Night Vision Night Vision Bang For The Buck

[Rlandry]

I'm thinking of a night vision scope for a new build that I'm putting together as I have a couple of possibilities working for hog hunts. I'm already in information overload.
I want to stay below the $1K mark. Don't care about a lot of whistles and bells, video, wifi, etc., I'm wanting image quality and ease of use.

Question on magnification. Is there an advantage to zoom as opposed to a fixed magnification. When you get above 9X or so, it gets real shaky unless you are shooting off of some kind of rest, and I guess a bipod or tripod would be beneficial.

Anyways, looking for suggestions as to where to start looking and wat to look for.

Thanks, guys.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Pretty sure that you're going to be stuck with digital at that price, so you're going to need a pretty solid illuminator for anything other than a bright moonlit night. Digital zoom tends to suck, so I'd try to stick with a fixed optical magnification.

I'm not the smartest dude on this NV stuff, tho, so hopefully someone with more knowledge can chime in.

 

[Killswitch Engage]

^^^ this

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

Doing a quick look at Optics Planet, I'd say you're probably going to be looking at something like this, @Rlandry

 

[hafejd30]

I had ATN XSight II for a while. Use thermal now. But the ATN worked excellent. As stated above tho it did not work at all without Being paired with an IR light. Even bright moonlight nights doesn’t do a thing for it.

But when paired with the Sniper Hog light I had I could illuminate my neighbors house easily at 560 yards.

Used an obsidian app that allowed you to record and save video and view live through the scope using your phone. Handy if someone wants to see what you see through the scope.

Wasn’t as easy to pick up targets as a thermal obviously. I was happy with mine. Only went to 14X and that was to much for night shooting IMO. Also lost clarity as you zoomed in.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Bang for your buck is a nice used PVS-7 or PVS-14 for $1000-$1500 and a decent IR laser. You're still going to to be $2K into it all said and done. For $2K you can also get something like the PTS233.

Everything under $1K is going to be an epic piece of shit. You're better off with a red light and leaving the rest of the money in your bank.

 

[Prebanpaul]

You can get the pulsar dn55 for 999 at erouoptic right now. Every one else sells it at 1500 or more.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

You can get the pulsar dn55 for 999 at erouoptic right now. Every one else sells it at 1500 or more.

That's intriguing for $1k. Is it actually worth a damn when mounted up to a day scope?

 

[Maggot]

I had ATN XSight II for a while. Use thermal now. But the ATN worked excellent. As stated above tho it did not work at all without Being paired with an IR light. Even bright moonlight nights doesn’t do a thing for it.

But when paired with the Sniper Hog light I had I could illuminate my neighbors house easily at 560 yards.

Used an obsidian app that allowed you to record and save video and view live through the scope using your phone. Handy if someone wants to see what you see through the scope.

Wasn’t as easy to pick up targets as a thermal obviously. I was happy with mine. Only went to 14X and that was to much for night shooting IMO. Also lost clarity as you zoomed in.

Ive only read of ATN but my NV Depot PVS 14 gen III select tube will light up the landscape w/o IR on all but the darkest, moonless, nights out 3-4 hundred yards, much better with moonlight, but it was in the 3K range 13 years ago. Of course, IR helps, but maybe its a question of quality of tube? Buy smart, buy once.

 

[hafejd30]

Ive only read of ATN but my NV Depot PVS 14 gen III select tube will light up the landscape w/o IR on all but the darkest, moonless, nights out 3-4 hundred yards, much better with moonlight, but it was in the 3K range 13 years ago. Of course, IR helps, but maybe its a question of quality of tube? Buy smart, buy once.

I agree. I had about $650 into mine with the IR. The light was adjustable and when the beam was opened wide it lit up the entire area visible in the scope. Your looking at an lcd screen vs an actual scope tube. Was very impressive for the money I had into it.

Personally I prefer the thermal. Can see deer over 800 with that. My personal preference if spending 3K would be to look into the thermal units. Mine is a Pulsar Apex which I picked up for $1300.

I’d consider both the NV and thermal I had to be bottom level entry units. Both worked well for me. OP wants to stay below 1K so basically any serious options are off the table unless he wants to increase a bit.

But again I was very happy with my units for the price

 

[Maggot]

The thermal is nice but things (people) are far more recognizable with NV.

 

[hafejd30]

IMO the best combo would be a NV gun mounted optic paired with a small handheld thermal scanner

 

[kurtlaughton]

Buy once cry once, best bang for the buck is a simrad clip-on. can be had for around 2k and will bang steel to 1k plus. save your money and buy something worth having. I bought a atn gen 2 scope first and quickly bought a simrad as the atn could hardly see 100 yards. now i have a pvs-27 just because i wanted the next level, in reality the simrad did everything i needed. imo good luck.

 

[smcfarland]

Agree with others above. Lots of experience with thermals and I2 in military, and have hunted pigs/ coyotes last six years as a civilian. Typically kill around 75 pigs a year on our place.
Anybody out there buy digital I2 and were happy with it and never upgraded? Have had 3 people with their digital ATN or pulsar come on hunts with me and realize it was inadequate compared to a simple PVS 14 and laser setup. If you must have something to hunt with right now I’d look at renting something from one of the many vendors out there to make sure it works for you.
If you buy digital and realize you want something better I doubt the resale value will be much. I could be wrong on this but doubt it.
I caution starting with thermal if you’ve never used it before. Great for detecting but hard to PID until you’ve had some practice. Sad face minus if you shoot neighbors dog, a cow, or a deer you thought was a pig / coyote.
My best advice would be to buy a white light (LightForce) to hunt with until you can save more. Then either buy a SIMRAD in the $2.5k range with mounts, or a PVS 14 with a cheap laser and illuminator.
That will get you hooked on night hunting and you can start saving again for a Pulsar Trail to scan with.
Good luck. Night hunting is seriously fun and effective, but comes at a price.