night vision add on for .17hmr

[Matt Gould]

hi i am looking into maybe buying a night vision add on unit for my .17hmr, i want to be able to see rabbits clearly to about 60-80 yards, what units are availible and what sorta prices am i looking at?, bearing in mind i don't want to spend much (if thats possible with night vision lol) Thanks

[Catweazle]

I have an add-on Merlin Gen1 system. It's not bad but you're looking at the thick end of £400 with a decent IR laser illuminator, and even with the laser it still isn't great at the range an HMR can work at.

 

I like the Merlin on my 22LR, but have fitted a Lightforce 170 with dimmer to my HMR and it works a treat.

[Matt Gould]

[quote but have fitted a Lightforce 170 with dimmer to my HMR and it works a treat.

 

with a night vision filter do you mean ?

[Catweazle]

with a night vision filter do you mean ?

 

No, I just use the lamp and normal scope. I use the Merlin hand-held to scope out the field, when I see eye shine I move the rifle to the approximate direction and switch on the lamp, dimmed right down to zero. I wind the dimmer up to a dull amber glow and get the rabbit in the sights, then wind it up just enough to see the middle of the crosshairs ( which are very fine) then take the shot.

 

The rabbits don't spook at all, the lamp is wound up slowly from zero to amber. This works better at longer range than trying to shoot with the NV.

 

I'm not knocking the Merlin, but it has limits and the HMR can shoot further than the Merlin can resolve.

 

If you want equivalent range and clarity to a good lamp then you're looking at spending a lot of money. I went to an AirgunBBS night vision meet about 3 or 4 years ago and Clive Ward bought along some Gen3 and Supergen kit. The things were amazing, like daylight with no extra illumination, but some of them were £5000 :blink:

[SPEEDY]

You want at least a gen II+ to make out bunnies at that range with any kind of clarity.

[steve_b_wales]

I use a Cobra Merlin on my .22LR and .243. For added IR 'light', I use a scope mounted lamp (Blaserlite) with IR filter attached. This set up allows me to clearly identify quarry up to 200 yards, although I never shoot at that range.

The Cobra is a brilliant bit of kit, but must be used with a parallax adjustable scope.

 

Steve.

[bennyblanco]

The merlin with a laser or filtered lamp will easily let you shoot past 100yds, its only limited by not being able to see further than HMR's shooting range to ensure safety of the shot.

[Bewsher500]

I use the Merlin hand-held to scope out the field, when I see eye shine I move the rifle to the approximate direction and switch on the lamp,

 

 

thats what i do.

£90 Lidl NV monocular works a charm for picking up eyes out to 150-200yds

[ellebarto]

Ive just bought the Cobra add on NV for my HMR for exactly the purpose you have described and with the advice and help from many of the guys who have commented above. Still trying to get to grips with it as it does seem to be scope fussy but planning a proper test on Thursday which should tell me if its any good or not. Or at least if I need to go and buy a new scope. As they say, £400+ for the kit and a possible scope change and an additional power IR light source to make it work properly. Maybe just a filter for your existing lamp. Assuming it will work OK with one of my existing scope it will have cost me about £500 to get setup.