I’m obviously a little biased—there are a lot of good used deals out there, however, there are a lot of scam artists out there, too.

What makes it tough for a beginner is that if you’re not very familiar with what’s already out there, it can be difficult to tell a good deal from a bad one, and sometimes you won’t know until you get it or worse yet, until you get to try out someone else’s gear and you “realize what you’ve been missing” and that you’ve badly overpaid.

On the one hand, I’ve gotten on the phome and talked people through exactly what to lool for/check/ask about when they’ve told me up front that they’re about to go check out a used NVD. On the other hand, we’ve also had units come in for repair that were built by someone else that definitely weren’t what they were claimed to be when they were sold when we cracked ‘em open.

With that, IMHO, for a basic, bare bones “starter setup,” I would say:

TNV/PVS-14 L3 OMNI VIII (filmed green): $3,200
Wilcox L4 G11-ARMY mount: $265
Ops-Core FAST Bump: $270
Steiner DBAL-I2 Single Spectrum: $779

Assuming you have a rifle, optic, sling, light, etc., already, you’re right at $4,514 to “get started.”

Not the best gear available necessarily, but not the worst by any stretch either, it’s all good, serviceable, mid-grade, but effective gear from reputable companies, new, with warranty.

Sure, you could start shaving off a couple bucks here and there with Night Caps, OTALs, etc., but you’re going to start giving up some capabilities without really having a baseline to compare to, and FWIW, the other good thing about buying this stuff new is that all of those items have pretty decent resale on the used market if/when you choose to start upgrading—after you’ve established a baseline, and know what direction you want to go in to start upgrading and improving.

~Augee

Binos are awesome, I really dig my BNVD-SGs but a PVS14 is still one of the best ways to go IMO.

You should be able to get a new PVS14, OTAL-C IR laser, helmet and mount well under $4K if you shop around.

What it'll cost you?

Friendships, relationships with loved ones, and Time, forget about money.

Money is the easy Part, you're about to alienate yourself from the traditional shooting community (fucking Daytripper's as we say) who just won't get it, your family will think you're some kind of tactical Vampire, and your friends who cant see in the dark....well they're not really friends are they after all?

Its worth every penny and second though.

And yes we build in house and don't rely on 3rd parties to build our gear. Harris, L3 are great choices to see in the very dark. Don't be fooled that Photonis Echo tubes compete with real Gen 3 and out of band cause the salesmen says this. They are cheap tubes for a reason. This is the ONLY reason dealers pimp these, not all around performance. Real 4G tubes if you're looking for that are good for what they do.

To the OP we train with this gear and REALLY use it in the dark. Even if you don't purchase from us, please at least email or PM me here. Be glad to educate on the gear we build, test and really use to know what the tube technology does before you spend your hard earned money on anything.

Also if used, always ask for a 3-5 day inspection period there can be some good deals out there. Also our 10 year warranty IS transferrable so if you see a TNVC unit out there get the serial number first, we can check the unit for you to verify. Not many TNV-14's come up for sale too often, but if they do, they get snatched up pretty quick.