Streamlight tlrvir2

I just picked up one of those for my first IR light. It's a bit weak for rifle use, but on a pistol I'm very impressed. Having everything in one unit really makes it a practical solution, especially for someone just getting his toes wet.

Yeah, I'm looking at the Tokyo Marui or KWA gas blow back AR variants they do for airsoft for training and I know that there is licensed airsoft Glock copy that is supposed to be pretty accurate. I've been hesitant to purchase airsoft stuff though until now, because frankly I'd rather spend my money on actual things like ammo, optics, etc, but Night Vision acquisition has changed that for me now. I'm definitely going to get some airsoft stuff to get some more training in with the NODs and save money on ammo.

One thing I would tell guys who were even thinking about getting into Night Vision is that keep in mind that Night Vision impacts everything.

When you get into Night Vision gear/accessories becomes very important. Be default you'll become a gear guy.  Everything becomes like a game of Tetris. Where do I put said item on said thing to work better with my Night Vision?  I thought I knew that, I thought I understood that, but I didn't appreciate it fully until I started using my Night Vision.  I've received some good intel from this forum for certain, without a doubt, but some things that work for Joe might not work for Bob and I think I've got a long way to go before I figure out what works well for me.

Hell, I might have to take the advice of one of you in this thread and just buy some land. I've needed land to hunt on for awhile for myself and I think I'm just a the point where if I ever want to have consistent practice with Night Vision I'm going to need some land.  I can't walk around my suburban neighborhood at night wearing a helmet and PVS14 to walk my dog, haha, it would freak people out.  Jogging around my backyard and moving through my house at night is getting a little old. I'm determined though to get my money's worth out of this PVS14.  I don't want to be that guy who has Night Vision sitting in his gun safe.

Don't worry about the neighbors. Chances are when you go out at night to walk the dog, they'll all be inside anyway watching sportsball or dancing with the stars. Just walk normally, most people are absolutely clueless in their situational awareness. If you do that past midnight I guarantee you, no one will be outside anyway. I frequently walk to the mailbox at night and I've never had anyone freak out or even notice me.

My suggestion for anyone to get used to  using their NODs is to do normal activities at night like walking the dog or taking the trash to the curb. Fuck around in the backyard with getting your depth perception dialed in. Doesn't matter what you do, just go out and do something. You paid for them, freakin' use them!

I often thought about putting my sewing skills to a ball cap and a cheap spare neck nape airsoft strap I have.

I have been visiting my local cross country trail. Most places should have one relatively close by. Ours is a nice nature hike through 2 miles of gravel and paved trail. It’s the best place I can find close to our town thats always dark enough. Just be mindful where you park, you don’t want them to lock the gate with your car inside. I park and take all my kit in my backpack until I get to the trail head. Also be mindful of local wildlife. We have black bear here and mtn lion is a possibility (rare but can’t be ruled out). Wear boots for snakes. I pass no one ever out here so it’s a nice place to just get away and use my gear without going out to the middle of nowhere.

To chime in on the airsoft thing. My son is just getting into airsoft so I stopped by Airsoft Atlanta and picked up a green gas PPQ. Holy crap, that thing is nice for a toy. I ended up gawking at all of the other guns for about 20 min, asking questions here and there. The girl that was waiting on me said that the real gun people know way more about the weapon systems than the airsofters that spend  $1200 on eBay AOR1 Crue G3 pants. She said they love it when our crowd comes in b/c we always bring new info in for them to emulate.

Anyways, the PPQ has probably gone through 1000-1500 trouble free BBs at this point. I love watching my son doing tac reloads in the back yard and thanks to this thread, I think I'm going to join him.

This also gives me reasoning for keeping my 14 while upgrading to binos.

What really sold me on it and justified the price, is that it can be used as a regular white light pistol light. If it was IR only i likely wouldn't have bought it. The laser is plenty strong for my liking and the Illuminator basically only good for indoors or in the woods.

I'm looking forward to getting NV and exploring the day use state park that's a couple of blocks from my house. I just hope the rangers don't have better NV gear than I end up with.

I want to get into the NV game very badly, and literally have all of the required extra items. However, I think the money I've saved to this point is going to end up going into a suppressor first. I know for a fact that I'm going to get vastly more use out of it than I would NV, though saving for that comes immediately after the suppressor purchase. Also, if the world ends, I'll just steal some 14's and thermals from supply.

My wife and I used to jog the metro park next to our old house, after hours. I can't count how many times they drove through the parking lot and never noticed us on the trails. Even in high moonlight conditions. And that was all WITHOUT NV. With NV we could easily stay jn shadows and they wouldn't have a chance. Those park runs at night really give you a sense of how good your natural unaided night vision can really be

I have gone out a few times without lights, and seen quite a few joggers out on the trails with headlamps and reflectors.

I doubt they would have spotted me after I stepped off trail, if not for the glint off my glasses.

I've played OpFor many times and consequently have laid more than a few ambushes at night. If you have just a bit of concealment to break up your outline and don't have a rifle or belt fed in evidence, it's amazing how easy it is to hide, even from people with NV if they're inexperienced or simply not paying close attention. Thermal on the other hand...that's much more difficult to evade. I got good at hiding from NV, but when we got so good that cadre began giving the blue force TICs, it became almost impossible to hide without being behind thick cover. I got a chance to play with a PSQ-20 once and I have to say that I'd get one in a second if they were more easily available and not worth like $10K.

Funny IG post

I would say the largest hurdle is Noise Level during dark hours! A lot of ranges have constant complaints dropped on them during regular day hours.

You start having rapid fire at night, and I guarantee those complaints will rise!

Truth. When myself or one of my neighbors plans to go hot after dark with nods, we send out a group email before hand.

That's what it was like for us. We started dying extremely quickly and we didn't understand wtf was going on for a few evolutions, until one of my more creative guys managed to ambush a fireteam that had one of the TICs. We finally realized what we were up against and had to develop new tactics to counter them, and even then they were only somewhat effective. Just goes to show that no matter how good you are (or think you are), if the enemy can see you and can effectively exploit that, you're screwed.

I'd like to add that you can save a LOT of money by finding tubes and building your own. I built my first PVS14 for $1250. It was perfectly serviceable. I then upgraded to Mod 3s. I got an outstanding set of matched tubes for 2000, and spent about 2000 on the rest of the parts. You can put together a PVS14 in 20 minutes.



If you can live without the latest greatest, you can use old norotos rhino mounts and j-arms. My first USGI mount/j-arm set was $50 and pretty shaky. You might need to buy a few to get one set that works perfect, but this is way cheaper than spending 500 on a new Wilcox  mount and 100-200 on a new j-arm.

Do not let the rich people convince you that you are taking your life into your hands by not buying some dual tube, white phosphor monstrosity. A beat up PVS14 with blems is perfectly serviceable, and will give you 95% of the practical capability of the "best". This is much like AR15s. You can set up a very nice AR15 with optics and lights for $1200. Spending $2400 gets you better gear, but it certainly isn't twice as good.

Well yeah, you'd be surprised how good you can actually "see" at night.  I do regular pre-dawn runs on the local "greenway"; a mixed asphalt and wood plank walkway through the woods.  With just a viz green nav light on my Petzl, I can see really good.  The green light gives you just enough to see without fucking up your "internal" night vision; with a white light you can only see a cone in front of you and your peripheral vison is screwed.  With the green light I can see almost 180 deg.  So Big Foot can't get me.

Yeah FOF has changed dramatically since my time as well.

Back in the '98-'02 time-frame, the OpFor at JRTC called over to Ranger School (4th RTB) to get augmented by our OpFor, for an 82nd rotation through there. Those guys told our guys that if you hear an OH-58, drop down on all fours and act like an animal. No way it works now, with current resolution for even civvie units being so good, but the countermeasures at the time, were interesting.

My experience was all of 7 years ago in Korea. I can ask one of my friends who was there with me and is now with 1/504 how they do OpFor though. I’m sure his responses would be interesting.

I agree that's the biggest hurdle especially in the densely populated eastern half of the USA.

One of the many reasons I was sorely disappointed that the National Hearing Protection Act didn't get out of committee before 2018.  If suppressors could be removed from the NFA a ton of people would have them and it would make firearms ranges in general, day or night, more acceptable for those who live near them.  

At least TNVC have been able to secure more training places in more States recently.  That's a good thing for everyone.

We should build a list of non-firearms activities that can be done to achieve general competency with NVGs.

We should come up with a list of simple drills that can done with dry fire or airsoft with NVGs.

How many hours a month should someone log under NVGs?  How often should we strive to attend a course where we can actually fire our weapons under NVGs at night? What are the standards and best practices?

I'm very excited to try my PVS14 at night in the Winter.  I'm excited to see how bright everything is with reflection of the starlight from the snow.  I'm interested to see how the weather impacts the PVS14.  Will fogging or condensation be an issue coming in and out of heated buildings and vehicles? I know my PVS14 has been nitrogen purged, but I'm curious whether condensation could still be a factor on the outside?  Is IR reflection from the aiming lasers or IR illuminator an issue with the snow?  

It's the little things that are kind of fun to figure out. Like that my Matbock Tarsier's lip was blocking just a bit of light on my PVS14's internal IR illuminator so that the 1 to 3 o'clock position were a bit darker in my view.  The fact, that running outdoors for me is WAY easier than being indoors for some reason where my lack of depth perception is a bit more an issue for me personally, part of that might just be I don't trust myself fully yet with them or my brain just hasn't adjusted yet.  

Pretty much anything and everything you do during the day should also be done at night with night vision. I can't stress this enough, but depth perception has to be relearned under NODs. Doing mundane activities will definitely help with that. Keeping a log of what activity and the length of time would be possibly helpful. If you're that type of person. If you want to kill all the lights and move around the house, by all means, go for it. Your home would be the most likely place you'd wear them if you had some unwanted visitors.

Getting comfortable wearing them in your neighborhood isn't a terrible idea either. Going out after midnight when your neighbors are most likely asleep is one way to get practice in. Take the dog for a walk a few times around the block. Don't take the same route in the same direction every time either. Reverse direction and take a different route. You'll be surprised at how different things are just by reversing your route. Also, walk on different sides of the street, if it's safe to do so.  

I used to do this when myself and a group of friends would go camping we would train with NODs in an unconventional way. Just recently started doing it again. When it got dark we would kill all the lights, put on the NODs, and just sit around bullshitting and drinking beer. This would teach you depth perception as you had to reach in the cooler to retrieve a drink and throw the empty away. You would also have to get up and go to the bathroom. Combined with a good buzz and navigating to relieve yourself in the wood line helps sharpen your movement skills. We would also just generally carry out a multitude of campsite activities all under NODs. Also walking through the woods was a great way to help getting comfortable wearing them while walking.

Even if your NVGs are purged, condensation will be a factor moving from a warm environment to a cold environment. If you put your NVGs outside a half hour before, then the condensation will not be an issue. Also, wearing your NVGs further from your face will let air circulate and you will less likely have fogging issues. Applying a good antifog application, like Cat Crap, to the lenses will be a big help too.

Your lasers reflecting back can be an issue, just strive to be cognizant of what you're aiming at. I've never had an opportunity to train with snow on the ground and using night vision so I cannot give anything other than second had advice but I have been told that snow on the ground really brightens things up tremendously even in the woods, no leaves on the trees to block the available light.

Who does/offers that?

Of the top of my head heres a list.

The big 3

Tnvc
Jrh industries
Nvi

My friends in the biz

Nocturnality gear
Night Solutions

Others

Nvision
Licentia arms

Just remember if you ask for rediculous specs. Be prepared to wait a rediculous time. They have no control over what tubes come to them. They get what they get and then distribute them in order if purchase.

Theres ways to pick from a better basket if that makes sense. The non fallout tubes will generally have less scraps and also the minimums are higher as you go up. (see elbit YG tubes and 22um l3s.)

Good stuff, thanks.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing some winter night hikes under my PVS14, should be awesome.  I've managed to locate a State park near me that allows overnight camping year round and has some trails of various lengths so I'm going to start going out there and doing some night hikes on the weekends.

Just got done reading all 3 pages of this thread..And as guy looking to get into NV. This has been one of the best non biased And informative threads in the NV section and has been a tremendous help. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, hopefully it keeps on going.

Does anyone else with a Wilcox retractable lanyard find it's a pain to connect to their PVS14 if you're wearing your helmet?

Any tricks to make this process easier?  

I want to be able to put my PVS14 on my helmet and clip on the lanyard without having to take my helmet off.  Right now, I'm not very good at doing that.

Camping this weekend and with a full moon did about 2 miles mountain biking. I did the trail today so it wasn't totally surprising but it was fun. Used my skull crusher and it worked pretty well. The trail washed out a bit when the moon was in front but it was pretty easy and clear.

Unless I had some specific, pressing need for a high spec tube, I'd take blems or an average tube with a good mount - preferably used and not retail - over fancy WP setup.

Something like an INVG is just so much better, especially if you don't feel like dumping your NV due to a crappy J-arm

@KaerMorhenResident What works for me is after the 2 are mated, slightly pull/push forward your NOD to verify it's locked in place. To make it eaiser have a piece of 550 chord tied in a loop to the 2 holes next to the on/off switch long enough so clipping on the clasp of the lanyard can be done without dismounting your NOD. Small black split ring will also work in place of the 550 chord loop.

Ha! I’m guilty of this to an extent. I’m on call a 1-2 weekends a month and every time I get invited by Will, either I’m on call or the wife has made plans.


Having said that, I’ve been out using my stuff hog and coyote hunting a lot lately. I’m even considering trying to shoot hogs passively through an RDS instead of LAM or Thermal.

I'll add to this with people on a small budget.  - Make sure if you get night vision you're actually going to use it.

I have a PVS18, I live in a suburban neighborhood and in the city. I hardly ever look through them. There's so much light pollution outside my house and around my city I don't really need them most of the time. So I pretty much bought them for SHTF or emergency.  When I first got them, I was looking at everything. But you kind of get bored of looking at the same areas around your house. Then you just don't use them hardly ever. So don't go buying some very expensive NV you just won't use. I ended up buying a used monocular under 2K that fits my needs. Technically I could probably go to a SIONYX I'd be fine because those work great with a bunch of light pollution. You don't have to worry about pointing them at any light source at all. Plus they're about 75% as good for night vision as an average PVS14.  I've had both and I was very impressed at the digital night vision. If you live in the city, say somewhere like New York City with lots of light pollution, a SIONXY would ALMOST be better.  

So if you're in a budget, look at all the options and be realistic about how much he will use them. If I lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere, I would definitely have thermal and better night vision. But I just don't need that. If I were rich though, that changes everything LOL.