AusVarmint

I'm interested in buying a night vision scope for shooting pigs out on mud flats.
Rifle is a Sako TRG 300wm with a muzzle break, so range would be as far as the light can identify the target. The range about upto 300-350 meters.
I have used a IR filter on a 240 Blitz spotlight while wearing NV googles, then switch to ordinary light and scope once we spot a pig. But this method is very cumbersome.
I'd like to hear from any one who is using night vision and what they use and how they use it. Do you spot with googles and a IR light and then use a NV scope?
Regards Greg.

Pooh

Get yourself a Mono in Gen 2 or Gen 2+

Walk around, turn it on, scan the area, turn it of and walk some more and keep turning on and scanning. Your not going to see 300 - 350 with what your or I can buy commercially. A Gen 2+ or 3 DEP will see 200 or 250

Trev wrote:
Your not going to see 300 - 350 with what your or I can buy commercially. A Gen 2+ or 3 DEP will see 200 or 250

Yeah, not with the unit by it's self. But I was thinking about a rifle mounted spotlight with a Infra Red lense cover.

Wonder if Glen from Wolf eyes can step in here, Glen, do you have any Lens for the Wolf eyes.

So Pooh, did you have any setup in mind

I was thinking about a scope that fits in front of your existing scope like the ATN PS22
http://www.nightvisionshop.com.au/day-n ... s/products
but I havn't decided on the best option yet.

Trev wrote:Wonder if Glen from Wolf eyes can step in here, Glen, do you have any Lens for the Wolf eyes.

So Pooh, did you have any setup in mind

I purchased a IR lens cover off Wolfeyes, I tried it on
my Sniper 260 torch and I was not impressed at all, it was crap.
I did in the mean time read that IR lenses dont work on LED torches so that
was probably why it didnt work, I will have to try it on my Raider 380
torch next time out in the bush and see how that goes.

penguin

I missed this thread - Sorry about the late response and digging it up.

It's not an impossible range for pigs. The main question is if you're able to shoot that distance with a dayscope of either 4x or 6x fixed magnification. Also, many NV scopes are 1" adjustment at 100m - keep that in mind.

Anyway, I think I may have posted this before - Horses at about 400m. I don't have the reticle turned on (and I'm just holding the scope in my hand and holding a camera behind it). A partially overcast night with a tiny sliver of moon - Maybe 1/4 or less. (The dam in the background is about twice that distance and some of the trees are more that a kilometer away). Scope zoom is a touch under 4x. ( AN/PVS-4 - Milspec Gen2 ) I took this photo around midnight.



Detail...



Needless to say, there's no IR illumination in that image at all - It's taken with just ambient light. It was pretty dark... Too dark to see anyone walking around at 20m with your eyes.

The actual scope image to my eye was a little clearer than that and I wouldn't have had much trouble placing the reticle on something that large... They weren't big horses but they were a lot bigger than a pig so you'll need to guesstimate pig size. ( At least I never want to run into a pig bigger than those horses ).

A Gen3 scope with a higher resolution or a Supergen or XD4 based scope would provide a sharper image and zoom up to 6x.

You could use an add-on too - The PS-22 that was mentioned should be about as accurate as the scope I use.

If you're going to invest that much money though, you may want to haunt some of the Night Vision forums for a while and ask questions of those who shoot over comparable distances.

If it got really dark, you may want to use a laser-based illuminator. They would easily make the distance but only have a small FOV which causes ABC issues for a NV scope - though they work very well with rear-mounted add-on adapters I've heard.

David

Just another quick comment to add on hunting pigs with Night Vision -

There's a new US e-zine which has an article (and video) of hunting pigs with NV - which made me realize - you don't need to shoot over the same ranges that you do with lamps - Because with NV you can get a lot closer.

Apparently some guys in the US started doing this and it's been so successful that they turned it into a business.
http://www.arshunt.com/arshunt/200910

Might be something to consider if you're planning on doing this.

David.

I'm diggin this one up I know! but I am thinking this could be the ticket for those light shy mongrels who just stole 4 of my lambs last week! I was thinking about the add on to the front models but would these be enough on something as small as a fox? Because they cannot use higher magnifications that's all. the ones that go behind seem to be very uncomfortable to shoot with.

Plowboy wrote:I'm diggin this one up I know! but I am thinking this could be the ticket for those light shy mongrels who just stole 4 of my lambs last week! I was thinking about the add on to the front models but would these be enough on something as small as a fox? Because they cannot use higher magnifications that's all. the ones that go behind seem to be very uncomfortable to shoot with.

I took a light-shy fox at about 40 meters with my NV... It didn't see me at all, because it was too dark, despite that I was running towards it. In the end I just yelled to startle it and when it looked up, I dropped it.

None of the regular shooters had managed to get it ever since someone put a bullet in it's backside and after that it was light shy. Even turning off a houselight 200m away is enough to spook them in my area and they are regularly hunted down so they know what lights mean.

Anyway, you can use a monocular with a reflex sight out to about 100m or maybe 200 to 250 if you have additional magnification. A front-mounted add-on should do about 200 to 250m with enough extra IR, but dedicated are the best way to go. Keep in mind that resolution is an important factor when range is a consideration.

Most Gen2 you buy commercially will probably need extra IR for any distance, but that's not usually a problem and it helps with eyeshine.

You can make your own spotters too if you want, then switch to lamp if you're quick enough... I found I can accurately ID a fox at about 100m with digital too. Probably the same with Gen1 and a good IR source. What sort of range and conditions did you have in mind?

David

Conditions out here in the mallee are flat, open cropping country. We have the light shy variety too as well as bunnies a plenty that also know what light means. I could go silly with long range stuff but really if I cant get within 200m of a fox I would not really shoot at it. I was thinking of either sitting in the cruiser and waiting or walking around spots where I know they hang around. I have a rail on the tikka now so I could swap the day scope for a night version.

Plowboy wrote:Conditions out here in the mallee are flat, open cropping country. We have the light shy variety too as well as bunnies a plenty that also know what light means. I could go silly with long range stuff but really if I cant get within 200m of a fox I would not really shoot at it. I was thinking of either sitting in the cruiser and waiting or walking around spots where I know they hang around. I have a rail on the tikka now so I could swap the day scope for a night version.

OK, the next question is what kind of a budget are you planning. Gen1 riflescopes are around $1000 or less but you'd be struggling to see well out past 100m even with a good IR illuminator. They work OK-ish on a full moon night, but so do fox eyes.

A Gen2 dedicated scope costs about $3000 to $4000. A lot of different people sell them but they are not cheap and there's not much quality control, though a decent tube in a D740 or D760 would be very good for your purposes.

I have long ago stopped using Gen1 for anything other than to demonstrate how poorly it works. Most of my kit now is Gen3 though I still use some Gen2.

Some time ago I posted to several local forums on how to build your own Cascade spotter for a few hundred dollars. These are quite useful as an interim step because although a cascade is technically Gen1, it performs more like a higher end Gen2. These are good to make, because you can set them up on a tripod to watch a field from a hide.

Regards
David

David what about the digital day/night scopes? are they any good at all? was looking at one on youtube the otherday and was thinking if it was any good it would be a good mid price idea.

Plowboy wrote:David what about the digital day/night scopes? are they any good at all? was looking at one on youtube the otherday and was thinking if it was any good it would be a good mid price idea.

They are OK out to about 100m and are about as good as a Gen1 but usually have better illuminators. They suck batteries pretty hard though... I have a Bushnell Stealthview. It works OK but hates batteries.

Regards
David

Ah OK thanks mate. I was sort of thinking that if I could have a car mounted iluminator(if thats legal) I would use that type of setup.