Episode 15
Anti-Gunners Don’t Understand Predator Hunting | #15 Rix Optics
John and Kaylee sit down with Ryan from Rix Optics for a conversation that runs in two directions: the politics squeezing hunters and the technology changing how they hunt at night. Rix is a brand under the parent company Visor, which used to be a US distributor for a thermal and night vision manufacturer. The team set that aside to build its own line, launching thermal binoculars about two years ago as its first product and now adding digital daytime night vision and two thermal scopes, the Leap series L3 and L6. Ryan's pitch for the scopes centers on what he calls the world's first continuous optical zoom, which magnifies the whole image without the resolution loss that comes from digital zoom on most thermals.
Most of the episode is about why hunting is under pressure and why that matters even to people who don't hunt. Kaylee walks through the proposed lead ammo ban on BLM and public land from the Biden administration, arguing the science doesn't back up the claim and that the rule would hit not only hunters feeding their families but anyone who shoots or trains on that land. The group connects attacks on hunter education in schools, state trail-camera bans in Utah and Arizona, and broader gun restrictions, making the case that each step is a small encroachment people ignore until it reaches them. Ryan ties it to wildlife management: hog damage in Texas runs into the billions, invasive species like Florida's pythons and iguanas kill native wildlife, and predators overrun northern farms when no one hunts them. License and tag dollars, John notes, fund the lands and protect species.
On the product side, Ryan gets specific. The Leap scopes carry 384 and 640 sensors, picture-in-picture, eight reticles, six colors, four color palettes, recoil-activated video, run on swappable 18650 batteries, and hold an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating. Detection range runs to 2,600 yards on the 640 and 1,800 on the 384, weather depending. He pushes back on the biggest myth he hears, that buying a thermal turns a field into easy kills, with a plain reminder that thermal hunting is still hunting. He closes on his own son, who he plans to teach using the T20 digital daytime night vision scope linked to his phone so he can coach a shot in real time. Rix has a rangefinder coming by year's end and more optics by February, plus a dealer locator coming to the website.
Links
Questions this episode answers
What is Rix Optics, and how does it relate to its parent company Visor?
Rix Optics is a thermal and night vision brand built under the parent company Visor. Visor was previously a US distributor for a thermal and night vision manufacturer before the team set that aside to build its own Rix line.
What makes the Rix Leap series thermal scopes different from other thermals on the market?
The Leap series scopes use what Ryan calls the world's first continuous optical zoom, which magnifies the entire image without the resolution loss that comes from the digital zoom used on most thermal scopes.
What is the proposed lead ammo ban, and why does Gun Owners of America say the science doesn't back it?
It is a Biden administration proposal to ban lead ammunition on BLM and public land. Gun Owners of America (GOA) argues the science doesn't support the claim, and that the rule would hit not just hunters feeding their families but anyone who shoots or trains on that land.
How does limiting hunting connect to broader Second Amendment rights?
The episode argues that while the Second Amendment isn't about hunting, hunting is very much about the 2A. Attacks on hunter education, trail-camera bans, and an ammo ban are framed as small encroachments that lead to broader gun restrictions.
Why do hunters in one state often ignore problems like wild hogs or restrictions in another state?
The group makes the case that each restriction is a small encroachment people ignore until it reaches them, the same pattern behind feral hog damage, state trail-camera bans in Utah and Arizona, and broader gun limits.
What is the biggest myth people believe about hunting with thermal optics?
Ryan pushes back on the idea that buying a thermal turns a field into easy kills. His plain reminder is that thermal hunting is still hunting, since you still have to go out and find the animals.
What are the detection ranges and key specs of the Leap L3 and L6 scopes?
The Leap scopes carry 384 and 640 sensors, with detection range up to 2,600 yards on the 640 and 1,800 on the 384, weather depending. They add picture-in-picture, eight reticles, recoil-activated video, swappable 18650 batteries, and an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating.
Where can people buy Rix optics, and what new products are coming?
Rix is found at its website and on Instagram, with a dealer locator coming to the site. Ryan says a rangefinder is due by year's end and more optics by February.
Chapters
- 00:00 — Welcome and meet Ryan from Rix Optics
- 00:20 — What Rix makes: binos, scopes, night vision
- 00:56 — Who buys thermals and why hunt at night
- 01:20 — Attacks on hunters and hunter education
- 02:48 — Lead vs copper ammo and a 530-pound pig
- 03:48 — The lead ammo ban on public land
- 05:43 — Trail cam bans and ethical hunting
- 08:08 — Licenses fund conservation and herd control
- 08:50 — Invasive species: hogs, pythons, iguanas
- 11:51 — Hunting culture, demonization, the Second Amendment
- 16:06 — The Leap series and continuous optical zoom
- 19:28 — Specs: recoil video, IP67, detection range
- 20:47 — Thermal myths: it's still hunting
- 24:53 — Teaching his son with the T20 scope
- 29:10 — Where to find Rix and what's coming next
About the guest
Ryan represents Rix Optics, a thermal and night vision brand under the parent company Visor. Visor was previously one of the US distributors for a thermal and night vision manufacturer before the team shifted focus to building the Rix brand. Rix launched its thermal binoculars about two years ago as its first product and has since added digital daytime night vision and the Leap series thermal scopes (L3 and L6). Ryan is from Texas and hunts with his kids. Rix can be found at its website and on Instagram.
Key quotes
"It's for the guys that want to go out, shoot things at night." — Ryan
"GOA has published several things on this, but we actually found that the science just doesn't back up their claim." — Kaylee
"while the second amendment is not about hunting, hunting is very much about the second Amendment." — Kaylee
"if you budge an inch, they're gonna take a mile." — John
"you'll find out that thermal hunting is still hunting. It's not just shooting. You got to go out and find them." — Ryan
"if you're staying the same and not growing, you're, you're sinking." — Ryan
Transcript
Welcome to Gun Owners of America State of the second podcast.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Kayleigh.
Speaker B:And I'm John.
Speaker B:And today we're talking with Ryan from Rick's Optics.
Speaker B:Ryan, how are you today?
Speaker C:What's going on, guys?
Speaker C:I'm doing good.
Speaker A:It's going good.
Speaker A:Thanks for coming on.
Speaker C:Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker B:It's a beautiful day here in Wichita.
Speaker B:So can you tell us a little bit about your company and what you all do?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So Rick's is a brand underneath Visor, and Visor was one of the US Distributors for Infrast.
Speaker C:So we had a lot of thermal handheld monoculars, some night vision, but we're kind of putting that aside and focusing on our new brand, Rix.
Speaker C:So we've launched our thermal binos about two years ago.
Speaker C:That was our first product.
Speaker C:And now we just introduced our new digital daytime night vision.
Speaker C:And our two thermal scopes, the Leap series, the L3 and L6, they are the world's first and only continuous zoom, magnification, thermal.
Speaker B:Now, for those optics, what is your main clientele, and what's the benefit of having a thermal versus having a traditional scope?
Speaker C:It's for the guys that want to go out, shoot things at night.
Speaker C:So predators, hogs, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, things like that, do some predator control, wildlife management type stuff.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So obviously you're very big and involved in the hunting world and with hunting culture.
Speaker A:We've seen a lot of attacks recently on hunters from the Biden administration.
Speaker A:How is that affecting you all,.
Speaker C:You know?
Speaker C:Well, I hunt with my kid, so I mean, it's.
Speaker C:With their.
Speaker C:With them taking away.
Speaker C:It seems like they're taking away hunter's education and limiting their things that we can do or that the kids have access to.
Speaker C:To do when it comes to hunting and things like that.
Speaker C:So, I mean, you know, I grew up hunting.
Speaker C:I want to teach my kids how to hunt.
Speaker C:They go with me.
Speaker C:So watching them take this kind of stuff away, you know, it can go back to like, five different conspiracy theories to me on why they're changing this thing.
Speaker C:But I. I got no idea why.
Speaker C:Why they're doing it.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:I feel like there's something bigger fixing to happen.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, hunting is a big tradition with most families, and passing that.
Speaker B:That tradition down is a big, you know, rite of passage for most families, from a father to a son or a father to a daughter or a mother.
Speaker B:All the above.
Speaker B:So to.
Speaker B:To go blatantly attack that tradition and a country that we, you know, we started from hunting and gathering and getting stuff to going after it.
Speaker B:Now, I know we.
Speaker B:Kaylee has talked and touched on the lead ammo ban.
Speaker B:I mean, for, for hunting purposes, you're using mostly for you.
Speaker B:Are you using mostly copper projectiles?
Speaker B:Are you using a mix of that lead and copper?
Speaker C:So I have a mix of, you know, it depends on what caliber I'm shooting.
Speaker C:But you know, I did switch over to solid copper a few years ago, but just I used it to try it out, to see what it, what it was.
Speaker C:And you know, they shoot pretty straight.
Speaker C:They, you know, they hold, they retain most of their weight.
Speaker C:So I started using them for hogs really, just because, you know, whether you're deer hunting or hog hunting, sometimes there's a giant pig that steps out and you know, the first, the first time hunting with those rounds, it was a 530 pound pig that stepped out.
Speaker C:You know, it didn't even go all the way through that animal, but we got the slug and you know, it held 99% of its weight.
Speaker C:You know, I'm not familiar with what they're doing with changing all this, all the calibers to solid copper only, but I know that that's happened in the past.
Speaker C:And so I think they're just continuing it on.
Speaker A:Yeah, so the, the lead ammo ban proposal from the Biden administration and this is something that gets brought up every few years.
Speaker A:And basically it is limiting what is allowed on BLM land or public land as far as hunting.
Speaker A:And so what you have is a lot of people who maybe that's all of the ammo that they own, or maybe it's a cost prohibitive reason, or maybe it's just a lack of education, but they're wanting to take away your right to in many cases feed your family because they find it environmentally harmful.
Speaker A:And GOA has published several things on this, but we actually found that the science just doesn't back up their claim.
Speaker A:But even beyond hunting, if you have a lead ammo ban on public land, a lot of people who use that just for shooting sports and going out and training, they're not going to have access to that.
Speaker A:And so there's so many applications and levels on why this is important from that perspective.
Speaker A:And I don't think that a lot of hunters, I mean even you yourself said that you weren't familiar with it.
Speaker A:And so it's so critical that the education happens because they're so sneaky in their attacks and they are Counting on us not paying attention.
Speaker A:And it's exactly why they have recently attacked hunter education in schools too, is they're hoping that we as a populace are just not paying attention.
Speaker C:I think that goes back to anything that they do or try to change.
Speaker C:I mean, it's trying to sneak something in, but it's not us having to educate ourselves.
Speaker C:It's having them uneducated on it.
Speaker C:Number one, like you said, what science is backing it up on what kind of lead is doing to the environment out there.
Speaker C:I mean, we're talking about tiny little bitty pieces of lead that's been hunted with for hundreds of years right now, you know, and you know, just talking about not only them doing that, but I know recently, I don't know exactly when, but I know like Utah banned trail cameras on public land.
Speaker C:And then I think Arizona followed in suit Colorado didn't they, for like elk hunting and stuff like that.
Speaker C:But I think it's just uneducated people up in charge that have no idea of what's actually going on and trying to figure out how to make up a new rule.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, going after trail cams, is it that it was ridiculous because they did pass it.
Speaker B:I believe in Arizona, and I know a lot of my hunter buddies were up in arms about it because a trail cam all essentially do is it's showing you what game is in the area.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So you can pick out what game you want to hunt ethically.
Speaker B:And that's a big part of having, you know, a thermal scope.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:It's an ethical way to hunt at night, you know, the animals.
Speaker B:And we saw not too long ago, and specifically in Arizona, a gentleman did not have a thermal scope and he shot a donkey.
Speaker B:And if you don't know that's not allowed because he thought it was.
Speaker B:He thought it was a coyote, you know, and so a big part of you, what you guys do, even though you know thermals there was part of ethical hunting.
Speaker A:What goes into educating people about your product and encouraging people to join the hunting tradition.
Speaker C:I think most people that is a hunter, I think they have a love for the animal about as much as they want to harvest that animal.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:Like, and I think when they're going back and banning trail cams and making it harder to hunt on wildlife managed lands or government managed lands, it kind of goes into what they're doing into our food industry, on the attack on the, the livestock industry.
Speaker C:And it's making it harder for you to go out and get this Animal that grew up in the wild, you know, and keep that tradition that's going on, you know, because prior to factories and mass produced livestock and, and things like that, that was how everyone survived was deer, elk, moose, buffalo, things like that.
Speaker B:What a lot of people don't understand is like the hunting tradition is there, but it's also there because you pay for your license, right?
Speaker B:You pay for your tags, you pay for it.
Speaker B:That money goes back into those publicly funded lands, into protecting species.
Speaker B:It's controlling the herd, it's controlling the population of this wildlife.
Speaker B:I mean, we see in states like Texas and other states, the wild hog population is huge.
Speaker B:The amount of damage that those animals do, right, to crops, to livestock, to even just the area.
Speaker B:I mean, we talk about, we touched on wild hogs, but talk about Florida, you know, the iguana population is ridiculous, which is a non native species.
Speaker B:The python population in the Everglades is killing native species.
Speaker C:Well, Florida is just crazy.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:I mean that's, they got, I think they got more invasive species than anybody else.
Speaker B:Well, I can't talk.
Speaker B:I mean, it's the sun.
Speaker B:I think the sun kind of fries their brains and they bring whatever they want.
Speaker C:It's the sun lotion, who knows?
Speaker B:But those, those.
Speaker C:I love Florida though.
Speaker B:We all.
Speaker B:I don't, I love Florida too.
Speaker B:I have no room to talk.
Speaker B:I live in Arizona, so the, the sun fries my brain most of the time.
Speaker B:But those non native species and things like that, which there are no limits and we're talking about, you know, things that hurt, you know, it's ethical, ethical hunting to get rid of.
Speaker C:Speaking of hogs in Texas recently, I think it was a couple years ago, they, they changed the rules to where you don't even need a license to go kill pigs.
Speaker C:You can come in from Arizona as a non resident and shoot as many pigs as you want.
Speaker C:Daytime, nighttime machine guns from a truck, from a four wheeler, it don't matter.
Speaker C:As long as you have rights to that property or whatever it is that you're hunting on, you can kill as many as you want because it's billions of dollars of damage.
Speaker B:And that's, that's something that affects, I mean, a lot of people won't see it that way.
Speaker B:It doesn't, they don't see it affect them personally.
Speaker B:You know, we don't have wild hogs in Arizona.
Speaker B:We have javelina.
Speaker B:And the javelina aren't as bad.
Speaker B:We don't have that kind of thing.
Speaker B:But it affects you in ways you don't realize because the pigs will get in and destroy crops and they'll attack livestock and that will affect you.
Speaker B:In your pocketbook we talk about inflation and things like that.
Speaker B:We've touched on the proposed thousand percent tax on guns and things like that.
Speaker B:Just it, you don't know it affects you until you actually look into it.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Well, it's like up here in Kansas, there's no hogs up here, so what problem are they causing to people up here?
Speaker C:They don't know about it.
Speaker C:You know, it's, it's, it's, it's just a way people look at life.
Speaker C:A lot of times, like if it doesn't bother me, it's not bothering anybody.
Speaker C:Type, type, type mindset, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think a lot of, a lot of that is just a lack of understanding of the ecosystem of how really everyone feeds off of each other.
Speaker A:I think a really good example of that is how culture and how hunting culture is represented.
Speaker A:Whether that is in Hollywood on TV shows, or quite frankly from state to state where you have a high population of hunters versus a state where you have a low population of hunters.
Speaker A:How it is demonized and how people don't understand that there is mass respect for the animal and how it is always a one shot, one kill like that is what everyone is going for.
Speaker A:No one wants to see an animal suffer.
Speaker A:And so I think there's a huge cultural proponent that is a battle that we're facing within not only the hunting community, but the second Amendment community.
Speaker A:Because while the second amendment is not about hunting, hunting is very much about the second Amendment.
Speaker A:And so it does require protection when it comes to hunting with a firearm.
Speaker A:Being allowed to hunt with a suppressor, being able to have thermals and to be able to do it in an ethical way is so vital to protecting that tradition and also fighting against culture war.
Speaker B:Well, and you touched on it, you said, we're here in Kansas, they don't see the effect of hogs.
Speaker B:Just like our rights, the hunters don't see the effect on an assault weapons ban because most of them don't use, they use more of a traditional bolt action or a shotgun.
Speaker B:They don't see that until it does affect them until it comes down to you don't get that right anymore.
Speaker B:And that's what people need to understand is that even though it may not affect you at that time, it's still your right to keep and bear arms.
Speaker B:And to go after an assault weapons ban, which from, from your side of the industry would affect Your business.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:You know, it's not knowing or letting it happen or, you know, budging that inch.
Speaker B:They, if you budge an inch, they're gonna take a mile.
Speaker B:And we've seen that time and time again.
Speaker B:And we've seen it with the first assault weapons ban.
Speaker B:Now we're seeing this with those, the, the proposed hunter education thing which has now been pulled back.
Speaker B:We've seen it now with the lead ammo band, the thousand percent tax, the you keep.
Speaker B:There's so many things the bump stock pistol, braces like those don't affect.
Speaker B:If I live somewhere and I don't need a brace pistol, I have a 16 inch rifle.
Speaker B:That doesn't affect me.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:But it does because if they take one thing, they're going to try to go after others.
Speaker C:So one step at a time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it's so unfortunate that it happens that way, but it is a targeted attack and they're good at the game that they're playing.
Speaker A:They're playing at the state level.
Speaker A:When you're looking at New Mexico with the governor saying, you know what?
Speaker A:You can't carry a firearm open or concealed.
Speaker A:We've seen it in California, we've seen it in New York, we've seen it in all of these places where they're demonizing a firearm.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:The firearm is always the issue, it's not the criminal.
Speaker A:And in so many ways I think you're seeing a demonization of hunting culture to a far less extreme.
Speaker A:But it is something that we've been seeing across the country.
Speaker A:And that's why I think that they're so terrified of the hunting programs in schools continuing.
Speaker A:That's why they're terrified of having firearm safety courses.
Speaker A:It's because it's an on ramp to understanding the second Amendment.
Speaker A:It's an on ramp to understanding that this is a right that is constitutionally protected and not government granted.
Speaker A:And it is an on ramp for.
Speaker A:Okay, well, I really enjoyed hunting.
Speaker A:Well, now I would like to go and practice.
Speaker A:And so now I'm, I'm target shooting.
Speaker A:And then you know what?
Speaker A:I think I'd like a pistol.
Speaker A:And so you get a pistol and then before you know it, you have a collection of firearms that you should be allowed to have.
Speaker A:And so it's this.
Speaker A:The fact that they're going after hunting I think is more indicative of the fact that they understand that this is an on ramp to people understanding their second amendment rights and utilizing those rights.
Speaker A:I'll get off my soapbox now.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, now we deep dived into That a little bit.
Speaker B:Let's talk a little bit about your new product and in the technology that's there because it's kind of cool and I've seen it, I looked at it.
Speaker B:I know our friend Sean Heron has it and has played with it and he has nothing but good things to say about it.
Speaker B:Can you kind of talk a little bit about that?
Speaker C:Yeah, man.
Speaker C:I mean it's, I mean it's, it's like I was saying earlier, it's got, its, the first, it's the world's first continuous optical zoom.
Speaker C:So it's got the optical zoom magnification feature.
Speaker C:No other scope has that right now, which was a big problem in the thermal community because as soon as you hit your digital zoom, you go to 2x, 4x 6x.
Speaker C:It cuts your, your image resolution in half every time, every time you push that button.
Speaker C:So some of them guys that are shooting coyotes say 200, 300, 400 yards, they want to zoom in a little bit, but as soon as you press that button, your image becomes pixelated and it's just not as clear as it is when it's all the way backed out.
Speaker C:But the base mag of, you know, two, three, three and a half, it's, it's, you know, you're trying to shoot something at 300 yards with a base mag of three and a half.
Speaker C:It's, it's a fairly difficult shot.
Speaker C:So with this one, it works on similar to what a, like a first focal plane would do.
Speaker C:So the whole image, the reticle, everything gets enlarged as, as one.
Speaker C:So everything moves at, you know, on a scale of one.
Speaker C:And you know, it can put your image, you know, it keeps that same resolution.
Speaker C:So whether using the 384 or the 640, you can bring it up from 2.8 base mag to an 8.4 and still keep that 640 clarity, you know.
Speaker C:And it's kind of hard to explain because it sounds like we're just putting a magnifier on like a TV screen and it's going to get blurry and you'll see all the pixels.
Speaker C:But really it's something that you got to see because it doesn't lose, you don't lose any, hardly any image clarity when you, when you're doing like that, you know.
Speaker C:And it's got all your other basic features that most high end thermals have.
Speaker C:So it's got the picture in picture you got eight different reticles, six different colors, you got your four different color palettes.
Speaker C: color, you know, they run off: Speaker C:So you can charge it up, have two or three in your pocket.
Speaker C:It starts to get dead.
Speaker C:You just open the latch, throw one in and that's your battery change.
Speaker C:So it's super easy, super quick.
Speaker C:You got three knobs.
Speaker C:So basically the turrets, because it's a traditional looking rifle scope, you got the three turrets, left, right and top, you know, that all have their own little function that they do.
Speaker C:But you're not fumbling with five different buttons in the middle of the night.
Speaker C:Or if you got gloves on, big thick gloves, you're up north, Pennsylvania, Michigan, whatever, you know, coyote hunting, it gets cold.
Speaker C:So wearing big gloves now, you don't have to cut the fingertip off or take your gloves off.
Speaker C:You know, when it's 20 degrees outside, 10 degrees or whatever, you know, they might even think that's warm.
Speaker C:But I'm from Texas, so 20s, 20 is cold.
Speaker B:That is cold.
Speaker C:But yeah, it's got the picture in picture.
Speaker C:Recoil activated video.
Speaker C:So it'll start recording 10 seconds before the shot.
Speaker C:Once it feels that recoil, it's not going to shut off after a second shot either.
Speaker C:So going to stay on until you turn it off, you know.
Speaker C:They're IP67, waterproof, dustproof rating.
Speaker C:So I mean they're pretty, they're pretty durable.
Speaker C:I mean you've felt one, right John.
Speaker C:So I mean it's pretty sturdy.
Speaker B:It's a really well built optic.
Speaker C:It's got that nice throw lever for your optical zoom.
Speaker C:One click to turn your recorder on.
Speaker C:I'm trying to think if I left anything else out, you know, what's the,.
Speaker B:What's the distance you can see it with it?
Speaker B:Because I, I think Sean said something ridiculous.
Speaker C:So the detection range, you know, and that's gonna, you know, pending weather, you in Arizona is probably gonna see a lot farther than, you know, somebody in a humid day in Georgia.
Speaker C: is: Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:That, that sounds like a lot for a thermal.
Speaker B:Is that like the best in the industry?
Speaker B:Is it top?
Speaker C:It's, it's not, I mean it's not the best, but it's, it's up there.
Speaker C:It's, it's definitely a contender to be a top performer, that's for sure.
Speaker A:So walk us through some of the myths that you hear from someone on just, just thermals in general because you know, Reddit's a crazy place and The Internet's a crazy place and a lot of people make a lot of fancy dancy claims.
Speaker A:So kind of walk us through some of those myths and how those play.
Speaker C:In a biggest myth.
Speaker C:Like when it comes to people hunting.
Speaker A:With thermals, just in general, I would.
Speaker C:Say your biggest myth is if you buy a thermal, you're gonna see a bunch of animals at night and you're gonna be able to kill something really easy, you know, because once you get one, you think you're going to be able to go out into a field and there's going to be 10 animals out there and five of them are coyotes, five of them are pigs.
Speaker C:And you're going to have to take your pick on which one you're going to shoot.
Speaker C:But once you get out there, you'll.
Speaker C:You'll find out that thermal hunting is still hunting.
Speaker C:It's not just shooting.
Speaker C:You got to go out and find them.
Speaker C:You know, they're not always going to be there.
Speaker C:That's, that's probably one of the biggest ones that I can think of.
Speaker B:Thermal has come a long way over the last.
Speaker B:Over the last, you know, what, 10 years?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Say, has the popularity increased too?
Speaker B:Is that why technology has or is it.
Speaker B:Has technology advanced and then we're just taking it and putting it in.
Speaker C:Popularity has increased a lot.
Speaker C:You know, there was some states that, that didn't have.
Speaker C:You weren't allowed to use thermals.
Speaker C:Now you are.
Speaker C:Some states had a season to where it was only November through March or January through March.
Speaker C:And now some of them are year round or multiple times throughout the year.
Speaker C:So it's.
Speaker C:The thermal world is changing a lot.
Speaker C:Like, it's, it's.
Speaker C:It's a new.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's a new.
Speaker C:It's a new thing.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's the new.
Speaker C:I don't know what you would call it.
Speaker C:I wouldn't say it's a fad because it's something that's going to be here for a while.
Speaker C:It's just a new hot thing that people are getting into, you know, to.
Speaker C:Because you're allowed to hunt predators and hogs and things like that in most places year round, like Texas.
Speaker C:I know we can hunt.
Speaker C:You can hunt them whenever you want, really.
Speaker C:So when it's out of deer season, which is, you know, October through January or February, but if I still want to hunt, you know, March through August or September or whatever, you know, I'm going on a dove hunt in September, but then I want to bring my thermal to, to do some nighttime Hunting for some pigs right before it comes deer season.
Speaker C:You know, like Stephen, Steven wanted to get rid of those pigs before deer season.
Speaker C:You know, so we had the opportunity to be able to do that.
Speaker B:Where are you seeing your customer base come from?
Speaker B:Is it hunting?
Speaker B:Is it more tactical?
Speaker B:Is there different applications that can be used with thermal as well?
Speaker C:It seems like it's definitely coming from the hunting industry, like I was saying, where it.
Speaker C:It's allowing people to have an extra opportunity to hunt while their target species, like some, some people may like hunting elk or deer over nighttime hunting, but they still enjoy nighttime hunting.
Speaker C:Some guys might not even care about deer, and they want to shoot coyotes and, and duck hunt.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:So it's, it's giving them another opportunity to be able to do something, but it's also allowing them to help farmers, you know, protect their property.
Speaker C:You know, coyotes and foxes, they, you know, up north they got a lot of cattle ranches, chicken coops, you know, that, that the fox and coyotes can wreck, wreak havoc.
Speaker C:You know, they may not have pigs up there, but they do have a huge population of predators that do do enough damage on their own, you know, and so if you're not.
Speaker C:If there's no hunters able to do that, you're just going to have an overrun population of, of predators because they have no predators.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:And it's.
Speaker C:For them up there, predators are like hogs down in Texas.
Speaker C:I don't, I don't think they're ever going to go away.
Speaker B:It's funny because I grew up in Ohio in a coyote in Ohio.
Speaker B:Is.
Speaker B:Is big, right?
Speaker B:They're kind of bigger because they're food source.
Speaker B:Now I live in Arizona.
Speaker B:Coyote in Arizona, it's like a Chihuahua.
Speaker B:Is that a little bit bigger?
Speaker B:They're, they're skinnier, they're smaller.
Speaker B:And it's very regional with the coyotes, but they do, they.
Speaker B:They wreak havoc on, on chicken farms.
Speaker B:They wreak havoc on cattle.
Speaker B:Sometimes they go after calves, they go.
Speaker C:After cattle, sheep, goats, I mean, whatever, whatever they got.
Speaker B:The technology has advanced so rapidly.
Speaker B:Where, where's the next big advancement with thermal technology are we seeing through walls?
Speaker C:I don't know if we'll ever see through walls.
Speaker C:I did see that those computers were seeing through walls with the WI fi.
Speaker C:Did y' all see that?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I don't know.
Speaker C:Something crazy might happen.
Speaker C:Who knows?
Speaker C:I don't think we'll see through walls.
Speaker C:It's, it's, you know what people don't Realize is it's, it's a digital optic.
Speaker C:Like it's a computer.
Speaker C:Like you're looking at a computer screen.
Speaker C:The internals of everything, it's a computer.
Speaker C:It's like your cell phone.
Speaker C: Where were we in, you know,: Speaker C:So now imagine, you know, the thermal, thermal world kind of kicked off like what, like five years ago, you know, now where are we gonna be in the next 10, you know what I mean?
Speaker C:Like, it's, it's if you're not making something new youw know, if you're staying the same and not growing, you're, you're sinking.
Speaker C:So everybody is gonna be on that track to what can we do?
Speaker C:How can we fix this?
Speaker C:How can we make this better?
Speaker C:How can we solve these problems?
Speaker C:You know, And I think it's going to get crazy, honestly, to where it's going to be like looking out and it's, you're looking through your thermal.
Speaker C:It's like you're looking at daytime and it's going to be crazy.
Speaker C:The picture clarity, I feel like the optical zoom and optical zoom magnification are fixing to take over because that was like the biggest and main problem to solve in the thermal world.
Speaker C:And you know, there's a few other optics out there that do have that type of, you know, an optical zoom magnification, But I think that type, better resolution, better sensors, and it's just going to be insane to see what it's, what it's going to do.
Speaker C:I mean, it's already been insane over the past five, 10 years of what we can do.
Speaker B:And that's what we'd like to see in the 2A community.
Speaker B:You know, the, the big thing we've seen over the last year, we have 9 million new gun owners.
Speaker B:That's a large, one of the largest increases in gun ownership in decades.
Speaker B:And to be able to share that passion for hunting and pass it on to your buddies and pass it on.
Speaker B:You know, that's what the second amendment community is all about, is going out, taking somebody to have a new experience, a new fun experience and try something that they would have never tried before.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And to be able to get into it at a price point like you guys have is just bringing more people into that side of the community.
Speaker B:So that way we have more people on our side to fight for our rights.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Well, I mean, like our, like you're talking about the, you know, the educating younger guys, you know, younger kids.
Speaker C:You know, my son, I'm going to give him one of the one of our T20s, it's the digital daytime night vision scope.
Speaker C:So he can run in the daytime.
Speaker C:It basically looks like you're like your phone screen inside there.
Speaker C:So I can link it to my phone with wi fi and I can basically see what he's aiming at or you know, give him instructions on where he needs to be aiming or holding that reticle, you know, and teaching him hunting through a different way versus, you know, the extra trial and error of you missed, you know, you should have moved it to the left.
Speaker C:You hit a little right.
Speaker C:You know, I can already coach him while he's looking through the optic itself, you know, and aiming his rifle.
Speaker B:As someone who has been there and done that with my father.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a lot more helpful and a lot less headaches.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But let's go ahead and wrap this up.
Speaker B:You know, Ryan, thank you for joining us and giving some some insight into the thermal optic world.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Where can people find you guys?
Speaker B:Social media website, all that other stuff and any new products that you want to kind of h or announce coming up.
Speaker C:We got a few products coming out here soon.
Speaker C:We will have a range finder by the end of the year is what I'm told and we should have a few more optics by February.
Speaker C:So we'll be announcing those soon.
Speaker C:But if you do want to find us, you know, ricks-envy.com and then look us up on our socials, we're going to have a dealer locator here soon on our website so you'll be able to find where to get these, you know, or you can reach out to us, you can find us on instagram @ricks ricksnv.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker B:And we want to thank you and your team for the optic that we just recently gave away with our with our hunting giveaway here.
Speaker B:It is much appreciated and it's a way to get more people involved in this side of the community.
Speaker C:Yeah, no, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker A:Thank you for watching this episode of State of the Second.
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Speaker A:You can also find us on social media at State of the Second with second spelled out.
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