If you've predator hunted at night, then you should have a good idea what you're getting into. I ha e a lot of customers who buy high end thermal because they are planning to night hunt the majority of the time but quickly realize their buddies don't have thermal and tgey don't like hunting by themselves all the time.
Pulsar was the first brand I carried back in 2016ish. They are a solid company with good customer service and decent products. Their market is bang for your buck.
IR Defense was the second manufacturer I picked up later that year. They were bought out by Trijicon who still markets their flagship products. Their market is solid, American made optics. For years they were technology leaders but they have brought little new features / models to market in recent years.
NVision, uses American BAE cores. Is generally less cost than Trijicon for comperable scope, and has a better warranty.
There are a bunch of players in the budget market. AGM, IRay, ATN, etc. Many use chinese sensors vs American or French (Pulsar) Of them, I prefer IRay. Their firmware produces very detailed imaging even from 384 cores.
As someone else said, pick the features most important to you.
I don't make a lot of content so I didnt think I would use video much but found it very valuable for animal recovery as I can replay video and pull out context of where animal was, where it ran, etc.
Ranging at night is difficult. I use the range finder all the time. However, it's not really needed since I shoot a 6.8 which has little drop out to 150ish.
The most important advice I can give is buy from a reputable dealer who works directly with the manufacturers vs through distributors. That relationship cam be valuable if you ever have issues. For instance, Pulsar has a 3yr warranty. I just sent a scope in that I sold almost 6 years ago. I was expecting the customer to pay for out of warranty repair. Since I sent it in for them, Pulsar replaced the scope free of charge.
