Night Vision I'm almost embarassed to ask this question..NVG and weapon firing

beltfed34

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Minuteman
Feb 3, 2013
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Unfortunately I dont know anyone in my circle to ask this question so here it is. How does one sight and fire a weapon, such as a M4 carbine, with a pair of NV goggles on?? Watching "zeroDarkthirty" the other night, I'm assuming they just point and shoot using a laser as basically a pointer? from the hip or?? The googles would appear to prevent any kind of cheek weld? Where on the web, if any, is there any instructional lessons on techniques? Hate sounding stupid like this but never have been a NV guy but recent interest has prompted me to try to learn a little more about it.

TIA,
Austin in Texas!
 
mate there are a few ways, one way is to have a NAD (night aiming device) it emits a laser beam that is only visible with NVG', so NAD is zero'd, with the NVG, it shows up as like a bright spot with the NVG on, when you press it on usually with a remote soft presser type switch on the for grip.. when the spot is on you target you squeeze the trigger...there are a few methods, prone position you are looking over the rifle with it either in your side or centre of chest, same standing, kneeling, etc...then there are passive scopes, you might have one monacle (single NVD) and a passive scope on the rifle, in which case you are not emitting any light and shoot, clearly in the first method you are emitting a light that a bad guy with NVG/D will also be able to see
 
In the movie you are talking about the majority of the shors were NVG with an IR laser. Most of those shots are taken with the shooter in the high ready position, Hip shooting is mainly for show. The effective use of lasers, either IR or visible takes a great deal of practice.
 
i run IR lasers on many weapons at night. i try my best to perform good shooting fundamentals up to the no cheek weld part. i still try to get the same shoulder purchase on the weapon and practice good trigger manipulation and follow through. its even more important to do so without cheek weld in my opinion.

it does take practice but once you have some time in doing it you can become very proficient at it. hits out to 200+yd are fairly easy with a laser.
 
I know you said goggle but if you run a monocular there is another way. Run you NV on your non aiming eye and shoot with both eyes open. Your brain actually transposes the two images and I can see my red dot through my right eye and my NV through my left. It also works good for a pistol with tritium sights.
 
followup question

I know you said goggle but if you run a monocular there is another way. Run you NV on your non aiming eye and shoot with both eyes open. Your brain actually transposes the two images and I can see my red dot through my right eye and my NV through my left. It also works good for a pistol with tritium sights.

Thanks All! Excellent info in the above posts, all of them. Regarding the Monocular on a head-mount, if you are using a single monocular on a headset, does it give you a headache or other adverse effects by having one eye in the NV mono and one eye open to the night? Regarding the shooting w/a monocular, would this work kinda like an Armson OEG gunsight? I could run a monocular on one eye and look through a standard ACOG with the other to sight? I shoot w/both eyes open.

Thanks Again for the excllent info!!
Austin in Texas!
 
I have an acog with a RMR on top. I can use it with the acog but it is harder because of eye relief and the magnification of one eye and not on the other. I mostly use it with the RMR because I can find it quicker and its easier to deal with. Ive never had a problem with headaches because I mostly scan with just the NV while moving and don't shoulder the weapon that much.
 
My beginner stuff are some yukon goggles and a nv pulsar n750 rifle scope. I only want to reduce the local hog and coyote population. I do have a dbal-2 but haven't tried it yet. Even the low power n 750 illuminator seems to bounce back from trees many yards out so I haven't got it all down yet. Most of my night shooting is from a rest. It is a very steep learning curve without hitting the lottery and trying the affordable stuff first. 30 k for the best stuff would seriously reduce the quality of my other toys.

From my reading here the thermal monocular and clip on scope seems to work pretty good. The cost will be over 18k though. I've been killing hogs with success at night with a spotlight for almost 25 years. I'm sure though that nothing escapes the thermal viewer.
 
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