Entry level Night Vision

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Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 26 May 2019, 6:43 am

I’m thinking about spending some coin on a night vision Monocular.
I’ve been doing some reading and I’ve been looking at some Yukon/Pulsar units for about $650.
What sort of quality would you expect for that?
I did some reading on earlier threads where posters were asking about NV scopes. The responses were along the lines of , if you’re not gonna spend megabucks then it’s only gonna be gimicky gear that’s of little use.
Is this the same with monoculars?
Note, I am stearing clear on the Aldi/EBay $150 specials!
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by Blr243 » 26 May 2019, 7:49 am

I have spent between 150 and 2200 on n v equipment and most of it is a waste of money A strain on the eyes ....nearly impossible to detect game. Then I spent nearly 7000 on a thermal scope ....now I have something that is beyond useful. It’s amazing. I took two rifles on my last trip. One with the thermal and another with a vortex scope. During that hunt I never took the vortex fitted rifle out of its case .....day and night the thermal was my scope of choice. I also took my 2200 dollar nv scope on the hunt but it stayed in its case too.....initially I fitted my rifle with a pic rail so I could easily swap my thermal and a conventional scope with qd mounts depending on day or night hunting but now I won’t be taking the thermal of ever
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 26 May 2019, 8:16 am

Ok, that’s interesting. I saw a thermal monocular, FLIR scout for close to $1k.
How would you think that’d work?
I get it that that’s about the entry level model but FLIR seem to be a decent brand.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bladeracer » 26 May 2019, 8:47 am

My experience matches BLR's, interesting, novelty value, useful for seeing in the dark sometimes without a torch, but utterly useless for hunting.

The basic problem is that you are looking at a bright light source, the viewing screen, so you have zero night vision for walking around, so you need a torch anyway to see where you're going.

The one situation I have actually found it useful is overwatch of a dead 'roo. In that situation, I knew exactly where I was expecting to see the foxes, so it was simply a matter of switching it on, scanning the area, and switching it of.

I did spend a couple hundred on a powerful IR torch, which makes a significant difference but I still find I need to sweep with a light to spot the foxes, then switch to IR to watch to watch them. simply scanning around with IR in pitch darkness is incredibly disorienting for me as you can't see any landmarks. If you do pick up movement, you have no idea of which direction you're facing to be able to make a safe shot.

My first significant foray into IR was the old Call of Duty NVG's, but I"ve bought a few monoculars since, and put a unit on a rifle.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 26 May 2019, 9:17 am

Righto. My intentions were to set up and watch over an electronic fox caller from 100m away as opposed to walking around with them. When I spot something, quickly whack on the OLight spotty on top of my scope and nail him.
I’m still pretty new to hunting so I’m not sure how effective this tactic would even be!
After more reading, that FLIR thermal for under $1k is meant to be too basic.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bladeracer » 26 May 2019, 9:26 am

xDom wrote:Righto. My intentions were to set up and watch over an electronic fox caller from 100m away as opposed to walking around with them. When I spot something, quickly whack on the OLight spotty on top of my scope and nail him.
I’m still pretty new to hunting so I’m not sure how effective this tactic would even be!
After more reading, that FLIR thermal for under $1k is meant to be too basic.


Whichever you decide on I would recommend finding somebody with gear that you can check out in the field before putting your money Into it.

There's the Australian fox shooting group and a professional pest controllers group on Facebook that wouldn't be a bad place to start perhaps.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by hunting99 » 26 May 2019, 3:22 pm

I have the basic FLIR thermal and works grate on deer and other larger animals. But i would get better one if I was just fox shooting.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 26 May 2019, 3:38 pm

I’ve seen a second hand FLIR thermal on EBay. How do you go about using it on the field?
Bladeracer in his post before mentioned the issue of looking at a bright screen then your eyes adjusting back when you look away from the device.
I’ve read other reports in the internet, people saying the same thing.
I guess ideally you need thermal monocular and a thermal scope! $$!
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by hunting99 » 26 May 2019, 6:19 pm

Yes the the bright screen takes a lot of getting used to. I find the trick is not use your dominant eye to look through the NV and walk around with the other eye, you do lose a lot of depth perception but.

If all you are doing is sitting over a fox caller. Probably just a NV scope would do.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by wanneroo » 26 May 2019, 11:58 pm

You can look up previous night vision threads to see my thoughts. It's one of the things I work with a lot and teach people how to use.

You get what you pay for in regards to night optics and most, if not all of the cheap stuff is not worth your time.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 27 May 2019, 10:53 am

So what do you consider cheap stuff?.. under $2k?
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by sungazer » 27 May 2019, 5:18 pm

The true thermal scopes dont have the problem of being disorientated as even the trees can be seen they have a different heat signature compared to surrounding air. But be prepared to part with $**,***.**
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bladeracer » 27 May 2019, 5:27 pm

sungazer wrote:The true thermal scopes dont have the problem of being disorientated as even the trees can be seen they have a different heat signature compared to surrounding air. But be prepared to part with $**,***.**


Yes, thermal is like magic, but costs way too much for the majority of shooters.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by TassieTiger » 28 May 2019, 12:33 am

Would be cheaper to join the army?
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by wanneroo » 28 May 2019, 1:15 pm

xDom wrote:So what do you consider cheap stuff?.. under $2k?


You will probably need to spend above that to get what will really work, with a few exceptions.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by Kel » 29 May 2019, 5:47 am

IR/NVG is a quick way to clean out your wallet. Having put a good IR scope on my rifle it is great for shooting from a fixed location but then your thoughts turn to binocular NVG so you can move around ... 20 grand later you'd be good to go :(
So a torch still has a place in my kit for a while yet.

Incidentally, that IR scope does come off the rifle to be replaced by an optic whenever I develop loads as the resolution of even a $8700 IR scope isn't ideal for that task. (Clip ons might be different, I haven't tried)
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 29 May 2019, 5:57 am

Personally,for the limited use I'd truly have for NV,I'm looking at the pard nv007 scope attachment. Seems like a good thing to someone who can't spend 8k on thermal
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 29 May 2019, 7:20 am

Yeah, I was reading up on the Pard NV 007.
For the price, people seem to be very impressed with it.
Apparently a parallax adjustment is needed on your scope, which I don’t have.
I did see another YouTube clip saying that clip ons are never as good as dedicated scopes.
I dunno, the more I read the more I think I’ll stick with my OLight tourch setup.! At the end of the day It’s just a hobby!
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 29 May 2019, 10:12 am

I've been in discussion with a bloke who runs one on a bog standard Bushnell,and it's quite fine without parallax adjustment....
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 29 May 2019, 10:43 am

That’s good to know. Do you know if he goes for an additional IR tourch? They reckon that significantly boosts the performance.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 29 May 2019, 10:53 am

He uses the existing torch,and says it's fine to 100m, but to get to 200+m you need an external torch
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 29 May 2019, 5:16 pm

bigpete wrote:He uses the existing torch,and says it's fine to 100m, but to get to 200+m you need an external torch


Would you mind asking your mate if he finds the additional length that is added to the scope by clipping on the NV 007 easy to work with?
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 29 May 2019, 6:33 pm

I'll see
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by wanneroo » 29 May 2019, 11:32 pm

I looked at a Youtube video of the PARD scope. Looks ok for the price but that is a lot of weight and length up on top of the rifle.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 30 May 2019, 5:22 am

250gm compared to a kilo if you buy a dedicated nv scope ?
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by xDom » 30 May 2019, 7:03 am

You can get them on Ebay for $550 delivered. Add another $200 for a reasonable quality IR tourch and you’re set.
Worst case scenario, you’re not happy with it you can still use it as a stand-alone unit. Or flog it off.
I’m seriously leaning towards it.
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by bigpete » 30 May 2019, 1:22 pm

I wouldn't
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by wannabustbunnies » 04 Jun 2019, 6:11 pm

I have one of the previous version ALDI monocular. All I have done is add a short section of picatinny to the tripod hole and attached an IR torch and can easily see foxes especially eyeshine out to 400 metres. I don't use it to navigate around with, just for scanning and following them until they are in range before swapping to the rifle with torch. Like others have said I also use my non dominant eye when using it.
Now I also have one the Pard NV007's as well and do the same thing. Scan with monocular and then switch to the rifle with Pard for the shot.
The in-built IR is good for what it is but if using a centrefire I use an additional IR torch on the rifle.
I wouldn't use the NV007 as a spotter and then try and attach it to the scope for the shot as you will have to change the focus on the unit every time you do.
Nightvisionforumuk.com has a whole lot of information
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by YoungBuck » 04 Jun 2019, 6:59 pm

Has anyone had experience with the 2018 released ATN X-sight 4k? I was not a fan of the X-sight (1) or X-sight 2 due to, too low of a resolution and sluggish performance but after looking at the new 4k model I'm now interested...
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Re: Entry level Night Vision

Post by wannabustbunnies » 04 Jun 2019, 8:18 pm

YoungBuck wrote:Has anyone had experience with the 2018 released ATN X-sight 4k? I was not a fan of the X-sight (1) or X-sight 2 due to, too low of a resolution and sluggish performance but after looking at the new 4k model I'm now interested...


ATN seem to be very hit and miss from all accounts. Another option for around the same price is the new Sightmark Wraith or the Pard NV008
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