Thank you for joining us on this Friday for some more Night Chenanigans. We looked at the new Penumbra VCSEL laser by AMMJ Detroit. Well today we look at an old military grade thermal by NVEC. The MX-2 Miniature Thermal Scope is an interesting device. So let's take a closer look.
The MX-2 is called the Miniature Thermal Scope. It does not look that small but this came out around the same time as the Raytheon PAS-13 which was like mounting a tuna fish to your rifle. The MX-2 looks like it is folded in on itself, sort of like a periscope. Sop the objective lens is not inline with the eyepiece. Below you can see the controls are to the right of the eyepiece.
The rotating switch is the power and mode selector.. Rotating it to ON turns it on and is for handheld use. WS is for weapon sight and ZERO is for adjusting the weapon sight reticle. Then the rest of the buttons are pretty straight forward. When the MX-2 is set to WS, the shutter for NUC is set to manual. Whereas in handheld mode it is automatic.
The MX-2 is powered by six AA batteries held in a caddy. The MX-2 kit comes with two howe3ver I had to buy the accessory kit off eBay. I bought this unit from Michael Newton and it came with a 3D printed battery caddy. It requires 9v to run but it also has an auxillary power port on the side for running the MX-2 on a military battery or 24v power in a vehicle.
One thing that is annoying is getting the battery pack out of the MX-2. I have to use a flat head screw driver to pry it out.
As mentioned earlier, the MX-2 is a weapon sight. It has a reticle for the M16, M249 and an M136 AT4. Like many military reticles it doubles as a ranging tool.
In order to weapon mount the MX-2 you need the weapon mount kit. Sadly it was not part of the accessories kit that I bought. However looking at the photo below, it looks like an ARMS Swan lever mount. It happens to be the same size as the ones used on SureFire Millennium weapon lights, which I hapen to have a spare one in my various parts bins.
So the mount is attached where the hand strap is. Which means you orient the MX-2 sideways. It is very ridiculous looking. due to the offset nature.
It looks like I stuck a Hi-8 video camera to the top of my rifle.
What is even more ridiculous is the AT4 with MX-2.
The MX-2 has an interesting feature and that is a detachable eyepiece. The accessory kit comes with two cables. One is a power cable and the other is an extension cable for the detachable eyeiece for wired remote viewing.
This is designed for setting up the MX-2 and not having to be behind it but youc an remotely view what it sees with the tethered eyepiece.
In the manual is mention of a helmet mount for the eyepiece. It is basicaly a magic arm ram mount atttached to a Rhino mount. The eyepiece has a 1/4-20 tripod hole but it is oriented at the top.
But if you look above, they also mention an afocla magnifier. Lucky for me I have a NIVISYS 3x afocal magnifier that happens to work and thread into the objective lens.
Here is a video sample looking at the 530 yard shed.
Final Thoughts On The MX-2
I got the MX-2 for under $1k which is not bad for antiquated military grade thermal. But it is not great thermal. There are 256 and 384 sensors that out perform this out dated sensor. It is no longer "miniature" and while it is nice that it runs on AA batteries, it requires 6 of them. My Elcan MRTB, which I bought off Michael Newton as well, runs off of 4 AA batteries, has more base magnification for looking at things further and it cost a little bit more than the MX-2. But the MX-2 is a fine unit otherwise. I wouldnt mind lending it out to friends to use on a hunt. It is just bulky.
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