Question on budget night vision

[mcmk21]

New night time coyote Hunter. Looking for advice on the cheapest night vision possible to enter the woods at dark. I’m going to be used a thermal monocular and a thermal scope on my setups on my stands. I’m not paying $3000 for a Pvs 14 just to traverse the woods to my stand.
Does anybody have something under $1200 that will work for my scenario? just try to obtain cheap night vision to get where I need to go in the dark not using them as any part of my haunting. Thanks

 

[Nine Banger]

If you set up a helmet mounted thermal monocular on your non dominant eye you can skip NV and detect more targets.

 

[justinspicher]

I don’t think budget and night vision go together. It’s an investment, not an expense, unless you don’t use them often.

 

[Andersen]

I managed to find a used Pulsar Digex C50 for around 800 USD. Mounts in regular 30 mm rings on your rifle. I've used it for night time pig hunting although it is IR and not thermal.

 

[Split toe]

Yeah, when you go cheap on thermal/NV you ultimately spend more in the long run.

 

[Duh]

You dead set on needing NV to get on stand? Plenty of us don’t use NV to walk into stand in the dark. Your eyes get fairly adjusted to the dark already.

Depending on what kind of thermal monocular your have, you might already be alright using that to scan an area before walking over it. I sometimes do that with my helmet mounted Rix ST6. I really wanted to bridge the monocular with PVS14’s for walking in the dark but the more I hint at night, I personally can’t justify the NV.

 

[bucksanducks12]

Company called SiOnyx makes digital NV. Has multi color spectrum. They came and gave my agency a demo, wasn’t what we were looking for (we were looking to mount it to rifles) but was pretty cool stuff for what it was.

The guy who created it was a sail bot guy. Back then, they just had the aurora. Think of a handheld cam corder that was NV. He thought it was cool, didn’t know what he really had created sort of thing. Pretty quick guys were mounting them onto helmets cause they were cheap and worth buying a device that costed as much as a go pro to mess around with doing night time stuff. They were trying to break into more of that space when their rep came to visit us.

Now, they have a helmet mounted monocle called the Opsin or something I think. It’s a little above your price but I’m sure if you got a discount code or waited for a sale it would be right in your wheel house. Never used the helmet mounted stuff, but their camera was pretty slick and the tech was there for sure.

 

[justinspicher]

I’m a NV guy. I don’t use thermal. I’ve been using NV of some sort for about 25yrs in varying capacities.

It’s not that I don’t think thermal has value, I just don’t use it. I already have enough invested in NV.

 

[WoodlandCritter]

If you want NV for traveling and not static observation, sorry but a PVS14 is pretty much the bar for a decent unit. Digital (including thermal) is not very good for land nav. For more in the 1000-1500$ range you could get a Gen II PVS7 maybe. Or spend 500$ on a Gen I unit then spend the rest of the money on the absolute brightest sunspot of an IR flashlight money can buy.

But really it sounds like NVG is not for you if you just want it for walking to a stand and are going to scrimp. Use MKI eyeballs on bright nights and dim red headlamp when it's too dark for that.

 

[17CalFan]

I went night hunting Wednesday on property my brother owns. Been all over that place for the past 25 years but really struggled to get around in the dark the other night. The property is far enough out that there is no light pollution and it was overcast, couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I shoot and scan with thermal but it was pretty useless to try to navigate into and out of the property. Always have a small LED red/white light on the bill of my cap and a red/white flashlight in my pocket.

Made it in and out but it wasn't pretty and I'm too old to appreciate a fall. Took a Wicked Lights (brand) headlamp with me in the truck but didn't wear it into the property. Thought if I killed a coyote I could probably find it with my flashlight as usual or go back to the truck for the headlamp but I didn't kill anything. Next time I go there I will wear the Wicked headlamp. It has a dimmer switch and green/red/white light. I could have used green or red and dialed it down enough to navigate without telling the whole country side that I was there. Carrying a rifle on my shoulder, tri-pod in one hand and e caller in the other hand leaves no option but head gear of some sort but my small cap light wasn't cutting it.