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Those darn boating accidents! I had a couple of those as well. Lol. The feds will think that every lake and river has 20 feet of guns at the bottom.

New tires got put through their paces the other day when an early snow storm hit. Heavy wet snow that is slick as snot. Tires did great! Drove up and down some steep hills in town that had vehicles in the ditch at the bottom. I was able to go everywhere in 2wd.

The journey has been an oar-deal..................for quite awhile.

Before they were lost in a boating accident, I owned an M1 Garand and Carbine. Fun guns with tons of history. My grandfather carried a carbine as a 57mm AT gunner at the tail end of the Bulge and into Germany.

I managed to get out for a half day adventure today. I wasn't sure the trails would be passable after yesterday's strong winds, but I didn't encounter any downed trees, just tons of leaves and bits of evergreen boughs littered everywhere. I chose one of my favorite trails off the Harrison East FSR, a branch road that I managed to bag a nice fork horn buck on a few years ago. That luck didn't hold today, as all I saw was squirrels and small birds, plus one small member of the weasel family that played peekaboo with me in a pile of broken rock for a few minutes, from about 4 yards away. There have been at least 5 sightings in this area in the last decade, that I'm aware of, but I couldn't find any sign today. I spent the last hour of daylight glassing a fairly large clearcut that was logged about 5 years ago, then had a forest fire burn through 3 years ago. It was a pleasant way to spend the last bit of a nice day, but nothing at all came into sight before it got too dim to see well. During the 4 hours I was off the main FSR, I didn't see or hear another person or vehicle, which was a surprise, as the parking area at the end of pavement had more empty ATV trailers than I've ever seen there before.

This morning I went to an area I go to on occasion that is a hair south of one of my favorite places. It has ponds, steep hills, and lots of wildlife. I was poking around areas that were wet and came upon one area where I saw a print. It was mostly submerged but had the classic footprint shape. I took several pictures of it which I've included below. As you will see, there is a lot of leaf litter this time year so prints are not as clearly defined as they would without leaves. I spent a fair amount of time trying to find other prints and think I may have seen another one but it had more compressed debris making print edges very difficult to discern. The first print I found looks fairly long but there being so much water I can't know for sure that it wasn't both a front and back bear print. Whatever it was, it was very interesting.

BRB, I bought the Helion XQ28F which is no longer made. At the time, I believe it had the widest field of view of any Pulsar Helion sold in the US. I think it is generally regarded that the Helion XQ38F is best thermal out there for the money. It's still not cheap. I haven't kept up with the Axion or Thermion lines so I can't comment on those without doing a little research. In general terms, you have to decide what features are important to you. For example, where I go the forest is thick and I'm not going to see a sasquatch 300 yards away. That means a wider field of view and lower native magnification was more important than being able to capture something a long distance away. If where you research there are vast wide open areas, then you may want a narrower FOV and higher native magnification. I'd steer you away from the Quantum line because the lens is not the same quality as the Helion line. The most expensive part of a thermal imager is the germanium lens. That's why as you step up to a larger lens the price starts to really climb. You want the larger lens if you need to see a long way away. I think the 38XQ can detect 1,500 yards away. That's crazy and can be a waste of money unless you're dealing with vast open expanse. Also, don't be lured into the 640x480 microbolometer resolution thermals unless your financial reserve is without boundary. It's a lot more expensive and you don't always get that much more. Why? Let's take two units...the Helion XQ50 and the Helion XP50. The XQ has a resolution of 384x 288 whereas the XP has a resolution of 640x480. Most people would say, "I want the one with the higher resolution!". It's more expensive BUT you may not benefit from it. The native magnification of the XQ is 4.1 whereas the XP is 2.5. So looking at the same object from the same distance the XQ shows a larger object. In order the get the same size with the XP you have to magnify it by 61% (2.5/4.1) which then pixelates it making the clarity less than 640x480 and probably close to the XQ resolution. I think it's called down rezzing. Here is a decent YT video showing the differences in FOV and native magnification: I'd be happy to take a look and comment on the Axion or Thermion lines if there are any you are interested in. You should be mindful that I think dealers are required to post MSRP on their websites. I found that if you call a dealer (or go to one) and horse trade you can get a substantial reduction off the MSRP. The best resource for thermal imagers is "nightvisionforumuk.com". It is mostly people in the UK who hunt fox or rabbits at night. These folks really know their stuff about thermal imagers and are on top of what is in the pipeline. https://nightvisionforumuk.com/ Hope that helps a little and if you want to bounce any questions around, just let me know. Wiia

Figures, some wolf out to hook up with a domestic bitch......sorry, couldn't resist