Best Thermal Monocular for Hogs and Coyotes, Sorted by Price

Best thermal monocular picks run $489 to $3,199.97 at the maker, and a 384 sensor near $1,000 does the job for most hog and coyote hunters.

Last updated: October 21, 2026 · Originally published October 20, 2026

The best thermal monocular for most hog and coyote hunters is a 384×288 model near $1,000; the 640s and built-in rangefinders above that price earn their keep on big, open ground. A thermal monocular is a handheld heat camera with an eyepiece: it reads the heat an animal gives off instead of light, so it works in total darkness and in daylight. Carrying one with a gun is another matter, and Minnesota and Missouri both restrict it.

Every fall the same question comes across the counter, usually from a guy whose food plot looks rototilled overnight (it was, by something with hooves). If he has not settled thermal versus night vision, our night vision vs thermal breakdown does that first. After that, the answer starts with where he hunts, not the biggest number on the box.

Best Thermal Monocular Picks by Price

Figures come from each maker’s product page or spec sheet; every model showed in stock at the maker, and ATN’s prices are what it charged, not its crossed-out list prices. NETD is the bare-sensor figure throughout, because Pulsar also prints a lower processed figure and says not to compare the two kinds. Detection is each maker’s calculated range. AGM names a 6-foot object and Pulsar’s Telos page a 1.8-meter object; the other pages name no target, and AGM prints the ReachIR figure as “m/yd” without saying which. A meter is about 1.09 yards.

Under $1,000: What Your Money Buys

Having worked behind the counter for over 20 years, I get asked about the best thermal monocular under $1,000 all fall, and my answer is a 384 sensor. The $489 ATN BlazeSeeker 6 210 (a 256×192 sensor and 10 mm lens, rated by ATN to 460 meters) is a barn-lot scanner, not the unit for sorting a coyote from a calf across a hayfield.

Between the 384s, the lens makes the difference. The $895 AGM Taipan V2 15-384 has a 15 mm lens with a 17.5° × 13.1° view and runs up to 6.5 hours per removable 18650, with a spare in the box. The $949 ATN BlazeTrek 6 325 has a 25 mm lens with a 10.9° × 8.2° view, a 1,300-meter rating and about 8 hours on a built-in battery. ATN’s BlazeTrek 6 319 puts the same sensor behind a 19 mm lens for $795.

So which one? For hogs in timber and food plots, I would take the AGM, because a wider view scans faster (Pulsar’s range guide agrees) and a spare battery in your pocket matters on a cold stand. For coyotes on open ground, the ATN’s longer lens is worth the extra $54. If those hogs will meet a suppressed rifle, Popular Outdoorsman’s suppressed .300 Blackout setup for hogs covers the rifle end.

Is 384 Resolution Good Enough?

For most hunting inside the tree line, yes. A 384×288 sensor reads 110,592 points of heat and a 640×512 reads 327,680, about three times as many. AGM, which sells both, says the 640 pays off on open ground or with heavy digital zoom, and that a good 384 may be the better value in woods, small fields and along property edges. I agree: extra pixels pay you back on heat you cannot make out, and inside the tree line you usually can.

For a pocket 384, the $1,049.97 Pulsar Axion XQ19 Compact puts 17-micron pixels behind a 19 mm F1.0 lens, rates detection at 820 yards, weighs 8.8 ounces with its battery and runs up to 8 hours on a removable pack.

Do not lose sleep over 18 versus 25 mK, either. Pulsar’s NETD guide says the difference between 25 and 35 mK may be minor when a warm animal stands out against a cooler background; sensitivity matters most in humidity, fog and light rain.

When a 640 Sensor Pays for Itself

So when does 640 earn its price? When the ground is open and you need to know what the heat is, not just that it is there. The exception is the $1,299 ATN BlazeTrek 6 619, the lowest-priced 640 here, which wears a short 19 mm lens with a wide 22.8° × 18.3° view and a 1,000-meter rating: more detail on the hog in the brush, not more reach.

At the other end, the $3,199.97 Pulsar Telos XP50 puts a 640×480 sensor behind a 50 mm F1.0 lens, rated to 1,800 meters, with 8.5 hours of run time. That is the glassing unit for open pasture.

Remember, the lens does as much work as the sensor. Pulsar’s range guide says a longer focal length puts more target detail on the sensor at the cost of a narrower view, and that digital zoom enlarges pixels without creating detail. If thermal goes on your rifle where that is legal, it still needs a zero, and our guide to sighting in a rifle scope walks through it.

Built-In Laser Rangefinders

Why pay for a laser in a monocular? The heat tells you where and the laser tells you how far, without a second gadget in the dark. Pulsar prices that at $500: the Telos LRF XP50 sells for $3,699.97 against $3,199.97 for the plain XP50.

The lower-priced rangefinder pick is the $2,194.50 AGM ReachIR LRF 35-640, whose laser AGM’s datasheet rates to 1,000 meters at plus or minus 1 meter. Its weak spot is run time: up to 4.5 hours on the product page and 4 hours on the datasheet with Wi-Fi and the laser off, so carry the spare 18650.

The $2,999.97 Pulsar Oryx LRF XG35 answers that with a 12-hour rating and a laser rated to 1,640 yards. Once you have the distance, run it through our ballistic calculator and you will know the holdover before the coyote takes another step.

Resolution, Pixel Pitch and NETD in Plain English

Let’s translate the spec sheet. Resolution is the count of heat-reading pixels, width by height, and the eight picks come in four sizes: 256×192 is 49,152 pixels, 384×288 is 110,592, 640×480 is 307,200 and 640×512 is 327,680. The rest of the vocabulary is in our firearm glossary.

Pixel pitch is the spacing between those pixels, 12 or 17 microns on every pick here, and Pulsar says to read it with sensor size and lens focal length, not as a stand-alone score.

NETD (noise equivalent temperature difference) is the smallest temperature difference the sensor can pull out of its own electronic noise, in millikelvins, and lower is more sensitive; a 25 mK sensor can separate temperatures a few hundredths of a degree apart.

How Far Can a Thermal Monocular See?

Farther than you can identify, which is the whole problem. Makers rate range three ways under what ATN calls Johnson’s criteria, standards for the resolution a vision system needs. They are detection (something warm is there), recognition (a person, a deer or a hog) and identification (the animal you mean to shoot, not a similar one beside it). Pulsar says detection “does not establish species, identity or whether the target is safe to engage,” and puts it plainly: “A detection rating is not a shooting distance.”

Pulsar calls those figures estimates on a standardized target, and the night takes its cut. Humidity, rain and fog shorten range, and around dawn and dusk the animal and the ground can briefly match temperatures, flattening the picture even on a working unit. Well, it cuts both ways, since Pulsar says clear, cold conditions often raise contrast.

Take my advice: a heat signature is NOT an identified target.

Can You Hunt With a Thermal Monocular?

That depends on your state, the species and, in one case, the calendar. Neither example bans owning a thermal; both govern carrying and using it afield.

Minnesota Statutes section 97B.086 bars possessing night vision or thermal imaging equipment while taking wild animals or while carrying a firearm, bow or other implement that could take them. The narrow exceptions are an unloaded firearm fully cased in a closed trunk (or the rearmost part of a vehicle without one), an encased or unstrung bow in the trunk, and on-duty peace officers and military. Coyote and fox hunters working under the statute and state rules are exempt too, except during the regular firearms deer season.

Missouri’s hunting methods rule, 3 CSR 10-7.410, bars pursuing or taking wildlife with night vision, infrared or thermal equipment, or carrying it with a firearm or bow, with four exceptions. Landowners and their authorized representatives may use it to kill feral swine on the landowner’s property. Licensed furbearer hunters may use it on coyotes January 1 through September 30, alongside other legal methods, outside the spring turkey season and never from a vehicle or from or across a public road.

A department agent may also authorize it in writing. And a thermal drone may be flown, with landowner permission, to find a black bear, deer, elk or turkey a licensed hunter wounded in open season. Nobody afield may carry a gun or bow while it flies (a concealable firearm not used to take wildlife excepted).

Think about it: a Missouri hunter’s thermal sits out coyote hunting in October, November and December, and the window reopens every January 1. Missouri amended that rule effective June 30, 2026, and rules change, so read your state’s current regulations before the first night out.

Taking a Thermal Out of the Country

Can you take your thermal on a hunt across the border? Check first. The federal Commerce Control List (15 CFR Part 774) controls thermal imaging cameras for export, and a note in that entry releases cameras with a maximum frame rate of 9 Hz or less. All eight picks here run at 50 Hz.

AGM’s product pages say its monoculars are not exportable outside the United States, and ATN’s export page calls it unlawful to transfer a controlled item to any foreign person, abroad or inside the United States, without a required license. That covers selling your old one overseas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do thermal monoculars work in the daytime?

Yes. Pulsar’s thermal imaging guide says thermal reads heat rather than visible light, so it works in daylight, shadows and complete darkness without an infrared illuminator, and it can help find an animal hidden in brush or shade during the day.

Does glass block a thermal monocular?

Yes. Ordinary glass blocks long-wave infrared, which is why Pulsar and ATN both say thermal lenses use germanium instead. From the truck, the window comes down first.

Can you use a thermal monocular for deer hunting?

Not for the hunt itself in these two states. The only Missouri thermal exception that names deer is drone recovery of a wounded animal. Minnesota bars carrying thermal with a firearm or bow outside narrow exceptions, and its section 97B.075 limits big game to a half hour before sunrise through a half hour after sunset. Other states write their own rules.

How long do thermal monocular batteries last?

The makers rate these eight from up to 4.5 hours (AGM ReachIR LRF 35-640) to 12 hours (Pulsar Oryx LRF XG35). The AGMs and the Pulsar Axion XQ19 take removable batteries you can swap in the field, while ATN’s BlazeTrek models use a built-in battery with a USB-C external power option.

Should I buy a thermal monocular or a thermal scope first?

The monocular. You can scan a field without pointing a rifle at everything warm in it, from cattle to the neighbor’s dog. Pulsar draws the same line: a monocular is a compact handheld scanner, and a riflescope is built for aiming from the rifle. Add the scope second, if your state allows thermal on a rifle for what you hunt.

The best thermal monocular is the one sized to the ground you hunt, carried only where your state’s rules allow, and trusted to tell you where to look, never what to shoot. The hogs will be back in the corn the next night either way.

Sources: ATN, “BlazeSeeker 6 210”; ATN, “BlazeTrek 6 319”; ATN, “BlazeTrek 6 325”; ATN, “BlazeTrek 6 619”; ATN, “How Thermal Imaging Works”; ATN, “Export Information”; AGM, “Taipan V2 15-384”; AGM, “TaipanV2 384 Datasheet”; AGM, “ReachIR LRF 35-640”; AGM, “ReachIR LRF 35-640 Datasheet”; AGM, “384 vs. 640 Thermal Resolution”; Pulsar, “Axion XQ19 Compact”; Pulsar, “Axion Compact” specifications; Pulsar, “Oryx LRF XG35”; Pulsar, “Telos XP50”; Pulsar, “Telos LRF XP50”; Pulsar, “What is NETD?”; Pulsar, “How Far Can a Thermal Scope See?”; Pulsar, “Thermal vs Night Vision”; Pulsar, “Thermal Imaging”; Minnesota Statutes § 97B.086; Minnesota Statutes § 97B.075; Missouri 3 CSR 10-7.410; eCFR, 15 CFR Part 774.

James "The XDMAN" Nicholas

The XDMAN has a talent for taking complex firearms subject matter and breaking it down into an easy-to-understand format that all experience levels can relate to. James is an 07/02 NFA Firearms Manufacturer, a Professional Gunsmith with over 20 years of experience, and a Firearms Writer, Photographer and Firearms Expert. Connect with him on Instagram, X, and Facebook as @therealxdman.

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