In this episode, Jon Collins sits down with Matt Ferris from NOCPIX to discuss new thermal equipment.
Welcome to the FoxPro podcast brought to you by Fox Pro game calls. Welcome back to the FoxPro podcast. I'm John Collins and today we're talking thermal equipment. Youite guys should be pumped for this one. Joining us is Matt Ferris. Matt, it's great to have you with us again, old buddy. How you been doing? Good morning, John. Man, thanks for having us back on again. Things are going pretty good down here in Texas. Uh it was actually about 65 degrees this morning compared to the normal hundreds we've been in. So I think uh the fall hunting season feels like it's getting a lot closer. That's a that's a big temperature swing there if you're used to triple digits and all a sudden you wake up to mid60s. That make you that'll make your lip curl a little bit, won't it? I tried my long johns this morning. Yeah. Well, I've seen you uh I've seen you've been doing some hunting here lately. Been killing some coyotes, been killing some pigs. Tell us about that. I mean, uh, of course, night hunting. Um, but like here up until you said you had the mid60s weather, has it been bad hot down there where you guys are at? So, this is probably one of our our cooler years on record, I think. You know, normally over the summer, we're looking at multiple, you know, triple digit days in a row. But, uh, thankfully this summer hasn't been as bad as usual here in central and north Texas. So, very thankful for that. Right. Right. Yeah. Uh hunting's been pretty good. Kind of laid off the coyotes a little bit this summer. We've been focusing more just doing a lot of pig population control. Uh just been hammering the hogs pretty hard. And then of course, you know, got to make a stand at the end of the night every now and then just for a little bonus coyote or two. Yep. And y'all and I've seen you you've posted a few pictures of coyotes. Uh now talking about like the pigs, do y'all ever try calling for pigs? I I have a couple times and I mean honestly I haven't had much luck. I see a lot of guys do it and I think it's just a very uh specific scenario where that seems to work. Right. Right. And I'm always tempted to try it when we see a big sounder out there in the field, but the other half of me is thinking, well, I can see them. I can walk up and shoot them or I can try calling them in closer, but I'm so worried about spooking them and then going the opposite way, you know, and busting that st. So exactly. Yeah. Especially like if you're if you're there for the sole purpose of trying to knock down the pig population, if you got them right there in front of you, you know, why try calling them? You know, especially you got the equipment to go ahead and get them knocked down. You know, I guess it's one of those things like if you just you set out one night and you're like, you know what, we we've done pretty good on on pigs lately. I want to throw a extra challenge in there. We'll see if we can't call some tonight. I guess it'd be the time to try to incorporate it. Well, and funny enough, I have called in pigs on two different occasions, but it was during a coyote contest and they came out to cage cotton tail, you know, trying and so that's always uh pretty wild to see. Also, did you go ahead and shoot them or did you stay? No, no, no. This this was during the West Texas big cat contest. Little too much money on the line to blow a stand. But yeah, funny enough, one of them was just uh it was like 10 o'clock in the morning out there in West Texas and we were like in a you know cut cotton field just sitting there you know about 10 pigs come running out kind of scary a little bit you know 20 yards away right not so you know we were trying to get a cat so we just let him slide but um yeah so it definitely works you know it's just I haven't quite figured out the science of it yet. What about uh like on that stand right there? Did like after the pigs went away, did you did you call anything else up? Did you call a coyote or or cat on that stand or did it pretty much No, not not on that particular stand, but there was a another time also during a contest. It was a couple years ago and it was at night. It was probably 11:30 or midnight and had a couple pigs run out of the woods twice. They ran out to the call, kind of sniffed around, ran back in the woods about 50 yards away, came out a second time, like a minute later, finally left, and about five minutes later, we end up having a triple coyotes come in, and we'll get a couple of those. You know, we don't think about it, but those animals are out there coexisting pretty much all the time anyways, you know. So, I don't think it'd be too much of a odd circumstance for a cow to see a pig and vice versa. No, they cross paths and smelling each other all the time. Um, yeah, I hunt Texas, you know, maybe once a year, maybe a couple times a year. And, uh, my first encounter with actually calling pigs, I've called Havalas before, but never, you know, never pigs. And, uh, which I guess Havalina is pig. I don't know what Havalina stinks. I I mean, they they they got their own. I guess they're their own. A weird little creature for sure. Yeah. But going back to the pigs, uh I was hunting with we me and Tory Cook were hunting with Chris Robinson this past winter and it was this was on the last stand the evening. We come into this cattle farm, cattle ranch, whatever it was uh right down there around Chris and uh we saw in a wheat field there was a big old group of pigs. I mean there was ton looked like at least three dozen of them. Bunch of them. Well, they were in the field to our left. We were in a pasture field parked. We walk clear across this pasture field away from these pigs, cross a fence and call this other field. It's kind of like a looked like a hay field I guess is what it was. Uh get to calling went through quite a bit of our stand. Probably 3/4 of the way in. Tory was running the uh call been playing rabbit sounds. We'd howled and all this different stuff. Well, towards the end he starts playing MFK table scraps. And if anybody's, of course, a lot of the guys listening to this is very familiar with MFK table scraps. It is a coyote food fight. Well, he's probably played that for like two minutes, maybe three minutes. And all a sudden, I hear this noise behind us. And it seems like, and I don't know how this is cuz I'm like that. I'm deaf as could be. I don't know how I'm the only one hearing it, but it sounds like there's a truck coming to us. And I start to actually turn and say something to Chris like, "Hey, is, you know, is a cowboy or the rancher or farmer or somebody fixing to drive up here on us?" And I turn back to my left and I see what the commotion is. You know, like I'm looking back and trying to see the vehicle. It wasn't a vehicle. Those pigs, they come running right up. And the thing is, we crossed that fence. It was a woven wire fence. And our back was up to it. And I actually just showed some of this footage on the FoxP Pro Tik Tok account, so you guys will see what's going on. If any of you guys are on Tik Tok, you can go look at the video. But these hogs are just trying like crazy to get through that fence. And they're just like 10 or 15 yards away. And I'm sitting there thinking like, do I need to shoot these damn things or see what they do? They never make it through the fence. They couldn't find a way through it or under it. But we called that whole group up and they came to a coyote food fight. I thought that was wild as can be. And that was in the daylight. I know the sun was setting. The sun had actually just set. We just had a few minutes of light left, but it was wild. I never expected them to come to a coyote food fight. Yep. Just uh never know about them. They're aggressive when they want to be. Yeah. Yeah. And it it was wild. They kind of lost interest and then uh Tori switched over to some kind of pig sound as one of his. I think he calls it pig slop. I think heard they come again. run right back up there again. It was pretty cool to see. And of course, I'm thinking like, should I shoot one of them, you know, cuz it be cuz I ain't killed a pig in a long time. And I was thinking like, man, do I have to drag it out? Have to get it out by shooting. So, I ain't worried about the dag on thing. All the when you start after you start shooting them. That's right. That's when the work starts, ain't it? That's right. And speaking of that, I seen you with a pile of pigs the other day. How do you load them? Were you out there by yourself? I seen you had I don't know if it was three or four pigs or something like that. Couple of them look like it's pretty good size. How in the world do you move those things by yourself? Well, you know, you've met me before. I'm not the biggest guy in the world by any means. And so, uh, luckily there's usually two or three of us, you know, on those big pig hunts. And so, you a couple of those big farm boys help you. You know, you just everybody grabs one in just kind of do a 321 and swim up in there. Right. But it it of course they're bloody and muddy and stinking and it's a when you get done with it like now why we keep doing this. Right. Right. Because it's fun, right? That's right. We shot one pig um a few weeks ago. He's I mean he's probably pushing 300 lb. I know everybody says that. you know, everyone and right brother has shot a 500 pound pig, but you know, we have shot enough and have weight enough to know and oddly enough, you know, usually the the bigger bores, it seems like they're kind of by themselves most of the time, but this one just right in the middle of a group of bunch of SS and pig hoods didn't really realize how big he was till we walked up on him and, you know, had some good, you know, probably three or four inch cutters on him. And that was pretty cool because in that particular area, uh, kind of southern Oklahoma that just generally don't get that big. So, it's always fun to get one that size. Well, maybe you can show me some of that action here before too long. Matt and I are trying to get us a hunt scheduled up for maybe mid October and maybe he can show me a few pigs. Yeah, it's going to be a good time, especially with weather cooling off like it is. Start to find a couple of them. You going to have some of them big farm boys help us load the dag on things? Oh, you you bet. Not throwing our back out through all that. Heck no. We We'll try to do some coyote calling calling as well. That'll be fun. I've never I've never And this is crazy. Uh I've never night hunted Texas or Oklahoma. Okay. Every time I've ever been out there, it's been during the day, so I'm looking forward to that. Yep. It's a good time. Well, guys, like I was talking about earlier there on this episode, we're going to be discussing night hunting thermal equipment. You know, there's some new stuff out there for us predator hunters, and there's actually more on the way. Um, now us here at FoxPro, we've been running the Knockpick Ace H50 and the ACE H50R scopes. I personally got the H50 and there's two or three of the guys up here at the office, Mike Dylan, Jace Dylan, Zack Hatinger that you guys see on on the videos. They're they're running the H50RS and man, zero complaints. I mean, everybody is loving the equipment. Um huge upgrade from what we were using before. Uh we've hunted in in a few different states uh this past this past year. Coyotes, fox, bobcat, all three uh we've called in while using the knockpicks gear. And uh you know, I've done some stuff here in Kentucky in my home state. First time ever uh night hunting my home state and the first night out. Caught in a triple on the very first stand and was able to knock two of them down. And that was my actually my first ever thermal kills myself. Uh hunted a little bit more here around home and then went down to Florida and had a good time down there uh hunting and man we called in several coyotes. I'd actually handed uh uh the rifle and scope over to um Fox Pro staffer Kyle Kickenberger which is one of the best hunters there's ever been, especially contest hunters. and he absolutely uh loved the scope as well. And uh it's it's been a it's been a learning curve for me for the night stuff, but I tell you what, it's cool. I I used to always say I had zero interest in it. Uh but getting out and doing a little bit of it has changed my mind. It's it's it's definitely uh it's definitely something I look forward doing more this year as soon as our season comes in and hopefully, like I said, get on a trip here with Matt here in a couple weeks. Uh, but Matt, since you're the expert on these, you want to just hit the high points of the Ace H50 and the H50R, just so people can know a little bit more about those. You bet. And that that's all awesome to hear. You know, I'm glad y'all been having a good experience with those. And, you know, especially getting triple on your first night out, you know, using thermal in your home state. That's set the bar pretty high. But I tell you about that too, the I caught the when I called them up, there was one was kind of hanging back, but two come up there close. I shot the first one at like 50 steps less. I don't know. It was close. So, I had that scope, you know, the magnification turned down. Well, the other one ripped out back around through there. And of course, I'm not I'm just trying to stay on to things. Like I said, I'm still learning. And I shot the other one out there. I got it stopped out there to I don't know, 150 yards. It might have been a little bit further, 175 or something like that. Well, I never did change my magnification. I just left it down on low and sent one out there and luckily got them both killed. Yeah, that's the other thing. You know, we started using thermal a few years ago. You know, it's kind of start to make makes you start to wonder how many cows we missed over the years just because they didn't show up, you know, right? They may have been just hiding out in the tree line or maybe just some tall grass and we've never known they were there. Yeah. Otherwise, and so that that is definitely a cheat code being able to just throw them like that. But as far as A series goes, like what y'all been using, they've been very popular for us, been one of our best sellers since we came out with them. I think what a lot of guys kind of gravitate towards is the fact that it it looks like a traditional day scope. You know, it is a tube style body, 30 millimeter tube, so you use, you know, variety of mounts on those. And a lot of, you know, predator hunters, they are using bolt guns, and so this kind of fits that platform a lot better. Um, granted, I use mine like an AR10 sometimes as well, right? Not to cut you off, but that's exactly what I did. I had a a LIIO day scope on my 243 and I just popped the top ring off, pulled that loop off and put my Ace H50 right down there and you know torqued it back down and and sided in and went to hunting. So, and I love it. It's on a it's on a Ruger boat. Perfect. But yeah, that's that's the nice thing about the ACE, you know, just being able to use them, you know, variety of applications and, you know, really generous side relief, so you don't have to worry about that. You know, some of these dogs have a little bit different length of bull and yeah, just able to use those on a wide variety there. And I think what a lot of you guys too appreciate, especially on the R models like the H50R is that built-in rangefinder. You know, like you mentioned, you know, was that coyote at 150, 175, you know, he may have been closer to two, you know, and right having that rangefinder, you can get that instant, you know, one second later, get a reading on exactly where they're at, so you know where to hold, you know, uh, right? if you aren't shooting, you know, something really fast and flat like a 243 22 250 just takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Right. Right. Well, you know me, that's what I'm going to be shooting. Hell yeah. Lucky on that stand, too. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Um, you know, and that's that was one of the things, too. I got lucky on that stand far as being able to judge the diff distance. I knew it was going to be in that that distance range. somewhere because this is a stand that I had called in the, you know, call every year during the daytime. So, and I know the lay of the land and there was like some barns and stuff is off to the right, old tobacco barns and stuff. So, I knew from day hunting that place that if they're inside that other stuff, you know, they're well, you know, just hold right on them. But, uh, it was it was definitely an experience cuz, you know, this place was wore out. I mean, I'd done killed several coyotes off there that year, and I know the neighboring places, see some pressure from some other hunters. So, it was like one of those spots like, well, you know, if this could be a a spot to try, I don't really have high hopes. I would have never went back in there and they called it and lo and behold, there are three coyotes come running up to the call like they never heard a sound before in their life. It's pretty awesome. Well, they probably thought they were safe in the dark like nothing could see them. Exactly. Exactly. Well, I seen them. It was glowing, buddy. Yeah, that's awesome. At uh we've do have some trips scheduled here pretty soon. Actually, Mike Dylan is taking a H50R to Oklahoma here. It's I think it's next week. Uh he's got two or three nights of hunting out there. He should be hitting like the family bust up time frame just perfect. I expect him to kill all kinds of coyotes here on this trip coming up. Um he's going to be hunting with Jeremy Nickel out there. And if anybody ever follows Jeremy Nickel, y'all know how many coyotes he kills. So, uh, Mike's taking a couple guns and scopes and scanners and stuff out there. So, that's I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. That's awesome. Yeah. If anybody can find them, sure they can. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I uh we might as well talk about we talked about the the H50 and H50R. Uh, y'all Knockpick does have a newer addition to the lineup, the AC60R, which is a 1280 unit. You want to tell them about that? I have not had the opportunity to look through that yet, but I can just imagine if it's an upgrade from the H50, it's going to be pretty slick. Yes, sir. It's quickly become my go-to thermal. Um, usually, you know, fortunate enough I have a wide variety to choose from up here, and that's the one I've been grabbing the most here lately. So, it's the same form factor. You know, still that tube style scope, still looks like a traditional day scope. It still has the built-in rangefinder, which 1200 yard capable. also has that ocular zoom which I don't know if you got to play with that very much or not but basically yes I have you know with with digital map case you know images once you zoom in it does start get a little grainier start to lose some of that detail and with this ocular zoom it physically brings the screen closer to your eye and so you can go from the A6 the S6R has a two power base mag and three power ocular zoom so you can go up to a six power magnification and not lose any of that 1280 resolution which is reallyesome Awesome. Um, I find myself using it pretty often, especially on that first shot. You know, you want to get a good head shot, you want to get a good clean kill, you can kind of crank up that ocular zoom, take your first shot, and then back it down real quick to get back to that wide field of view with your base mag. Yeah. And that is one thing I didn't think I would care for too much on this scope is a really low base mag. It's a 2x base mag. Okay. you know, compared to most of our models, maybe three or four, but just having that really wide field of view has has been a game changer. You know, you can see a lot more of the action at once, uh, right without, you know, being quite as tight. So, I I find myself liking that pretty good. Um, still use an 18650 battery, which is replaceable, and you can internally charge the scope as well. So, you can easily get 8 to 10 hours of use before ever having to swap a battery out. Nice. which for most of us that's going to be, you know, almost a whole night of hunting, not a little bit more. Tell us about um what are like the biggest differences besides for like 1280 versus 640 and the base mag difference uh between like the S60R and the uh H50R like what are the main differences between those two uh two scopes? Sure. So with the S60R that that 60 denotes a 60 millimeter objective. So that versus the 50 millimeter objective on the H50 and H50 yard that kind of ties in with that lower base magnets give that really wide field of view. Okay. You know, if you're just shooting coyotes, you know, singles and doubles, field of view isn't quite as big of a deal because hopefully it's, you know, one shot and done. But where it really helps you is if you are in a group of pigs, you know, as soon as you take that first shot, more than likely they're going to scatter, go every which direction. And just having that bigger field of view allows you to stay on that group a lot easier. You know, you're not uh quite as sucked into it. You can kind of see the whole scene as it plays out. So, I think that's a really big benefit there. And then, you know, it's going to have a really fast refresh rate just like the H5850R. And for those that don't know, the refresh rate on these is going to be 50 Hz. And what that means is, if you ever seen the old thermal videos, you'll notice there's kind of a lag. And if something's on the run, you'll see guys having hold way in front of them for the lead. Well, that's because the refresh rate there's there's that lag. in between what we're seeing through the scope and what's actually going on in the field. And so the faster that refresh rate, the more we can cut down on that lag and give us some much more kind of instant viewing experience. It should cut down on some missed coyotes. That's right. Take some of that Yep. Take some of that lead out and get you more hits. Well, I I think you talking about the wider field of view. Um I think it's a huge plus for for many people. like say the biggest difference I I remember seeing for like me hunting here in my home state of Kentucky versus hunting in Florida and a lot of people when you mention Florida people don't really think much about coyote hunting down there. Well, they've got tons and tons of coyotes and they got tons and tons of pigs as well. But the biggest difference I saw is like we were hunting these big cattle ranches down there, like huge cattle ranches, and it was just these big wide open um pasture fields. You know, they might have some patches of palmettos and stuff, but for the most part, this was like big wide open country that you could see forever, but me hunting here back at home, my stands are a lot tighter. We've got a lot of woods, small pasture fields, small hay fields, small crop fields. So, I really really like the idea of more field of view uh for hunting my style of country right here at home because it, you know, the tighter it is, the more field of view you need. I can see that being a huge benefit. Yep. Exactly. You know, some of these places we hunt here in central Texas, you know, it does get pretty brushy in a hurry. You know, your probably the shot might be 100 yards, if even that. And so, just being able to get on that scope and see everything at once is is a huge benefit. is uh can you tell a big uh quality difference as far as picture- wise between uh the S60R and the H50R? You can. And I mean, like I said, you know, I use this stuff all the time, all these different models. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the 640 sensor and that H50 or H50R. Uh that is more than enough for most people. The 1280 just takes it to the next level. And you know, you think, okay, well, a 640 versus 1280, that's double the resolution. So, it should be double as clear. But really, it's even more pixels on screen than that because the sensor size goes from the way it's mapped out. You know, you got to take into account the whole size of the screen. And it it really does give a lot more detail, which, you know, that's not just for recording videos up close. That also extends your detection range. you know, being able to positively ID, okay, is that a coyote or is that a pig? You know, a thousand yards or more. It just the more pictures we have, the better the detail, the better the resolution. All that kind of factors into just extending those distances previous farther than previous. Right. Right. Well, that's that's pretty wild to me because I know when started, you know, the first one I looked through was H 50R. And of course, I've got the H50 here, but the only difference in the two scopes is just a rangefinder. That correct? Yes, sir. And you know, when I was looking through it through those scopes, I was I was like, you mean there's there's actually a better there's another model that's better quality than this? You know, I was like, this is pretty this is pretty awesome. So, it's pretty wild to think that the S60R is is is better quality than what we've been used to in the H50 and H50R. just blows my mind because that stuff is clean as it gets. Yeah. You know, guys like me and you generally I think we want to shoot the coyotes as close as possible, you know, for the content and the footage. You know, you want to get all that detail up close, but we've got plenty of customers, you know, shooting cos five, six, seven, even 800 yards. Got to call them day one shot. And you know, that's just was unthinkable, you know, just a few years ago, right? You know, that and that's the thing. You know, you got guys like you just said, you got guys that's in it. you know, what they want to do is call coyotes up close and, you know, that's what they live for. And then you got other guys, it's just, you know, their whole sole purpose is when if a coyote comes out, they want to be able to kill it. It don't matter if it's 20 steps or 800 steps. And especially for these these guys, these competition hunters, contest hunters and stuff, you know, if they get coyotes that hang up out there at past 500 yards, they won't be able to kill them and they want to know that they're shooting at a coyote. So, it's just, you know, this this type of equipment is is worth its weight and gold in my opinion, especially for contest hunters. Oh, yeah. When there's thousands of dollars on the line, you don't really want to leave anything out there, you know, on the table. So, this is a a big benefit for that as well. Yeah. And that's that's the thing. These contest hunters that you see that that winning all the time or at least placing in the money all the time, you best believe they're killing coyotes up close and way way out there at extended ranges. Way out there. No, no free passes. You know, I always think about them those far coyotes. I'm like, man, I got to walk out there. That's a long walk to go out there and then we'll drag the thing back. That's a long drag. If you want to kill them, you've got the ability, especially with this type of equipment. Yes, sir. Let's uh let's talk about uh talk about the scanners a little bit. We've been using the Lumi and the Vista. I've I kind of fell in love with the Vista. I like the Vista myself for my my type of use. Uh just I like the size even though it's bigger than the Lumi. I you know, I like to know that I'm holding on to something. I like the features that it had. I've been I've actually ran the H35R and the H50R. I got to run the H50R down there in uh in Florida some and I really really liked it in Florida because, you know, it was reaching on out there and we was detecting stuff, man. You know, just that wide open country, it seemed like it was well suited for that. Uh, but for me, for all around you, especially if you're at home, here at home, I could tell I was like, man, the H35R is exactly exactly what I need for here. And um and I' I've loved it. Uh you want to tell everybody a little bit about the about the Lumian Vista series? Yeah, of course. So, kind of like we talked about in the scopes, uh the different models, what you're going to get between the 3X base mag on the Vista H35R versus the Vista H50R which has a four power base mag is again it's just kind of use case, you know, do you need that little smaller magnification and wider field of view or do you need to really, you know, reach out there and, you know, detect at those further distances with the higher base mag? And another cool thing that we introduced here a few months ago was a software update that now allows any of our handheld scanners like the this through the Lumi that have the built-in rangefinder. Nice. You can now pair those devices to a scope. Yep, I saw that. I saw that. Take a range and that range will populate onto the screen of the scope. And so we call that inlink. And basically, you know, it's really great if you're hunting with a buddy or, you know, just even if you're scanning and you see a co out there. Okay. Well, you can range it. How far away is that? Ranges that C's at 450 yards. As soon as you take that range, there's going to be a little kind of picturein picture window that pops up on the scope itself instantaneously. And then you can get on the scope, take that shot without trying to range on the scope and dial and all that. Or if your scope doesn't have the rangefinder like your H50 version, you can just pair that with the Vista and now you have that capability. Yeah, that that's slick. I saw where you all announced that and had it out there. I think it was on Instagram and that's that that's pretty slick. That first thing I thought I said, man, that's great. Now I've got the rangefinder in my H50 as well. Yeah, I got to hand our engineers because it's not something I would have ever thought of in the first place ever needing. But it it has definitely been a game changer just you know being able to have those units talk back and forth to each other. And what's cool too is it'll even pair from scope to scope as well. So say you know you're up there with Jace and he's got the H50R and you just have the H50. Well, he can give you a range and y'all can both see you know exactly what that target distance is. Oh, okay. So they go from scope to scope as well. Yep. So cross compatibility there. And then of course we have the Lumi series which are a little on the entry level side. They're really kind of bare bones binocular, but I really like the H35. It fits in a rangefinder pouch. It's really small, easy to use onehanded. You know, we're going to offer those in a variety of sensor sizes as well. So, a little something for everybody there. Uh runs off a single 18650 battery, which most guys have laying around. You know, it's going to ship with two, which going to get you plenty of hours throughout the night. You can always buy extra just off the shelf. Uh, so the Lumi series is super handy, especially for just up close stuff. Um, you know, if you don't need a huge scanner, that works really well just to kind of get you out there and have something to scan with besides trying to use the scope, right? And they're they are a small in a small package. They're like the same size like a traditional daytime rangefinder like you'd use for archery hunting or whatever. I mean, fit right in the a front chest pocket or side pocket of your jacket or vest or whatever. pretty pretty slick. Um, what would be like Lumi versus Vista for hunters out there? What would you say that they need to look at when trying to decide between the two? So, a little bit of it's going to boil down to cost. You know, there is a little bit of a a difference there that this is going to be more of our premium series of moninoculars and the Lumi is going to be more kind of entry level, but they definitely don't leave anything on the table. Image quality on those is really good as well. You know, we offer one in a 640 and a 384 version. Um, like I said, I have access to all the stuff. I grab the Lumi just because it is so small, right? You know, it's able, like you said, just throw in the rangefinder pouch, throw it in your pocket and go. Um, but you are going to get a little bit more detection range out of the Vista. Yep. Yep. I I got to tell all myself the reason I got to look through a H50R down in Florida. I think it was the second night we were down there. We actually hunted some during the day and we'd hunted that morning and then we were meeting up with our our buddy Jacob Mayfield. We were swapping stuff over from one truck to the other and I had my H35R and as we was swapping stuff over, I left the Vista H35R sitting on the bed rail of the truck. So, we drive like 45 minutes and once we get out there, guess what? It's gone. We couldn't figure out what was going on. And finally, I said, "You know what? I left it on the bed rail the damn truck." Oh man. So just so luckily we had a we had oh it was horrible. It was devastation. So that's the reason I used the H50 that one night and got to look through it because I can't remember if it was Jacob or Kyle but one of them had a knockix H50R. So got saved by that. But there's a scanner somewhere in a ditch somewhere out there in Florida. We spent the entire We spent I don't know how many hours it was the following morning looking for that thing. Horrible heartbreak. Still hurts my heart. It's probably got some alligator teeth in it by this point. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. Hey, besa besides for moninoculars from Knockpicks, you guys have also added a couple models of thermal binoculars, right, to the lineup, the Quest series. You want to tell us about that? I haven't got to see that yet. So, what I've seen online and on social media and stuff looks pretty slick. Yeah. So, this is our our first kind of foray into binos. You know, we've had moninoculars of various models now for a while. And decided to take it a step further. And what's really cool about the binoculars is you may have seen some some older thermal binos from other companies and they're always kind of really big, really bulky, not very usable. Uh but what we try to do with these is make them pretty much the exact size is like what a standard set of you know 10x42 binos you know day glass would be and so you know with that they fit in your standard you know bino harness they're kind of the same form factor have the same feel to them those are going to be our quest model of binos and kind of like with the vista we're going to offer that in an H35R and an H50R again difference being the base mag you know one to three power one to four power. Uh the controls on these are really well thought out. They're very easy to use. Your focus and zoom wheels are right there in the middle, so you can just, you know, with your index finger reach really easy. All the mini buttons are right there, easy to get to. And they also have that built-in 1200 yard laser rangefinder, which again will pair with any of our other not devices. So, you can still use those to get your ballistics onto the scope. Very nice. Very nice. So, I've been getting to play with them quite a bit and uh we've had these out for a couple months now and they've been really popular. People seem to really appreciate that form factor. Now, with the with these Quest binoculars, y'all kind of y'all looking for something out of people out there. Is that correct? That's right. So going on right now, if any of your listeners want to go visit knockpixquest.com, it's noocpixquest.com.
We actually have a field tester program right now we're taking applications for. So here shortly, we're going to take those applications and pick a few people out who, you know, can actually use these in the field and go test them in, you know, some of these real hunting situations and give us their feedback. and of course, you know, collect some footage and content as well. So, if anybody's interested in trying out a pair, be sure to visit that website and sign up. Nice. Nice. I'm sure there's going to be quite a few people interested in that. Yeah. I can't imagine anybody want you to not try them out. So, it's it'll be interesting to see what we get out of it. Yeah. And it's pretty intriguing to me. I've never looked through a thermal thermal binocular and it's kind of got me wondering like um thermal moninocular versus binocular. Uh what what would be like say if I was in the market to I'm going to buy one of the two today like I'm online on the Knox pick site, Knockpick USA site and I'm looking at the Quest and of course the Lumi and Vista in the Moninocular. What what would be the deciding factor for me to go with one over the other? Yeah, you know, they they each have their own, you know, kind of special use case, but I think the coolest thing about the binoculars is it's kind of hard to describe without looking through it, but basically it's kind of an immersive experience, you know, because both eyes are open. You have dual displays, so both eyes are seeing the same thing. And, you know, with the moninocular, usually you're kind of squinting, you're holding open one eye, uh, you know, you're trying to get a good image through just that one side. But with this, I mean, it is both eyes open. you're seeing the whole scene play out in front of you. Um, it's just it's just cool. I don't know how else to to sell it, but you really do have to take a look through these. They're they're unlike anything else on the market. Awesome. Well, I can't wait to I can't wait to put my eyes in a set. I'm sure it So, like So, like your right eye is seeing the same thing that the left eye is seeing. Sort of. Yep. So, it does have dual displays inside. So, and your your brain will generally kind of merge those together. So, it doesn't feel like you're looking at two different screens. It feels like one screen, right? And that you're actually looking through a set of binoculars, right? So, really good field of view, you know, really good detection range, you know, excellent clarity. Both of those have 640 by 512 sensors, really good refresh rate. Um, just kind of takes things to the next level. Nice. And like um what do um like the the the pan like far as all your adjustments and stuff, what does that look like on a binoculars? Is it like the still like a uh like a say a traditional set of binoculars is got like your zoom ring and stuff? Do they those have a zoom ring as well or do they have buttons that you push plus and minus to go to zoom out and zoom, you know, zoom back or how's that? That's a good point to bring up because in the middle there actually is a large focus ring that you can roll rotate back and forth. And then right behind that is your zoom ring. And so it's really easy to kind of roll up and down to fine-tune that magnification exactly where you want it. And as you know with using day binos things can get a little shaky, you know, especially at distance. And so these do have a feature where you can turn on electronic image stab stabilization. So if you're not on a tripod or on a rest, it'll kind of help you lock that image in. Take some of the shake out of it. That is real nice. So they got image stabilization built into them as well. Yes, sir. And like on a traditional set of dinos, you know, they're going to be hinged in the middle, so you can kind of adjust them to fit your face. Well, these are a fixed body design, but the eye pieces themselves, the diopters are independently adjustable for width and then as well as the focus there as well. Oh, nice. That is pretty sleek. That is pretty sick. Well, that's pretty impressive. I didn't realize trying to check all the boxes on these. Yeah, it sound like y'all did a good job with that. I didn't realize that they had that type of adjustment and definitely didn't realize that they had image stabilization. That's pretty cool right there. Yeah, I need all the image stabilization I can get. Hey, I live, you know, I'm running a camera every day, either a picture taking camera or a camcorder style camera, and uh I live off image stabilization. If I ain't got image stabilization, especially when I'm taking pictures with my mirrorless, they liable to be rough. So, I like I like hearing is I like hearing image stabilization. That's good. Do they have What about is there a way to attach those to like a tripod if you wanted to? They do not uh you know on all our other moninoculars like the loom plate on there. Um, but I have found there's there's a few companies that sell kind of universal vinyl rings that'll just clamp onto the housing itself with the arc plate. Um, so there's I played with a couple of those different options and they seem to work pretty good. Nice. Nice. Well, is there anything else you want us want to tell us about the Quest series that we that we might not know or or anything else about the program? I I would say u if you see them in stock, try and get them. these these kind of come and go uh inventory wise. They've been really popular for us. And so if you're on the fence, you know, definitely snag one when you get get the opportunity. I'm not saying just from a sales point. I'm just saying it's Yeah. You know, the way production goes, um these will come in and out of back order pretty regular. So if you get a chance, don't don't pass that up. If if if you want to see it see them in stock, you better pull the trigger. That's right. All right. Well, well, switching gears. I've heard that there's a couple unreleased thermal scopes that's headed our way. You want to tell us about those? Sure, we can get into that. So, you know, we we've been talking about sensor size and resolution, um, different base mags, and of course, you know, the ACE being that traditional style scope. And what we're about to come out with and should be seeing on the shelves pretty soon is the Noctix Rico 2 series of scopes. And these are going to be more of your traditional style thermal optic. You know, kind of a brick style if you will. So these have a larger body, a little bit different set of controls. And on this Rico 2, we're going to have a H75R model and then an S75R model. So the H75R, it's going to be a 75 millimeter objective. So this thing has just a big old lens on there which again helps with you know detection and field of view but then it has a four power base mag. So with it being a 640 sensor and that four fire base mag, these are for guys really, you know, more often than not be taking those long shots. You know, guys wide open fields really need to reach out there and poke something. That 4x space mag just gets you that much closer, you know, image wise to the target without having to zoom in, you know. And of course, it does still have digital zoom. And what's cool about these is it's a throw lever style zoom instead of being like a turret or a button. So you just kind of Yep. If you ever seen like an LPVO or like on a throw knob on a Disco, that's what this is like. So you can just very easily rotate that zoom in and out to get it where you want it. So the said the H75R for Firebase Mag 640 really easy button layout. It's going to run off what we call an IBP5 battery. And so it is proprietary. It's a sort of a brick style battery, but you're going to get a lot of life out of those. It's going to ship with two and you're going to get between five and six hours per battery. Oh, well that's a full that's a full night and then some. Yeah, pretty good run time there. And then stepping up from the X75R, we have the S75R. So, it's going to be the same housing, same 75mm lens, same zoom style, same battery, but this is going to be a 1280 sensor with a three powerbased mag. Okay. So again, you can just imagine, you know, looking through the AC S6DR with it being a two power 1280. Now we are giving you an option to have a three power 1280, which is a first for us. Nice. Nice. Well, I'm sure you guys are excited to get those uh out there in Predator Hunters hands. It sound pretty dagon impressive. Yeah, we've uh I've been trying to collect videos with them over here the last several months and putting them through the paces and that S75R is is pretty sweet. I mean, image is just unreal on those. Like every time, you know, not to toot our own horn, but every time we think we come out with something looks really good, man, it doesn't get any better than this. And then somehow it does get a little bit better. So, it's Right. Right. Right. pretty neat to see the progression. So, like the Rico S75R, that's what you would is that Knockpick's top dog, so to speak. Yep. That's definitely going to be kind of our flagship model coming out. Another cool thing about the S75R is it has a fully circular display screen. So, you know, like on the on your AH50 and, you know, some of the other thermals, I'm sure you look through, it's always a square rectangular display. So, it's kind of like looking at a a TV, you know, screen in there. So this circular screen actually takes up the entire eyepiece. So there's there's no, you know, square corners. You're looking at the entire screen and it just really, like I said, it's kind of an immersive experience, you know? Yeah. Demo anymore. Yeah, I'm sure that's a lot more pleasing to the eye, I'm assuming. I mean, it sounds like that would be something that I would really enjoy going just kind of sucks you in. You know, it doesn't feel like looking at thermal anymore. Right. Right. Instead of staring at a staring at a video game, you're out there in there with it. That's right. Yeah. Makes everything a little more lifelike. Nice. Nice. Well, is there is there anything else that you want to hit on on the Rico models? Yep. So, both these models are also going to have a 1200 yard built-in laser rangefinder with onboard ballistics. So, put all your data in, take a range, it's going to give you a custom holdover point. You know, these are all fully customizable. There's multiple color palettes. You know, everyone has their favorite, white, hot, black, hot, red, green, etc. Um, and then you can go in there and pick out from seven different reticles or you can build your own in the app. So, I know there's a lot of these kind of long distance shooters, you know, they want certain amount of mil hashes or they want MOA, you know, whole points. Well, you can go in there and build the reticle exactly how you want it. Well, that's pretty slick. So you so you can build your own reticle and put your hashes or dots or whatever you want to call it in a spot that you want that's suited for your how your rifle shoots. Yeah. Which again that's a nice feature but not really needed with the ballistic calculator because you know once you take that range it's going to show you exactly where to hold anyways. But as you know some sometimes stuff happens faster than the field you might not have time to you know go through those steps. And so just, you know, if you like how you said your hunting property you've been on for years, you know where those landmarks are. You know the exact distance, well, you just put it on that hold over and let it rip. No, I can see where that's is an excellent option. You know, it's just like uh hunting pigs or especially calling coyotes, you know, especially you call in, you know, these family groups of coyotes, calling multiples on stand, you know, it's a fast-paced atmosphere. You know, it's a fast-paced sport. So, I can see where you got to think fast and where that could be really really beneficial for sure. And these both these models do boast a little bit over a 4,000 yard detection range, which is pretty impressive. It's plenty in it. That's a that's farther than most guys are going to shoot. And when we say detection, I just want to clarify that's, you know, us being able to see, you know, a a hot pore, hot target at that distance. you know, identification is going to be about half that, which still in itself is more than enough for most people. Yeah, that's that's awesome. I mean, there's not a place in my home state where I can see that far. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, that's that's very impressive. Yeah. And of course, like with all our models, you know, they're all going to have audio, video recording, and live streaming to the app, which is pretty neat. You know, if you're out there, say you're hunting with a buddy and he may not have a thermal and you don't have a spare, well, you can always connect your device to the app. you know, if they're looking through an iPhone or iPad, they can see exactly what you're seeing in real time, you know, and vice versa. If you're trying to get your buddy on a pig or coyote and well, you know, shoot the one left or shoot the one on the right, well, now you know exactly where they're aiming. And that's always been kind of a cool feature we've had. Yep. Yep. And tell tell how they if they hit it or missed it or that way you can help make fun of them if they miss. Yeah. Yeah. That's another cool feature, too, that I didn't mention is there's a gallery function inside the settings there. So if you do record a video, you can go back and instantly watch it on the screen right after you stop recording, which is is something new for us as well. And again, takes a lot of arguments out of the field, you know, for for who did what or what they didn't do. So you don't go back and hook it up to the phone or computer to watch the playback and no tell you right here. This is what happened. Exactly. Exactly. No, that's all that's really cool features because I don't know about how who you hunt with, but around here there's a lot of ego involved. So, it's nice to cut some of that out. Oh, most of the time most of the time I'm I'm hunting by myself. If I'm hunting with somebody's got a little too much ego, I just let them lead the way and I'm just there for along for the ride. Yeah, I I will tell you it was it was really handy the other day. I was uh making a couch stand and whereas none that there was I mean grass is probably need a waist high in most places and farmer just kind of cut like one little lane out you know as wide as a shredder for driving in and uh end up shooting his car about 150 yards out and couldn't find him. Couldn't find him like you know I thought I saw exactly where he went down knew was a good hit. You know I'm I'm walking around scanning looking can't find anywhere. finally go back and remember that I did in fact record the video and could watch the replay and I was able to see a bush where he was standing next to. So I, you know, kind of marked that landmark and walked out sure he's right there where I dropped it, you know, after wasting 30 minutes walking around in the dark, you know, sweating and cussing. It was uh kind of a aha moment like, "Oh yeah, I've got all this technology. Might as well use it." No, that's that's a that's a great feature. I mean, like for me over the years, we filmed so many coyotes. I mean, we actually did this just this past week. I was in Kansas and called a coyote up close and uh you know, we're trying to get the camera on it and all that stuff. And in the meantime, the coyote ends up seeing one of us move. Okay. So, it it but it can't smell us. It don't really know what it's seeing. It's not like it's boogering plum out and just running directly away. It's trying to circle to get wind and actually flares out. So, it gets out there like it's like 280 yards or something. This is a wide open uh prairie, wide open pasture. Um and anyway, I shoot this coyote and drop it. Well, we start walking out there. I'm like, I look over at my hunt buddies, Jeff Ryder. I said, "Do you happen to mark where that coyote was at? Cuz I don't have a clue. Everything looks the same." And we was like, "Let's go back and watch the video." Because we filmed it. And sure enough, just like what you was talking about, we was able to pick out a bush that's out there that was just a little off colored and a little bit taller. I was like, well, the thing's like 15 yards to the left of that bush right there. Let's just lock on that bush and go out. And sure enough, right there is where it was. So stuff like that is extremely valuable, especially it can make the difference, you know, whether you drag a coyote out there or not or find a coyote or not. You know, if you didn't have that, you might still be out there looking for that coyote. Yeah. Because unfortunately, we don't always hunt in plow wheat fields, you know, where everything's nice and flat and clean. You know, some of this stuff does get a little hairy, you know, as far as brush and grass and just makes it that much easier on the recovery. Yeah. And that might be something that some people's not thinking about, you know, why would, you know, I don't really care about, you know, watching my clips back at the end of the night or end of the week or whatever of hunting. But just think about if you were uh if you were a contest hunter hunting these contest and you would be like why would I care about you know videoing any of these stands through my scope during a contest. I'm just worried about shooting co going to the next stand. Well that one coyote that you couldn't find might mean the difference between first place and second place. It might be the difference between first place and third place. You know so you if you get out there and can't find a coyote, you can quickly go back and watch your footage and say, "Hey, he was right here." walk right back out that spot and pick that coyote up and that could be the difference between winning and losing. Oh yeah. That that 30 minutes I wasted walking around. I mean that was a whole another stand, you know. Could have got another stand in, couldn't you? Exactly. Exactly. So that's I think it's a great feature for stuff like that. Is there any other Knockpix models you'd like to discuss before we move on? Yep. So we have another new one coming out. We're gonna kind of shift gears here and we've been talking about, you know, kind of all our top-of-the-line models and uh high resolution and featurerich and then we decided that we kind of need some stuff on the other end of things and so we're coming out with the Noctix Bolt series. Okay. And this is going to be the Bolt L35R and a P25R. And these are going to be uh very entry level, but they're going to be kind of the same form factor as the ACE. you know, they're going to be that tube style scope. Um, and both models are going to feature a rangefinder as well, but there is no ocular zoom like there is on the digital zoom only. And the P25R, that's going to be a 256 sensor. The L35R will be a 384. And so, again, really good image quality out of these. You know, these are great for the guy who, you know, maybe you're primarily hunting out of a stand at a feeder. You know, your farther shot might be, you know, 200 yards. you're still very usable. Um, there's still some neat features here. And like I said, built-in rangefinder on some units like this is pretty unheard of because the pricing on these on the L35R that price is be $19.99 and the P25R is going to be $11.99. Okay. So, that that should kind of open up Yep. open up a lot of opportunity for most people to get into this game. Yeah. Very affordable scope. It's got some got some nice features as well. That's pretty slick. Yeah, we're still going to have to see that. Yep. So, still runs off 18650 battery. Still going to have AMOLED display. Looks really nice. Um, you know, all our kind of standard features as far as 18650 battery. You know, get those long run times. You know, picturein picture, multiple color palettes, you know, all those features. So, nice. I think this is going to be a really good value for most people. Yes. I'd say that's big. That's big news for for people wanting to get into the night game. That's sounds like good good budget budget friendly units. Yes, sir. Of course, we'll be posting about all this soon and, you know, trying to get the word out. So, we'll have all the content, videos, and pictures up here shortly for people to come check them out. Yep. A lot of lot of exciting things in the in the pipe are going to be going to be hitting pretty soon. Looking forward to it. Yep. Think it's going to be a really good fall. So give people lots of new opportunities here and just uh keep growing this not fixed product lineup. Well, let me ask you is you uh you hunting tonight? You hunting this weekend? I know you're going to be hunting here in the next few days, right? Well, I would try to unfortunately with this being our busy season, you know, I don't know why we always get busy during hunting season. It's weird how that works, but uh seems I I've got a lot of traveling going on right now. So, uh, been doing some different events and demos and headed out this weekend for another show and then weekend after that head up to Illinois for another show. But one of these days here soon, I'm going to go out for a night or two and just let them have it. Well, you know what they say, all work, no play. That's right. Hey, when you do when you do get when you do get a chance to get back out, tell us what you going to be running. I want to hear what thermals you going to be packing, what what scanner, tell us tell us what your setup's going to be. So, if I was cuz this what this what this tells me is this is like this is the man Matt Ferris's top choice for his style of hunt. Yep. So, right now, if I were to go out tonight, I'm going to grab the Ace S60R. Um, it's just been performing great, you know, great DeWalt scope. And that's on top of my re I got a six Creor uh built by Real Precision Gunworks out of South Texas. And so that's got a 16inch Proof Research carbon barrel on a Terminus action manner stock. Was kind of a dream gun for a while. Finally got my hands on it. This thing just shoots lots out. You know, whether it's pigs, coyotes, bobcats, everything in between. Uh I know it's not 243, but what I do like about the six screen is, you know, I can shoot the lighter 80 grain bullets for predators and then with that ace, I can have a different zeroing profile saved, switch over to the 108 grain ELDM for pigs, you know, and be able to thump them a little bit harder. So that that thing's been really solid set up just for all the hunting we do down here in Texas. And then um currently I'm having a 25 Creedmore being built. We got 22 Creed on the way. So, trying to round out that whole sort of Creed family. Yep. And uh I've been hearing lots of hype about the 22 Creed. So, decided to finally pull the trigger on one. So, we'll see how it performs. Oh, we we love the six Creed, too. Just like you compared it to the 243 for me. You know, people ask me all the time like, you know, which one should I go with? Um it's it's literally a flip the co, you know, flip a coin type decision. Both of them are absolutely excellent. Of course, I've ran a 22 Creed some in the past and and love that round as well. Um, tell us about um what scanner you running? You taking you taking the Quest binoculars or you running the Vista or the Lumi? What are you taking out for your scanner? Yeah, I've been using the the Quest bin quite a bit. Like I said, they fit in just a standard bino harness really well. Got FHF gear bin harness that I use for everything. And um it's just super easy just to throw those, you know, pull them up, scan them, drop them back in that bino harness, get on the gun and start shooting. Um I say I just like the form factor, you know, able to hold it both hands, scan, see everything range, drop them, get on the gun. Uh, yep. But that's a good um other option too is the Lumi with this as it is. I've kind of been slimming down my gear at night because unfortunately, you know, when it's 110 in the day, it's about 101 at night. And so just not having to wear that bino harness and just throw alum in my pocket, you know, it definitely does make things a little bit more comfortable. Oh my goodness. If that heat, you make me sweat just talking about it. I tell you what though, the the quest the quest line, especially if if these guys that uh you know, because we've got states that's expanding night seasons all the time. Kansas just expanded their night season. Uh so night hunting for a lot of hunters and a lot of states is still very very new. And I would think this qu I think this quest series is is very intriguing and should make a lot of guys excited because like if you're traditionally a day hunter, you're used to big game hunting and coyote hunting during the daytime, you're used to using a set of binoculars. That's what is comfortable to you. And I it I just think that is, you know, would be a great choice for somebody that transitions from day hunting to night hunting. The Quest sounds like the perfect scanner for you because you're already used to that binocular style, right? You know, that that's kind of one of our whole objectives is just to make the easy transition into night hunting. You know, kind of with the ACE lineup, you know, it looks and performs kind of like a church on day scope. You know, you have some controls in the same spots and as you're used to in seven piece binos, you know, there's it doesn't have a huge learning curve to it. It's pretty much just, you know, pull them out and go to work. Exactly. Because And let's be honest because it is different. somebody that's only day hunted and you go to night hunting, it is different. I mean I mean it's obviously different. Uh but yeah, I think that it just makes sense. You know those binocular style if that's what you're used to and then you go like to the A series, it's your traditional tube style scope. Like if you look I've got my 243 with knockpick sitting over in the corner of the room right now and you like if you look at it from a distance just glance at it I mean it looks just like your your traditional scope. But I love that. I love that style for that. It's on a traditional boat gun and it looks good and clean. I love it. Yeah, we took a new guy out a few weeks ago. He had only during the day time, you know, a few times and was, you know, kind of a gun guy and been doing a little bit of shooting and took him out at night and after that, you know, first couple groups of pigs and walked around the dark and shooting through thermal, he just walks up and says, "Matt, I get it now." you know, while we're spending all these, you know, hours out here in the dark and uh, you know, putting all this effort into it. You know, it really is unlike any other experience in the hunting world. Yep. Yep. For sure. Well, we're pretty much starting to run out of time here. You got anything you want to leave us with, Matt? No, I think that was uh we covered a lot of ground there, so hopefully, you know, people are able to take some notes. If not, you know, they can visit notusa.com. Uh, we've got all these models listed out there, all the spec sheets, all the details on that. And so that's probably be your your best source to follow up on all these. Nice. Nice. You want to tell us what uh how they can apply for that for the Quest testing? Yep. So that's just going to be nofixquest.com. And if you go to our not USA website, there's also a link there. Perfect. So, pretty pretty simple form to fill out and uh get that submitted. Well, Matt, I appreciate you joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me on and uh hopefully we see you just in a few weeks. Oh, yeah. We'll get together for sure. Any anyway guys, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. We hope you join us again right here on the FoxPro