Night Vision Viewer

johngalway

Hi folks,

Question for the well informed only please.

Lidl are selling a Night Vision Viewer over in England, not sure of the exact specs but it looks like it'd be handy out lamping rabbit and fox. No I won't be shooting using it just using it to locate quarry.

Are these viewers legal in the Republic Of Ireland?

Here's the Lidl link

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20061207.p.Night_Vision_Viewer.ar8?OpenDocument&resetFilialDaten=1&id=365&zipcode=S40%201NJ&city=Derbyshire&city2=Chesterfield&street=Chatsworth%20Road&ar=8&EMID=09500E30243KJ3KQH2KHV01MLS2FI

As always thanks for taking the time to read

John

E@gle.

i dont think there illegal. i seen on ear to the ground a few years back a farmer had a set so he could look at his sheep at night without disturbing them.
You can buy night vision rifle scopes.

But im no expert. Maybe someone else might have some info.

Clare gunner

Yes,they are legal allright. Inc to use to spot quarry,without spooking it to death with 3million candlepower first off.
Monoculars and head mounted units[goggles] are no problem.You need a permit for weapons mountable type systems.
There of course "conversion kits" that allow you to take a certain type of monocular and mount it onto a std daylight rifle scope and turn it into a pretty good night scope. Called Longbow.[NOT of course that anyone here would buy or do such a thing;) ]

Should add that some of the NV monoucluars,etc can be very old Soviet stuff that use very weird batteries/voltages that do not exist outside Russia.Also some of these units do not have any X ray[?] shielding around the eye pieces,so you might not need a NV unit afterawhile as you will have Supermans X ray vision!!!!
Not saying that Lidils units care like that for a moment.It is Russian,and if it goes down will Lidil replace your unit???
It is worth paying a few more quid for this stuff so you can get it serviced and batteries for it when needed.

maglite

john i have that modle bought it last xmas

its not great you will need an extra uv

as is you can just about make out a human at 75yrd,,if you can spare it i would spend the next bvit to get one better, it might be ok but iwas expecting more
i'll try and sort out a pic through it for you dont know how well it willturn out i'll let you know

Umiq88

Just to add a bit night vision is pretty useless for shooting unless you buy the proper kit and are looking to spend 1500++

Gen1 is only good for spotting out to maybe 50 yards i think you'd really need gen2 out to 100 and beyond that gen 3 and by then your spending money which €100 lamp will do alot
better.

Its also very hard to determine distance with it so again your going to have to use the lamp before taking the shot to estimate the range

Clare gunner

psittacosis wrote:

Just to add a bit night vision is pretty useless for shooting unless you buy the proper kit and are looking to spend 1500++

Gen1 is only good for spotting out to maybe 50 yards i think you'd really need gen2 out to 100 and beyond that gen 3 and by then your spending money which €100 lamp will do alot
better.

Its also very hard to determine distance with it so again your going to have to use the lamp before taking the shot to estimate the range

Not quite,
Gen 1
is active infra red.IE you need a light source with an IR cover on it for it to work.Put a million Candle power light behind that and you wqill find it going out more than 50 yds.It also works well if you have to look into shadow areas in the dark.IE under trees ,etc.Big units with a heafty batterypack and light source.
Gen 2
Is proably the start of the true night vision.In that it collects all ambient light available .IE starlight,moonlight,backround light of cities,and magnifies that by 500,000[?] to give you picture in the tube. It can reach out max to appx 150 meters,possibly more with active IR source.Both of these units will give you the green picture we see somtimes on the news ,and are both big bulky units.Think 60s era technology or a piece of 3 foot 6in wavin pipe above your rifle,with non civillian batteries or voltages.
Gen 2a[also somtimes called Gen 3,more a misnomer]
Same technology, improved light collection ability,much smaller units,and civillian batteries.
Gen3
Current issue, very expensive [$1500 plus USD for a basic monouclar]and a controlled export product[still] by the US State dept.Exellent Black and white pictures,Can view out to 150 plus meters,compact units,rugged,multi adaptable,uses civvie AA batteries.
Gen 4
Rumoured to be a combo of thermal and light gathering capability.Apprently back to 60 era size scope with huge battery power requirements.Not available in your local gun store...yet.

As for range estimating,yes alot of the scopes have a very basic type of crosshairs,aiming reticule.Remember these were designed with the military in mind where you would be possibly be shooting from static positions,knowing the range so you could put out landmarks to give you a fixed range.Or have a range finder to tell you the distance. The newer ones will have better aiming reticules allowing you to est distance better or like the longbow,allow you to use your dayscope as a NVS.However considering the saftey aspect as well at night hunting.Do you really want to take shots at more than 100 meters in the dark,without being able to see what is further on behind?.
NV isnt the be all and end all,but if used within it's capabilities it will serve well.

bullets

If you want it for a novelty or bit of fun its great.
if you want it for true seeing in the dark its not great.

with the lidl stuff and generally stuff under 500 Euros you would
be better off with a cam corder that's sensitive to IR light.

I've had 2-3 el-chepo Night vision bits and bobs in the past
and they are CRAP!!!! If you want serious NV dont bother buying
anything under 500 Euro.

If you just want to have a bit of fun indoors, camping or at short range
then they are ok. If you are able to get an external IR illuimanator
then you could make the cheap stuff a little more effective.

I am still toying with the idea of getting a load of IR led's so I can flood
my back garden with Light invisiable to the human eye but that gets
picked up by my (cheap) NV equipment. Just for the sheer fun of it.

~B

Clare gunner

Trouble is with el cheapo equipment here in Ireland,it is sold at a starting price of E500.:(

thelurcher

Cabelas are doing the ATN Aries MK-8900 (Gen4) Crusader Nightvision Riflescope for a while now for €3,930.
With the dollar being so weak and so many Irish travelling over shopping it mightn't be a big deal to get one brought back?

Warranty repairs will be a pain though.

Some of the Gen2+ stuff performs better than the early Gen3 gear.

Clare gunner

Trouble is you will need your Super to OK it.[have fun on that,] and proably a US State Dept export liscense,if you are going to do it totally legal.:(

maglite

thats about all i can get out of mine
it is a little clearer though the scope on its own :rolleyes:
and the sink is at 30 yards

scuby

i got a present of a night vision viewer from my fiance.
it's a weaver, go it from www.weaveroptics.com

the one i have is this :http://www.weaveroptics.com/nightview/index.html

in fairness it's not bad, but again you can get better

johngalway

Thanks for all the replies guys and especially maglite for that pic!

Well I emailed the cops Saturday night about it and typical no response. So I emailed my contact in England and he's happy to proceed on the word of this forum so if they're still in stock I hope to have one in the near future. It'll be fun for the wabbits if nothing else and I reckon I'll be able to use my foxing lamp with an NV filter to boost it's range.

kowloon

spent a day fooling about with a very expensive thermal imaging thingy in work a while back, thing would put all of these scopes to shame, about the size of a large camera, could pick up footprints an a grid metal floor and the likes.
If the place ever goes under that yoke is disappearing with me

Hezz700

kowloon wrote:

spent a day fooling about with a very expensive thermal imaging thingy in work a while back, thing would put all of these scopes to shame, about the size of a large camera, could pick up footprints an a grid metal floor and the likes.
If the place ever goes under that yoke is disappearing with me

Sounds like your workin for Intel!;)

spideog7

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20061221.p.NightVisionTelescope

Thursday 21st in Ireland.

johngalway

Nice one Spideog, you're on the ball, tyvm for the heads up

spideog7

Is there still time to get that letter to Santy ?!

thermalimaging

Did you ever buy this John? Did it work?

kerryman12

I got the handheld lidl one a few years back. It works fairly ok out to about 100 yrds or so after that it gets lost though.
I remember Ivan making a interesting point some time ago about putting a IR filter on a lightforce lamp and using that in conjunction with a night vision scope. I would be interested to test that.

ssl

I got one too. Same results. Ya can get IR bulbs for mag lights also. Donno has anyone tried them to increase the range