need a starlight scope

[nrajeff]

I am looking for a fairly good, fairly inexpensive night-vision scope for my .22 rifle (no, not for my Glock). There are critters here that taunt my dogs and drive them nuts in the middle of the night. We have a high percentage of rabid animals here in WV, and I want to sleep at night. I don't need IR, just light-amplification and a scope between 3 and 6 power. New or used is fine. What do you recommend, and from what distributor? Thanks in advance.

[MrMurphy]

www.actiongear.com has Russian scopes that are decent, but any Gen I (relatively inexpensive) scope will need an IR illuminator. It's not like the varmints have night scopes and will see it.

[nrajeff]

Thanks for the advice, Mr. Murphy. Brigade seems like a good outfit. Now it's payback time for the nocturnal varmints in my yard!

[Blue59]

I don't need IR, just light-amplification and a scope between 3 and 6 power.
Old thread, but....
I got curious about gen-1 NV scopes, bought a couple, looked through a few more. To sum it up: what would work just as well or better would be to get yourself a 3-9x50mm unpowered scope, and put a mini-mag-light (or some other focusable small flashlight) on it. It would probably cost less than the NV scope, it would work about as well at night, and this would be useable in the daytime where the NV scope would not.

Gen-1 NV scopes don't focus well, because their fields-of-view aren't flat. The center and the outer edge won't both focus at the same time. When you try them with the pinhole cover on in daylight the view through it looks totally-razor-sharp, because the tiny pinhole cover boosts the effective F-ratio sky-high. The scope is a LOT less sharp when you take that lens cover off at night. There is a type "gen-1 fiberoptic" that has a flat field of view, but these scopes cost ~$500+ more than a regular gen-1 will.

Gen-1 NV scopes also need some light to work. Gen-1 scopes can see both visible and IR light, but most of the illuminators they come with are usually bright-red when viewed straight on. Most people imagine being able to see or shoot while "invisible" but you'd need a totally-invisible yet bright IR light to do that, and I've been searching for a while now and there's no source for fairly-inexpensive, bright IR light that I can find. IR LEDs and diode lasers don't really put out much light. Good photographic filters that block all visible light are expensive (Hoya RM90). [DIY hint: if you want an IR LED that is totally-invisible to the eye, use a 940nm--the 840's glow red when they are on]

For what it would cost to get a gen-1 scope ($500) and assemble a good IR lighting setup ($250+), you could probably get a gen-2 monocular that doesn't need the expensive lighting setup, and use that somehow instead.

So my thinking goes: if you're stuck using a visible illuminator anyway, then why bother paying ~$500 for a NV scope, when you can probably find a unpowered scope w/lit reticle and a regular flashlight for half that? And as I said, NV scopes really can't be used in daylight at all. Even if you have the "pinhole" lens cover on, the daylight gets in through the eyepiece and eventually causes phospor burn.

Gen-2's and 3's work drastically better, but cost much more as well. A gen-1 amplifies light ~900 times, a gen-2 does ~25,000+ and a -3 does ~35,000+. You may see ad copy that says that a gen-1 amplifies light 35,000x, but that is in a specific type of lab test of the tube only. In actual use gen-1's do about 900x with a 1x lens, and less with higher-magnification lenses. -In those same lab tests a gen-3 does 70,000+.

If you are totally insistent on owning a gen-1, then I would advise trying out or buying a hand-held gen-1 scope first. They cost much less than the weaponsights if you buy one, and you can then really evaluate their worth in the field.
They can be usful and they do work, but you may find they are not nearly as effective as you had hoped.
...And don't buy the cheapest example you can, spend $200 or so and get one of the name-brands. The cheapest generic ones often use near-reject quality tubes and uncoated optics, and they work really poorly.
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