Any cheap usable night vision?

[Lowdown3]

Sure.

So we currently have 3 that we do, all kind of built upon the last one.

Midnight Rendezvous 1.0 is all square range shooting involving proper body structure, ready positions, movement, engaging multiple targets, scanning and ID'ing threats under pressure, reloads, ambidextrous gun handling, shoulder transfers and more. Each class has a day phase and a night phase wherein we go over all the subjects during the day and you get to drill them in daylight (less pressure) and then the material is mirrored at night. In other words, you learn the material during the day and then also get a chance to work the same material at night. As everything changes once night falls, this way students aren't working "something new" for the first time at night under the added pressure of having to be under NODs at the same time. We've gotten a lot of good feedback on that format over the years and I've been told it's really helped folks. While the material in MR 1.0 seems like your standard carbine class, it most definitely has a different "spin" to it as we consistently get guys that have been to 5 or more other "carbine" classes and tell me a good portion of the material they get at class they haven't seen before. MR 1.0's final exercise is a 2 man "spot and shoot" exercise from a small hill. You and a partner work together to find and engage small, hidden camoflaged targets at night with distances from 50 to 150 yards.

MR 2.0 follows a similar day phase mirrored at night format. In 2.0 we work more movement drills, start getting into working cover, slicing the pie, doing drop out entries, more ambidextrous work, transition to pistol with about a half dozen options versus the usual just one that most carbine classes cover, and a section on pistol work with the same material (working cover, slicing the pie, ambi handling, etc. MR 2.0 isn't as "rushed" of a class as 1.0 and depending on what we may notice lacking, or maybe a student asks about, we usually have a little extra time to add in some additional material. For example in this last one, we had a little extra time and did the final exercise twice as well as adding in some material on point shooting pistol and working in very close (bad breath distance) ranges that comes from our "Danger Close" pistol class. The final exercise in MR 2.0 involves a team exercise shooting distance.

MR 3.0 is our fieldcraft class. Not a lot of shooting in this class, this one is more about actually utilizing your NV at night in a rural setting. We start off during the day working jungle lanes wherein you are having to find small hidden camoflaged targets. Students find this is a lot harder than they think just reading about "shape, shine silhouette" on the internet. This is done in 1 and 2 man groups, so these lanes take up the bulk of the daylight part of the course but we usually have time to do one live iteration of the final exercise during the day also. Once it gets dark we move targets on the lanes and then do the jungle lanes again under NODs. Then everyone is broken into two teams and we do an exercise (EVERYTHING IS DRY, NO LIVE AMMO AT THIS POINT) wherein one group is patrolling a certain area and another group is hiding in an ambush position. By this point students have learned to find tiny camoflaged targets, MOST of which don't move. Now they get a chance to see how much easier it is to spot actual humans moving, etc. One team passes through and then it flip flops and the first walk through team moves to a hidden position and the ambush team gets a chance to walk through and try to spot them before they spot them. After that we go back and gear up for the final exercise. The final exercise involves a civil unrest scenario with burning vans and both teams have to get into positions, engage the targets near the burning vans and exfil back to a rally point. If we have time and students want to, we do this exercise twice- it's usually requested that we do it twice

We will be posting the fall schedule soon, I have to finalize some dates. Would love to see you all in class. I know there is a few folks on the forums here that have attended before, maybe they will chime in also.

[RHINOWSO]

Then you'll also realize that you have to spend several hundred (plus in some cases) for the helmet and the mount... then you need more monies for the laser / illuminator... Sure you can go 'passive', but when it's dark out, it's dark out and NVDs amplify light, so if there is none, you'll see non.

In general you need about $5K to jump into night vision. $3K PVS14, $500 mount, $200 bump helmet, $400 IR illum, $800 for a laser.

Cheap out and you'll be like "this sucks", because in general it will.

[Pikey]

This is not an endorsement but some are using the Sionyx Aurora and having ok results. There are some aftermarket mounts and stuff available as well

Just something to look into. You are most likely better off saving and getting the real deal

How much longer before digital night vision becomes good. It seems like it’s right on the verge and when it does I think it may have some advantages.

[Backfire]

To me it seems like the days of the Intel processors or video cards. You empty the wallet and 2 weeks later there is so.ething better you want/need. Without night vision your only good half the day.

[Pikey]

I wound not spend my money on the Aurora. But it was designed and built as a night camera. If it would of been engineered to be night vision it may of turned out better.