$1500. For night vision scope any recommendations

I need to get a NV scope to hunt coyotes at night, probably wont shoot past 200 yrds but them bastages have been hitting my chickens hard lol. My question is, can i get a decent product for around 1500.00 or am i better off waiting a bit and saving up for a better product. It would be nice to take the scope out for hogs too. Thanks.

I use a Sightmark Photon XT with an IR extender and can see well past the 200 yards and I want to say all in with NV,IR and mounts ran me right around $800

The Photon XT is a great starter scope. Inexpensive and reliable. Beyond that, you need quite a bit more money to go where you really want and that is thermal, but my advice is to skip low end thermal. That's just me...

Photon is a good starter scope. You just have to decide 4.6 or 6.5. I had the smaller and would go with the larger if I got one again.

I'll go out on a limb and call the Photon the best value in night vision .

I have trouble calling it a starter scope as I'm using one due to financial limitations opposed to higher end units but it isn't like the Photon is not fully capable of supporting many various styles of hunting beyond "beginner" level night hunters.

I vote 6.5 as well , you won't mow them down in bunches but your initial shot will be a whole lot easier to make

I think it depends on what you hunt and how as to whether 4.6 or 6.5 is better. Calling coyotes is definitely better with the 4.6 because of FOV and too much power up close with the 6.5. Follow up shots are even tougher with the reduced FOV on running animals. Shooting over a bait site the added power is nice for single animals but again more difficult with running multiples.

Thanks, I will see if I can find a photon near me. Just out of curiosity, how much is a decent thermal unit? Thanks

Well, like the term "starter" or "beginner", you'll find a wide variety of opinions.

I call the Photon a "great starter scope" because I think it does a great job getting someone started with NV very inexpensively. If that is all you use, one might feel that it is a fully capable option. There is nothing wrong in using that if you are constrained by budget. Nothing at all. I had one as a loaner until recently and hunted it quite a bit when they fist came out. It is a very good digital for the price. However, once you start using something better, and particularly a high end thermal, you realize how much you are missing. You can scan a whole pasture with digital, and often night vision for that matter, and miss so much going on. It is night and day difference.

The same goes for the difference in low and high end thermal. The big thing with thermal is the ID distance. You might detect an object and you might recognize it is alive and moving around, but you have to be able to ID. You can't, or shouldn't, pull the trigger on what you can't ID. Higher end thermals help you ID better throughout the range, especially at distance.

Prices continue to come down. If you want to settle for a 3XX core product, you can get a Pulsar XD50 for around 3 grand. They do a decent job and offer a PiP (Picture in Picture) that really helps the lower end 384 core out. If you want to go to the next level, 640 cores run about 6 grand and up. I own a Pulsar, an ATN, an Armasight and three IR Defense scopes. Two ATN, one Pulsar and one IR Defense monocular. The IR Defense scopes are my favorite hands down. Monoculars are a mixed bag based on use. The two ATN monocs are 6X and better for long distance scanning/viewing. The Pulsar is 2.1X mag and the IR Defense is 1X which makes them better for close in.

Digital is fine if it is what you can afford or if it is what you can justify. No problem. It often gets the job done just fine for many folks. Just understand that you won't be seeing everything out there. Might think you are, but you aren't.