Night vision rifle scope?

[yardburd]

I've decided to buy a night vision scope and am seeking advice from anyone out there who has some experience with them. Is there one that you recommend? Are there any which I should avoid. Am looking to spend in the area of $500.
Thanks,
John

[recoilless_57mm]

Just my opinion, you are not going to get much for 500 bucks. The image intensifier tube will most likely be russian or chinese made. These tubes are made for the civilian market. I don't care for this because the electronics is the heart of the scope. I would purchase 3rd or 4th generation US made scope if you can save the extra dollars to do so. These scopes will be a bit expensive. If you have a true need for a night vision device buy the best IMO.

Charlie

[Teg]

You might take a look over at Yukon Optics they make some decent products and I haven't really heard anything bad about them, others can chime in if they have though.

www.yukonopticsusa.com

[MEBrian]

Dittos what recoiless wrote.

I have yet to talk to anyone who got low priced NV and was happy with the quality or the longevity.

If it uses intensifier tubes I wouldn't buy it. If it was Chinese or Russian I wouldn't buy it either.

Good NV worth having isn't inexpensive. And the cheap stuff is just like throwing your $ away.

I wish I had better news for you but I don't. I'd have wanted the truth rather than throw away $500.

[Oblio13]

I've had a PVS 14 for years. Like the above posts, I wouldn't try to go cheap. Russian stuff is "a quarter of the quality for half the price".

You may want to hold out for thermal imaging. There are handheld units now for about $3,000, and if they follow the usual path of such technology, quality will go up and prices will go down rapidly.

[MEBrian]

Small Arms Review just did a pretty decent article comparing Gen 3, Gen 3 enhanced, and Thermal imaging, and discussed the early NV gear. I wish I had held off and gotten the Gen 3 enhanced. But back then they were playing with Gen 4 and still hadn't a clue that it wouldn't work.

OK, so it depends what one intends to use it for. Based on the article... TI was/is pretty incapable of discerning details. When seeing a person all one could see was the light colored sillouette. Good NV allows seeing details, like if a rifle was being carried. With TI one can't see the rifle easily. But the person was very easy to see since he "glowed".

I'd like to have a hybrid unit, both NV and TI, and merge the images for the best of both worlds. Yeah, and I'd like to have the taxpayers buy it for me too.

Yardburd, good NV or TI, if you can swing it, allows you to totally own the night. Combined with amplifying earmuffs, and a suppressor one is a force to be reconed (sp?) with. The first 2 are self explanatory, the suppressor is the best flash hider one can buy (even if one has NV and is looking for the flash), and the target can't tell where the shot is coming from. The blast is absent, and the sound wave from the supersonic round impinges the ear at 90 degrees from the direction of the bullet passage, not from the source of the shot. So one can see, hear, and not be detected even if shooting. Of course TI would easily spot the shooter and see the hot suppressor.

Let's see if I can make this work... No, it reverts back to the direct link. That's the pits.

The PVS14 is mounted behind the sight. The sight does what it does day or night, the PVS14 is mounted or not and uses the sight for aiming. Yeah, I live in a free state that allows cans.

[gunsmoke]

Originally Posted by recoilless_57mm

Just my opinion, you are not going to get much for 500 bucks. The image intensifier tube will most likely be russian or chinese made. These tubes are made for the civilian market. I don't care for this because the electronics is the heart of the scope. I would purchase 3rd or 4th generation US made scope if you can save the extra dollars to do so. These scopes will be a bit expensive. If you have a true need for a night vision device buy the best IMO.

Charlie

In your mind you envision the view from a gen3+ or a gen 4 and at $500 you're not even in the neighborhood. At that price level you're going to get Gen 1 or a near burned out or defective gen 2.

At that level you need pretty good ambient light and you'll experience varying degrees of bloom from heat sources, and its all going to be fuzzzy. You MIGHT be satisfied on a bright moonlit night with nothing casting shaddows but other than that its not going to do you much good.

Beyind that, Recoiless pretty much summed it up, so I'll just second what he said.

[Pitdog]

I get kind of light headed and nasueated having to agree with Oblio, but he is 100% right. 500 hundred dollars spent on night vision is like throwing 500 down a hole. Thermal imaging is the trick, I watched footprints behind people with it the good stuff is so sensitive..... truly the way to go and cost will continue to drop.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by MEBrian

I'd like to have a hybrid unit, both NV and TI, and merge the images for the best of both worlds. Yeah, and I'd like to have the taxpayers buy it for me too.

That would be the new AN/PSQ-20 that is just beginning to be fielded. So watch for AN/PVS-14s to be surplus in about five years.
Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG), AN/PSQ-20, F6023

[hunter63]

So when y'all up grade, to the newest coolest sights,............... sell me your old one, as i'm looking for night vision capibility for my BYB air rifle.............
Thanks.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by hunter63

So when y'all up grade, to the newest coolest sights,............... sell me your old one, as i'm looking for night vision capibility for my BYB air rifle.............
Thanks.

If you find yourself in a gun fight any advantage is priceless. Nobody survives a gun fight and wishes they bought second best.