Night vision goggles

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My daughter wants to get some for her husband and asked me for some help.  I know absolutely nothing about them.  He wants the kind that are worn on the head, not hand held, like they had when he was still in the Corps, and the price ceiling is $800.00.

 

Recommendations are welcome.

 

Thanks.

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

SOrry to give you this answer :  The least expensive Generation 2 NVG is about $2300.   There are monoculars that are handheld for about 800 but those things are pricey and the batteries are not cheap. 

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

Right, no chance at that price point.  Don't waste money on items that claim to be real NVG for under $2K.  On the other hand, there are some lower cost items that do provide decent NV depending on what he wants to use them for.  For example, a very cheap item is the handheld IR viewer sold by a company called JSTOON.  It is almost a toy at under $200 but actually works for what it is, a fairly short range night viewer.  You can really push out the distance with a serious long-distance IR illuminator (looks like a flashlight with a huge lens), and someone else has to hold it.  The JSTOON viewer's resolution is not great at serious distances, though.  Also, for under $1000, you can get a used ATN NV riflescope -- but the scope-mounted IR illuminators that were sold by ATN with the scope is garbage.  Again, the serious long-distance IR illuminator is required to see any further than about 30 or 40 yards.  So, for nighttime hunting of coyotes and pigs, I have an ATN Mk 7800 Gen3 riflescope on my rifle, with this illuminator hanging off the front of the quad rail:

 

Then, I can look through my scope while my buddy is using the JSTOON device so both of us can search the field of fire for critters that need to die.

 

[Texas Joker]

It's a toss-up for what he is going to use it for. There are some digital Chinese headsets that have decent reviews for paintball and airsoft on ebay and amazon.

 

I have several gen1+ NV monocular off Ebay for around $100. Image intensifier tubes are grainy, poor optics but work for around the field. Are they cinema quality SOG issue. No of course not. 

 

I was impressed with firefields digital NV monoculars but digital requires external illumination via IR so there's that. The price is low but they eat batteries

 

I have a nightowl nightshot digital scope on my hog gun with an external remote switch illuminator and you can see out over 100 yds. Fixed magnification not very robust very little weather proofing. Uses aa Batts and cost me $300 from the factory.

 

IIRC the ghost hunter series has a binoc with head mount available

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

We can easily see several hundreds of yards with my set-up.  The good thing is that most critter eyes light up like headlights, so we see them a long way off and then follow them as they come in closer.  But it isn't head-mounted bino vision (or double eye single tube) like the military guys use.  If he's trying for that sort of fit and performance, it simply isn't available for anything close to $800.