Tube thermals are bulkier than the glass scopes most rifles were set up for: fatter objective housings, big eyepieces, more weight. Pick rings purely by habit and you either end up with an objective bell kissing the barrel, or a scope perched so high you're lifting your head off the...

If you've come to thermal from years behind glass scopes, the eyepiece is one of the first things that feels different. The eye relief is generous, it doesn't tighten up as you zoom, and head position is more forgiving — but cheek weld and mounting height still decide whether you...

Every thermal scope and monocular ships with a handful of colour palettes — white hot, black hot, usually a red or highlight mode, often several more. They all show the same sensor data, so which one you pick is purely about how easily your eye reads the scene in front...

A blurry, grainy or washed-out thermal image is almost never a faulty scope — in most cases it's a focus ring that hasn't been touched, a calibration that's overdue, or settings that don't match the conditions. This guide walks through the handful of adjustments that turn an average-looking thermal picture...