Supergain shipped today! Hope it arrives while I’m off work.

Nice! Prepare to get shit for sleep the next week solid.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Nice! Prepare to get shit for sleep the next week solid.

I'm on mids currently, that's why I want it before I go back to Days. Gonna stalk some base deer on my days off, see if I can't get questioned by the MPs.

Just be aware, in some states, all stalking and "harassment" of game animals can be ticketed for hunting without a license if you don't have one. Last thing I'd wanna do is give a game warden with a hard on an excuse. They love nailing poachers and don't make no mistake, poachers use night vision, too.

That said, I stalked up to within about thirty yards of a doe sleeping in the field out by my mother's house back in October when I went up. Could see the eyes reflecting the IR back at me from the house, so I just walked out there. Animals at night behave completely different than they do in the daytime because they're assuming you can't see them. I did the same thing with rabbits in the green spaces in the neighborhood of the place we rented last year. Can walk right up to 'em, they'll just look at you.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Just be aware, in some states, all stalking and "harassment" of game animals can be ticketed for hunting without a license if you don't have one. Last thing I'd wanna do is give a game warden with a hard on an excuse. They love nailing poachers and don't make no mistake, poachers use night vision, too.

That said, I stalked up to within about thirty yards of a doe sleeping in the field out by my mother's house back in October when I went up. Could see the eyes reflecting the IR back at me from the house, so I just walked out there. Animals at night behave completely different than they do in the daytime because they're assuming you can't see them. I did the same thing with rabbits in the green spaces in the neighborhood of the place we rented last year. Can walk right up to 'em, they'll just look at you.

I'll have to look at the rules on base to be honest. Don't have to worry about game wardens, but a dick measuring contest between MP's and game wardens would likely be epic. I doubt anyone would question me sneaking around near the fence on the secure side of base right? If I wear my badge it's cool lol.

Excited for sure. I'll try to get you some photos. I'm sure I'll have questions/comments once I get it all set up and use it.

I’m excited for you. Just remember to pull the battery out when you’re not using it. Leaks with lithium batteries are rare, but they can destroy your unit. I’ve seen it happen to one guy already this last year. Enjoy!

quote:

I'm sure I'll have questions/comments once I get it all set up and use it.

Do your best to do some shooting with it. If you can't do that, do everything but. Try to put you, your NV, and your rifle (with it's associated optics and LAM) in every circumstance you can muster in/around your property. You can learn as much or more about your NV and it's related equipment off the range, as you can on it. Put it on, grab the rifle, and LARP around your house and yard. I hope your circumstances allow for frequent night shooting, but I understand that it can be a tall order for a lot of folks; do what you can. I know a guy who's had a PVS14 for a couple years; he hasn't done a damn thing with it, for a lack of someone holding his hand and inviting him to attend something. Don't be that guy! (I don't think you are)

Helmet is hurting my front right part of my head. Maybe more counterweight? Maybe a headband since I’m bald, gotta figure that out.

But this supergain unit is top fucking notch!

Now to test various LPVO, Eotech, Aimpoints, Holosuns, to see what I’m gonna run on the SBR for hogs.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OttoSig,

I use thirty rounds of 5.56 as a counterweight on my helmet and my nightcap. Spare batteries aren't heavy enough, IMO. Lead or steel dead weight is just that: dead weight. The ammo is dense enough to provide adequate weight without taking up tons of space, and it's even useful in some kind of extreme emergency.

If you have all of those optics on hand, I think you'll quickly realize the Eotech is the way. If you're buying things, don't waste money on anything that's not an Eotech.

Another note; both general, and in reply to your comment: I wore my nightcap for three hours straight a week ago. It is the most comfortable night vision platform I have worn. I am sure it isn't for everyone, but it's certainly for me. You may consider trying one.

Those specs are on another level from numbers I'm used to seeing. That's nuts! Congrats!

So, counterweight. Your journey with a PVS 14 is gonna be a little different than mine with the DTNVG's. You've got ~12oz hanging off the front of your face, I have 21oz. I absolutely have to have some counterweight, or it's unusable. Maybe in an emergency situation, a guy with a 14 could get away with pulling a loaded 30rd magazine off the back of his head and deal with the dipping, but I couldn't. With a ballistic helmet, it's nowhere near as big a deal, but with a bump and especially a carbon, it's nearly like having nothing on your head except the NOD. In my opinion, lead or steel weights aren't dead weight: They're serving a purpose in keeping everything balanced on your head. Batteries are good if you're going to swap them live for dead, but anything that comes off the helmet and doesn't go back on would be a problem for me.

A few days ago, I decided to cop Microbat System's weight design and ordered 100 10mm steel ball bearings, and 3m of 12mm shrink tube. Four links of 15 balls, and four links of ten wound up being what I could best fit in the shock cord I rigged up with my Ferro battery pack holder. I hit those links with some tan spray paint and wove them in, and the whole thing worked out pretty well. I weighed the balls before I got to work and forgot to do it after, but they were right at 16oz total, so maybe a little more with the shrink tube. That, plus the battery pack is just about right. Since you have a Mohawk, you could load up on batteries, but I think even then, there's a limit to how many batteries are useful to have on hand since you get 24 hours plus of runtime per. A bag of tungsten powder or ball bearings in that pouch might work pretty well.

I will probably end up putting the Ops Core counterweight kit on my ballistic because if I need to migrate everything over to that, I need something more solid anyway.

Look, opinions on counterweight vary, from what you've heard in here already to guys who won't run anything and say to just get stronger, and beyond. The simple answer is start messing around with some of the various options and see what works for you.

For myself, I've been trying to make sure my helmet setup is fully dialed in. I'm hopefully getting together with some local dudes for the first time in a couple weeks for a night walk. I don't want to have to worry about anything, I just want to throw everything in my backpack and go, so stuff is getting dummy corded with zip ties and shock cord where applicable, and everything will get a compliment of new batteries with some spares in my pack. The hike itself should be about an hour and a half to two hours, so it should be a good opportunity to see what works in a group setting and what doesn't. Hoping to make some good connections and maybe expand this thing to some guys who go shooting at night. I'm probably not going to bring a rifle and plate carrier since the trailhead parking closes by the time we'll get there, and parking is on the street in a residential area. It is Arizona, so it would probably be fine, but like the guy putting the thing together said, it's also possible a homeowner could see a half dozen or a dozen guys with rifles and helmets out in front of his house and think we're gearing up for an assault and call the cops. The whole "you're not breaking the law, but I'm sure you guys can see how..." talk is just extra excitement we don't need.

On the topic of batteries and stuff on the back of the helmet, I've been dicking around with a battery pack adapter for the DTNVG's since last February. It's been a total shit-show. Unit was DOA, company wouldn't send a replacement and wanted me to ship it back. I opened it up and it looked like it was put together by a guy who hadn't touched a soldering iron prior to watching some YouTube videos to teach himself and went at it with an Amazon soldering pen. Turns out, that was dead on the money because he told me so himself over the phone. It was all cold and dead solder joints, and I know that because I used to build guitar pickups and have more paid time on a soldering iron than anyone I know. I re-soldered all the connections with his blessing and it was still dead. I swapped the leads and it was still dead. I emailed the company and said I wanted to send it in for a replacement and got no response. I tried for six months and they never responded. Left me no option but to issue a chargeback for a $400 piece of "never worked, never gonna work." I mentioned this in another venue at the height of my frustration, and an industry member contacted me and said that rather than throwing it in the garbage, send it to him and he'd make it work. I took him up on it, and he diagnosed it as a bad (bottom shelf and probably Chinese) LEMO connector. He replaced it with a new high quality one, soldered and shrink tubed every connection with better quality wire, and sent it back to me. No charge, wouldn't take a gratuity. Just "this is how you should have been taken care of from the start, and I'm embarrassed as someone who works in this industry that you were treated this way." He asked he not be named as to avoid drama with the other company, so I won't. Just know there are some good people in this industry.

PVS31 battery pack into a Mercenary Company cable into the adapter into the DTNVG's runs absolutely perfectly. A little less weight up front and a little more in the back, IR strobe built in, and I can run AA's. Interestingly enough, the unit emits a high pitch whine with the expensive lithium batteries in it, and runs great with Costco cheapshit alkalines, so now I'm into real cheap batteries compared to the Surefires I was using. Since I don't have to use up 123's in it, I can save those for all the lights I have that use them. At the end of my use, I don't have to unscrew a battery cap and stow a battery anywhere, I just pull the cord and pop the lens covers on. We’ll see what the runtime is like, but it should be fifty hours plus. All-in-all, an excellent upgrade for $400 total (I got a baller deal on the battery pack itself) instead of the thousand plus it usually costs guys to get a battery pack setup running.

quote:

guys who won't run anything and say to just get stronger

LOL. Only someone who hardly wears them would say that. I am fairly certain that the majority of grunts during the GWOT didn't mess with a counterweight; but that's only because they didn't know any better.

To be clear, I am not velcroing a loaded 30rd mag to the back of my head. The rounds are oriented in a way that makes them compact, and then sealed in a waterproof way, and enclosed in the nightcap counterweight pouch.

quote:

lead or steel weights aren't dead weight: They're serving a purpose in keeping everything balanced on your head

True true. I withdraw my dead weight comment.

That three hours I mentioned was a hike scenario. Got sniped by more than a few roots, but never went to the ground. The area we were in was permissive, when it came to rifles and equipment, so we were fully equipped. It was a fun/painful eye-opener. With the heads-up orientation that NVGs require, you can't just put your head down and get after it. With 55LBS on, before you pick up the rifle, it gets hard to keep your head up pretty quick.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
LOL. Only someone who hardly wears them would say that. I am fairly certain that the majority of grunts during the GWOT didn't mess with a counterweight; but that's only because they didn't know any better.

Yeah, an ACH with PVS15's and no counterweight looks fucking painful. I watched American Sniper a few months ago and was just cringing during the scenes shot at night.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
To be clear, I am not velcroing a loaded 30rd mag to the back of my head. The rounds are oriented in a way that makes them compact, and then sealed in a waterproof way, and enclosed in the nightcap counterweight pouch.

Yeah, fair. Your approach makes sense. I have seen pictures of guys with a whole-ass magazine on the back of their helmet, "ready to go, just in case." I just... no.

Your ruck sounds brutal, and I want to work towards a little milder version of it with less weight. I have some good trails nearby that I need to check out with my family during the daytime to get a good sense of, then start hiking regularly at night. Until I get my knee issues a little more figured out, I'm not going to add weight. I got cortisone injections in September that lasted me two weeks when some guys get six months out of them. I got gel injections a couple weeks ago, should be working at full effectiveness by about the 15th, so I'll have a good idea what I can get away with maybe by February. I have arthritis and bone spurs in both, which led to enough taking it easy that all the ligaments went lax. I do have to build up some strength, but I'm going to ease into it. This night walk/hike is honestly going to be pushing it a little sooner than I should, but I've waited for nearly a year to not be the solo guy gooning around in the dark. I'm going, period.

Thankfully, the trail we're going to be walking should be reasonably clear, so tree roots and things of that nature shouldn't be a big problem, but there's always the risk of dips and washouts with the rain we've been getting. He said there's a rocky scramble type area, so hiking boots it is. I've been messing around with the upper 1/3rd and irises mostly closed setup a lot lately in order to be able to keep my eyes somewhat adjusted to the conditions and be able to see the ground and navigate obstacles a little better. I guess I'll play around with it a little bit when we get out there and see how it does.

The reticle of the Eotech is far superior. The FOV is also better which compounds the reticle (dot) problem of the T1.

I went with the Eotech, 8 more ounces overall but that is a compromise.

EoTech


T1


With regards to the counter weight, as pleased as I have been with TNVC, these flat metal bars they included are ridiculously useless. I will try to bend them at the same radius as the bump helmet, otherwise I can barely get a wrap of batteries in there. It's felt better the past two nights though, so we're headed in the right direction.

The unit itself is quite spectacular. I don't have anything else to compare it to but it's like walking around at dusk almost.

P220,
I'm writing up your email reply bit by bit, the weather here has been horrible. As in can't even see one star horrible so I wanna get some more time with em and the helmet to reply to some of your points.

Some NVG thoughts of mine lately...

In the urban and/or CQB context:

The enemy is ill-equipped and potentially poorly trained. You "own the night"!

The enemy is somewhat equipped and likewise trained. You're going to get a face-full of white light once you lose the element of surprise. How can you adapt to the change?

The enemy is comparably equipped and trained. You're going to get a face-full of IR illuminator and laser.

In any case but the first (so long as they don't turn the lights on), you're going to need to quickly adapt to changing circumstances. If you have duals or, like me, use your mono over your dominant eye for passive aiming, you'll likely need to get your NVG out of the way. You may need to make weapon changes, in the way of optic or illumination adjustments.

That's one reason I like articulation. I can pivot either or both tubes up and out of the way at a moment's notice, and it doesn't change the balance like stowing the unit does.

Night hike was last night, and it was a success. Twenty of us showed up. Neat mix of PVS14's and a variety of duals, same with tube types. The photos from the group are starting to trickle in and the difference between L3 unfilmed vs, well... anything else is frankly shocking. A small variety of lasers and illuminators were brought out and demoed. It was a very good time, and there were a lot of smiles and laughs. Nobody had gotten together with a group that big. The guy who organized it is wanting to do it every two months, and we set up a group chat to trade pics and coordinate in the meantime.

I made a few contacts and was invited to go out in the desert for a night shoot soon. It'll be my first time actually shooting under NV, so I'm pretty excited and will hopefully have a good range report for you guys next weekend. It'll all be passive through a couple different optics at a variety of ranges from close up to purportedly a thousand plus yards, so I'll get to see what I'm actually capable of with what I have.

I know I had said I was just going to buy the DIR-V, but I'm going to wait until after SHOT show to really decide. Holosun is all but outright saying they have a VCSEL unit, and Z-Bolt is going to be shipping the ACAL somewhere around May or June and they've repeatedly said it will be $1,500 for the civvy version. Their PE heads are amazing, and they have a VCSEL head coming out soon that'll be a lot cheaper than the Kiji. The guy who designed the D2 at Steiner jumped ship and joined their company, so the ACAL should hopefully be a pretty decent unit, and yes, made in the US. I also may have a line on a USNV Triad full power for about $900. Apparently a bunch of them were made, packaged, and then just sat on warehouse shelves and they're trying to get rid of them, so I'll be keeping an eye on whether that particular contact ends up buying out that inventory. Whatever happens, I'm selling stuff and saving up for an MFAL.

I am glad your hike event was a success. I look forward to hearing about your range event; I am sure you're going to have a lot to say, once you've done some shooting.

Honestly, I am very grateful that I didn't know much about anything, when I got my PVS14 and the OTAL (I already had a SF vampire). The equipment deliberations are exhausting. I understand why they are that way: everything costs so damn much! I am glad I managed to bypass that rigmarole though.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
I am glad your hike event was a success. I look forward to hearing about your range event; I am sure you're going to have a lot to say, once you've done some shooting.

Yeah, I know it's going to be a totally different ballgame. I think maybe I was one of a small minority there who hadn't done any night shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
The equipment deliberations are exhausting. I understand why they are that way: everything costs so damn much! I am glad I managed to bypass that rigmarole though.

They absolutely are. And not a small part of it is learning the terminology, lingo, and the fucking acronyms just to understand what's being talked about!



Anyways, hoping to not turn your thread into geardo derp.

The lighting conditions were kind of interesting. It was a 6% moon, but we were right on the edge of a very well-lit neighborhood for the first and last quarter of the hike, so that illuminated things a bit. The trail was pretty rocky, but I don't think I saw anyone use IR for actually getting around, and nobody took a tumble. I spent a lot of time watching where I was going and the group moved at a good clip, so I didn't get to amble and look around like I'm used to. Most everyone was walking head up instead of looking down. The destination was darker, tucked around in the base of the mountains and I was feeling the limits of my tubes - it was pretty dark. From the trail head, the outline of the mountains could be clearly made out, and on the way back, the outline of the mountains across the valley could also be seen. As we got closer to the neighborhood, the light pollution started to obscure it. That final quarter of the hike, it was incredibly bright compared to the destination.

It's neat, the kinds of atmospheric and lighting conditions and how they impact your experience with NODs. Out in the desert, a clear night with no moon or even a partly cloudy night with less than a quarter of a moon gets pretty dark. But where I visited in NY last fall, there was just enough humidity in the air with no moon that getting around without IR was a risky proposition. It was just like a light vacuum. In the desert, a full moon and a clear sky is nearly like full noontime daylight under NODs. Visibility to the horizon, everything in bright, sharp relief.

Tuesday, I'm taking my mountain bike to a local shop to have them go through and tune it up. It's been sitting for some years now. When I get it back, there's a trailhead just a couple miles from here that opens into a whole web of trails that run up into the mountains. I'm going to get my legs back under me and get my butt used to a bike seat again, and when I'm ready, I'm going to start night biking those trails.

quote:

I'm going to start night biking those trails

Oh boy. I 'learned' how to deal with night vision by walking my dogs in the woods behind my house which are quite thick and devoid of any man made illumination. I did that for years and I'm pretty confident in my abilities over rough terrain in almost any situation. But when I switched to NV vehicle driving using the miles of trails I have and added speed it was a whole different ballgame. I urge some caution as you approach that especially on a bike.

I know adding wheels of any sort is just a way to get hurt faster, but I'm definitely going to ease into it. I haven't ridden in years to begin with, so it's going to be something to work up to... slowly.

Weekend shoot is up in the air. First guy had to work (or decided not to reveal his secret spot, either is fine), so we're trying as a group to figure out a backup plan. Turns out there's a 2 gun match Saturday that runs all day and then there's an industry-organized night event afterwards that is unlisted in Practiscore. Trying to get more info about that one, but it sounds like a concentrated 12-16 hours of learning by watching and doing if that pans out. If that can't get figured out, then a random BLM land spot with a couple of the guys Friday night. However it happens, I plan to be doing some shooting under NODs this weekend.

How did the riding go P220?

I've got leave planned for 12 February for 2 weeks. Gonna be doing a good bit of hog hunting down in Florida.

The PEQ came in, works well so far, been snowing so its BRIGHT outside no matter what.

I've been pleased with the unit I got. I gotta do some research and I'll try my cousin's team wendy helmet when I visit. The OPS core doesn't fit my head shape that well. The counterweights have helped but its still a bit uncomfortable, especially after extended periods.

I'm keeping my eye out for a decently priced 3x as well. I think it'll work out well while sitting in the hut hunting.