night vision set up

[kaduflyer]

Thinking of having a night vision set up on one of my rifles any suggestions on equipment needed to do job maybe shooting out 200 metres seems a lot of different equipment thanks 

[GT3_richy]

Budget? What are you shooting at 200m, fox, rabbit?

Would you prefer a rear add on you can use with your dayscope (depends on your day scope though), or a dedicated NV scope?

[kaduflyer]

Shooting fox mainly odd rabbit with 223 and which ever would be the best between the dedicated or the rear add on my scope I would put add on would either be a Burris or my ior 

[Aggy]

I have a Atn x sight 3-14 and with the right ir it will reach out to spot in excess of 500 yard .

the down sides are it eats batteries 

its heavy

it sits really high on the gun 

it is a very clever bit of kit and is full of features you,probably won’t use .

I did have it up for swap /px for a good day scope ,ior nightforce ect but got no takers so I intend to swap it next week for a photon rt .yes a cheaper unit but being more like a scope in its dimensions it will be more usable for me .

[kaduflyer]

Atn seem to get differing reviews by folk some good some not so good 

[phoenix]

With due respect to Aggy, I own but do not use an ATN X Sight - it's so bad I could not in all conscience sell it or even give it away to anyone

Therefore, I would strongly recommend that you don't touch them with a barge pole.

 

It's probably true to say that the X Sight is the best digital day scope available (but it's no better than even the cheapest glass scope) and the worst night vision scope available

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

 

[Aggy]

They are like anything else ,you have to learn how to use them ,I can’t fault the scope I just struggle getting my head comfortable when using it . Unless you are going to use all the things it can do then don’t bother . 

[Aggy]

Hi Bruce they aren’t for everyone and not for me but that doesn’t make it a bad scope . I stuck it on a tripod last week to show the night time image and could easily see way past 300 yard I had ranged ,maybe double that ,would take a shot at that no .but then again I probably wouldn’t in day time either. Another thing that lets all Nv down is it is incredibly difficult to judge. Distance at night 

[Aggy]

With std  ir yes you are probably right 

[GT3_richy]

Budget dependant;

Dedicated - second hand Drone Pro, best digital NV available bar none, down side they've recently been discontinued and they dont come up used that often. Alternative much cheaper option is a Photon XT or RT, with a good illuminator and a doubler they are very capable.

Add-on; Ward 700/800, not much comes close. Add-on performance is very scope/illuminator-dependent however, high end glass often performs badly. My Recon gives a pretty decent picture though.

Then there are tubed solutions. I'd be scared of damaging the tube personally, only people I've heard compare PVS14 to Ward have suggested theyre no better at best. No experience of dedicated tubed stuff.

[GT3_richy]

If you dont have anything night shooting gear-wise at the mo, budget dependent I'd find a good used thermal spotter and a used Photon with doubler+good IR.

Budget is probably the biggest consideration when answering your question!

[Moorlander]

Yukon Photon , with a decent IR illuminator you will exceed 250 yards , they use 30mm mounts ,easy to zero and prices start at £380.00 , ATN dont even come close.

https://www.thomasjacks.co.uk/yukon/night_vision_weapon_scopes.asp

[GP1]

On 09/02/2018 at 10:18 PM, kaduflyer said:

Thinking of having a night vision set up on one of my rifles any suggestions on equipment needed to do job maybe shooting out 200 metres seems a lot of different equipment thanks 

I don't shoot anymore and have sold most of my kit, one of the best set ups I had was a pvs-14 on an IOR scope, changed the pvs for an envis which to be honest was as good for the shooting I was doing, both are gen3 tube units, now days not sure on cost but I would of thought you would get an envis for around £1,600 to £1,750 and pvs £1,600 to £2,400 , you will need a DSA cage which connects the NV to scope, also an ir laser or led, down side is the FOV it's very small, so if that's a problem go dedicated and look for a good gen 3 unit, I still have a D480 unit but no tube in it at present ,which I will be selling soon.

I looked through most NV unit, the Drone Pro being one of the best digital unit but in my opinion I prefer tubed units, no disrespect to anyone but I wouldn't touch a ATN digital unit or the maxi kite tube unit, unless it had been checked over for parallex issues .

At the end of the day NV is a minefield and will cost you a small fortune so make sure you buy the right kit for the job you wish to do, if possible always look before you buy even if you need to travel 200 mile to look and take someone with you who knows what they are looking at and have something to compare the unit to. this is because NV can look the dog's danglers on some nights and sh.t on others, so if you have someone that knows the performance of their unit you can compare it to the one you wish purchase.

You will also need a spotting scope, I would go for a good Thermal scope, again you get what you pay for.

Sorry for waffling on 

[Remmy308]

I have a 6.5 photon on my .223 and .17 hornet and between me and my shooting buddy we regularly shoot rabbits and fox out to 300 yrds and can easily detect fox and double that using T67 mk2 ir torches total cost of set ups with mounts is sub £500.

Had the original x sight and traded it back in for photons as was not happy with what the claimed it could achieve.

Yes the drone pro is a great bit of kit but it's not 3 times better than the photon which is the monetary difference.

[treetop]

Photon 6.5 xt & a T67 mk2/evo IR torch, & you need an adjustable mount for the torch 

there are loads of options out there , but imo the photon will fill the need & it won't cost you the earth.

There are loads of people about that slate them, but I doubt any other NV has taken as much quarry 

Yes you may need to shim the rear mount or play about in the 1st couple of outings, but other than a quick check of zero ( which 99% needs no adjustments) mine goes in & out the cabinet every week & I regularly take quarry out to 200 yards and beyond 

[CliveWard]

On 10/02/2018 at 5:10 AM, kaduflyer said:

Shooting fox mainly odd rabbit with 223 and which ever would be the best between the dedicated or the rear add on my scope I would put add on would either be a Burris or my ior 

I use the Ward D Vision 800L on my .223 and a few other rifles that aren't set up with thermal.

Very compact and no problems with eye relief or distance even using our smallest BR20 Black Sun Ruby IR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVw_djBAtFA

 

Cheers

 

 

Clive

[ukhornet]

i have a NT300 add-on for sale  if your interested

[soother223]

Interesting- I’m looking to upgrade from a original photon this year... 

was looking at the drone but not the 15 as it’s just too expensive for me!  There again the 10 has been out for some time now! Was impressed with the ward footage! Open to suggestions... 

not sure about the nite site- I like  looking through a scope if you know what I mean?..

[phoenix]

The Drone Pro is no longer available new, although there a few used ones cropping up regularly.

If you want to mount the rifle normally, then a NiteSite is useless.

The best rear add-on is the Ward 800 from the Night Vision Store, but you need to have right scope to get the best out of it.

Probably the best digital NV scope available at the moment are the Pulsar Digisights with the N355 being the pick of the bunch (although it doesn't have a built in rangefinder)

There's a new ATN X Sight coming out in May /June, and although I have royally slagged off the current X Sight and wouldn't touch one with a barge pole, I did look through one of the new 4K X Sight at the BSS and it was very impressive.

 

Cheers

 

Bruce

[soother223]

Interesting- I’m looking to upgrade from a original photon this year... 

was looking at the drone but not the 15 as it’s just too expensive for me!  There again the 10 has been out for some time now! Was impressed with the ward footage! Open to suggestions... 

not sure about the nite site- I like  looking through a scope if you know what I mean?..

 

thanks for for the info.

[Aggy]

So just my thoughts I have a x sight 3-14 and in my opinion it’s very good at what it does,  I have compared it side by side to the photon rt and it was better in both day and night ,the only thing the photon beat the x sight with was screen size .

Today I bought a pulsar N355 and that beats them both by an absolute mile with my pbir it’s the best Digital Night vision I have used 

[gunner223]

On 2/10/2018 at 4:40 PM, GT3_richy said:

Budget dependant;

Dedicated - second hand Drone Pro, best digital NV available bar none, down side they've recently been discontinued and they dont come up used that often. Alternative much cheaper option is a Photon XT or RT, with a good illuminator and a doubler they are very capable.

Add-on; Ward 700/800, not much comes close. Add-on performance is very scope/illuminator-dependent however, high end glass often performs badly. My Recon gives a pretty decent picture though.

Then there are tubed solutions. I'd be scared of damaging the tube personally, only people I've heard compare PVS14 to Ward have suggested theyre no better at best. No experience of dedicated tubed stuff.

 

[gunner223]

Try the Longbow if budget allows, i use one with a thermal as a spotter, yep not cheap but great results

[tolley]

Drone pro  

[Moorlander]

44 minutes ago, tolley said:

Drone pro  

AFAIK the Drone Pro distributor has ceased trading.