Review: Pard TS34 Series thermal rifle scope

The Pard TS34-45F is about as intuitive and easy to use as a thermal rifle scope can get, and with a built-in rangefinder it’s the complete package.

The 45F is one of a number is the TS34 range, the others giving you different-sized objective lenses to suit different hunting circumstances, as well as a choice of a laser rangefinder or not.

Pard TS34-45F image — Left: A pig among trees stands out clearly. Right: It’s easy to pick between pig and wombat. Note that these images have been taken from video and increased from their original size so the resolution has suffered

Its design, which is reminiscent of a regular daytime riflescope, and the simple arrangement of controls create a thermal that’s not nearly as bulky or fiddly to use as many of the boxier thermal scopes.

Additionally, the software and menus are well sorted and comprehensive.

Most of the menu functions are handled using the top turret, which rotates and can be pressed to select or confirm. On top of the rear housing, several small rubberised buttons enable you to rapidly deal with more immediate needs when shooting: notably the rangefinder, colour selection and recording images.

A separate on-off button on the side has the secondary function of putting the Pard to sleep and waking it up with a short press.

The Pard TS34-45F resembles a traditional riflescope

The Pard mounts in 30mm rings like a regular scope. Sighting-in is handled electronically via the menus, not physically using turrets, and the straightforward process lets you get it done fairly quickly.

You can set up to five different zero profiles to suit different rifles or ammunition, each with a choice of six reticles in any of four colours, and it’s possible to change your selection any time.

The rangefinding software lets you input the ballistic profile of your ammunition so that the rangefinder can be used not only to measure distance to target but illuminate the correct aiming point for the range. In other words, it indicates exactly much holdover you may need to hit accurately.

The first press of the button measures distance, the second provides your aiming mark, and it happens quickly.

The rangefinder was generally accurate, too, although on occasion it struggled in foggy conditions or when the foreground was cluttered.

For the small amount of extra money it costs, a built-in rangefinder is virtually compulsory because of the impossibility of correctly judging distance through a thermal imager. The fact that the laser is mounted in the small unit above the object lens was never a hindrance while I was using the Pard, and I’d have it without question.

The rear eyepiece has a focus ring to bring the internal screen into focus, while the objective housing provides focus for distance to target. There’s generous eye relief of 100mm but if your shooting eye is as poor as mine you’ll loose as much as 43mm of it because the ring has to turn out a long way to make much difference.

The image you see is round like a daytime scope, not rectangular like a TV screen, which just seems a bit more normal if you’re not used to other thermals.

The thermal image in the TS34, which has a 384×288 pixel sensor and a display of 800×800 pixels, is more than good enough for most hunting. It was rare that I couldn’t immediately tell what kind of animal I was looking at from a good 400m away, even wombats and pigs, and there’s was never a hint of doubt at the ranges I typical shoot from — out to around 150m.

That range is dictated more by the calibre than the scope, too: I have taken to the 350 Legend as my preferred calibre for shooting with a thermal because it hits really hard within that distance, and it has very mild recoil so I can quickly see the effect of my shot without risking losing a wounded animal. But I digress.

The TS34-45 is the largest in the series with a 45mm objective lens. As such it has higher base magnification at 6.5x (with up to 8x digital zoom) and a longer detection range (claimed as about 3000m on deer-size targets but I wasn’t able to verify it) but a narrower field of view of only about 4.4 degrees.

If you’re hunting open paddocks at longer ranges, this is ideal. If you’re hunting at closer ranges, a smaller model will give you the wider view that will prove much more useful. In my situation where my shots are normal fairly close, my preference is always for the wider field of view.

The display offers a heap of colour settings: black hot, white hot, sky (a more contrasting white hot), red hot, two fusions, two iron reds, and edge. They all have their uses but it also takes time to scroll through them all and I’d be content with fewer. (The specs don’t list as many colours as were in the scope in tested.)

The image is very adjustable in terms of brightness and contrast. Displays scenes are forest, city and rain, which offer different pre-set definition.

The Pard has wi-fi; will display picture in picture; will record photos at 1536×1536 pixels and video at 576×576 pixels; will record audio; and can be set to auto-record, auto-off etc. There is no shortage of functions or features.

It runs on a single 18650 battery which is housed horizontally in the left and right turrets of the scope. I usually got about three hours from a good 3.7V battery but battery life is a moot point because you can just carries spares. This solution is much better than built-in batteries or expensive disposable CR123 batteries.

With rings, the Pard scope weighs only about 500g so it does not add much heft to your rifle.

Its IP67 protection rating means it’s going to remain immune from dust and rain, or even brief submersion. The warranty is three years.

The price of $4999 for this top-line model with rangefinder is very tempting — it’s a lot of thermal riflescope at the five grand mark and it functions exactly as it is meant to.

More than that, it does everything the majority of us need a thermal riflescope to do, and it does it with simplicity. That rates a big thumbs up.

SPECIFICATIONS