Anyone use a Raptor? I see a few now and again for sale at what seem like decent prices, meaning less than $5k. I'm not looking for one at the moment, was only curious about them as there doesn't seem to be to much info out there. I know they were US military issue. Have they been totally shelved? Seems that most of the time on whatever NV forum, when the Raptor topic is raised it is quickly dismissed bc parts are no longer available and the night optics D series are just as good. I can see myself in the future adding an NV scope or like a CO-X clip on gen3, and wonder how the Raptor would compare to a CO-x/CO-mr in front of a quality day scope. Thanks.
M644 Raptor
- Thread starter Taco
- Start date
They are very good, they actually have the best glass (on paper) of any man-pac NV system. I will caution this, they are very hard to get fixed when they go down. I couldn't find anyone to fix one for a buddy who had a tube go down due to recoil since you need custom tools to dissemble a Raptor, so I ended up having to 3d print and machine tools specifically for the job.
I would also argue that the Night optics D series is no where near as good. We are talking an optic made specifically for military sharp shooters vs. a russian made commercial optic that has a manufacturing cost that is a fraction of that of the 644.
Based on image quality alone, the raptor would generally crush any clip on. However, they usually have 10 year old, or older, tubes in them, so the advantage can be turned the other way.
I would also argue that the Night optics D series is no where near as good. We are talking an optic made specifically for military sharp shooters vs. a russian made commercial optic that has a manufacturing cost that is a fraction of that of the 644.
Based on image quality alone, the raptor would generally crush any clip on. However, they usually have 10 year old, or older, tubes in them, so the advantage can be turned the other way.
Darn. The night optics is Russian made? I didn't know that. I've only looked through a raptor once and did not have my D-750 or anything else to compare at the time so I can't add anything useful.
I do think my D-750 is exceptionally clear. At least mine is.
Thanks for the info on night optic.
I do think my D-750 is exceptionally clear. At least mine is.
Thanks for the info on night optic.
Yes, the D series are all made by Dedal, in Russia. However, that's not to say they are not a great optic. They have some phenomenal glass for a commercial unit. (there is usually a large gap in glass quality when comparing US Military NVD's and commercial counterparts). They have definitely improved in the last few years. The first D740's and D760's actually had a cardboard part in them. Again, not to say they are not great optics, they just are not US Military grade optics.
One advantage the D series, and other commercial units have over the Raptor is weight. The raptor is a heavy son of a gun. The man who had to carry a 6x raptor or PVS-12 was not envied when I was in!
Not a lot when compared to PVS-14's, PVS-7's, etc, but there is a pretty decent number of them still floating around....but many you see on ebay and such places are banged up pretty badly. I've seen them go for as low as $2200.
Now that I have the tools I might as well I guess!
I have a 4X NightHawk with ITT tube it's the clearest NV device I've looked through. The NightHawk looks to be almost the same as Aquila very similar to the Raptor anyway a full mil-spec system. I've also had the D-740 ITT tube and SPRS 4X L3 thin filmed mil-spec gen 3 scope. To be honest all the NV scopes are very nice, but I use 640 thermal scope 95% of the time so I sold my SPRS and D-740.
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