Night Vision

[ItchyTick]

The cost of night vision equipment has been coming down over the last couple of years. This stuff is good for camping in addition to legal night hunting.

There is quite a bit of difference between the generations of equipment:
https://www.nightvision.com.au/diffe...n-generations/


I think its time for me to make the plunge. Here is the one I'm looking at: https://email.midwayusa.com/pub/cc?_...g4n39baujq22ig


One thing I have noticed is many of the scopes have GPS built in. Not something I would want on a monocular or scope.

[JoshIronshaft]

That bushnell product is not gen 1, 2 or 3 night vision. It is digital, and it is garbage.

The first clue is the price point being so low. I watched some youtube videos that showed the image quality, and it is indeed garbage.

Digital night vision just isn't there yet. It will be one day, and it will probably lower the cost of quality night vision, but this ain't it.

There is some good information in this thread on what your first purchase should be (spoiler alert, it's a gen3 PVS14): http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=351256

Also, here: http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=353258

Night vision is a great item for your emergency preparedness plan, but it will require a decent investment to get gear that is quality, usable, and effective.

[WCMG]

Pulsar sent us a monocular Helion XP38 demo unit to play with and have to admit this thing is amazing. It's pricey, but WOW.

Here's 3 videos I made yesterday.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V57FboJopeEPWEMT7

[Driswalds]

Anyone have any experience with the Sightmark Digital sights?
They are more in the price range I could afford.

[wanneroo]

Anything under a thousand bucks is more of a gimmicky thing rather than something that is usable.

I have seen people overseas successfully use the cheaper digital night vision for popping pests and bunnies close up.

Really for something usable I'd look at a minimum of a quality PVS-14

[tlnzz1]

You get what you pay for.

Tactical Night Vision Company.

https://tnvc.com

[aubie515]

You cannot hunt with NV/thermal in PA...at least not now.

TNVC is over priced as they pay to be a vendor on ARF. You can buy the same products much less. You don't need to drink the kool aid, to get good equipment.

I wouldn't say anything under $1k is crap. My M845K Gen 2 is really nice for a dedicated NV scope. Do your research and you can find deals out there...I don't see prices bottoming out, but the quality is getting better.

[JoshIronshaft]

I would buy from Night Vision Inc or Steele Industries before TNVC, but TNVC is fine if you wanted to buy from them.

Regarding night vision, the first big question is do you want this to be a device that is worn on your head or a device that is permanently on your rifle.

If you want something on a gun, then you can get something lower in price than a PVS14 but then you are stuck with a limited used device.

I prefer to have the night vision on my head, for many good reasons.

But there are certainly legit use cases for rifle mounted night vision or thermal scopes, but still, stay away from cheap and digital.

Regarding thermal, you cant use it the same as a night vision device, but they are fantastic to have as a secondary device for searching or as a thermal overlay on a night vision device such as the CIOTI. Thermal does not work through glass.

I will say it again, the minimum for a useful night vision device is a PVS14 with a gen 3 tube.

[Gunsnwater]

Pulsar sent us a monocular Helion XP38 demo unit to play with and have to admit this thing is amazing. It's pricey, but WOW.

Here's 3 videos I made yesterday.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V57FboJopeEPWEMT7

That sure looks like thermal imaging and not night vision. Check out glass and plexiglass.

[NathanB]

Ive really considered this many times. the cost keeps me away. Mainly because I feel the best models are gen3 white phosphorus models and I really dont think I’d use it much. after helmet and dbal etc its an expensive setup