About
We’re a small team of hunters and gear junkies who’ve been running optics in the dark for a combined 40+ years. This site started because we kept getting the same question from buddies at deer camp: “I want to go thermal, where do I even start?” Most of what we found online was either outdated spec-sheet regurgitation or content written by people who’d clearly never held the gear. So we built this instead.
Everyone here actually hunts. We’ve run NV and thermal setups on hogs, coyotes, deer, and everything in between — in Texas brush country, the Missouri river bottoms, and the Appalachian backcountry. We know what holds up at 20 below and what starts glitching after a hard rain. That’s the experience behind every review and recommendation you’ll find here.
Our Mission
Cut through the noise so you can make a smart buy the first time. Night vision and thermal aren’t cheap, and the wrong purchase stings. We write the kind of reviews we wish we’d had when we were starting out — specific, honest, and based on actual field use rather than manufacturer talking points.
How We Test
- Hands-on only. We don’t write about gear we haven’t personally used. If a unit comes in, it goes out in the field — sometimes multiple seasons — before we publish anything. We don’t accept press releases as review material.
- Real conditions. We test in the dark, obviously, but also in rain, fog, and temperature extremes. Battery life claims get verified. Detection range claims get measured. If a scope says 300 yards on a deer-sized target, we find out if that’s marketing or reality.
- We buy most of our own gear. Some units come from manufacturers as loaners. When that happens, we say so. Either way, it doesn’t change what we write — if something has a flaw, we call it.
- We update reviews. Firmware changes things. So does longer-term use. If our opinion shifts after a year in the field, we go back and say so rather than leaving outdated info up.
Meet the Team
Derek Calloway — Editor-in-Chief
Derek spent eight years as an Army infantryman before transitioning to wildlife management in Tennessee. He picked up his first thermal unit in 2014 for hog control work and hasn’t looked back. He’s logged more hours behind a FLIR and a Pulsar than most people spend watching TV in a year. Derek handles long-form reviews and the buying guides.
Mitch Hargrove — Gear Tester
Mitch is a licensed outfitter out of south Texas who runs guided hog hunts three nights a week during the season. He’s tested more clip-on NV and thermal monoculars than he can count, and has strong opinions about which ones hold zero after field carry and which ones don’t. If Mitch says it’s durable, it’s durable.
Brianne Kowalski — Technical Writer
Brianne came up through military intelligence with a background in optical systems and sensor technology. She’s the one who explains image intensifier tube generations, thermal resolution, and NETD in plain language without dumbing it down. She hunts whitetail and turkey in Wisconsin and has been running NV on public land for the past six years.
Contact Us
Questions about a product, something wrong with a review, or just want to argue about monoculars vs. clip-ons? We read everything.
Email: [email protected]
We try to respond within a couple of business days. We don’t do sponsored posts or paid reviews, so if that’s what you’re after, save yourself the email.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps keep the site running. It does not influence our recommendations — we only link to gear we’ve actually used and would buy again.