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is good night vision worth selling collection


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as title says….. I am one who lives within my means so opinions on selling 1/2 of my firearm collection to purchase a true modern night vision set up . I believe i am convinced on this because power to see at night is priceless if you need to. But I do trust the voices here on this site ( always a few exceptions ). do you think i will regret some sales like vepr 12 , PSL , 1919 A4 . I am thinking of lowering to 2 main rifles and pistols and shotguns spare parts and KEEP ALL AMMO.and build upon that again, Night vision seems to take the usefulness of your firearms and doubles them. Thanks for your input all.  and all opinions on which N.V. TO PURCHASE IS WELCOME.

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Be careful. Some Gen1 surplus NV (Russian, and those that use Russian tubes, ATN) emit dangerous levels of X-rays directly at your eyes.

 

IMHO, NV is a fun toy, but I seriously doubt you'd use it in a SHTF scenario.

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Suitable NV can be had for much less than you are contemplating OP.

 

As to how valuable in itself NV can be, well if you ever need it you will know.

How much is it worth to hold an advantage or not be at a disadvantage?

I think it is utterly mandatory to have but not at that price.  Just IMHO

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When I started hog hunting that pretty much brought me into the night vision game. After lots of research and a growing collection of "toys" that include digital NV, Gen 2+, and Gen 3 (plus playing with numerous friends' toys as well), here are some of my real-world observations:

 

If what you really care about is detection, then better to go thermal. The prices of thermal are dropping like a rock and getting cheaper every day. The new ThermApp is amazing (hooks to a cell phone) and is only $1k. At least when it comes to hogs, many of my friends are using thermal to locate them and then night vision to take the shot.

 

When it comes to night vision, the first decision you have to make is whether you REALLY need to be totally passive or if you can supplement with IR. If you are hunting animals, then 99% of the time then supplemental IR is fine (IR tends to have a faint red glow that is really hard to filter out). If you are on a budget, get a $600 scope (something like a SightMark Photon) and a $200 IR source and you are good out to 150+ yards. If the moon is 1/2 of better then you won't even need the IR. The one major down-side to the current crop of digital NV is that the field of vision is really, really small. If that is going to be an issue, then just pick up a decent Gen 2+ scope with large front lens (run in the $1200-$1500 range) as they will give about twice the FoV.

 

If what you are afraid of is 2 legged creatures, then your only choice is the best Gen 3 you can find (figure $3k-$10k) since your IR will be a beacon to anyone else that happens to have NV as well (even cheap NV). Then you have to figure out if you want a scope, monocular, binocular, etc.... Just realize that scopes suck for trying to get around in the dark (learned that lesson the hard way) and a monocular sucks for putting on a scope (and you are highly likely to damage your high $$$$ monocular with the recoil).

 

I personally would never sell a firearm to purchase NV. At some point you would definitely regret selling the VEPR 12 or PSL. As for suggestions, just mark any Gen 1 off your list. Digital is already equivalent to lower-end Gen 2 and getting better every day. If I had limited funds, I would just get a Photon or X-Sight (when-ever it finally comes out). When you get a few extra $$ then just pick up another IR source if you think you need it. Relatively inexpensive, works great if the moon is out, and even run passive you would be able to see anyone that is running IR long before they see you. Likely won't meet 100% of your objective but maybe 80%+ without having to sell something.     

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There may be less $expensive$ ways to obtain the necessity of being able to see targets in total darkness. We have a cheap Russian 1.5X Yukon NVMT night vision scope on our typical heavily modified Ruger 10-22 suppressed short barreled night time garden pest buster.

 

Purchased from Optics Planet with everything needed to put it on a 10-22. AA batts.

 

About $350 bucks purchased several years ago. Sees constant duty during the garden season and lots of times during the rest of the year. It has an infrared flash light. With the IR turned on, the cheap Russian scope works great in TOTAL apparent darkness ... out to 50 yards.

 

Works good enough to tell the difference between a raccoon and a skunk. At 25-35 yards; the difference between a raccoon and a kitty cat. But ... it is NOT a long range star scope. Also, I believe the pesky animals can detect the IR light. They sometimes boggie off. Just me.

 

Without the IR flash light, (how the hell do you spell luminator? ... spell check is not worth a shit today) the scope works just OK with no moon IF YOU DARK ADAPT your eyes first ... out to about 25-35 yards. With a half moon it works out to about 50+ yards. Again, short ranged.

 

But ... it did not cost us $5000 bucks either. Also with night vision becoming so cheap, one must assume that most people sneaking around at night where they should not be will probably have their own night vision ... and be easily able to detect YOUR IR light. Not good.

 

That leaves just the expensive thermal night vision scopes. I got to have fun with a rich friends model. Very impressive indeed. It works off of heat and not magnified light. Is a thermal vision night scope necessary? I dunno. If I could afford one, oh yes!

 

HB of CJ (old coot) All US Code Laws And NFA Rules Apply

 

Edited for w/w & s/p

Edited by HB of CJ
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I have been learning what I can and build my own although with prices dropping that may not be the way to go much longer.

 

One thing missed on IR is the source does not have to be on the rifle if we are talking home ground.

 

Be surprised how large an area can be illuminated with no tale-tail "here I am" source functioning on the rifle. Once you decide on a bandwidth it is fairly remarkable.

 

As always the less than perfect is far preferable to nothing. The guys in .mil "owned the night" with a lot less just a couple of decades back after all.

 

I think its mandatory to have some means of night vision, and completely unneeded to spend a fortune getting it.

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What works better ... nite vision or thermal? We own a couple of nite vision scopes. Cheap Russian stuff that seems to work just OK for our needs of garden pest busting. I only tried the neat cool expensive thermal vision once. Amazing. Your choice of cross hairs, gain, color of field, mag X and target color, etc.. But big bucks. He never told us how much. Physically big. On a M1A with can. Big big bucks.

 

We considered surrounding the garden with low wattage low voltage IR wide area lighting. Never got around to it. Also it would be too expensive. Also there is no need for not "back tracking" the canned SBR Ruger 10-22. We are only shooting pests. Skunks are easy. Coons less so. Too cute. Ferrel cats hardest of all. With my limited exposure, I would say the expensive thermal is much much better.

 

HB of CJ (old coot) The chicken coop is inside the garden deer fence. All US Code Laws And NFA Rules Apply

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