Thermal or Night Vision? Time to spend some dough.

[Gabriel Suarez]

I confess to not having as much exp with thermal...however...one point between NV and Thermal is this. Identification of detail. All my weapons and ancillary gear are intended for anti personnel duties. Whether they are ever used for sports (hunting, messing around, or whatever) is a seperate and lower importance issue.

Put the thermal on and walk into a room with people standing in the dark. If you cannot identify faces with 100% certainty, then they are never going to be my first choice. Shooting at one hog or another hog is irrelevant. Shooting the wrong party is another matter when it comes to humans.

[IANative]

Put the thermal on and walk into a room with people standing in the dark. If you cannot identify faces with 100% certainty, then they are never going to be my first choice. Shooting at one hog or another hog is irrelevant. Shooting the wrong party is another matter when it comes to humans.

This is why I'm looking into the best combination of NV and thermal for outdoors. I'm leaning towards a NV monocular + a thermal scope on the rifle for outdoors, and trusting that NV and a red dot pistol is the best choice ( or at least a good choice ) for indoors.

[diving dave]

Thermal is king for detecting targets, but good NV will always give you better detail. I had a coyote that kept sneaking into our yard at night, and was raising hell with our dogs. Decided to whack him next time he came back. Around 0100, there he was yipping away. I had kept an upstairs window open and had suppressed rifle ready to go... Although I could hear him right there, I just couldn't see him...And this was with a Gen 3 helmet mounted PVS14. Few weeks later I called him in at twilight, and nailed him with a 22 250. Anyway, for SHTF duties, remember that thermal cannot see through glass. So you may see a car, see the heat signature if the engine is running, etc...But the windows will be opaque.

[DogDoc]

This is why I'm looking into the best combination of NV and thermal for outdoors. I'm leaning towards a NV monocular + a thermal scope on the rifle for outdoors, and trusting that NV and a red dot pistol is the best choice ( or at least a good choice ) for indoors.

I came to the same conclusion that both are necessary but I reversed the applications. The thermal is for scanning and immediately seeing that someone/something is there. The NV is on the rifle because it’s when I’m pointing the gun that I need the most clarity and information to decide what/who Ill shoot.

[45Smashemflat]

This will be a 2022 expense for me. I have neither thermal or IR yet. I lean to IR as the first investment.

[DogDoc]

Doc.
I've heard that dogs can see (sense?) infra red. Any opinions on this?
thanks, Mouser 1

Dogs don't see infrared but they do have better night vision than humans. Their retinas have markedly more rods than cones. Rods perceive black and white. Cones perceive color. More rods makes for more acute vision in the dark. Some research is also starting to suggest that they also have some ultraviolet perception. That would allow clearer perception of light colored critters on a snow-white background.

A number of vertebrates (including dogs) also have a structure in the eye called the tapetum lucidum which is a reflective surface immediately beneath the retinal cells. It reflects light back into the eye which enhances night vision. That's why horses, deer, cats, dogs raccoons etc... have eyes that seem to glow in the dark when the headlights hit them at night.

Dogs also have special thermal-receptive nerves on the tip of the nose which allow them to sense heat sources in the dark.

[Ryan Taylor]

Ryan, how are you using that? Is it mounted to your rifle or are you using it on a helmet mount or handheld?

Sorry, yeah so Ill wear the NVD on a helmet mount and use the Thermal by hand since, while hunting, I do use a lot of blue light at night. Some things you cant see under either, especially if youre looking close to ground.

[WOLF220]

That FLIR breach is a sweet unit but it is NOT rated for recoil. Strictly a monocular. My plan is to get NV with helmet mount to be able to navigate in the woods at night and have a thermal scope mounted to the rifle. Cant hide from the thermal, but you really can’t navigate with it either. At least the units I’ve seen and used. I could always put a DBAL on the rifle and that would give me all the options.