Last December I wrote an article for Friday Night Lights about my friends and I shooting a mile at night.
Friday Night Lights: The Dark Mile – Shooting A Mile At Night
The challenge is seeing your bullet impacts that far. My friends and I have some of the best night vision clip ons (PVS-27 retubed with 81 LP WP Elbit. PVS-27 retubed with Photonis Echo WP) both are around 2300 and 2200 FOM. And we just can't see the bullet impacting the backstop that far away. I ended up using my Vectronix LRTV with 2x Afocal magnifier to see the rounds impacting the dirt. While my friend Kevin used his Pixels On Target Voodoo-M to aim. We heated up the target with propane torches.
The LRTV is cooled thermal aka MWIR. It is sensitive enough to see heat of bullets flying through the air. However I am not sure if bullets stay hot that far out or if the friction flying through the air is enough to keep them warm. I am able to see the bullet impacting the dirt a mile away though.
Bullet trace and impact close range with LRTV
Here is a video hitting a mile in the dark.
Later we stepped up the challenge and Kevin shot and hit the 2,200 yard steel target at night. We switched it up. This time we didn't heat up the steel and Kevin went back to using a night vision clip on. We used his spotting scope with RAIDX to laser designate the target while I spotted with my LRTV. A full write up will be on The Firearm Blog next week April 28. Here is the video showing the hit.
Friday Night Lights: The Dark Mile – Shooting A Mile At Night
The challenge is seeing your bullet impacts that far. My friends and I have some of the best night vision clip ons (PVS-27 retubed with 81 LP WP Elbit. PVS-27 retubed with Photonis Echo WP) both are around 2300 and 2200 FOM. And we just can't see the bullet impacting the backstop that far away. I ended up using my Vectronix LRTV with 2x Afocal magnifier to see the rounds impacting the dirt. While my friend Kevin used his Pixels On Target Voodoo-M to aim. We heated up the target with propane torches.
The LRTV is cooled thermal aka MWIR. It is sensitive enough to see heat of bullets flying through the air. However I am not sure if bullets stay hot that far out or if the friction flying through the air is enough to keep them warm. I am able to see the bullet impacting the dirt a mile away though.
Bullet trace and impact close range with LRTV
Here is a video hitting a mile in the dark.
Later we stepped up the challenge and Kevin shot and hit the 2,200 yard steel target at night. We switched it up. This time we didn't heat up the steel and Kevin went back to using a night vision clip on. We used his spotting scope with RAIDX to laser designate the target while I spotted with my LRTV. A full write up will be on The Firearm Blog next week April 28. Here is the video showing the hit.
