SIG SAUER ECHO 1 Thermal Reflex Sight – Day 1

This Echo 1 Thermal Sight (1x or 2x only) appears to be more a Camera type sight.

 

It is very cost effective at $1150 retail vs $3000 or much more for others. This sight is intended for night hunting wild boar, and predators such as coyote and the like. It is good for home defense in a nighttime situation provided you have good batteries.

Specifications:

Below, you are looking at an electronic daylight 50 yard image as I see it on the rifle. There are several image color settings, I chose this orange color as there is good separation of the target.

The bullseye is a hand warmer taped to the center of the target. Since it is warmer than the surrounding surface, the thermal image shows up as a bright spot in a field of black. The front lens ring can be turned either clockwise or counter to focus. Out of the box the sight worked but the PR 123 batteries that came with it were depleted after 30  minutes.

I bought 2 pair of new batteries and they work fine. I had the sight on constantly for 1.5 hours and still left me with 82% of the battery life. You must read the manual to operate this sight correctly.

You can choose a reticle style from a simple cross to an open plex, square dot, no reticle and a user reticle. I like the simple cross. Below image captured at 25 yards.

I found the directions very readable. To the left of the screen is a joystick which operates the sight. Below is 25 yard and 50 yard shots with my AR-15 223. Two shots in the hand warmer and one in the tape were my final shots for that test.

Any rifle with mil-spec Picatinny rail will serve for mounting. The image capture can be 5, 15 or 30 seconds of video.

In nighttime the joystick is tactile (you can feel it) to push it to turn on. I had trouble focusing my eyes so I will experiment with distance from the screen to my eyes.

So far so good. Familiarity helps. Next is nighttime images. This sight can also be used off the rifle as a night camera to capture thermal images.

© 2018

 

 

 

This entry was posted in Optics and Laser Rangefinders by Ed Hale. Bookmark the permalink.

About Ed Hale

I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.