Low Light/Night Hunting Advice

[Blackmouth]

I may be getting permission at a local grain elevator to conduct pest control (rats, starlings, house sparrows, pigeons). For those of you that have night hunting capability, do you have a separate gun with NV scopes or do you change the scopes out and how difficult is that?

I have a Marauder.177 with the basic scope that comes with the package deal. I also have a Sightmark Wraith (digital NV) that I have mounted on an borrowed AR in the past. I don’t shoot that often and was curious how most setups are out in the field.

What would be your recommendations on getting started, brand, caliber, bullpup / traditional rifle, etc. I would love to have something in a .22 caliber bullpup and not being around any PCPs, I like FX but really don’t know which brand is better than the other and what is best for the money. Buy once, cry once?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice or anything mentioned that I may not have considered.

 

[dizzums]

theres so much available these days i cant really tell you .. ive had major problems in the garden at night with rabbits and tried a few things .. what works is just a 'spot' type high power flashlight mounted on the gun but thats pretty crude ya know .. i also have a 1st gen night scope and infrared illuminator .. that works but its a giant setup so that puts me off .. so does battery life, its rather short, and even with rechargeables its a constant headache .. i would imagine same with a night vision 'scope cam' set type deal ive seen floating around ... what i would LOVE to have is a good thermal scope .. thats 2 g's or so though .. i could buy alot of other crap with that kindof capital its hard to justify ... so .. qat this point what do i do when theres a problem ... use the flashlight ... it 'does' work ..

 

[wyshadow]

A buddy of mine used a green light beam and I was surprised it worked really good on late night pigeon blasting. 

 

[esingle]

Hello This is the night vision setup I'm running right now, NV compatible red dot Eotech , Aimpoint , Vortex and Burris with an ATN nvm14 (soon to be upgraded to a WP gen 3+ from TNVC ) mounted behind the red dot and an Inforce NV flashlight. This allows me to uses a magnifier if I need more magnification in the daytime and jump the setup from gun to gun, also works great on pb and not just ar's but levers and bolts as well. Well just an option hope this helps Eric

 

[Beezer]

My brother just used a red dot laser for getting rid of varmints at night. Place the dot on the varmint an pull the trigger. No scope needed. Can be used in conjunction with a flashlight mounted on the gun.

It's the eyes that give away varmints. Just shine a red light in their eyes and the eyes shine back at you. Just a standard scope of 50mm objective and an illuminated reticle works for me. No need for infrared night vision gear on a moonlight night here in Montana. Everything is fairly well lit and very visible in standard binoculars and scopes.

 

[JimNM]

I have a green laser that can dial down to dime size or diffuse out to paper plate sized for at 40 yards. Mounted to the side my regular day scope, the quick detach illuminator does not interfere with day use.

The best fit for me was to scale the illuminator to fill the FOV of the scope. The eyes of the birds glow like green stars, and there is enough light bounced off the body to see them against the dark background.

Shooting pigeons in the barn at night is like shooting fish in a barrel. My trigger finger was sore by the time we were done.

 

[Ranchibi]

You can mount a red flashlight to your scope or gun. I have one with an adjustable beam that works well...cheap from amazon or ebay like 15 bucks. Most critters cannot see the red light spectrum but can it’s brightness. This would be the cheapest option.

 

[L.Leon]

Man just mount your wraith and have at it. You state you already own it. That said I use a red light mounted on my gun and it has proven effective.

 

[AndyC88]

i use atn's x sight 4k, clear during the day, clear at night with the right IR light, also has a ballistic calculator and range finder, you can set date/time/temperature, it takes pictures and records, lol the go to scope for day and night solution, save the money and headache and just go with an atn scope

 

[AndyC88]

they hold zero perfectly and can adjust shots with the right calculation, it really really works when the scope is in the right hands and knowledge, you can even set different profiles for different rifles........DUDE what more do you need ! it also keeps your rifle from looking like a frankenstein build with all these parts added just to shoot at night, lol some of these guys homemade NV set up look like a clunky mess to be dragging around.

 

[RobR]

In my experience as far as lights and optics start at the bottom and build your way to whatever end you choose. A thermal scope would give you the best success out of anything but it’s only a matter of time before they learn your reach and work around it. At that point it’s hard to go backwards. 


As far as weapon of choice, life has allowed me to have a decent collection over the years. My Leshiy classic sub 12 in .177 has fed more barn cats than any other. Magazine fed certainly has its appeal but I’d rather drop a pellet pen in the cow barn than a magazine.

 

[survivor45]

I’ve only pested in my back yard. But this set has worked great for me for the last two years. It’s simple and relatively cheap. 

 

[cmatera]

You do well with an FX Wildcat MK3 in .22 with a PARD NV008

 

[Blackadder]

I use a pard 008p lrf for both day and night, I only use one gun. You don't need two guns as the wraith will do the same ,provided you are happy with the gun.