It should be fine. They’re designed for military applications—even Gen. 2s.

~Augee

Autogated tubes are fairly new in the grand scheme of things, and while they do offer more protection, and therefore are preferable for mixed light applications, it doesn’t mean that non-autogated tubes will spontaneously self-destruct the moment they’re exposed to any light.

It’s sometimes a little delicate to talk to people with personally owned NVDs that they often paid a good chunk of change for about exactly how much “abuse” they can take, because they can be destroyed fairly easily through carelessness and misuse, and the last thing I want is for someone to show up with a toasted tube and say “well, Augee said it would be fine and now my shit’s broke, and I’m out $1,000+.”

At the same time, don’t forget that regardless of what some people might use them for—these devices are designed to be used to sneak up on people and shoot them in the face. Even things like these Gen. 2+ MX-11769 and MX-10160 tubes were not really developed to give U.S. consumers a lower cost option to Gen. 3, but because internationally, not everyone has access to Gen. 3 devices, to include their militaries, which is also why most Gen. 2+ tubes tend to be foreign-made, because while the U.S. to a certain extent “abandoned” Gen. 2 architecture and never really invested much in developing it further, nations that did not have access (or as ready access) to Gen. 3 have continued to push the technology forward. Considering this—it would pretty silly to have what someone else has described recently elsewhere as “warfighter technology” that could be casually defeated by a flashlight or lit garage, or an operator who forgot to turn it off for 10-15 seconds when stepping into a lit garage.

Part of the reason that the military plays such a large part in bringing applied technology into broader use is the need to “idiot proof” technology that works fine when used by scientists and specialists in the lab against 19 year old infantrymen, who I assure you, have done far worse than you have to Gen. 2 devices over the years with little consequence.

In summation, be careful with your NVDs, but you don’t need to treat them like Faberge eggs, and don’t panic every time you make a tiny mistake, they’re probably good.

~Augee