Looking for some advice please on night vision equipment

[Welsh_prep girl]

Hi all,
Hope your all well!

'm looking for some advice please who knows a lot more than me (so that's probably all of you lol)

But seriously my preps are getting a little better but no where I'd like them to be ATM food/ medical/ hunting equipment/ water/ sanitation/NBC suits and gas masks etc. But I keep hearing about the positives of having night vision. I've saved up a bit I don't know whether to get gen 1,2,3 or4
Can anyone please give me some advice? I'd be very grateful. I want them not just for prepping but also general hunting/ shooting I've heard of Yukon Spartan NVMT-4 1x24 Night Vision. But I'm very unsure Any advice would be appreciated!
Thank you all

[pixie1111]

Hi, I bought a Yukon NVG binocular headset set on amazon once for £400 and took them into the field at 2 am in the morning and couldn't see a damn thing my advice would be to find somewhere with a good returns policy just in case they are not for you.

[Mr R]

I don't know anything about them, so I asked someone who does and uses them. Hope the following is of help.


With night vision it all depends on how far the owner wishes to see – the further the more expensive. Gen 1 are the cheapest and really not worth bothering with. Gen 2 are better and gen 2+ even better. My Archer is a gen 3 but I need to see 300 yds at least. Gen 4 is not available to civvies at this time. Also the owner would have to accept that the IR s that come with these units are generally not up to much and therefore would have to consider a separate IR

[Jamesey1981]

A cheaper option is digital night vision, the old gen 1 stuff isn’t up to much and it’s still not cheap, digital costs about the same.
I have a bushnell digital monocular, it’s essentially a low light camera with a big IR light on it, it works well, the screen could be a little higher resolution but it does the job.

The big problem with digital rather than the proper image intensifiers is that they really need the IR light, image intensifiers work much better without the IR than digital does, so if anyone else has night vision you’ll be lit up like a beacon, this isn’t a problem for me as I use it for spotting while I’m night shooting, but if it’s the apocalypse then you’re going to want to keep a lower profile.

It also eats through batteries, so that’s another thing to factor in.

[sniper 55]

The generation stuff is important, the higher the number the better, gen 1 tends to be pretty poor, the difference between gen 3 and 4 is huge (at least on the ones I tried) the gen 4 were WAY better, but also very expensive.
You can "boost" some of the night vision aids with an infra red light source, either a torch or video light ( both are ebay fairly cheaply) the night vision scope see's the IR light but it's not really visible to the naked eye.
Depending on what you want it for for remember most of the available cheaper models have a magnification factor, thats fine for scouting the trail ahead or watching wildlife, but pretty much useless to walk with if your planning on using it to bug out at night.
I'd suggest you consider something like a sony nightshot video camera, much the same as the cheaper night vision but you can zoom out to get a better view for walking, not as good as night vision goggles but better than nothing.

[QUAID]

Sorry for the late reply, but yeah, as stated..... the hight the gen the better, but boy oh boy they go up in price drastically...
Depends on what your intended use is going to be.....
If most Generation 1's will do the task of general security and inquisitiveness quite well...
going up the ranks... a Gen 5 will give a really crisp image compared to the Gen 1.
Of course this all depends then on the InfraRed illuminator you intend to use... The more powerful the illuminator the further you will see!
Unless you go for a passive device such as an Image Intensifier! Again more expensive...

[Briggs 2.0]

I have a Yukon Exelon Gen 1+. For the money, it's not bad at all. If there's no ambient light the infra red is required. On a clear night, half moon no infra red it will allow you to view about 30 to 40m.

I was in Sportsman's GC a while ago and they do a sighted version with gun mount. £250 from memory.

Edit: Memory failed me, the gun mounted version is £450, the Exelon is £250

[Captain Darling]

You can get infra red lights, filters, iluminators, strobes glow sticks, flares and film for regular lights.

If you only have one device then it may be worth using several of these around a fixed perimeter (for security) then at least you can spot movementat a distance, then you'll know which direction to head in to scope it out properly.

If not Infra red trail camerason likely avenue of approach and dead ground, then the same thing again.