what you guys got going on and learning from you guys because I'm so fairly new to this stuff, but I think that these are fairly good options when it comes to running a dedicated thermal on a rifle like this or your typical fighting rifle. Again, I'm gonna be taking this thermal off of this rifle and putting it onto my little BB gun over there for the next Milsim West event. So it should be pretty cool to get some good force on force thermal action for you guys and kind of see how these things work. When it comes to a more kind of like running gun environment or using this thing for kind of scouting out and seeing what is out there in the darkness, because you don't want a situation where you cannot clearly see what you're aiming at and you might think that you're looking at an enemy and it's actually a friendly and with a thermal, you're actually able to get a clear picture of. What that thing is, whether it's an animal, an enemy combatant, or one of your friendlies. Well, that's about it, guys. Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please consider dropping a like and subscribing. It is the best way to support the channel. The second best way is to go to Badlands Ammunition. Use my code BLUEGENE at checkout. It gets you a discount there, and it helps out the channel because the more ammo that you guys buy, the more they're willing to send me. Also, guys, if you want to get involved with the channel even more directly, I got Patreon. Helps me buy guns, gear, ammo, all the kind of stuff that goes into running a gun. And I'll see you guys next time.