At the Vector Optics booth at SHOT show, I got hands-on with an Owlset HEIM ES X-NANO mini thermal pistol sight. This claims to be the world’s smallest pistol-mountable thermal optic. Holosun has a similarly sized optic display but that actually comes in two parts, with a camera section mounted like a pistol light. This Owlset is a self-contained unit, with the lens in its front. It utilizes Vector Optics VOD footprint, which is a variant of the AimPoint ACRO. Vector Optics offers MOS, RMR, and Picatinny adapter plates.
The MSRP was tentatively targeted to be under $600, but with US tarrifs, that’s anybody’s guess at this point? But it’s already available in Asia and set to be released in Q1 here in the US.
XVision specializes in digital optics. At SHOT Show 2025 I got a chance to see their Flex series of compact thermal scanners and sights. The Flex2 won Outdoor Life’s “Best Thermal Optic” award because of its high resolution and compact size. These thermals ran from $2500-$3000 MRP, but what caught my eye was their Shadow 100 night vision scanner because it has an MSRP of $149.
Athlon Optics released a slew of new products at SHOT Show 2025, but one of the most exciting is a budget-priced thermal scope, the Cronos ATS Pro 25p. This high-performance thermal scope will have a retail price of around $699 with a 1024×768 OLED HD display to provide a sharp, high contrast view with vivid color.
As Dustin said, Athlon has been offering shooters great value, and with these updates, even more so. I look forward to trying out all of these new products in the coming year.
Discovery Optics is known for making high-quality optics for ridiculously affordable prices. But what I discovered at their SHOT Show 2025 booth was something even more surprising than a new scope, it was a prototype of a budget thermal scanner.
It was closer to a pre-production model than a rough prototype. The body was milled aluminium and the controls and displays were well thought out. The unit was about the size of an EOTech holographic sight. It has a QD Picatinny base that mates with an included handle.
Its primary use is as a handheld thermal scanning camera to look for living creatures such as game or search-and-rescue. Because of its base, it could be mounted onto a rifle rail and has been recoil-rated to .308 and higher. There was a high-resolution and a cheaper low-resolution version.
I have very little experience with thermal optics because they’re so damn expensive. But what I do know is that cheap thermal scopes are pretty much a waste of time. I stopped by the iAiming booth because it was literally across the isle after my visit to Athlon and it was well worth my effort.
iAiming is an Australian based company with US sales offices in Texas. The showed me their newest scope, the iA612 which MSRP’s for $5799 with a street price closer to $5500. One of the nice things about SHOT Show is getting hands on with products I in no way can hope to afford.
The ia-612 has a digital zoom from 2.4x-19.2x and a digital viewfinder with 1024×768 resolution. It offers the user the ability to range find and to choose one of 6 different reticle types. It has built-in WiFi which allows you to broadcast the scope’s view a phone App so your friends can see real time scope views and potentially spot for you.
The newest feature that iAming was showcasing with the ia-612 is an automatic 1-shot zero feature. When you set it up on the onboard menu, the self-zero feature detects the heat signature that a bullet leaves on a paper target. The scope will automatically re-zero the reticle to that hole and Bobs your uncle, you’re zero’d out. That’s something I’d like to test out myself.
Short Elon Musk randomly gifting 1000 shares of Tesla to Twitter users with “moon” and “dog”in their handle, it’s not likely I’ll get a chance to test one myself. There is hope that iAiming might send me an evaluation model but we’ll see.
