night vision

[chilly]

what is a good recommendation for night vision?

 

what do you use, bins, scope??

and what sort of price will i be expecting to pay???

[THE GRIFF]

Your better off deciding what you can afford and what exactly you want to use it for.

Do you want it on your rifle or to use as a spotter, a dedicated nv set up or an add on unit.

How far are you wanting to see and what type of rifle is it going on, if any.

Once you have a budget and an idea of what you want to use it for then it makes it easier to advise you on something to suit your needs.

[chilly]

Thanks Griff, was wondering about getting NV bins for rabbits

[Uncle Albert]

If you look on page 9 of February's Sporting Shooter, there is a company giving demos of nitesite. On the right of the article is a list of the venues with dates. One should be near you. Go have a look, can't hurt.

[steve_b_wales]

I use a Cobra Merlin with day scope adaptor. This is used on my .243. For added IR, I use a scope mounted lamp (Blaserlite) with dedicated IR filter. I am awaiting delivery of a N1000 laser illuminator, to use with above.

I find the Cobra excellent value for money.

[THE GRIFF]

The problem with bins is you may be able to see rabbits, but how are you going to shoot them without a lamp, this defeats the idea of nv in the first place.

A good starting point would possibly be a nv monocular, this can then be added to the back of a scope as long as it has a 1x lens on it.

I started off a with pulsar challenger and can spot rabbits to 100+ yards no promlem through the scope using the nv attatched the back of it.

The challenger is one of the best gen 1 set ups when set up properly. First you need a scope with adjustable parrellex to put the nv onto, the cheaper scopes tend to work best due to the coating on the lenses. I use a mamba lite scope, again this is one of the best scopes for an add on nv unit, with side adjustable parrellex which makes life even easier.

Then you will need an infra red. You can put a ir filter on a lamp but again to get the best performance and a lighter less clumsy set up you are better off with a ir laser, something like an N1000ap.

The N1000ap laser will cost you about £150, the challengers with dsa (to attatch to your scope) sell for about £230 second hand or £300 ish new, depending on what scope you have a mamba lite will set you back about £130.

The set up I have mentioned works, if you cut corners on the scope or ir laser you may not get as good results.

 

Then you have the digital route, I don't like the digital as I find I get a sort of blindness when looking at the black and white screen and end up going dizzy when it's turned off.

The nitesite could be a good choice but bear in mind you aren't looking through a scope you are viewing the view through your scope on screen on top of your scope and I find this a difficult to get used to.

 

Be warned, never look through a nv unit you can't afford, I made that mistake and nothing ever compares to what you can't have. I now have a big credit card bill and a gen 3 add on.

Edited January 4, 2012 by THE GRIFF