Best night vision rifle scope for $1200-$1500.

[Termite]

Help me out here, guys.

Gen II+ would be nice, but I don't think the price will fit my budget. Are there any plain Gen II in that price range? A used AN-PVS-4 is about $1500, but the bloody thing weighs over 4 lbs; used them in the Army; they're horribly bulky.
I'm not impressed with Gen I.

Mount requirements are it has to fit Weaver/Picatinny rail. And it'd be nice if it had an IR emitter for moonless nights.

[Kommander]

I am not overly familiar with such things but I think you are going to have to significantly increase your budget if you want something worth a damn.

[Steamforger]

My only experience with dedicated weapon sights is the Simrad line of sights. They're quite a but over your budget, coming in at $10k or so list. Getting one is difficult. The quality of the imager, I think, is awesome. IIRC, they guarantee facial recognition at 100 yards. It is a Gen III+. Having used budget optics like Night Owl my advice is to save as much as you can for Gen II+ or better. I just couldn't drop 1500 bones on crappy NV.

[Termite]

Double to triple the high just to get the very bottom end of useful gear, used. Try 8k for something actually worth buying, 12 for some precision and resolution.

So the ATN line of Gen II are junk? ATN Night Arrow 4
Keep in mind I don't need facial recognition clarity at 100m, I just need to be able to see and shoot hogs and other outlaw animals out to 100m or so.

I'd love to have a Litton Gen III or IV, but that ain't happening. In fact, if I drop 4 or 5 grand on a night scope, Mrs. Termite will shit a brick......

[Yogimus]

Gen 2 is shit, no resolution, massive bloom.

[blackeagle603]

About a year ago Frank James wrote a bunch about his experiences with night vision and hogs.

Go down the sidebar here and see his night vision posts.

Speaking to subject of minimum equipment entry points. Looks like about $3K.

in my view the PVS-14 is the best place to start when searching for quality night vision equipment. I've found it works well with either the ACOG red dot sight or the Mil-Spec Aimpoint and a GG&G quick detach mount.

[Yogimus]

About a year ago Frank James wrote a bunch about his experiences with night vision and hogs.

Go down the sidebar here and see his night vision posts.

Speaking to subject of minimum equipment entry points. Looks like about $3K.

in my view the PVS-14 is the best place to start when searching for quality night vision equipment. I've found it works well with either the ACOG red dot sight or the Mil-Spec Aimpoint and a GG&G quick detach mount.

AN/PVS-14 is VERY good.

[blackeagle603]

Looks like they can be had for ~$2800 online now.

I'd love take one for a spin. Not in CA I won't though...

[Termite]

Just damn.....

Looks like I'll be staying with the Fenix TK15 w/red lense cover for the time being for my illumination solution. I can mount it to any of my rifles in just a few minutes, and hogs don't really see red light.

The Marlin 375 has a 1.5-4.5 scope with a german #1 reticle, and the heavy crosshairs plus tapered post show up really well. However, it's been giving a bit of trouble with a horizontal zero that keeps jumping left and right about four inches @ 50m. It's not a high dollar scope(BSA Catseye), so the 375's recoil might be too much for it.

The Mini-30 has a Weaver V1-3, and those crosshairs are medium width, but show up pretty good. Being semi-auto also has real advantages.

Of course, my birthday was last week, so if any of ya'll feel the urge you can buy me a Rock River AR-15 with 6.8 SPC upper, and D-760 Gen III scope as my dedicated nighttime hog gun.........

[blackeagle603]

I agree, the -14 is very good, and it's available to civilians as a "sightmark" product for $3k; but as a monocular device, not as a weaponsight.

If you want to put it on a flipdown in front of/behind (depending on perspective) a reddot or holosight, that's a good solution; but not a precision solution.

Yeah, that's the way Frank has his set up -- in series with an ACOG. Link

...and him speaking to it's useful range

I've found my PVS-14 is good to about 100 yards with a 'fingernail' moon. I can activate the built-in infra-red illuminator for more definition within that distance, but it doesn't really add much 'range' to what I'm seeing by itself. If I mount an Insight Technology tactical lamp (shown in one of the above photos) with an infra-red filter on the firearm I can gain about another 10 to 20 yards in terms of visual definition depending upon conditions. So, essentially I feel 120 yards is about the maximum I can 'see' with this device and the ACOG scope under 'good' field conditions. Granted, that's way less than I can see with my D-760, but it also costs about another $1,000 more and it isn't nearly as versatile as this PVS-14.