The Night Vision/Thermal Thread

[Mr_Fiux]

For all you folks waiting on prices of thermal to go down. Just wait until we have drones in the sky and just shoot them down. Take thermal =??? Profit?

[CJ]

That being said I know we have a few NVD people on here and hopefully they come on in here and answer some questions and take us to school. I guess I have a few initial questions:

1. What is the minimum you would spend on an NVD?
2. Is gen three worth the money for a hunting application?
3. What is the best deal out there for a weapon mountable gen two or three?
4. Where can I find a good IR illuminator for when the moon is being a bitch?
5. Could I use a PVS-7 to hunt? Seems like it would be difficult to aim a gun with a centered monocular.
6. Thermal weapons sights cost $6,000 and up, but is it worth it in lieu of an NVD?

1. About $1,500 is where quality starts.
2. Yes it is worth the money, but a high quality gen1 or gen2 can be just as good.
3. The best deal in my opinion is a PVS-14. It's good for any .223 caliber except a SCAR, they have a weird recoil impulse that messes up nightvision tubes. For bigger calibers you have to use a weapons grade tube and a custom housing and custom built unit. The one I have Tom was asking $5k for, and it is warrantied to a .308. They are small, light, can be helmet mounted, weapon mounted, and serve the same purpose at the same time.
4. The AN/PEQ2 works great from experience, but a lot of them have distortion in the lens which in my opinion is distracting. Most of the high end military units are regulated by the FDA, so you can't obtain them. I'm still in the process of finding a high quality unit myself. "The Torch" is a nice IR illuminator that gat0r let me use and it was extremely nice for the money, but I don't know where you can get those anymore. They were not as long range as an AN/PEQ2, but they were also 10x cheaper.
5. You can hunt with a PVS-7, you can ask Jason at Ident about that, he made a mount that works. PVS-7 is a great affordable NV for observation, not the best for a weapon mount.
6. Thermal offers something NV just doesn't, it can spot life even when not visible to nightvision. The best thermal for the money is an omvis (I believe that's the name). That's the unit that uses the Elcan thermal unit out of a 00-01 cadillac.

If you want to see my PVS-14 you can be my guest. It's a weapons grade unit with a flawless tube, probably a great example of what money can get you. Also, you can come with me and Chris to visit Tom who builds them for a living to see some of the best nightvision money can buy. Also, if you want to see an omvis thermal system, gat0r on the board has one you can see. Chris has just about every NVG system there is as well.

[futant]

good info in here, this thread delivers... even in less than suitable lighting

[Ruffdaddy]

Bunch of confusion on here. Ill try to post up more when I get home.

Go with true IR, especially since you can afford it. I2S sucks even with illumination compared to thermal. Thermal requires no source and will far out range standard night vision.

[CJ]

[Ruffdaddy]

I was gonna be nice but now I'll tell you where you want wrong again. You always have to be a douche when you're technically incorrect.

[Ruffdaddy]

1. About $1,500 is where quality starts.
2. Yes it is worth the money, but a high quality gen1 or gen2 can be just as good.
3. The best deal in my opinion is a PVS-14. It's good for any .223 caliber except a SCAR, they have a weird recoil impulse that messes up nightvision tubes. For bigger calibers you have to use a weapons grade tube and a custom housing and custom built unit. The one I have Tom was asking $5k for, and it is warrantied to a .308. They are small, light, can be helmet mounted, weapon mounted, and serve the same purpose at the same time.
4. The AN/PEQ2 works great from experience, but a lot of them have distortion in the lens which in my opinion is distracting. Most of the high end military units are regulated by the FDA, so you can't obtain them. I'm still in the process of finding a high quality unit myself. "The Torch" is a nice IR illuminator that gat0r let me use and it was extremely nice for the money, but I don't know where you can get those anymore. They were not as long range as an AN/PEQ2, but they were also 10x cheaper.
5. You can hunt with a PVS-7, you can ask Jason at Ident about that, he made a mount that works. PVS-7 is a great affordable NV for observation, not the best for a weapon mount.
6. Thermal offers something NV just doesn't, it can spot life even when not visible to nightvision. The best thermal for the money is an omvis (I believe that's the name). That's the unit that uses the Elcan thermal unit out of a 00-01 cadillac.

If you want to see my PVS-14 you can be my guest. It's a weapons grade unit with a flawless tube, probably a great example of what money can get you. Also, you can come with me and Chris to visit Tom who builds them for a living to see some of the best nightvision money can buy. Also, if you want to see an omvis thermal system, gat0r on the board has one you can see. Chris has just about every NVG system there is as well.

Quoting for later...

[futant]

I was gonna be nice but now I'll tell you where you want wrong again. You always have to be a douche when you're technically incorrect.

Even if he is technically incorrect on something, could he not have the right info for practical application ?

hopefully you are going to be responding to the OP's questions, not CJ

[Ruffdaddy]

Even if he is technically incorrect on something, could he not have the right info for practical application ?

hopefully you are going to be responding to the OP's questions, not CJ

Talking to CJ. We always get into this debate, even though I've worked on the TWS program and a few other targeting systems. He's always like 60% right but still way wrong and just gets all bitchy like a teenage chick when I bring up the correct data. I was specifically not quoting anyone to avoid that...but he had to start the BS lol.

[CJ]

Talking to CJ. We always get into this debate, even though I've worked on the TWS program and a few other targeting systems. He's always like 60% right but still way wrong and just gets all bitchy like a teenage chick when I bring up the correct data. I was specifically not quoting anyone to avoid that...but he had to start the BS lol.

I'm really getting sick of your stupid shit. You're a drama queen that think he's a fucking genius on any topic. This forum is about helping other people, not stroking your ego. You need to settle down. Take a day to think about that.

[futant]

dude seriously lets hear his technical details.
I'm a geek and i can spot uber geeks . He may be right on some details but it doesn't necessarily matter to the ppl who aren't dumping 5K + $ in night vision or thermal stuff.

SO lets hear the technical tidbits and laugh at how unimportant they really are. They may matter some day , as all wiz bang shit loses value and will be affordable some day.

[CJ]

Ruffdaddy needs to keep things respectful. He throws tantrums and fights with everyone. And I'm not the only one that is sick of it. What happened above is the perfect example. The rolls eyes reply was in regards to the "just buy thermal" comment. I know that's what you know about, and I know the fact I dared make any suggestion is insulting to your vast intellectual superiority. You argued with me about calling magazines clips, and how you didn't understand SKS concentric threading, you're always out to show me what you know. And just about every time you think you know more than you do. Last time it was calling thermal infrared or some stupid shit like that, I don't remember. I know for a fact you salivate at the opportunity to redeem yourself, you try to initiate an argument with anyone that will listen. It's completely fine with me if you want to share your knowledge. That's the whole point of the board. But you need to keep things respectful and help other people. You seem to have a great difficulty with that judging from numerous other threads. When you make your post tomorrow, I don't want any more of this childish insulting. Answer his question. If you disagree with someone, make a case why you're right and they are wrong. Keep that out of the Armory, everyone in here gets along and we all benefit from it. I expect you can give him some excellent information and we can all learn something.

[chevyhater01]

That's gotta be one of the weakest ban earning offense's I've seen on this site lol that's like some texasguntrader or ar15 stuff.

I do agree with him in the fact of considering the original poster and there are some people with chooo chooo money the difference in cost between a okayish night vision set up where you may or may not see your target versus a true IR weapons grade unit that will show every thermal detail at distance is worth it I don't think anyone can say NV wins out over IR in performance except in price. Sharp clear white hot figures > Fuzzy black/green figures all night every night.

Hell I know when we found an old cache of Raytheon IRsights one of our reps was able to secure them for commercial sale and I think they were pricing them at 3-4k$. Granted they we're huge like car battery big and running 9AA batteries but they performed.

[CJ]

Thermal is better than nightvision in just about every way. But for longer ranges and higher resolution the cost gets insane.

[chevyhater01]

True with clarity and distance system performance/price have to go up they claim 1000meters capability I'm skeptical but seems to have acceptable clairity an for 8k you and pop all the hogs you want in the dark. One thing I like with thermal is being able to see the pink mist and chunks fly upon impact. Suppressed ARvariant and thermal seems like a hogs worst nightmare.