Night Vision

Pedro

Well-Known Member
I do appreciate that this is a stalking directory predominantly. The name gave me a clue, but by the same token I'm sure that there's a fair proportion of members that do some fox control work, so hence my question. It appears that to a degree, night vision equipment is taking over from lamps. All very well, but this night vision equipment for me is a bit hard to get my head around. I understand the principles of it, but what gets me is the vast difference in the price of the units.

Why would I buy a £6000 night vision scope when I can also get one for £400 that seems to do the job just fine if you read the reviews? Are the expensive ones that much better? Unfortunately they're not the type of thing you can try out in the shop and asking to take a £6000 piece of equipment home to try for a week would raise eyebrows I think.
 
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I have a Starlight Longbow which is at the top end of the price range. Before buying it I tried many digital scopes and to be honest none were a patch on the longbow. There are some excellent American imports, but I went for the Longbow because it is British made and has great service backup. You do get what you pay for but if you do go down the route of a cheaper digital or Gen 1 make sure you never look through a good Gen 3. :)
 
Nightvision is a bit of a mine field if your not sure what to buy or look for , having owned Gen 2 I have to say it was very good with the right laser but I have tried a Gen 3 unit and the sight picture was amazing....fantastic bit of kit, however I could only dream of spending that amount of money on an NV scope so in short if you have the cash then Gen 3 NV really is the way to go but there are plenty of us that get by with far less expensive kit.
 
It all depends what you want to shoot, what rifle its going on and whether you are prepared to dedicate that rifle to night shooting only. I've got an Pulsar N550 on a .22LR for rabbits. A S/H N550 I would guess would be £400ish. There's no need to spend more than that for a .22 rabbit rifle. The slightly high and rearward ergonomics are no issue as there is no recoil; I don't particularly need the rifle for daylight shooting (I've got an HMR and a
.222) so the sight can stay permenantly attached and there is no need for capability beyond 100 yards (though the N550 will go to 200 with the right IR illuminator). The digital system, which is effectively a camera lens, is an advantage for rabbits because it can be used in daylight so you can shoot from sundown through dusk to full darkness, whereas image intensifiers tubes are damaged by daylight use.

Higher up the food chain, £1200 and upwards you've got add-ons which attach to a conventional scope rather than replacing it. They can be digital or image intensifiers but you need a level of sensitivity and sophisication that will make use of the rifle's range, so up goes the price. If I wanted NV on the HMR or the .222 I'd use an add-on so the rifle retains its standard scope for daylight use. Either front or rear add-ons would do but for heavier recoilers I'd pick a front mounted system to maintain a normal head position. Most add-ons usually require a parallax adjustable scope to guarantee a sharp image and some scopes work better with add-ons than others. Add-ons are a compromise: an extra layer of glass and optics, and extra weight and length. The ideal and most expensive (£4000+)solution for a CF foxing rifle is a dedicated day/night scope like a Longbow. A normal daylight scope that easily converts to NV unit by changing a detachable front end without losing zero or adding excessive weight or length.
Whatever system you have, you need an IR illuminator. There are various types, all will be £100+ unless you're one of those clever gits who build their own, and they all add weight and require a mounting system.
The confusing thing about NV is that it is technology that is developing at a rate of knots. Whatever you buy is likely to be superceded and depreciate fairly quickly and you have to be resigned to that. The crucial considerations are: what will it be used for, and at what range; what type of rifle will it go on; how much use will it get. And how deep are your pockets.
 
2pworth

as above done the acher had a kite now use a photon scope I can see for around 300yrs all I need and shoot to around 200yrs for £600 inc the night master 800 ir lamp and mount leaves cash for more toys later on
 
Digital has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, not because the units have got better it's because the illuminators have come on leaps and bounds. (forget the dearlite, over priced and underperforms)

I own gen3 which is the dogs danglies but I have one of the new Yukon Photons added a doubler and a £45 T20ir torch it gives me 400 yards reconition and shooting at 8.5x mag I could easily take at shot at 200 yards plus a bit on a good night, what more do you need?

Photon £400
Doubler £130
T20ir £45
 
All good stuff, thanks for the replies. The main reason for it's use would be fox. As I thought, the market is at present in a state where things are improving at a rate of knots. Love to have a Starlight Longbow, but it'll take a bit of saving up for. But on the plus side, you don't need a separate scope for daylight if what I see/read is true. I shouldn't be surprised if by the time I've got the readies, there's something else.... :)
 
I'm using the Yukon 1.7x doubler, takes it up to 8.5x mag. It's been fitted to my fac air rifle but it's destined to be fitted to my new 20Tac once I've finished the load development so for now it's going on my 22-250

Search my name on youtube, I've done a review and shoot some things using it
 
As Mark as said Leds have come along way which give a good clean beam, digital is gonna always need the ir were a tubed unit on certain nights will get away without it, am i gonna sell my dedicated gen3 and buy a digi unit nar but i would have one as a back/2nd unit running a T20.
 
How do the LEDs compare to an 80mw laser iluminator?
i have an ageing but decent gen2 d121 monocular add on system with a laser.

​ben
 
2pworth

as above done the acher had a kite now use a photon scope I can see for around 300yrs all I need and shoot to around 200yrs for £600 inc the night master 800 ir lamp and mount leaves cash for more toys later on

Soooo Grasshopper, tell me, if you can "see for around 300yrs" what will I be doing on my 90th birthday? lol

Cheers Rob
 
How do the LEDs compare to an 80mw laser iluminator?
i have an ageing but decent gen2 d121 monocular add on system with a laser.

​ben

I've built a lamp that with my gen3 Envis as a add-on I was watching the cows the other side of the hill at, no one will belive this, 780 yards. I have digital footage of the lamp not the cows, lol, on youtube, not through the envis mind
 
I do appreciate that this is a stalking directory predominantly. The name gave me a clue, but by the same token I'm sure that there's a fair proportion of members that do some fox control work, so hence my question. It appears that to a degree, night vision equipment is taking over from lamps. All very well, but this night vision equipment for me is a bit hard to get my head around. I understand the principles of it, but what gets me is the vast difference in the price of the units.

Why would I buy a £6000 night vision scope when I can also get one for £400 that seems to do the job just fine if you read the reviews? Are the expensive ones that much better? Unfortunately they're not the type of thing you can try out in the shop and asking to take a £6000 piece of equipment home to try for a week would raise eyebrows I think.

Pedro,

I see your in Cumbria. I hope therefore you had the chance to visit the Scott Country Night Vison Expo in Wetheral over this weekend. If you did, and have had your question answered at the show, I'll apologise now before attempt to answer your question.

There are several options available to you. Most or ALL will depend on your budget and how much you can warrant spending on the kit. If this is a hobby, and you are looking to get into night vision then a good choice to try would be the Yukon Photon 5x42 Digital Night Vision. This riflescope is designed for air rifle, rimfire and centrefire use whilst hunting at night, and more importantly it's on £399.00

Yukon have mated a front mounted digital night vision monocular to a traditional 30mm riflescope which allows you to view at night, and also use during the day.

The Yukon Photon Night vision is perfect for vermin control at night with a max detection range of up to 190 metres at night, the Yukon Photon Digisight offers stunning performance at a fantastic price. (Man sized object in ideal conditions)

Complete with built in IR Laser illuminator, the Yukon Photon can be used in daylight, and at night, even in complete darkness.

With a muzzle energy limit of 5000 joules, the Photon is not only for air rifle, and rimfire use, it is ideal for wild boar shooting on large calibre rifles also.

Moving to a more sophisticated level and certainly a more upmarket piece of kit, you could look at the Pulsar
Pulsar Forward DFA75. This will mount onto your existing scope upto 56mm. Lots of details on the Scott Country website

As with ALL of the night vision kit, Scott country can arrange a demo to be sent to you for evaluation. I would strongly recommend that you speak with them to discuss. They certainly won't drive to sell you something, but will provide you with the advise you need.

Regards
Colin Arthurs




 
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you will be feeding the worms ? or an ash cloud :eek: see I can tell your future ?? I meant yards (yrds) you silly boy :rofl:. I must put the bins on when on this site , give an opinion and get an English lesson :doh:
:old: :tiphat:



QUOTE=willowbank;646501]Soooo Grasshopper, tell me, if you can "see for around 300yrs" what will I be doing on my 90th birthday? lol

Cheers Rob[/QUOTE]
 
As said above look thru as much nv kit as you can before parting with any ££, as it is all so different and comes in many flavor's some good some bad, don't learn the hard way like many of us have done.
 
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