Every scope a brand makes, at a glance.
See what sets a brand's scopes apart, what you get as the price climbs, and which one is right for your hunt.
Pulsar
A Lithuanian manufacturer that builds the whole scope in Europe around French Lynred sensors. The premium buys build and provenance, not extra sensitivity.
Thermion 2
Flagship riflescope
Thermion Duo
Thermal + day dual sensor
Trail 3
Wide view, Full-HD
Talion
Lightweight value
Pulsar — all 18 scopes, line by line
What Pulsar builds on
No other brand on our board sells a scope on Pulsar's sensors — its Lynred sensors appear nowhere else.
18 names, 11 pictures, 4 packages
Pulsar builds its own sensors (Lynred, France) and hides them in the model code. The letters are the sensor — its resolution and its sensitivity. The number is just the lens in millimetres. The line — Thermion 2, Trail 3, Talion — is the body and the screen. Learn the letters and the lineup stops being a wall of near-identical names.
The letters are the sensor. The number is the lens. The model code hides the sensor: XL is a 1280-class 1024×768, XP a sensitive 17-micron 640 (25 mK), XG a newer 12-micron 640 that identifies farther but reads noisier (40 mK), XQ a 384. The number is the lens in mm. So the XP50 PRO and the XG50 are both '640' — but the XP is the more sensitive core, and it costs $1,200 less.
Which dollar buys picture, which buys packaging
Two kinds of price step hide in a lineup. Build steps buy detail at distance: a bigger sensor, a longer lens. Package steps buy polish, not detail: a sharper screen, a rangefinder, a different body. Worth knowing which one a price jump is before you pay it.
Each step holds the rest constant. The rangefinder is a clean +$200; a tube body over the compact Talion runs about +$500; the Duo's second day-vision channel adds ~$1,200. The odd one out is sensor sensitivity: Pulsar's more sensitive 640 core is usually the cheaper buy — the 25 mK XP50 PRO undercuts the 40 mK XG50 by $1,200. Sensitivity lives in the letters, not the price.
Same '640'. Different sensor. The cheaper one is sharper.
Both are Pulsar 640s at 50 mm — but the letters hide two different cores. The XP is the sensitive 17-micron sensor (25 mK); the XG is the newer 12-micron one that identifies farther but reads noisier (40 mK). The sensitive one costs $1,200 less.
Who you're actually buying from
Pulsar is the opposite of a rebadge house: parent Yukon Group builds the whole scope in Europe around a French Lynred sensor, so there is no cheaper twin to cross-shop. You're paying for build, controls, and a non-Chinese supply chain — not extra sensitivity; the sensor's native figure trails the InfiRay cores in cheaper scopes.
Strengths
- The most polished scopes in the category to actually use — clean menus, solid controls, and the Thermion's 30mm-ring body that mounts like a regular day scope.
- Built in Europe around French Lynred sensors — the go-to line if you want to avoid Chinese-sourced cores.
- One of the few brands that publishes the sensor's native sensitivity next to the software-tuned figure, and a 5-year transferable US warranty serviced from Texas.
Cautions
- You pay the European premium — a $1,999 Talion is a 384-class scope at a price where InfiRay-core brands sell 640s.
- The headline sensitivity (NETD) figure is the software-tuned number, even on Pulsar's own spec sheet; the native figure runs higher. We score on the native one.
- The Thermion body buyers love also runs heavy next to compact competitors — check the weight line before you hang it on a light rifle.
What each upgrade costs in the Pulsar lineup
Every clean single-feature step inside Pulsar's own catalog — a bigger sensor, a longer lens, a rangefinder. Each dot is a pair where only that one thing changed.
Upgrade
Pulsar: At equal clearance price, the 640/17µm outscores the 384 by +11 image points — a free resolution jump.
Pulsar: Same $5,499, same everything else: the 17µm sensor outscores the 12µm 'premium' tier — the bigger pixels win at equal price.
Pulsar: The 384 → 640 step costs +$1,200 in the Trail 3 — six times the Talion price for the identical sensor jump.
Pulsar: 384 → 640 for +$200 in the Talion — Pulsar's cheapest resolution jump.
Pulsar: The clearance-priced Thermion 2 XP50 Pro outscores the $1,400-pricier Trail 3 XR50 on raw image — the premium buys a rangefinder and a newer platform, not a better picture.
Pulsar: Identical 640/12µm sensor and image score — the Thermion 2 XG50 costs ~$1,800 more for the tube body and a 50mm lens. The picture is the same.
Pulsar: +$500 Talion → Thermion 2 (same 384 sensor and 35mm lens) buys the AMOLED HD screen and the tube body — Pulsar's cleanest pay-for-the-screen step.
Pulsar: 50 → 60mm on the 1280 flagship — both top out at the same image, so the +$1,499 buys a longer identify distance, not a sharper picture.
Lines run from the flagship at the top down to the entry models, and within each line the priciest sits first. Prices are current street prices.
Who sells Pulsar
15 stores list Pulsar scopes today, and their prices differ — on a typical Pulsar scope the cheapest store is about $947 below the most expensive. Each scope’s own page lists its stores with the current price, shipping, and return terms. EuroOptic and Scopelist share one owner, so they count as one store.