Alright, I had a friend ask me my thoughts on a couple different setups for night hunting and I thought it was a good cost to performance debate as well as desired performance goal debate.

This person only hunts, has no desire to use the NV for defense or any tactical type use.  Most of the hunting will be coyotes from a stationary position that’s easy to get to (edge of a field/pasture) where a dim red light would be enough to navigate.

The budget is a firm max $1000 and $750 is the desired price.  I know, have him save more and get more.  I know but it won’t happen.  Let’s accept the budget is firm and move on.  Rifle scope is preferred and at this budget a decent laser is completely out anyways.

From what I see there are a few 1990’s era gen 3 options that can be had for that, a few more gen 2 units (most from the beloved ATN or Armasight when it was related) and then the Armasight Spark/Vampire.

Now for a lot of situations I’d instantly skip the Armasight Spark/Vampire but for him it seems pretty decent.  His budget won’t allow good gen 3 and he’s probably going to want an IR torch for all of the options.  Light discipline doesn’t matter for him as well.

So what would you suggest?  Older gen 3 that has better light amplification but mediocre resolution, gen 2 that has less light amplification that the gen 3 but probably slightly better resolution and is a bit newer, or the Vampire which has very little light amplification but by far the best resolution and is covered under warranty (for whatever that’s worth with FLIR)?

My first choice was the newest Gen 2 option that could be found but the more I think about it the more I think I’d want the resolution at the cost of using an IR light.  The passive nature of the gen 3 is nice but the added age/wear of a lot of the available units in this price point scares me a little to recommend them.  At this point I think I’ve turned to focusing on the resolution rather than light amplification as using a light doesn’t come with many drawbacks in this setting.

What do you see as the most important feature for hunting since at this price you can only focus on 1 or maybe 2 features?  Light amplification?  Resolution?  A mix of both?  Warranty/repair solutions?  Obviously spending more and getting them all would be ideal but it won’t happen here.

@benzy2
There is a $1000 gen 3 rifle scope in the EE right now. Not my Ad. If I were not saving for other things, I’d own that right now.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/Equipment-Exchange/WTS-WTT-Python-GEN3-3X-night-vision-scope-1000/172-1755232/

I thought about that one but from what I can find they used Omni I-II tubes and have the reticle etched on the face of the tube making replacement tough.  If it were a newer tube in the Omni III or even more so in the Omni IV spec range it would be a great value but fearing the worst I’m not sure especially considering the tube is probably 35 years old by now.  Maybe my facts are off on that model and it’s a better value than I think.