In descriptive terms what would be the difference in 2nd vs 3rd gen nv.   In other words, not lpi or some technical jargon, but in a rural environment with overcast you would be able to identify a small animal at X metres with gen 2 but xx metres with gen 3.  

My primary use is on rural farm outside the city glow for pest control without the anoying beam of a spotlight.  My objective is to verify the difference between a target animal versus a no shoot animal of the same size at 100 metres on an overcast night.  Thanks

You play any games? It's like going from 640x480 to 1024x768.

Hard overcast = 50-75 yards to distiguish a hog from a yote from a bedded dear with 2nd gen Unless its like a PVS-4 then you have a little better range.

denpending on which bracket of gen 3...64lpi/72lpi and the signal to noise you could probably stretch that out to 150 or so yards.  This applies to positivly identifying a 4 legged critter.

Really depends on what kind of terrain the target is in...high grass, flat ground...etc.  Stuff starts to look the same and freak you out.

People on the other hand are quite easy to make out and identify at longer distances :)

Those are the very top end ranges of what I think is a good and safe I.D. on a target, with starlit or moonlit nights you get abit more range.

Thanks Cal,  Thats a pretty big difference!  The terain is very steep hills.  I,m not grazing many animals so the grass gets pretty long in mid summer but has now mostly seeded out and is becoming shootable again.  Each paddock has barbary hedges and there is native bush & trees in some areas.  I am mostly shooting Austrailian possums which are a similar size to large cats.