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So, just one random guy who really doesn't know much on night vision. I went with basically introductory night vision - which has come a long way in the last 10 years. (I once did the Russian Night vision a decade+ ago, and would have been better serviced spending that money at the bar.)
So for the Grendel, I wanted something that worked day/night - and didn't cost a bunch. When I saw one for basically $400 delivered, it was kind of a why not? For background, My Grendel project is what I'm calling my "Optimization of the 2nd Derivative" project, and my one-gun for everything gun. So for CQB/1000yard/hunting/home-defense/target/3-gun/blaster/sniper/night/suppressed/optimal cost - this is to be a one-gun that can do it all. And in truth, it's pretty darned close; this has really made me a believer in the Grendel round, which I consider an optimized round for the size of standard AR15. And so far, this fun project is going pretty darned well! My only disappointment so far is that I can't quite get 1 MOA reliably, and it seems to struggle with the heavier longer range ammo. But, I'm hopeful the PSA barrel will break in some. The entire budget for the gun with night vision, is in-hand for right about $1k total. I can spend more - but it's an optimization project, not a maximization project.
Before the night-vision, I've been running a Primary Arms 2.5 CQB, which I think is great glass for this gun. As to night vision, at some point I may well do it right, as most folks who do night vision make it clear that going cheap, is just a bad waste of time. And I'm sure they have a point. But, I view this as a low-cost test-of-concept; not necessarily my end-game.
The good:
It works. The night vision with any ambient lighting, is actually pretty good. It works well in the day. In dusk, it works very well.
The resolution at 3X, is actually pretty good. and it works day/night.
Comes with integrated mount (some models don't), and comes with an illuminator. It's kind of a hokey illuminator, but it does come at least with that. I'm figuring it's a 50-100 yard system as-delivered, and for some things that might be fine. It sounds like upgrading the illumintor makes it into a 200 yards system very easily and without much added cost.
The integrated ballistic compensator is actually pretty cool. Zero your gun at whatever distance (that you tell it), tell it the BC, MV, scope offset, and it's set. Then tell it any other distance, and it'll adjust the cross hair to be there. In my limited use so far, I use this feature.
Most of my usage has been day-fire though.
The bad:
Battery life is HORRIBLE. To the point of making the system almost non-functional. It's AA based, but basically, standard AA's don't work. Seriously, you've got like 10 minutes on standard AA's. Standard rechargeable's don't work either. Without going into too much depth, as a typical battery drains, it loses a little voltage. The designers of this scope elected to go with circuitry that requires the maximum voltage of a full AA to work at all, and if it falls below that any at all, boom - it dies. So with standard batteries, that's measurable in minutes, if not seconds. Only pragmatic long-term option are the new Lithium rechargeable batteries, which run at much higher voltage internally due to their chemistry, and step down via internal circuits to a nice steady standard AA voltage each. Those appear to be about 2 hour life or so, but I haven't really hard-tested/determined for sure - it might actually be longer. They're about $25/set. I actually went with the ones where each battery has it's own direct plug in each cell; to avoid dealing with mixing AA battery charger systems that are (dangerously) incompatible. Other option is to strap a cell-phone charger/battery pack and run the MicroUSB cable, which is a lot of extra weight and screwing around (and opportunity to fall out on you).
The interface is clunky and slow.
The zoom is almost unusable. It's slow and clunky to activate, and gets very grainy and pixilated very quickly when zoom. In truth, it's really a 3X optics scope, that you can blow up - but will regret.
The remote viewing/interface isn't very good. Their app isn't that good, the connection is difficult, and the BlueTooth option doesn't actually work, it has to run wifi, which is a total power hog (and takes your mobile device off-line, since it has to wifi connect to the scope, not your router anymore).
It's Heavy.
This isn't thermal. you need ambient light, or an illimunator to make this work. And illimunators need a clear path from the light (and optic) to the target. If that light is bouncing off your front sight (or muzzle flash), it's an issue. If there's grass between you and target, it's an issue. This isn't thermal.
So, overall Conclusion:
between the weight, and the still relatively short battery life; I'm not entirely sure I'm going to leave the scope on as my primary general purpose optic indefinitely; which was one of my goals.
It's a one-shot system. Not tested myself, but from most accounts the muzzle blast will wash out the optics and follow-up shots can take a few extra seconds for the image to recover well enough. And after the first shot, a few extra seconds is the difference between another shot or not.
Do I recommend this route. .... I'll say... yes, with caveats. For someone who's having a hard time justifying $3k for proper night vision, if their usage is likely once every 2 years, this can get you there; I think. If you're serious and believe in the mantra of "cry once buy once", this probably isn't it.
So did I pack it for my next 3-gun? I almost did, but in the end packed a glass 5.56 M4, because I just didn't trust the battery life yet. It might have worked great. Combine this thing with Wolf Steel and good brass ammo, and it's a good combination budget 15 yard 50 round count stage blaster, and then throw in some 123's, and it's a 600 yard Gong hitter on the next stage. I consider this gun to actually be a better open-field 3-gun system, than a 5.56 M4 for this reason; as it has more legs; but can still CQB on the cheap.
But before I take it out for such, I'm going to spend some more private range time with this night vision, before I trust a day in competition with this thing.
Anyway, that's my input on the topic!
So for the Grendel, I wanted something that worked day/night - and didn't cost a bunch. When I saw one for basically $400 delivered, it was kind of a why not? For background, My Grendel project is what I'm calling my "Optimization of the 2nd Derivative" project, and my one-gun for everything gun. So for CQB/1000yard/hunting/home-defense/target/3-gun/blaster/sniper/night/suppressed/optimal cost - this is to be a one-gun that can do it all. And in truth, it's pretty darned close; this has really made me a believer in the Grendel round, which I consider an optimized round for the size of standard AR15. And so far, this fun project is going pretty darned well! My only disappointment so far is that I can't quite get 1 MOA reliably, and it seems to struggle with the heavier longer range ammo. But, I'm hopeful the PSA barrel will break in some. The entire budget for the gun with night vision, is in-hand for right about $1k total. I can spend more - but it's an optimization project, not a maximization project.
Before the night-vision, I've been running a Primary Arms 2.5 CQB, which I think is great glass for this gun. As to night vision, at some point I may well do it right, as most folks who do night vision make it clear that going cheap, is just a bad waste of time. And I'm sure they have a point. But, I view this as a low-cost test-of-concept; not necessarily my end-game.
The good:
It works. The night vision with any ambient lighting, is actually pretty good. It works well in the day. In dusk, it works very well.
The resolution at 3X, is actually pretty good. and it works day/night.
Comes with integrated mount (some models don't), and comes with an illuminator. It's kind of a hokey illuminator, but it does come at least with that. I'm figuring it's a 50-100 yard system as-delivered, and for some things that might be fine. It sounds like upgrading the illumintor makes it into a 200 yards system very easily and without much added cost.
The integrated ballistic compensator is actually pretty cool. Zero your gun at whatever distance (that you tell it), tell it the BC, MV, scope offset, and it's set. Then tell it any other distance, and it'll adjust the cross hair to be there. In my limited use so far, I use this feature.
Most of my usage has been day-fire though.
The bad:
Battery life is HORRIBLE. To the point of making the system almost non-functional. It's AA based, but basically, standard AA's don't work. Seriously, you've got like 10 minutes on standard AA's. Standard rechargeable's don't work either. Without going into too much depth, as a typical battery drains, it loses a little voltage. The designers of this scope elected to go with circuitry that requires the maximum voltage of a full AA to work at all, and if it falls below that any at all, boom - it dies. So with standard batteries, that's measurable in minutes, if not seconds. Only pragmatic long-term option are the new Lithium rechargeable batteries, which run at much higher voltage internally due to their chemistry, and step down via internal circuits to a nice steady standard AA voltage each. Those appear to be about 2 hour life or so, but I haven't really hard-tested/determined for sure - it might actually be longer. They're about $25/set. I actually went with the ones where each battery has it's own direct plug in each cell; to avoid dealing with mixing AA battery charger systems that are (dangerously) incompatible. Other option is to strap a cell-phone charger/battery pack and run the MicroUSB cable, which is a lot of extra weight and screwing around (and opportunity to fall out on you).
The interface is clunky and slow.
The zoom is almost unusable. It's slow and clunky to activate, and gets very grainy and pixilated very quickly when zoom. In truth, it's really a 3X optics scope, that you can blow up - but will regret.
The remote viewing/interface isn't very good. Their app isn't that good, the connection is difficult, and the BlueTooth option doesn't actually work, it has to run wifi, which is a total power hog (and takes your mobile device off-line, since it has to wifi connect to the scope, not your router anymore).
It's Heavy.
This isn't thermal. you need ambient light, or an illimunator to make this work. And illimunators need a clear path from the light (and optic) to the target. If that light is bouncing off your front sight (or muzzle flash), it's an issue. If there's grass between you and target, it's an issue. This isn't thermal.
So, overall Conclusion:
between the weight, and the still relatively short battery life; I'm not entirely sure I'm going to leave the scope on as my primary general purpose optic indefinitely; which was one of my goals.
It's a one-shot system. Not tested myself, but from most accounts the muzzle blast will wash out the optics and follow-up shots can take a few extra seconds for the image to recover well enough. And after the first shot, a few extra seconds is the difference between another shot or not.
Do I recommend this route. .... I'll say... yes, with caveats. For someone who's having a hard time justifying $3k for proper night vision, if their usage is likely once every 2 years, this can get you there; I think. If you're serious and believe in the mantra of "cry once buy once", this probably isn't it.
So did I pack it for my next 3-gun? I almost did, but in the end packed a glass 5.56 M4, because I just didn't trust the battery life yet. It might have worked great. Combine this thing with Wolf Steel and good brass ammo, and it's a good combination budget 15 yard 50 round count stage blaster, and then throw in some 123's, and it's a 600 yard Gong hitter on the next stage. I consider this gun to actually be a better open-field 3-gun system, than a 5.56 M4 for this reason; as it has more legs; but can still CQB on the cheap.
But before I take it out for such, I'm going to spend some more private range time with this night vision, before I trust a day in competition with this thing.
Anyway, that's my input on the topic!
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