Teaching a dummy about night shooting equipment

[Pugsley]

I know absolutely nothing about night shooting equipment other than what I own at the moment which is a fairly large Deben light which clips on top of the scope - this connects to a heavy battery with a switch in between. Yes I've shot lots of rabbits using it but it is cumbersome. It's so long since the battery was used (it's been in storage pending the purchase of a house) it's now probably knackered. So I've been looking at various YouTube footage and the IR stuff has caught my imagination - but I know nothing at all about it, all I can say is that some time ago I bumped in to advertisements suggesting one bit of kit or another - all about £2000 to £4000 (no thanks). Is there some reading up I can do on the subject to get with it - I've Googled but I can't get past heavy scientific stuff which is too deep for my requirements.

Assuming there are some suggestions are there any recommendations for off the shelf kits please?

Thanks

[Alakar]

Obviously you can go down the night vision route , do a search on here , theres plenty of helpful info .
But , if you would rather stay with the torch method there are many small Cree torches available the size of a smarties tube for not a lot of money that are perfectly adequate .

[bighit]

look on the nightvison forum and ask on there . they will give advice in building your own setup but be aware ther may be some that will want you to buy their one http://www.nightvisionforumuk.com/

Jax13 on here did one for around £100 from parts you can buy on line

there is also NVUK on face book and they will advise on how to build one .

rolaids bench on youtube is another good one to try . roland built his own via parts from online places. his videos are a few years old but there has not been much changes camera wise .
https://www.youtube.com/user/RolaidsBench/videos

aT20 OR t38 torch is good for airgun ranges.

use it with these items

https://www.ant-supplies.uk/scope-si...ory-rails.html
and

https://www.ant-supplies.uk/scope-si...or-mounts.html

the weaver rail works with the two weaver based mounts.

you can but the mount and rail cheaper from eblag or aliexpress in china .

[Muskett]

Head Up display Digi systems:
Build your own £100-£250.
Shed Built, by a man in his shed making a few a week and then offering them to the public/mates, £200-£300. Often as good if not better than Commercial offerings.
Then there are commercial Head Up systems, which might be found in gunshops or online. Generally considered expensive for what they are.

In Line display Digi systems:
The in line part is far more difficult to do and the small screens a lot more expensive. Requires compatible scope, as all ad on do; parallax.
Several commercial flops in the past where performance was pants... Atom.
Best at present being the WDV 800.
Look out for second hand WDV 700's as they are still excellent.

Lastly, digi dedicated units. Some comercial ones aren't that good. Best with high ticket price is the Drone Pro.
Dedicated forums out there so get researching.

[12/200]

Head Up display Digi systems:
Build your own £100-£250.
Shed Built, by a man in his shed making a few a week and then offering them to the public/mates, £200-£300. Often as good if not better than Commercial offerings.
Then there are commercial Head Up systems, which might be found in gunshops or online. Generally considered expensive for what they are.

In Line display Digi systems:
The in line part is far more difficult to do and the small screens a lot more expensive. Requires compatible scope, as all ad on do; parallax.
Several commercial flops in the past where performance was pants... Atom.
Best at present being the WDV 800.
Look out for second hand WDV 700's as they are still excellent.

Lastly, digi dedicated units. Some comercial ones aren't that good. Best with high ticket price is the Drone Pro.
Dedicated forums out there so get researching.

Do not buy NV from an supplier from Gt Yarmouth

[Pugsley]

Thank you everybody for your replies and I appreciate that some are very detailed and that considerable effort was put in to bring me up to speed. I've since bumped in to a You Tube video on build your own night vision setup which I'm considering but I've also visited some sites looking at today's version of scope mounted lamp setups - they have moved on a bit from when I bought what I have at the moment. My firearm variation should be through this week so will be buying an FAC S510, scope, bottle plus some lighting when I've made up my mind which way to go. The transition from the type of shooting I've grown up with (0.17 HMR and various shotguns) to air rifle has been quite daunting but I'm getting their.

Thanks

[angrybear]

If you're considering a NV add-on system then the scope can make a huge difference, if you trawl the NV section you'll find threads recommending some over others.
Worth thinking about if you're buying a new set up.

[phil384]

I took advice from here including from Cameron (jax13) and built my own from scratch without skimping. It cost me around £100 and is awesome. I'm very impressed by the quality of the image.


If I can do it, you can. It's cheap, satisfying to make and works a treat.