Who uses NV for spotting?

[slim_shady]

I'm sitting at the airport, and have 2 hours to kill. I've been planning to step up into some kind of helmet mounted 3rd Gen nv for spotting & stalking. There are way too many choices on the market. Who all uses helmet mounted rigs, what do you have and why do you like your setup? Pictures would be great as well.

 

[rgilbert]

I use a GenIII PVS14 mounted on a Team Wendy helmet. My thermal is weapons mounted so its kinda cumbersome to use until I see something.

 

[rgilbert]

Taco has a nice one for sale in another thread. You should look at it.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I use it for navigation, driving, walking, stalking. Mostly use the thermal for spotting now, but before thermal a helmet mounted pvs14 was my spotter and weapons sight.

 

[djones]

i use a pvs14 with a paracord lanyard tied to it and looped around my neck. i just drop it when i 'go to guns'. a helmet would probably be easier but i don't want to mess up my hair.

 

[Taco]

I have a pvs-14, team Wendy LTP helmet, and Wilcox g24 mount and j-arm. Like Todd says they rule for driving a ranger/truck blacked out or on a stalk. It's very nice to have whilst chasing a sounder in a vehicle after the sounder maybe has busted you. As far as spotting at anything beyond 75-100 yards, the thermal wins, especially when any kind of brush or taller grass is involved.

 

[ZenArchery]

Yep...

 

[slim_shady]

I use it for navigation, driving, walking, stalking. Mostly use the thermal for spotting now, but before thermal a helmet mounted pvs14 was my spotter and weapons sight.

Goggles or mono?

 

[Terry]

I've used helmet mounted NV for around 10 years now and gen2/3 NV for over 20+ years. Like most folks here been into the thermal more and more the last several years. The new 640 thermal gear has replaced my NV for shooting and scanning 90% of the time. That said a PVS-14 or dual tube Bino setup is a must have for me I feel naked without it. "Navigation" is the number #1 reason I carry NV now.

Also with a IR laser on your rifle walking in you can get a shot off super fast if you come upon something. Speed is key here it takes anywhere from 5-10 seconds to power up and have my thermal scope ready to shoot vs just raising the rifle and touching the instant--on IR Laser button . It's like having a video game heads up display just put the IR dot on target pull the trigger!

For me I would rather have a thermal scanner and NV rifle scope setup vs the other way around. I still use my gen 3 pinnacle D-740 in areas were there's a lot of various livestock or domestic dogs. A Thermal scanner and NV rifle scope makes a deadly combo of detection and ID ability for shooting.

Mono vs Bino NV I would say a PVS-14 is your best do it all system. I love my BNVD's for walking around in the dark with the dual tubes you get better depth to your FOV making walking/driving much easy and more natural. That said much higher cost, more weight on your helmet and I have to flip them up to scan with my thermal scanner on my neck lanyard. With the PVS-14 I can raise the thermal scanner to my non-NV eye to scan more convenient than dual tube setup.

I wish I had a "Fusion" helmet mounted system having best of both NV and thermal in one would be awesome!