PVS-14 on an AR?

[warthog]

Some of you may recall I bought a PVS-14 from Alan last year.Can this be used on a rifle and can someone point me to a good way to mount it? Would it go before or behind the Strikefire II I have on the rifle now? The Strikefire II has a NV setting as I am sure you know. I have a co-witness mount and flip up irons, not a lot of room left, but I can move it all around when I am going night time.

I had a Gen I NV Scope a long time ago but sold it. Likely it would have worked well enough to use for hunting but it is gone so now I want to get as much out of my investment on the new NV Monocular.

I may get a chance to hunt feral hogs and thought this would be a big help in my scoring some bacon. If not then I am not sure when I would use it this way but I do want to give it a try.

Anyone know of a place I can use NV and shoot at night without causing a ruckus? That would be nice too.

It is really nice and has been fun to use alone so far. It is pretty amazing how well it allows you to see. At some point a laser might be helpful too but for now I am just wanting to see what I can do with it. I remember there is a fair number of you who are NV enabled here but this is fairly new for me.

Thanks

 

[Principal Skinr]

I used a PVS-14 borrowed from a buddy that mounted right behind an Eotech EXPS3-0. It was a wonderful setu up! I wish I had a picture, but it was for sure a PVS 14 and it was gen 3. It would go behind the Strikefire II. You'll almost certainly have to take off the rear BUIS. I'd just keep the BUIS in my pocket. It won't do you any good at night, anyway. What Gen is your PVS14?

I'd check with http://www.tnvc.com on a mount. I'm sure they have something and can probably answer questions as to how it would work with the Strikefire. Beware, though. If something doesn't cost buku bucks, they tend to scoff at it, even if you know it works. They laugh off gen 1, but my rancher friend in Texas used to use a Gen 1 cheapo from his back porch on moon lit nghts, with an IR torch, and he killed some hogs with it. Of course, he ditched it after seeing the Gen 3 PVS14, but still, it brought home some bacon. TVNS knows their stuff, though. If I hit the lotto, that would be the place for one of my shopping sprees.

They'll try and sell you on something more expensive than the Strikefire, but my money says the Strikefire will be just fine. Vortex stuff is pretty rugged and reliable, and they hold zero well, from my experience. The only issue could be the brightness of the dot, but there are at least a couple of NV settings, right? I know there are on my Sparcs.

You are going for a great set-up there. I did it that way with the EOTECH so that I can swap day/night from the same gun without re-zeroing. I have a 5x Primary Arms magnifier on a flip to the side mount, for long day shots, too. I know I had zero room for the BUIS. If you have the Strikefire mount that pushes the optic forward, there might be a chance for BUIS space with a magnifier, but I can't imagine you'd have room with the PVS 14. It takes up lots of space, and I can't remember having room under the eye piece for the BUIS. It has been awhile. Man, I'm really wishing I'd taken a picture of that set up. I had to give the PVS 14 back after the hunt. I've lost track of the friend who has it, or I'd have him shoot a picture of it mounted.

 

[Principal Skinr]

Here's a shot, and it looks like they've got a BUIS crammed under there. (Looks like an expensive one, too, as is everything with TVNS).

https://tnvc.com/shop/tnvpvs-14-l3-gen3-omni-viii/

 

[42769vette]

Let me preface this with, I dont know as much about NV as I do about scopes. There are a lot of people out there (even on this site) that you should listen to before me.

Your STK 2 should have a cantilever mount. I would move it to as far forward on the receiver as possible.

I have this mount in stock. Ive never done what your talking about doing, but this is the mount I would use if I did do it.

https://www.americandefensemanufacturing.com/view/product/59/

 

[mammynun]

Some of you may recall I bought a PVS-14 from Alan last year.Can this be used on a rifle and can someone point me to a good way to mount it? Would it go before or behind the Strikefire II I have on the rifle now? The Strikefire II has a NV setting as I am sure you know. I have a co-witness mount and flip up irons, not a lot of room left, but I can move it all around when I am going night time.

I had a Gen I NV Scope a long time ago but sold it. Likely it would have worked well enough to use for hunting but it is gone so now I want to get as much out of my investment on the new NV Monocular.

I may get a chance to hunt feral hogs and thought this would be a big help in my scoring some bacon. If not then I am not sure when I would use it this way but I do want to give it a try.

Anyone know of a place I can use NV and shoot at night without causing a ruckus? That would be nice too.

It is really nice and has been fun to use alone so far. It is pretty amazing how well it allows you to see. At some point a laser might be helpful too but for now I am just wanting to see what I can do with it. I remember there is a fair number of you who are NV enabled here but this is fairly new for me.

Thanks

The PVS-14 would go behind the Strikefire, and such a setup works pretty well with one giant limitation: you have to be behind the gun in order to see... it's like the difference between using binos vs a rifle scope.

I have the TNVC/Aimpoint mount and it works as advertised, but it's really only useful in a static position when compared to when my pvs-14 is helmet mounted. But if you're not going to be moving and you're in a position where pointing your rifle at everything you want to see doesn't pose any safety issues, I'd say it's a viable alternative. But I think a helmet mounted NVD is far more flexible (and expensive).

 

[Tula47]

I've got one of these mounts laying in my parts bin that may work for you.

 

[warthog]

Thanks, have to keep thinking about this one. Still need to know I am going before I spend money I really don't have at the moment.

 

[Principal Skinr]

Mammynun raises an excellent point. (No pun intended!) I did forget to mention that when I used the PVS14 set up, I had a hand held thermal imager that I used to scout and spot hogs with, so that I didn't have to point the gun at the unknown. I spotted the animals with the thermal imager (beyond 80 or so yards, you couldn't tell a deer from a dog from a hog.) Once an animal or group of animals were spotted, I looked at them through the PVS14, which made it very easy to identify not only the species, but also great detail about each one of them. When I saw the group of hogs, I'd aim at the one in the group I wanted, squeezed the trigger, and presto! The unlucky hog would in an instant begin the final stages of the process of becoming bacon!

 

[warthog]

I have some NV Binos I can use for spotting. They work well for a Gen I+ as it says on the box. I have used them to look around before though I have never hunted at night.

 

[USMC-Johnson]

The one that attaches to the mounting point on the optic is what i've used. Mounting on a rifle is a good and bad solution depending on what you are doing as you have to be pointing the rifle at a whatever you want to see.

 

[JollyMon]

Depends on the caliber of the AR and the tube that you have. Only certain tubes are rated for rifle mounted. A normal 556 should be fine with most tubes but be careful on higher calibers.

 

[warthog]

it's a 556 so I think it will work. I will check to be sure since i don't want to ruin something that cost me more than I was able to afford at the time. I am not sure how this will go nor am I even sure we will go. I just want to be ready since it is short notice.

 

[mammynun]

Depends on the caliber of the AR and the tube that you have. Only certain tubes are rated for rifle mounted. A normal 556 should be fine with most tubes but be careful on higher calibers.

Very true. I sacrificed a little resolution/sensitivity to get the version that is rated for 300BO.

 

[warthog]

0OK, it is a Gen 3 PVS-14 and is rated to take the recoil of the 556. I read the whole Army Manual on it and boy was it a hard read. No wonder soldiers make fun of these manuals, who writes them? The lowest bidder? I also have a mount now, Thank you Tula47! I have my 62 grain Barnes Hog Killers and dug out my NV Binos, they even work still so I have some sort of spotting device. Will load up some mags of the iMI 77gr Razorcore stuff I bought a case or two of last year and go sight things in after moving the StrikefireII. Probably could have used the Razorcore ammo for the hunt too but forgot I had it, found it when I was looking for something else yesterday.

Now, if the hunt falls through I will be ready for anyone else who asks me to go too. Either way I have had a good time digging all the stuff out and getting ready. It won't matter if it falls through one bit and even if I never get to hunt piggies, I still had fun getting it all together. Thank you INGO for the help and advice. I learned a lot about this, saw a lot of videos and was amazed at the whole thing. I have a buddy with a few thousand acres in New Mexico, his families ranch. They have a pig problem too so maybe I will go there and see how many I can get. He does it at night with a suppressor, another thing I don't have but might get if I manage to got there sometime. He told me he has killed a whole sounder of them, somewhere like10 or so. He lets his ranch hands have most of them. I guess it is easier and cheaper than buying food. They smoke a lot of it, especially Bacon, Hams and Loins. It is about all they eat for meat there and they love it. I told him I would move there and be his supervisor but he told me he had one already but may let me move to it anyway just to live. Then I can hunt all the piggies I want!

 

[warthog]

HERE PIGGY PIGGY

The PVS-14 lines up perfectly with the StrikefireII and the old Binos work well enough to do some spotting so I am not swinging the rifle all over the place. Got out my old hunting knife and the Ruger Alaskan 44mag too. I have a chest rig for the Alaskan and my clothes are all ready to pack too. Ammo is loaded and now I will have to sight the Strikefire II in again since I had to move it forward and the ammo is heavier than the 55gn used to sight it in the first time.

It may still fall through but at least I am ready for this now. If it falls through, so what! I can always go a different time. MAYBE I will have a suppressor by then too so I can kill a whole sounder at once.

 

[JollyMon]

Looks great, just make sure you are absolutely certain you are using the NV setting on the Strikefire, which are the lowest two. I would hate to have you burn a dot into the tube.

 

[warthog]

I will, thanks Jollymon. This is an older Strikefire II and has a NV button and teo setting so I will use the lowest setting I can.

I would hate it if I BURNED A DOT INTO THE TUBE TOO. It really is a nice set up and I want it to be available for as long as I am around.

 

[vitamink]

A friend borrowed my NVGs, left them on, and now I have a permanent picture of his kitchen to remind me not to lend expensive ****.

 

[warthog]

A friend borrowed my NVGs, left them on, and now I have a permanent picture of his kitchen to remind me not to lend expensive ****.

yeah, I am not much on lending while unsupervised. I have found that if a person didn't spend the money, they cannot be trusted to treat it as their own. Like a rental car, people look for ways to wreck then complain when they rent a wreck

 

[Principal Skinr]

Looks like you are all set to perforate pork! I look forward to hearing about your adventure and seeing some pics! Btw, you now also have a pretty nice setup for coyote hunting right here in the Hoosier State, too!