Explore ThermTec's Vidar LRF Series: Cutting-Edge Thermal Imaging Riflescopes

Thermtec vidar 660lrf

By: Clive Tebbet on 14 May 2024

First impressions and short term use. Let me say, this isn’t the budget end of rifle scopes so expectations are high, in many ways it meets that, but there are things I’d like to see added or improved. Packaging wise it has a very respectable padded case to transport everything in, including spare batteries and a high tech charger, cables and other bits. All my other scopes look like scopes, this looks more like a hand held spotter, and that’s actually an advantage, you can use it just like a spotter the quick detach rail ( supplied as standard) seems solid enough for my uses anyway to give me close enough to a repeatable zero, which means you can load up 5 profiles and potentially 5 guns. Power wise, it has no internal batteries…. Big tick for that, you can have a box full of 18650 batteries and go away for a week. I shoot exclusively on private property so the legalities of using thermal at night or otherwise isn’t a concern here, but it would pay to check local laws accordingly. Where to start…. Turn it on do the calibration and have a look, I can truly say that vast improvement has been made since I bought my last thermal around 6 or so years ago, the detail is spectacular, sensitivity and clarity wow. This scope has 2 yes 2 focal lengths, so no need to buy another one for short range and one for long. Time will tell which I use for what, it’s nice to have a choice. Animal identification in the long FL goes a long way, so for your average shooter, you’re good to go, I could easily identify horses at 600m. Heat signatures from cows can be seen well beyond what the rangefinder will do. (Other side of my valley) I can see hunters using these in the high country to scope for deer, you can’t hide with thermal…. I almost wonder if scoping for deer from a ridge with binoculars is a thing of the past, it certainly ups the ante for the hunter. Each FL needs to be zeroed separately, and quite frankly the interface while navigable can be quite clunky, a bit like a fish finder before you bought the touchscreen model. But once you have it sorted it works. Due to convenience and impatience I have only had the opportunity to use this on an fx impact M3 so it’s not completely covered yet. The joystick is where all the work is done, you need to get your head around slow clicks fast clicks and not pressing down whilst going side to side. Again once you have it sorted it’s ok, but I’m still pressing down occasionally when I go to the side, this initiating photo/video mode and this seems to interfere with the rangefinder. I wish you could turn off photos but I haven’t discovered how yet. Rangefinder seems to work well on it’s own and initial results compare well with other rangefinder units I have, a very necessary thing when looking through a viewfinder at night, when in ballistic mode it behaves slightly differently. For air guns I’ve found a variation between different brands, I have another one that produces more consistent results (this one suggests I can use an air gun to hit a target 737m away) it’s always possible data input is to blame, but I’m unlikely to use ballistic mode currently as a result ( at least for air guns) will see how it works on other guns when opportunity presents. Again testing of ballistics is limited so take that as you will. It comes with 8 reticles on the latest firmware and the last a mill dot style will allow for holdover work. Gyroscope… up and down angle can be displayed, but not side to side, I have a scope at 1/4 price that has this… There’s a bunch of extra settings I haven’t even looked at, use out of the box works well. Colour wise it has the usual black, white, red hot, and a bunch of funky colours I will never use (why green and purple?) , the black hot is growing on me as it seems to give more detail in the environment. Balance on a tripod sets the centre of mass further back, this may or may not bother some, but it’s noticeable. I have all kinds of scopes, long range target optics, basic low power ones, IR day night , and this thermal. They all have their uses, and niches, I will keep them all as no one scope does everything. There are 2 apps available from Thermtec….. currently none work with the firmware that’s valid as of now. I did contact Thermtec, regarding other things and to their credit they responded in less than 24 hours to questions I had. So how’s it score….. 8.5/10 The optics are stunning, dual FL is innovative and covers all ranges and styles, use out of the box is good, ability to use as handheld spotter great. Cons…Interface I’ve used better, gyro features not complete, ballistics for me not so great so far.

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