Re: pvs-14 or d-760
Yes I can tell you love it and you are good at it !
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: IR-V</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I concur with ASM1, and the method he describes is taught to military and law enforcement personnel who are routinely required to engage in offensive maneuvers with firearms. It is a reason your average infantry troop is issued head-mounted night vision and PEQ-15/15A with much greater frequency than night vision scopes to be fixed to their rifles.
A key principle that is taught: is to constantly scan the environment, sweeping your head in an arc to maintain the broadest situational context possible. In the dark, the user with NV enhanced rifle scope is forced into more of a tunnel vision scenario. If the NV enhanced rifle scope magnification is low, the tunnel (FOV) is wider, but still nowhere near as wide, from a situational awareness perspective, as what one can gain with quick and constant scanning via head-mounted night vision.
Using lasers to aim in conjunction with head / helmet night vision is a rapid-acquisition method of shooting, that requires training and in many cases extensive re-learning for folks accustomed to acquire targets with rifle scopes. The most convenient (but NOT perfect) example for understanding the differences is to consider the disadvantages of using a fixed scope on a shotgun for skeet, trap, etc. While scopes put the aiming component in the same focal plane as the image of the target, a laser puts the aiming component *on* the target. The is no parallax error with a laser, and where "atmospheric" conditions will cause visible distortions, the view of the target remains coherent *with* the aiming element. In other words, a laser dot that appears on the target IS on the target. The rare exception could occur when aiming through relatively thick, transparent bodies of solid or liquid material with unusual refraction index between the shooter and target; but most of us are not usually in the business of shooting sharks and skin-divers.
Lasers that give a visible beam trace are very useful for compensating for the trajectories of different calibers of firearm that they may be affixed to. Once set or zeroed, unless shifted from the set position, the laser beam is a near constant. With practice accurately estimating distance and knowing (from practice) at which distance the bullet trajectory intersects with the beam, accurate holdover with the aiming dot can be quickly achieved. An interesting aside on the benefits of having a laser illuminator and in concentric alignment with your aiming laser, is that if you understand the cone of dispersion on the illuminator, you can use the size of the illumination window to help you estimate the distance of objects it is projected upon.
Head mounted night vision with thermal overlay is the best of all worlds, especially if the thermal component can project in outline mode. <span style="color: #000099">The very best thermal outline algorithms will put a heavier outline around the object emanating the most heat and which will automatically dim the outlines of nearby objects not in your direct, center, line of sight. </span> This really helps with target selection and acquisition. Furthermore, the thermal outline mode has the benefit of not interfering with the i^2 imaging, which presents more and better identifying detail *inside* the thermal outline of the target, including the location of the laser aiming dot. Projecting a laser aiming dot within the illuminated outline of a target is among the most intuitive, rapid methods for acquiring a target, especially when the targets and / or shooter are moving quickly, and when the shooter is under stress.
<span style="color: #000099">For readers who are able to code into the BIOS of your thermal imaging devices, what I have highlighted in blue above are the kind of functions you can consider to program / develop. </span> We've developed code for these at the request of various law enforcement and military customers. Furthermore, with fusion imaging, enabling bullet trace (thermally) in conjuction with IR laser aimer beam trace creates a living, ballistic trajectory "graph" that is truly remarkable to observe from the perspective of team members away from the shooter. The SENVG video overlay capability that I wrote about several months ago, is what I've had my department develop so that what other team members see from their SENVG scopes can be transmitted to any shooter's SENVG scope in a PIP (picture in picture) format -- and simulataneously viewed from a command center.
Can you tell I love my work ... LOL
IR-V
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