So, it's been a year since this thread where I first got some decent NV. I've been using them probably once/week or so all year. They've really been great during the winter because they let me go shoot after I get off work, even though it gets dark before 5pm in the winter.
Anyway, the past 5 or so nights in a row, I've been going out every night shooting and stretching the distance with some targets a little past 1000 yrds. The nice thing about shooting at night is the wind goes dead calm around here when the sun sets but it gets really hard to see the target with high magnification at dusk. Of course, the NV solves that problem but at the same time, the PVS-27 only support up to 12x magnification, so I have to dial down quite a bit from the through-the-scope pic below which was taken at 25x.
So first is a day-light pic of the target. the cow's about 500 yrds and I often have to wait for them to cross, which can take a while as they're not usually in any kind of hurry. i often pass the waiting time by taking pics, so it seems most of my pics have cows in them...
Next is a close up of a 3-round internet group on a 30" tall IPSC silhouette. the head shot was from 520 yrds. the kidney group is pretty tight, but the location is really really irritating as i think my scope is wandering. There definitely wasn't any wind, and I had .3 left on the gun (and yeah, it's .3 left not .3 right... i checked several times) from the previous night which had me centered up, but the next night i was off again. I think I'm going to check my zero tomorrow at 100 yrds.
The paint on that target looks a little funky because it has a layer of orange ground-marking paint, followed by a layer of neon-green ground-marking paint, followed by several layers of the cheap 98 cent black spray paint from wally world. It makes impacts easier to see from a distance because they tend to knock off bigger circles of paint, even though it looks odd up close.
The last pic is some of the gear I have been playing with. the NV is the PVS-27, purchased from TNVC. I'll try to take some through-the-scope pics of it tomorrow night.
Some things I have noticed about long-range shooting at night over the past year:
Anyway, the past 5 or so nights in a row, I've been going out every night shooting and stretching the distance with some targets a little past 1000 yrds. The nice thing about shooting at night is the wind goes dead calm around here when the sun sets but it gets really hard to see the target with high magnification at dusk. Of course, the NV solves that problem but at the same time, the PVS-27 only support up to 12x magnification, so I have to dial down quite a bit from the through-the-scope pic below which was taken at 25x.
So first is a day-light pic of the target. the cow's about 500 yrds and I often have to wait for them to cross, which can take a while as they're not usually in any kind of hurry. i often pass the waiting time by taking pics, so it seems most of my pics have cows in them...
Next is a close up of a 3-round internet group on a 30" tall IPSC silhouette. the head shot was from 520 yrds. the kidney group is pretty tight, but the location is really really irritating as i think my scope is wandering. There definitely wasn't any wind, and I had .3 left on the gun (and yeah, it's .3 left not .3 right... i checked several times) from the previous night which had me centered up, but the next night i was off again. I think I'm going to check my zero tomorrow at 100 yrds.
The paint on that target looks a little funky because it has a layer of orange ground-marking paint, followed by a layer of neon-green ground-marking paint, followed by several layers of the cheap 98 cent black spray paint from wally world. It makes impacts easier to see from a distance because they tend to knock off bigger circles of paint, even though it looks odd up close.
The last pic is some of the gear I have been playing with. the NV is the PVS-27, purchased from TNVC. I'll try to take some through-the-scope pics of it tomorrow night.
Some things I have noticed about long-range shooting at night over the past year:
- ambient light makes a huge difference
- illuminators make a huge difference and some are way better than others
- it's a PITA to have to focus both the NV and the parallax
- despite ^^^^ when focused at 1000+ yrd targets, I can still easily see cows of any color at 500 yrds in the dark. I was initially concerned that I might not, and one might walk between me and the target at the wrong instant.
- very rare to spot impacts, and you can forget about trace
- PVS-27s are a friggin mill stone! I feel like I'm working out every time I move with my rifle
- black targets stand out. (pro-tip for the ninja/balaclava guys...)
- everything sounds louder at night. a lot louder. (on the positive side, it's very easy to hear the steel ring from past 1000 yrds.)
- teamwork makes a huge difference at night, with a spotter running illuminator for you
- ergonomics on the PVS-27 seem like they were done by same guy who invented the AK47. nothing is in the right spot. nothing is easy to adjust or manipulate. it still works though.
- surprisingly good battery life. buy bulk AA lithium batteries. it's worth it.
- i have yet to find a decent range finder at night. the $2000 PLRF05 Terrapin is awesome but it's "NV mode" is just for eyeballing at dusk, not for using PVS14 or similar like the "NV" settings on Aimpoints and eotechs. The PLRF10s have a mount that lets you hook the PVS14 to them but so far I've heard they're not effective past a few hundred yards, which isnt' worth doing
- NV mode on the kestrel 4000NV is similarly lame.
