Night vision?

[JohnVH]

Not looking for a scope, curious on anything that allows you to see at night better. What do you have? Hows it work? I live by a field, just want to see whats running around at night out there.

[actionshooter]

The old PVS-14s work pretty well. Don't have experience with anything else.

[JohnVH]

Oh, I should add, on a poor mans budget, those are SPENDY! 

[WoodlandShooter]

Oh, I should add, on a poor mans budget, those are SPENDY! 

A flashlight...

[JohnVH]

Oh, I should add, on a poor mans budget, those are SPENDY! 

A flashlight...

tried that last night, seen eyes, but thats it.. need something better.

[WoodlandShooter]

well, dont bother with Gen 1...

Electronic NV is relatively cheap, but it needs an illuminator to work best..and if someone out there is using tube night vision, you will be lit up like a christmas tree.

read up...lots to learn.

[Rich_S]

I got to go for a ride on a carrier, once - the U.S.S. Ranger. We went from Vancouver, B.C. to Sandy Eggo in 7 days.

We made friends with the Mas' Chief of Signals and had the run of the signals bridge for most of the trip. That's the topmost spot on the ship, unless you want to climb a mast.

They let us use their night vision gear which, BTW, they kept in a safe. The goggles let us see a fishing boat on the horizon at least five miles away. The navigation lights on the fishboat lit up the whole boat. You could even see the water and waves around the boat. Fantastic gear! Then they let us look through the big night vision scopes mounted on tripods. It was like day time as far as you could see. I don't know if they incorporated illuminators or not. I seem to remember them saying they were Starlight scopes.

I bought one of the cheapy IR viewers at Big 5. It had a cheesy IR illuminator on it. I could see maybe 50 feet and things were so fuzzy I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. I gave it to my kid and chalked up the $75 to a birthday present.

I think you get what you pay for. Too bad the days of cheap army surplus are long gone.

[WoodlandShooter]

I got to go for a ride on a carrier, once - the U.S.S. Ranger. We went from Vancouver, B.C. to Sandy Eggo in 7 days.

We made friends with the Mas' Chief of Signals and had the run of the signals bridge for most of the trip. That's the topmost spot on the ship, unless you want to climb a mast.

They let us use their night vision gear which, BTW, they kept in a safe. The goggles let us see a fishing boat on the horizon at least five miles away. The navigation lights on the fishboat lit up the whole boat. You could even see the water and waves around the boat. Fantastic gear! Then they let us look through the big night vision scopes mounted on tripods. It was like day time as far as you could see. I don't know if they incorporated illuminators or not. I seem to remember them saying they were Starlight scopes.

I bought one of the cheapy IR viewers at Big 5. It had a cheesy IR illuminator on it. I could see maybe 50 feet and things were so fuzzy I couldn't really tell what I was looking at. I gave it to my kid and chalked up the $75 to a birthday present.

I think you get what you pay for. Too bad the days of cheap army surplus are long gone.

Yup, similar story here while deployed on the USS California. Them big eyes can let you see anything.

[JohnVH]

advantage to having no budget 

[CAMPMEAT]

A Border Patrol Agent came over one night with his (ours) NV they use up here. I looked through it and you could see everything perfectly. I asked how much did my NV cost, $40,000.