You won't be happy with the perfomance of the Gen I stuff, even with an IR spotlight (which is mandatory with any Gen I scope, in my opinion).
If you will be hunting away from the city, where there is no "city glow" or "sky glow", and you are out in the country, you can forget about seeing even 10 feet with a Gen I scope, without supplemental IR light.
Even my Gen III PVS-14 has trouble seeing on a moonless, semi-cloudy night with the 3x lens on it! I can see a coyote at about 350 yards with it, but you won't be able to make out much detail. At about 200 yards you would be able to see whether it was a coyote or a dog, althought I have found that their gate and stride differ greatly. The dog kind of walks along, the coyote kind of bounces too-and-fro.
I would invest in a nice spotlight with a red filter and a daytime scope before I would go the Gen I route. Gen III is prety much the only really usable unit that you will get your money's worth with on a dark night.
Hope this helps!
IOTN
