Thermal optics take shooting and hunting to an entirely new level. They work day or night, and they’re a ton of fun. Armasight offers an entire product line of night vision and thermal devices, designed and built in the USA. I’ve spent the last two months with their Jockey 640 clip-on thermal sight, using it in both day and night conditions. Let’s take a serious look at it.

First things first...Armasight designs and builds their optics in their Tempe, Arizona facility. American made optics might be more expensive than their imported counterparts, but the quality is evident. These optics are robust and backed by a full three-year extended warranty with product registration. I remember a time when anything thermal capable was colossal, expensive, and very delicate. The Armasight team has produced a line of thermal optics that are durable enough for regular field use at a price point that’s obtainable.

Armasight sent me their Jockey 640 clip-on thermal sight for testing. Over the last two months I’ve put it to use while  shooting, hunting, scanning for animals, and wandering around the house harassing my dog. The box includes the optic, a carrying case, four different eye cup/sight adapters, the manual, a USB-C cable, a sight-in target, and a couple of batteries. The Jockey 640 runs on two CR123A batteries with an advertised run-time of four hours. I found the four-hour estimate pretty accurate, and plenty long enough for range sessions or coyote hunts.

The Jockey 640 can clip onto a standard Picatinny rail in front of any LPVO optic or it can be used handheld. It pairs best with an LPVO with a true 1x magnification setting, but you can get away with 2x if that’s what you have mounted on your rifle. It comes factory-equipped with a quick detach Picatinny mount made by American Defense.

Your rifle will need enough rail space in front of your scope to mount the clip-on, but any extended Picatinny rail should work fine. I used the Jockey 640 mounted in front of the Winchester Supreme 1-4x LPVO on my SBR. The Jockey weighs in at .88 pounds and didn’t disturb the rifle’s handling characteristics any noticeable amount.

The user interface with the Jockey 640 is pretty simple and intuitive. It only has three buttons, and the menus are operated by long or short presses on the various buttons. After a few minutes fiddling with it with the manual handy, I had the hang of it. The internal recording option is also simple. I was able to record videos and take still photos with the optic within a half-hour of taking it out of the box. The manual is well-written, offers some great tips on use, and zeroing, and is worth spending some time reading through.

The Jockey 640 has a 4X optical zoom. Focus for the image is accomplished by rotating a ring on the front of the optic. In testing, I found this combination gives a reasonably accurate shooting range of about 200 yards on a torso-sized target.

The image quality is very good, but out past 200 yards the target detail starts to get lost in the heat signature. For just doing observation, though, I could see deer moving through the brush at 500 yards. I figure that if I can see a deer at that distance, I could see a dude at that distance. The Jockey 640 would have a solid place in a rural security plan.

The included zeroing target is designed to be detected through the device. I admit, I didn’t use this target and didn’t find it necessary. When I got out on the range, the steel plates were in the sun and warmer than the ambient air temp. I could easily see the steel plates and opted to zero on a half-size IPSC plate at 100 yards. Once I went through the alignment setup in the thermal device, I was able to bracket the plate with the Winchester Supreme’s reticle, and zeroing was simple.

There are several menu settings that make alignment between the thermal and the LPVO easier, and I suggest having the manual handy for this process. Shooting from a rest, I ended with a 2-inch group at 100 yards on top of a spray-painted dot. At 50 yards, I was able to consistently shoot 2-inch groups on a 4-inch round plate. That’s plenty accurate enough for chasing coyotes, hogs, prairie dogs, and other game that’s legal to hunt in your area.

Downloading the video and photos is simple. Just plug it into your computer with the included cable, turn the optic on, and pull the photos over like you would from any other external drive. You don’t need any special software. The Jockey 640 has enough internal storage for four hours worth of video.

The image is displayed on a screen inside of the optic with plenty of color palette options. I found the white-represents-hot setting the easiest on the eye, with sepia also being comfortable. There’s a color option also, but that got visually "busy "to look at while scanning in the field. The refresh rate is fast and smooth with a 60Hz frame rate, thanks to the ArmaCORE 640 thermal core.

I took the Jockey 640 on several coyote hunts. On one, I sat in a deer stand with my coyote call placed in a field 130 yards out. Shortly after setting the call out, I had 13 mule deer enter the field and wander around at about 100 yards. I detached the Jockey from the rifle and watched them through the thermal device for a while. I was able to easily record video and capture some still photos of them. Being able to quick-detach the optic and use it as a handheld is a real plus.

Shooting through the Jockey 640 at night is pretty darn fun. Several hours past sunset, I taped chemical hand-warmers to steel plates at 50, 100, and 200 yards. I had a good chuckle when I was putting them up. The first one I covered with tape...then took the tape off so I could ‘see’ the handwarmer. Of course, the thermal will detect heat through the tape just fine, and it didn’t matter at all.

The 50- and 100-yard hand warmers were easy to pick up and shoot. The 200-yard warmer was faint but given that the size is comparable to a prairie dog torso, I was surprised I could see it at all. Ambient air temp was about 34F, and I’m sure the cool temps helped see the handwarmer at longer range.

After the handwarmers were busted up by a few shots, the warm spot on the steel was still visible for another 10 minutes or so. I was able to pick up a couple of rabbits, and even a chipmunk at about 40 yards over the evening. I’ve been on several downed deer and elk over the years that would’ve been a lot easier to find in the dark with the Jockey 640.

Armasight’s Jockey 640 is an investment, for sure. The MSRP is $3,499 (about $3,350 retail). For the money, that gets you a quality US-made thermal device, that’s durable and simple to use, with a great warranty. If you’re looking to get into thermal optics, the Jockey 640 is an exceptional choice. For a full list of specs, check them out at www.shop.armasight.com 

— Luke Causey'