Called an acquaintance whom I thought would know about this and he gave me just enough info to be dangerous with my wallet. Maybe if I can lay out my desires you all can lead me one direction or another I'd be hugely grateful. I will lay out my night scenario. Fields that stretch out 1,000 yards on average b/f we get oak heads and dense forest. The hogs are in the fields like mad at night so it's mostly going to be time spent along the fields/tree lines. I want to be able to scan out a good bit maybe 400 yards? Then we will close on foot and get after it.

From monoculars to thermals to night vision to IR. I mean goodness this is unreal learning all of it. What I do know is that I want to do this b/c we are over run with hogs and it's either pay a trapper or get after it once the sun goes down. My gut tells me a monocular might be where I lean b/c I don't really want to spend an entire night shouldering a loaded AR 10 just to see vs a light hand held monocular.

Can I pose it like this? What does $500 get me? How about what $1,000 gets me in terms of clarity and range? Maybe graduate it up to $2,000? I think I will cap it off there. I'd be so grateful if some of you night genius hunters would tell me how you'd approach this I want to learn from those who have done it. Thanks all

Also, can anyone tell me how on earth to get an alert when someone responds to a thread please? I only get it for PM's. Thanks!

Click on Topic Options, select Add Topic to your Watched Topics. Go to My Stuff, Watch Lists. Click on Watched Topics. Click on Edit Watch topics at the far right. Set preference to Immediately.

That was incredibly helpful thanks. It was so clear and precise even my dumb arse got it right on the first try.

Night Vision gets expensive.

Here are my thoughts from a guy on the lowest rung

500- digital night vision. Good in controlled situations max range 100ish yards
1000- add a thermal monocular for scanning
2000- entry level thermal or higher end night vision range would be longer
4000- higher end thermal. Good refresh rate. Theortaically push 1000 yards

If you wanted to do it cheap I would say get thermal monocular. Get a shotgun with a weapon light. And walk up on them

best bang for the buck right now is probably a sight mark photon xt scope plus a cheap illuminator plus a pulsar hd19a thermal to scan with. Night hunting isn't cheap and you're distances needed are pretty far. Good gen 3 night vision scopes/goggles/monos are just as expensive and some case more than certain thermals.

If that's out of the budget go like Cleric said, pulsar 19a and a green light on your scattergun. Nothing wrong with that setup either.

Hang tight though for a little bit. Pulsar and others are about to start releasing some exciting new stuff and there may be something new that might fit your budget and do what you need.

Thanks all. I'm watching a video now with that monocular spotting hogs out to 500 that is more than we need, but i like it!

I think I like the monocular and quite honestly I'd be inclined to pass on a scope and just revert to my green light once in that 100 yard range we feel super confident with that out to 100. Only problem is from 100 on out we just don't see what we don't see! closing in to 100 doesn't present too many problems we can even roll up on them in an RTV and mostly they are oblivious to us at that range right now.

How is it working eye relief with this scope? As I look at it I'm trying to envision how one shoulders the weapon with a proper cheek weld and looks through. As I am now I think I'd have to cut a hole in my skull to allow for the eye piece:/ Or does our eye need to be directly up on the eypiece say 1" or less? The ATN X looks to be setup so 'normal' eye relief like that used with glass can be used. I'm sure I'm missing something here with that setup.

I have a Photon on my backup 6.8 that gets used by lots of different folks.
The eye relief is just like any scope, the flexible rubber billows on back blocks outside light.
I wear glasses and it's not a problem, even during recoil since it is flexible.
Add on an Evolva T20 external Illuminator and you can see further than you can safely shoot at night.
Thermal hand scanners are nice since they "see thru" stuff that will just reflect the IR illuminator on standard NV.

I would pass on the XSight as they have had lots of teething problems.
I had two of them..the first one went back in 2 days and second one went back for refund.
The refund was a fiasco since the retail store sent me SN xxxxx and I sent back SN ooooo but finally got refund 5 months later.
They are getting better but right now, I'd pass.

Pulsar is releasing a pretty great entry-level thermal sight this year that if I remember correctly will come in under the $2000 mark. It's excellent. Basically they took one of their more popular (on the cheaper end) thermals, and took off all of the bells and whistles like bluetooth and recording capabilities, etc, so that you're just left with a 320 resolution thermal weapon sight. Combine that puppy with a $200 tripod setup for your AR10, and you're rocking.

Oooh wow that sounds nice. Thanks for the heads up.

Close. I think you are a bit off on your history, but here it is...

I would like to take a look at that Pulsar.
My N750A has been a solid performer for years and years on my main 6.8.
This brand is particularly interesting to me.

Yep, I use N750 and the flir ps32 for looking

Yep, I use N750 and the flir ps32 for looking

That Core RXQ30V for $1,899 would make a good monocular for scanning. Street price should be less.

Photon 4.5 or 6.5 paired with the Evolva Future Technology T50 IR 50mm all for about $550 to less than $750.00

lot of guys say the 6.5 photon has to much magnification,,, but i have wished my 4.5 had more at times....

And like already mentioned,, wait a little,,, photon is supposed to be coming out with some upgrades...

http://www.sightmark.com/product.php?item=255