NV - digital or optical?

[jeff]

Just wondering what the current best option is? Digital like the Pulsar units, or a decent Gen 3 device? Who's using what, and why, and what are the best options on each...with say, a 2k budget, more if necessary?

[Buffy Vampire Slayer]

you thought about a front mounted add on digital unit

[jeff]

you thought about a front mounted add on digital unit

Dedicated rifle, so after a standalone scope rather than an addon.

[flintlok]

I bought the Pulsar N500 digital scope. I was at a gun show and had a chance to play with multiple night vision devices. To me this stuff is a compromise at best as it does give you night vision but it's far from perfect. With the digital it’s like watching a black and white camera pretty much like a camcorder. I went with the digital because I can use it in bright day light however I tape the front lens housing to block some of the light getting to the lens as it can wash out the images. You can get a pin hole viewer for regular night vision to let a very small beam of light in to us the scope in day light hours but it’s not practical as you would be worlds better off with a regular rifle scope.

I can get decent 100 yard groups with it, an inch or 2 without much problem. I set the cross hairs at 100 yards as that seems to be the practical range for shooting at night if I did such a thing. The scope works fine in ambient night vision and it has an on board IR light source. That's another issue with night vision as IR lights are reflected by certain vegetation. The on board light source is good for reasonable viewing up to 30 or 40 yards just as you would find in a flashlight. You can get better and "brighter" IR flash lights however they will light up and reflect off of the vegetation better and brighter also.

The thing with night is you expect to see pretty much like you do during daylight but it's not really like that. For hunting purposes you are practically limited to 100 yards or so. You may be able to further at night but I don't believe that it’s a 100% chance of a hit. The critters eyes do light up like flashlights in an IR scope and they are very easy to see. Discerning the rest of the body is a problem as you get to the 100 yards marker. Another thing about night vision is that they are battery hogs. The N500 takes AA batteries. You and buy the N550 external rechargeable battery package which compensates for that but it's another thing that you have to tote around for extended viewing. You also have the issue of night vision eye. Upon looking at a lighted image, the viewing eye will not in adjust to the darkness while the other non viewing eye will. Once you are way from the scope the eye that you use for viewing will see nothing but total darkness and it takes a bit for your vision to recover.

Interestingly IR scopes cannot see through window glass so when you use the scopes the world is a very different place. Anyway for image quality and practicality I went with the Pulsar N550. It’s a big unit and really doesn’t weight all that much when I mount it on my semi auto version of the M4 carbine. I was with one of my buddies one evening and it was fun hitting 100 yard targets with it in low light. I just wish I could go ratting with it on an air gun or a 22 rim fire but there are no rats around my area. They mostly live in New York City where they are brazen or on the New Bedford water front. I’m not allowed to hunt in either of those places. Rats are few and far between where I live because, given the chance, everybody shoots them.

Night vision is a cool thing to have on a very dark night with an IR source but for twilight shooting I'd go standard Swarovski rifle scope any day of the week.

[rgs101]

I have the pulsar n550 with the dr bobs magnifier... now the N750 is available with adjustable zoom..

Its mounted to my HW100, which i have mostly used for rabbiting, i went with digital because i often go an hour or 2 before dark, and stay until an hour or so after dark. and i have had many happy nights out with it.

and if you attach a mini dvr to it, its strange what you can capture, not just shooting, but other wildlife going about its business. and in the dark, the ir light bounces back of the pellet, so you can thee the path it travels

the downsides..

1, its power hungry, so good quality high mah batteries needed, i ended up getting an external battery pack (more weight)
2, its difficult to deterim in range as its a very flat image, there are ways around this, tiny market posts with reflective tape.. or the method i mostly use, is to mage sure the focus is pin sharp at a set distance.. if the target is slightly fuzzy and small it further away, slightly fuzzy and large its closer.

in the video below, the scope is focused pin sharp at 25yards, look at the clock at 22:36 where the rabbits are on the fence line the are about 40 yards away, so you will see the are slightly fuzzy
at 23:05 the bunny is pin sharp focus wise, so he it as good as 25 yards away

while this type of scope has its faults, i certainly do not regret its purchase

[flintlok]

I went to a gun show yesterday in Springfield, Massachusetts and there was company, Georgia Optics, that had various night vision optics on display. The Pulsar N550 has been replaced by an upgraded version call the Pulsar N750. It did everything that the N550 does but has upgraded electronics. It has a zoom feature where the operator can change with the touch of a button. That feature pretty much does away with the need for the Dr. Bob's adaptor and lens upgrade as well as the additional cost. I still like the Pulsar 550/750 products and would opt for those however there was this FLIR optic there that was truly impressive, the FLIR Scout PS24 240x180 monocular 7.5Hz, NTSC
http://www.amazon.com/FLIR-Scout-240x18 ... _pr_sims_t . It's a true IR device and it was very cool to play with. It wasn't set up as a rifle scope but looked as if it could be an easy added on in combination with a dot EOTECH type scope. The scope had multiple viewing features where heat could be shown as gray scale high lighted as white or black and it also could be displayed in red scale. There were multiple red scales options that had varying sensitivities. There was no hiding from that scope especially on the red displays. In red scale, the cool ambient background was gray where body heat showed red. The cost of the monocular was $2000 or so. That’s an inexpensive price for a true IR scope. If it were set up as a ready to go rifle scope I would strongly consider this over the Pulsar products. The price of these things is working to way down to the point were they are becoming affordable. It’s still a lot of money but it beats the usual $4000 to $8000 price tag that I typically see on FLIR products. I’ll stick with the Pulsar N550 for now and I’ll wait until a more affordable FLIR scope with adjustable cross hairs and rifle mounts becomes more affordable.

[Shootist]

Seconded for the Pulsar N550. With the addition of a laser illuminator (and a Dr Bob's lens adapter). One of the things that used to really annoys me with 'ordinary' NV is having to zero it in the dark. It's a huge PITA! OK, there is usually a pinhole in the lens cap that can be used to zero in the day, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea to risk burning a light spot in the middle of your very expensive screen. Also, I have heard that it adversely affects parallax. I also have heard of dark spots on Gen 2 and 3 screens caused by recoil damage. I can't verify this, but there's some views can be found on the net. I have found the N550 to be a great piece of kit. A set of decent batteries will last me an average shoot session, and it's not exactly difficult to cart around a spare set if the night is long. I would certainly buy the N750 in a flash if I hadn't bought the N550.

[Benchrest]

pular 550 is ok, but can take some warming uo as any pulsar.The best I have used are dipol/ dedal units. They are the lightest dedicated n/v units out there & can be upgraded very cost efficiently. Look for a s/h 141 M gen 1 & have it retubed by one of the n/v service lads on various forums to a gen 1+ or 2 for approx. £400 so all in £700/800 half the price of a weighty unit , & superb clarity, with a 120_ extra Ir they will recognise the smallest of targets to 100yds & fox etc way way past most comfort shot ability zones.