Leupold made waves last year when it announced, and then expanded, its line of handheld thermal imagers. The LTO Tracker HD has been readily adopted by the hunting community, where it found success as both a scouting and game-recovery tool. What’s not to love about a compact, lightweight thermal imager that’s capable of displaying the heat signature of game, blood trails, and more – all at a price point that’s well below the budget-busting, military-grade thermals in the marketplace?
New for 2019 is the company’s upgraded LTO Tracker 2 HD, which delivers many of the same great features provided by the original Tracker HD, as well as some game-changing enhancements that hunters, shooters, and homeowners will want to see.
A thermal imager, in a nutshell, reads infrared light waves and displays them on its screen. Great for finding and recovering wild game, for sure, but that elk you just stuck an arrow in isn’t the only thing in your life that’s giving off an infrared signal. With a thermal sensor that can detect temperatures from -40°F to 572°F, the LTO-Tracker 2 HD’s list of potential uses is almost limitless.
Field Applications
The Tracker 2 HD serves as the next evolution of the Leupold thermal line and is designed to help you see through darkness, track an animal, and more. It delivers clear thermal images with a high-resolution 390×390 display and features increased temperature sensitivity thanks to its 320×240 thermal sensor. A 300-yard deer detection distance provides more efficient game recovery, and it improves identification at longer distances with a 7x digital zoom.
We’ve all been there – trying to find the game animal that we know is down but hidden from the naked eye. With only a small blood trail to go on, your search could take hours – time that you might not have. Light’s low and you’re running out of options as the sun begins to set. With the Tracker 2 HD in hand, however, it’s a different story. Using its thermal imager, finding warm blood on cool ground can become much easier – especially if your search takes you into the nighttime hours.
Where legal, the Tracker 2 HD can be used as a tool for locating and identifying game, too. The 7x digital zoom helps you get a closer look at your thermal target, and game animals will often stand out against the cool backdrop of the trees and other terrain. Chief among the new features on the Tracker 2 HD is the revolutionary “Beacon” mode. Designed to extend usability and help you track downed game more efficiently than ever before, Beacon mode quickly recalibrates the screen for increased detection in hot environments. When activated in one of three Hi-Bright screen colors, Beacon mode detects the warmest object in the active image and rebalances all the Hi-bright colors back down to grayscale. The result: The screen is a grayscale color under the Beacon threshold until a “warmer” spot is detected and displayed as a Hi-Bright condition.
Remember: Always check your local rules and regulations before using any thermal imaging products in the field.
Home-Defense Applications
The very same features that make the LTO Tracker 2 HD an excellent tool for game recovery make it invaluable in the home. Recent handprints and footprints will often register on the Tracker 2 HD’s sensor, as well. With a Tracker 2 HD in hand, you could scan your driveway before approaching your car at night or check your backyard if you’ve heard a noise you aren’t sure of. And since its compact design is so lightweight and easy to carry, you’ll be able to take it wherever you need to.
While you might have already heard about how coyote hunters have made great use of the LTO Tracker 2 HD, you might have missed the fact that it absolutely has its uses against the two-legged predators that present true danger to you or your family. It really does help you take ownership of the night.
Though the LTO Tracker HD looks like a scope, the eyepiece is actually a screen – so you don’t have to press it to your eye to see the image. This allows you to essentially see in the dark while still having one free hand to manipulate other tools or defend yourself as necessary.
From Search and Rescue to Camping, this affordable thermal device has already been put to use in creative ways. Last year, we received a letter from a police officer who used his original LTO Tracker to find a missing child, while another officer used the device to find a gun that was part of a crime scene. Campers have kept the device close by in order to know what’s rustling the brush by their tents at night, and ranchers have used the thermal tracker to count cattle more easily. Being able to see infrared images gives hunters, homeowners, ranchers, and first responders alike a distinct advantage in the field.
Built to Last
Leupold LTO Tracker 2 HD is designed to survive anything you can. It maximizes durability with a Gorilla Glass full-circle display and a lightweight aluminum housing. The easy-to-carry, compact design is only 5.5 inches long and weighs just 7 ounces. Simply put, it’s ready to go wherever your next adventure takes you.
Find the Leupold Tracker 2 HD today at your local Sportsman’s Warehouse.
