If you could only buy one what would you buy? Night vision scope or thermal vision. I don't have either and what I use now is green or red light on coyotes with not that great of luck. Pick up eyes of a coyote once in a while.
Or would it better to buy a monocular to scan and use light to shoot?
This subject has been disussed many times. Please do take a look at the pages of threads here.
General rule of thumb is thermal great for detection and NV the absolute best for identification and whats behind your target zone.
With that said based on your budget thermal scopes such as IR Defense with their 12um cores do a decent job at ID at closer ranges based on target size.
As for monoculars such as a PVS-14 is a very versatile system while mounted on your head to navigate and use an IR laser and IR illuminator on your gun to do the shooting.
This all has importance on your budget, range you really want to engage at and your environment you hunt in.
Originally Posted By: Maine coyote 4444If you could only buy one what would you buy? Night vision scope or thermal vision. I don't have either and what I use now is green or red light on coyotes with not that great of luck. Pick up eyes of a coyote once in a while.
Or would it better to buy a monocular to scan and use light to shoot?
This is the normal progression:
1. Wide beam light for scanning (Red) / Focused beam Kill light for the shot (positive ID) (Red or Green)
2. Thermal unit for scanning / Kill light for the shot (positive ID)
3. Thermal unit for scanning / Thermal scope for the shot or Night Vision Scope for the shot. (NV if positive ID is required)
4. Multi purpose units:
1. Night Vision - PVS 14 for NV scanning then quick mount to your weapon for the shot (NV)
2. Thermal - IR Defense M300 - Thermal scanning unit then quick mount to your weapon for shot (Thermal)
Keep in mind there are Digital Scopes which will provide the same function as a NV scope but they vary widely with respect to range capabilities and performance.
