Someone asked about FOV and I just did my first serious range session with mine. Not exactly precise, but I measured it to be about 42 feet, at the lowest power at 100 yards. For my use, this is quite sufficient. I have it mounted on my 300 HAM'R, (125 grain Sierra Pro Hunters pushed out by 28.7 grains of CFE/BLK) got it sighted in, and I'm taking the little scope out hog hunting tonight, and will give a report on my experience with it. The image I get is noticeably sharper than my old, original Wraith, and I love that original!

Interested to hear your results

In for results

The little scope worked beautifully, but no hogs showed up to dance. I tried all the different settings and had a good time playing around with them totally in the darkness of the blind. I was in a blind at 108 yards from the feeder, and the images through the scope were excellent. The "stock" IR scope worked as advertised on all settings. I'm really lovin' everything about this new scope!

The only thing I'm not crazy about is that it eats CR123 like the homeless guy wolfs the bar pretzels when someone buys him a beer.

With that redesigned dust cap now keeping the Micro SD slot covered but allowing the USB-C to be accessed I finally relented and am now running a magnetic cable to remote power.

I hear you on the batteries. Since I'm "blind sittin'" most of the time, I keep the scope off unless I see customers through my scanner monocular, and use an aux battery source as a back up. For folks who wander the fields looking for piggies, an aux source attached to the butt stock is needed if you're going to be out longer than 3 hours. A good stock of Energizers is definitely called for.

I agree, the CR123 batteries are expensive and don't last long if you leave your Wraith turned on. There are less expensive batteries available on Amazon, the Tenergy brand are rated at 1500mAh just like the Energizers and are less than half the price. I haven't tried them yet but they get good reviews. I looked into rechargeable CR123's but they are only rated at 800mAh.

Like mikei said, I use my monocular and only turn on the Wraith when ready to shoot. This doesn't work for all types of hunting but is fine when sitting over a feeder. Another thing I like about the Wraith Mini is how quickly it turns on, take about 2 seconds. I don't even put mine in standby anymore, I just turn it off cause it just as fast to turn it back on.

This is my first night vision scope of any kind so I dont have much to compare to.

So far what I like is the ease of use. The menu is easy to use and the 1-2 shot zero is awesome! Video, pics, reticles, etc all just easy. The fast turn on is a huge plus also.

What I dont like is the field of view at closer distances. My inexperience with other units must be showing here because you guys are liking the fov and have lots more experience than I with these units. AT 100 yards in the stand the field of view is fine however the reason I need this unit is that night time drive through the ranch where you sneak up on them. Typically much closer than 100 yards thats for sure. How will this unit perform on running hogs at 60 40 and 20 yards?

I am super excited about hunting with this unit and seeing how it performs.

The unit will perform extremely well at closer distances. The question is how well you will perform with the unit at those distances. It does have a somewhat narrow FOV for the relatively low native magnification (2x) of about 7.6 degrees. So you may not want to drive up so close on the hogs.

By comparison, the ATN Xsight 4k 3 and 5x have 9 degree FOVs, slightly larger. The Pulsar Digex N450 4x is 6.2 degrees.

I wanted to like the Wraith. Bought a 4x of the original but the FOV was just hideous. I am trying to scan and find stuff in a wide area. The 4x original is like looking through a paper towel holder. Looking at the specs, the 2x is the same angle FOV, which is also unacceptable. I also got almost zero definition or illumination past 60 yards. I expected to at least be useful to 100.

My first venture into the NV market - decided I am gonna stick with the regular scopes and just not hunt at night if this is considered a "good scope for the money".

Probably a good decision on your part. When shopping for an optic of any kind. defining your requirements/expectations is the first critical step. Once that's done, it's a matter of finding just the right one for your intended application. In my case, for instance, I sit on my fat buttocks in a blind or shooting chair and wait for the piggies to enter my field of fire. FOV of a couple of hog's worth suffices, and the Wraiths I have work perfectly for me. I suggest that you have a serious dialog with Double Naught Spy, since it sounds like your hunting environment and expectations are similar to his.

Is there anything near the Wraith price range that includes better FOV and performance out further than 60-ish yards?

I assume you are taking the optic OFF the rifle to scan. I find that for scanning a wide area with a narrow FOV optic (my IR Patrol has a more narrow FOV than the Wraith Mini), I just turn my head as I scan.

Not sure what sort of definition you were getting, but it looks decent enough at 100 yards to me.

I didn't have the 4k mini. I had the original.

I was not taking the optic off my weapon - how does it hold zero when you do that? And how do you re-mount at night in the dark if you see something you want to shoot?

I have a Wraith Mini on my 300 BO and I put it to work a couple of weekends ago and the included IR definitely goes out to 100 yards. Now if you start to digital zoom into the high numbers the picture definitely pixelates.

I will say the field of view is somewhat narrow, but if you are hunting a feeder it should be sufficient. If you are hunting an open field then you might consider a different unit.

The batteries are unquestionably a pain and I highly recommend picking up the Sightmark external battery pack that clips onto a picatinny rail. I finally bought one for my last hunt and it provided plenty of power without having to cycle the unit on/off.

It does add weight, so either a shooting stick, tripod or window rest in a blind is highly recommended.

I was just at the local gunshop and discussing night vision options with their on-staff pig hunter. He mentioned that the Sightmark Wraith was somewhat fragile. He wasn’t trying to sell me anything, but what’re the forum’s thoughts on that?

My bad, missed that you were complaining about an optic different than the rest of the discussion. With that said, the Wraith HD's quality was comparable to other digital NV gear of 2020, at a lower price that of Pulsar and comparable to ATN at the time. There is no technological reason you could not see beyond 60 yards. Yeah, it had a narrow FOV, more narrow than most everything else out there.

You weren't taking the optic off your weapon and so you were waiving your weapon around in the dark to see? I know people do that, but that is such a bad idea when it comes to safety. In fact, it is something specifically addressed in hunter safety classes because it is such a bad idea, with day optics or night optics. Binos or nv/thermal scanners are strongly encouraged to be used instead.

How do you take an optic off your rifle and then put it back on? Folks seem to do this quite frequently. I am not a fan of the process, but they use RTZ (return to zero) mounts. I have hunted with folks that do this. It seems to work for them, but the more pragmatic solution is to use an appropriate scanning device.

Fragile? In what way?

I have no specifics about it being fragile or not. That’s just what he said. Since that’s a night vision scope that I might buy, I had hoped that you fellows might tell me that the scope isn’t fragile. Not that I beat up my gear anyway.

I don't consider them fragile, there are a lot things that can go wrong with any electronic devices but I have not had any issues but I'm not real hard on my equipment.

I agree with you that the field of view 4x-32X50 is very small even for hunting from a stand, that's one of the main reasons I switched to the mini as the field of view is a good bit larger. One of the challenges with all digital night vision in general is field of view because you're looking through a viewfinder not an optic it just not as large.

You should be able to get a clear image well beyond 60 yards. Maybe there's an issue with your illuminator, are you using the one that come with the Wraith or an aftermarket illuminator? Setting up and aiming the illuminator to center in your field of view is very important.

Here are the steps I use:
1. Set your scope to the lowest power
2. Press the button on you illuminator until its at the brightest setting
3. Focus the illuminator to the tightest beam
4. Adjust the beam to the center of your field of view by moving the illuminator body
5. Lock it down by tightening the Allen screws that secure the light in the mount
6. Refocus the beam a little wider to fill the field of view so it does not wash out the image.

You should be good to go.

Thanks for the reply

Is that video you posted a 2x or 4x? The FOV looks significantly improved from the original

I agree I don't like scanning with the weapon. Also don't like shooting having no idea if the bullet is going where I'm aimed, which is why I don't like pulling the scope from the rifle to scan.

I'm not new to shooting at all but I am very new to night-time hunting so I'm trying to figure out if there is an affordable option out there. I can live with pixelated and I can live with some other drawbacks, but zero FOV and zero coverage out to 100 yards makes it almost unuseable for me. Maybe I need a monocular - is there an affordable option out there?

Zero FOV and zero coverage out to 100 yards? You have a defective scope and should return it to SightMark immediately! I have both the HD and the Mini, and I hunt them both at 100 yards all the time. I have never experienced zero FOV or zero coverage with either of them at that range ( or any other range, for that matter.)

Reviving this thread.

Bought an original HD Wraight 2-16 and it had a Streamlight illuminator on it and it was night and day better than using my old 4x with the sightmark illuminator.

So I don't have a real need for a more compact scope, but there is a mini for sale on here and I'm debating the switch. I do have rechargeable AA batteries I use on my Wraith HD - is the battery issue that bad on the mini? If so that's probably a deal-breaker. I like what I have and am not in a spot where I need to upgrade. But if the battery thing isn't a huge deal and the resolution or FOV is noticeably better, it would be worth the $ to me probably.