AusVarmint

Instead of blasting a beam of light into infinity has anyone tried any night vision equipment such as spotting monoculars or scopes?

If I had the bank balance to do it mate i would. But a spotty can be purchased for $100 and will spot a fox a long way away. Night vision is limited in the distance you can see stuff.

foxymel used it a bit in her previous job and reckons its the ducks nuts, unfortunatly it costs lots. For the price of the unit they were using you could have a full lightforce rig and a Nightforce NXS series scope as well.

Yeah, really not worth it unless you can get gen 3 stuff. Looking at about 6 grand starting point there.

I have used Ninox, unfortunately I don't think it's available for private use.

You can purchase some very decent ex-Israeli and Russian night vision gear these days.

Horsley Park often has ex-military gear available.

Thats one form of Fox hunting I would like to engage in, whistling a Fox in complete darkness with night vision, it would really raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

Yeah I shoot alone so spot lighting is out of the question, so I figured I could sit in darkness and wait for some unsuspecting fox to chow down on a can of spam or something.

Swiper,I do spotlight by myself a fair bit.I use a rifle mounted lightforce after locating with the roof mounted light.It works reasonably well.I haven't founde the balance affected too much and the kill ration is good.
Just another option,
Macca

Hey Macca, I just bought one of those scope mounted kits too. Do you worry about the brace on the scope changing POI?

Would love to give the Nightvision a hit. Dollars up too *#@?!!!.

I have the lightforce mounted on my rifles as I shoot alone a lot (shoot mostly on weekdays). Its ok, doesnt seem to make any difference to the point of impact and as previously mentioned they are that light wieght they dont uset the balance either.

Will have to make do until I get a spare couple of grand for a Nightvision scope.

Dave

same here dave and macca. If i am spotlighting alone I use the roof mounted light and scope mounted light along with a door rest. not a problem.

If I am spotlighting with someone new I will often have the light as well as the gun until they get used to how I like to move the light. When shooting with Mel or Kev we usually have two roof mounted lightforce spotties on the go at the same time.

The scope mounted light isnt that usefull when with another competant spotlight driver but comes into its own when you see that opportunistic cat at 10 in the evening while driving home. I realise that many of you dont get to shoot cats driving to or from work but beleive me it is a nice perk

before i get home in november,i plan to buy one of the cheaper NV scopes for me 22.
75yrds on a good night is about as far as i need to see anyhow.just right for snipin cats at the tip

Dr G wrote:I realise that many of you dont get to shoot cats driving to or from work but beleive me it is a nice perk

Don't rub it in

I have owned and used a pair of Russian nightvision binos in the past,
they were not bad, a bit dissapointing in starlight only conditions, but with
half a moon or more you could see pigs in an open field out to 100mtrs clearly,
and up to 150 mtrs u could make out dark shapes, although sometimes these
were roos bent over feeding. But these Russion binos were rather cumbersome and
heavy and they sh@t themselves pretty quickly. I also owned a pair of Israeli
nitevision goggles that I found at a cash converters store for $125, and they came in a kit with a army torch and a infra red filter for the torch, these were crap for hunting
as their range was limited. If u wanted to go and burgle peoples homes in total
darkness they would have been ideal.
I have a pair of US made binos now that I can remove the front lens tubes and replace them with smaller ones, that have no magnification and then they become goggles and the kit has a strap for your head as well. I also baught a infra red filter for my Lightforce Blitz 240 spotty. This set up is amazing, U can spotlight and be in total darkness, your prey dont even see u, but u can see them if u have the goggles strapped on, and what spun me out was that even with the nightvision goggles on, and the black infra red filter on the spotty, animals eyes light up like bright torches. The only other thing u will require if u are gona be hunting with your mates is a low powered laser pointer. once u spot the game through your nightvision u just point the laser at the target, and all your mates have to do is point there weapon of choice at the red dot and shoot. These nightvision
binos cost me around the $1500 mark and have their own built in infra red illuminator for
viewing in complete darkness. You must also remember that it is imposible to look into
a scope with nightvision googles strapped to your face, and if u use binos to spot game
u are still gonna need 2 put them down and get a light so u can still see to shoot.
And even after all my experimenting, I have gone back to the good old tradional method of spotlighting, its much more fun.

penguin