AGM Rattler TC35-384

NC Scout and I teach that the pine forest is the Guerrilla/Partisan’s friend. This image above, taken in Montana from my AGM Rattler TC-384 shows us why. The sight is set to white hot and as you can see, the pines are glowing white. It would be very difficult to locate stationary people out there among the pines.

I long resisted getting night optics, because as an old-school Marine, I always thought iron sights were the way. While that is true, and iron sights will never fail you, there have been so many advances in optics that not taking advantage of them is just silly in today’s world. I know that the price keeps a lot of folks from getting these, but what price do you put on a super-power? What is your life worth to you? On that note, don’t substitute low-quality optics…spend the money.

In this article, I want to give my impression of these and disucss my use case versus a lot of other folks. I got mine from NC Scout at the Brushbeater Store. You can find the store at this link: https://brushbeater.store?sca_ref=4405804.z7Z4UMPocd

The unit comes packed into a padded case, but the case is larger than I would take into the field. I store the unit in the padded case, but when I toss the unit into my assault pack, I put it in a USMC issue padded NVG pouch for protection.

The unit arrives configured as a “clip on” weapon sight. This means it comes with a mounting clamp to be placed (“Clipped on”) to the objective lens of you riflescope. If you want to use it as a monocular, you will need to buy a modular monocular eyepiece, available at Amazon for $195.00. I am inlcuding a link in the photo below.

While I will use this on my bolt action for hunting, my primary use case is as a detection device while stationary in an observation post, checkpoint duty, or in an ambush hide. I wouldn’t use a thermal as a vision device while moving. I have the WOLF-14 NVG for that, and this would only be used in either configuration (scope or monocular) while stationary, whether in a fixed position or at a temporary halt. While moving, it either stays in my assault pack or in my Mountain Partisan Bang Bag. I have one Bang Bag set up as my “Observation Post Kit”. It holds this thermal in one of the water bottle pouches on the inside, my Vortex Recon 15×50 mini-spotting-scope, a pair of binoculars, a notebook, and my WOLF-14 in an outside pouch. The Bang Bag is perfect for an OP because I can get into position and loosen the strap, placing the bag on the ground in front of me as my optics rest. If I have to jump up in a rush, the bag is still attached to me. Good investment.

The 384 isn’t the highest-resolution unit, but I was detecting humans moving at up to 350 meters away during the last Fieldcraft class. The images are clear, as you can see above. The unit takes photos and can even make video – I made pretty sweet video of some students moving tactically along the night land nav course. It excels at detecting others using active IR illumination – every time someone turned on an IR laser or IR beam, it showed like a beacon. Be careful when choosing to go active with regualr NVG’s or pointing with an IR laser.

The unit has a ton of features, including it’s own reticle if you intend to use it as a standalone gunsight. If you don’t intend to, just turn the reticle off and you don’t need to re-zero, just use your regular sight for aiming. The battery life is like any other NVG, it eats batteries. You can get 4-5 hours out of 2 batteries. We used this unit an hour or two a night for 15 days and had to change batteries twice. Carry spares.

It has some features I suspect I’ll never use, like the WiFi hotspot, but that’s just because they wanted it to be a complete unit. I do like the digital zoom up to 8X, just to investigate things I see moving in the woods.

The below photo was taken after a guy went to bed in his tent. I wanted to include it because a lot of folks think that thermals are magic and can’t be beat. This tent has no special thermal blocking, just a rain fly. As you can see, his heat signature is only visible where he is laying below the rain fly. We also showed how normal tarps slow down thermal detection and thermal tarps completely defeat it. In the Scout course, we demonstrate how earth and vegetation can defeat thermals. They are a good tool, but they can be defeated with solid fieldcraft and good light infantry skills like digging fighting positions below ground and selecting good sites.

On that note, my Fieldcraft class is a great way to learn those skills. I have a class in North Carolina at Brushbeater’s place 5/31-6/2 followed 2 weeks later with a class in Strang, OK 6/14-6/16. At the Oklahoma class, I’m hoping to get some pretty good hog detection video with this thermal so stay tuned. Check the Training Courses tab to register.

The unit is solidly built and while is has some weight to it, it’s not overly heavy or large. It fits comfortably in one hand for monocular use. Sure, the FLIR Breach or Sting IR are smaller and lighter, but they don’t have the feature that this does. Using it will destroy your night vision though. When you first get it, spend a lot of time learning to locate and work the controls by feel, because in the field you can’t turn on a light to look for the mode button.

It comes with a rail mount and it can also be attached to any standard tripod. I like to carry a small tripod, because my mini spotting scope works better on a tripod anyway. I have a trip that also works as a pistol grip, which is a pretty solid OP tool.

My advice is to invest in some type of a thermal, but don’t settle for cheap ones. Spend the money and get quality. Yes, it sucks that good tools cost money, but it’s worth it in the end. As we get farther down the road of unrest, you may see the availability of these devices get restricted. Even now, NC Scout is struggling with the StingIR being sanctioned into unavailability.

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I hope to see you in class. If you haven’t already, check out Future Conflict on Rumble or YouTube, where you can hear me and my friends explain the collapse in real time every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9 AM Eastern. Also, check out my brother Scott’s newest project here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/land-sea-paradise#/ (he’s not really my brother).

Save the date: July 26-28 for the Future Conflict meet up in Bigfork, Montana in partnership with our friends at Sheild Arms.