Nv at a reasonable price - Sightmark Photon Digital Night Vision Rifle Scope

This is one of those inventions I've had floating in my head for a few years, and now someone else has done it. I'd been wanting a night vision scope for pig hunting for a long time, but was always scared by the price and the stories that inadvertent exposure to daylight would burn out the tube. My cell phone's digital camera has night vision capability that automatically switches between night and day without fear of frying the electronics. I always thought that this digital technology should be adapted for a rifle scope, and here it is!

Taking it outside at night, the illuminator easily works to 75 yds, with more reflective objects visible at twice that distance. I finally took it out to the range to sight in, and it seems to be holding it's zero quite well. I sighted in on a sunny day using the included sun filter. It's almost too dark, even with the contrast maxed out, but was able to see the target clearly enough to find the bullseye. Make sure your sight in target is black on white! Orange on white may not show up. I got about a 2" group with my AR15 at 50yds, which for a 3.5x scope and my aging eyes isn't too bad. Actually, the group size as almost identical to my optical scope at 4x, so I can't complain.

Have I seen better night vision scopes? Yes, for 3x the price! I'd say this is comparable to a Gen 2, but that's only because the digital screen takes some getting used to. Since you're basically looking at a monitor under a magnifying glass, you can actually see the individual pixels. I'm sure at some point they'll come out with a higher resolution screen, in which case it will be more like a Gen 3, but this one should work just fine for pig hunting!