Kentucky Armory Club

All the sudden, I feel the NEED for night vision. Both optic form and hand held form. Anyone using any of this or have good info on it?

No expert here, but I can say the couple I've seen and used, I was really disappointed.

I guess with all the technology we have now a days, I was expecting too much.

I don't recall the model I used the last time (friend of a friend had one we played with a while back)

He paid something like $1800+....I just figured for that type of money it would have been a lot more clear and user friendly.

You had to have your eye set just right and at 100 yrs or less you could sometimes, maybe make out certain objects if you knew what they were. If I was in an area that I knew really well, I may have been more comfortable shooting it, but we was at his place and not being able to see well, plus not knowing the surroundings very well, made me a little nervous.

I doubt this was really that helpful or informative...and I'm sure there's some great ones out there if u got enough $.. But using that one sort of kille d it for me.

I used to have a Starlight scope , 1970's era Generation good on moonlit nights but dark is dark. The IR illuminated scopes have better range but another IR scope could see you well. Try a company called ATN. They have many different generations available. Good luck.

Check out the night vision forum on arfcom. Lots of good info there. If you want quality night vision equipment that really works and is useful, don't look at anything less than gen 3 equipment, but be ready to get up off of some serious coin. FLIR units are the best and work great, but the cheapest FLIR unit I have seen is $13,500.00. Even a 4th gen monocular (ie: PVS 14) is like $8k.

I have a Gen 2.5 ATN Aries scope that works pretty well out to 200+ M, but requires a heavy duty IR spotlight to reach out that far. It works well enough for my purposes, but cost me over $3k almost 3 years ago.

ATN is not the best company out there for NV gear, merely one of the largest and best known. The best place to start shopping and learning would be TVNS.com, IMO.
From the Wyldphone

I use a weapon mounted monocular -Gen 1
As JSI said money worth will get up to Gen 4 NV

I made a few posting on my FB buisness page.

I was looking at some at tactical night vision stuff. Gen 3 stuff. Still about $3K.

The Aries scope I bought is adequate, @ gen 2.5, but more money means better, more efficient, & longer lasting gear.

FLIR is the shit! But is way beyond my means.

From the Wyldphone

FYI, Gen 1 equipment is on par with Viet Nam era Starlight scopes. It's big, it's heavy, eats batteries like candy, & really isn't sufficient to clearly ID less than man-sized targets.

My Aries 2.5 is adequate to distinguish between dog/pig sized targets at useful ranges.

From the Wyldphone

The bigger your IR source the better your NV will be.

Wyldman wrote:...If you want quality night vision equipment that really works and is useful, don't look at anything less than gen 3 equipment...

This.

I want something I can use on my rifle but also use to hunt down people in the woods way out in the sticks.

http://www.nivisys.com/en/products/nigh ... ems/pvs_14

I played with this a bunch while on active duty. Largest issue I ever had was battery consumption. I did break a helmet mount once. That was a fun night.

I've been spoiled by FLiR on multiple weapon platforms. From the M4 using a PVS-13v3 to the IBAS on the Bradley. I have FLiR capabilities for every weapons platform.

Outside the Army, a good solid PVS-14 can be used helmet mounted and also weapon mounted. That along with a IR laser will get everything you need for operations at night.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hog hunt using FLAR , found on FB

shelbygoat wrote:I've been spoiled by FLiR on multiple weapon platforms. From the M4 using a PVS-13v3 to the IBAS on the Bradley. I have FLiR capabilities for every weapons platform.

Outside the Army, a good solid PVS-14 can be used helmet mounted and also weapon mounted. That along with a IR laser will get everything you need for operations at night.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PVS-14 is a good piece of equipment, but you have to know what you're doing with it. I think that it makes the PVS-7 look like a chump. Now, I had the opportunity to use a PAS-13G... I would use a good thermal optic over regular night vision.

Jakob wrote:PVS-14 is a good piece of equipment, but you have to know what you're doing with it.

Not unlike anything else, really.

The PVS-14 is the most cost efficient (cost:capability) night vision device out there currently. Knowing a little bit about you, you're going to be disappointed with anything below current Gen 3. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing out there that is commonly accepted as Gen IV. It's Gen 3 and... better Gen 3. You're looking at between $3k - $6k, depending on which device you get and which accessories. The mounts are EXPENSIVE, at least the good ones. USGI Rhino mounts can be had used very cheap, but they are... less than wonderful. On the cheap end of the spectrum you're looking at a $3k NVD, $100 helmet, $40 mount and base plate, and a weapons mount. On the high end you're looking at a $3600 NVD, $700 helmet, $150 base plate, $500 mount, and a $1000 IR Laser/Illuminator.

As has been said, the PVS-14 monocular can be head or weapon mounted. If weapon mounted you won't need an IR laser, helmet, base plate, or mount... but head-mounted w/ an IR laser is my preferred method. It's a lot of fun, and it's much more versatile.

TNVC, which is where you should be buying from if you want to buy new, just a week or two ago exclusively released for sale the L3/Insight ATPIAL-C, which is the civilian version of the current issue PEQ-15. They take a no-shit PEQ-15 body straight off the line that would have gone to the military and use an unrestricted class-1 IR beam instead of the restricted high power beam.

http://tnvc.com/shop/l3-insight-atpial- ... -ir-laser/

But if you don't buy this one, and let me play with it, you're lame.

http://tnvc.com/shop/itt-dsnvg-anpsq-20/

Whootsinator wrote:But if you don't buy this one, and let me play with it, you're lame.

http://tnvc.com/shop/itt-dsnvg-anpsq-20/

"call to place order"

LOL. Yeah. Definitely too expensive for my tastes!

I got to play around with one of those, an AN/PSQ/20... talk about the bees knees! I just got to mess around with it on the range at Knox during day and night fire. If you could afford that, it is the end all/be all of thermal/night vision. It can run thermal vision and night vision at the SAME time, it's wicked.

At what cost, though? All of this gear is radically overpriced, but stays so because our .gov will pay without question. Hell, it's not their money, right?

From the Wyldphone

I thinking about getting the Surefire X300 IR for my NV set up.

Wyldman wrote:At what cost, though? All of this gear is radically overpriced, but stays so because our .gov will pay without question. Hell, it's not their money, right?

From the Wyldphone

Can you back up those claims? Do you know the actual profit per unit, and the costs of developing and manufacturing a night vision device? I don't, but would be very interested in seeing numbers.

I imagine the manufacturing is a little more expensive than you think. If night vision companies were just making a killing on charging inflated prices for Gen 3 NVDs I have a feeling SOMEONE would do it cheaper than the rest to snatch business away from the other companies. There is probably a reason Gen 3 NVDs all cost about $3,250 ($3k - $3.5k).

You want to argue the economics of the war machine? Knock yourself out. Those costs and processes are better protected than the Fed's secrets. What I do know are the costs of the processes to make that gear, &"it don't jive.

From the Wyldphone

You know I like arguing, but all of my arguing is because I like to learn. What is your best estimate, or what do you think, a PVS-14 type NVD costs to manufacture?