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.
Practice Strict Gun Control - Precision Counts!