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Night Vision Pvs-27 Tube replacement and collimation services

Surgeon_Shooter

Sure Shot Night Vision
Supporter
Commercial Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Mar 2, 2009
    1,111
    946
    Oklahoma
    Hey Fellas,

    Many of us here are avid long range shooters and if your looking in this section your into night vision as well. That being said, the long range night vision clip on is a very desirable piece of kit for that combination.

    Shooters have a few good options to choose from when it comes to this said optic and the Pvs-27 is arguably the best performer of the bunch. The problem is, the Pvs-27 has a good, not great, image intensifier. They house a green phosphor, thin film,Omni VII ITT F9815WG tube.

    We have all fantasized for years about putting a high spec white phosphor tube in a long range clip on but there’s been no one willing to take on the task to turn our fantasy into reality. I myself fitting into this category of people wanting the impossible, decided to just go for it.

    Now after countless hours of building and collimating. We are proud to announce that we will now be able to re tube and properly collimate our customers Pvs-27s!

    The current L3 filmless 27 that we have been testing has 1/4 MOA shift (if any at all) and it hasn’t moved after 300 rounds of 168gr FGMM that have been fired under it. So collimation is well within Flirs claimed 1MOA standards.

    Tube options:

    L3 Filmless WP

    Photonis 4G WP

    The L3 Filmless tube will perform unbelievably well in low light environments. You will find yourself using your illuminator very rarely with this tube combined with the F1 Catadioptric lens on the 27.

    The Photonis 4G tube struggles in those extreme low light conditions but when paired with the Huge cat lens on the 27 it will still be a very strong performer. The great benefit of this tube is that it retains its high light resolution much better than its competitors. So when you do fire up your NGAL (or whatever illuminator your using) and your melting the steel target, your looking at much better resolution than the L3.

    Coating options:

    We will be offering custom coatings with each re tube. Customers can pick their color of choice upon placing their order. The main color options will be FDE and OD green but if you want to get crazy, other color schemes such as multicam or hot pink will be available as well. What ever tickles your fancy!

    Warranty:

    We are offering a 3 year limited warranty on all re tubes. This covers anything except recoil and burns. I don’t suggest using these on anything more than .308win. Yes the housing can handle whatever you throw at it but the tube can not. These tubes may be just fine on a .300 WinMag or even a BMG but I definitely do not recommend trying it. If you burn a big black circle in zone 1 because you got wild with your peq-15 I’m sorry but we can’t cover that either. Anything else will be taken care of and sent right back out to the customer as soon as possible.


    Pricing:

    Unfortunately these will not be done with budget in mind. The process is extremely time consuming and difficult not to mention the potential to break very expensive parts with one wrong move. Then once the tube is swapped the tedious process of collimation begins. Half of this is done on a collimation table and the other half is done at the range with live fire testing to ensure proper collimation.

    Complete unit with hand picked tube, custom coating and collimated.

    $10,500



    Send us your 27, we pick you a tube. This includes collimation.

    $5500


    Send us your 27 and your tube. This includes collimation.

    $2650


    Collimation service.

    $1350
    Most units have to be broken down completely to loosen the prism set screws. This involves several hours of labor to do, which is why this price is what it is.



    Please note:

    The tube that is currently in your 27 is only re useable in a pvs-22 or pvs-27 from Flir/OSTI. They are epoxied into an aluminum tube retainer and can not be taken out without destroying the tube and the retainer. You can keep it or leave it with us, your choice.



    Lead times:

    3-4 week turnaround time for re tubes. Hopefully quicker than that but please expect to wait 3-4 weeks. The epoxy used on the tubes can take up to 14 days to completely harden depending on environmental conditions. All units must undergo live fire testing to ensure adequate collimation and durability. If it’s going to have a problem , I want to find it so you don’t have to. Our coating company we are working with has quoted us 2-4 week turnaround time, so if they get backed up it could extend the lead time a bit as well.

    I’ve had around a dozen people say they want to be first on the list and to make it fair the services will be first come first serve. If you message me inquiring about these services I will let you know what number you are in like and give a fair estimate on wait time.



    Thanks to everyone for the recent encouragement and support! Let’s begin operation “Make the Pvs-27 great again”!

    Jay
     
    Last edited:
    It is pm me some prices please
     

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    Will you be offering a wp retube for a Pvs30 eventually?
     
    anyone got any leads on any pvs27s out there in the wild for sale? Had a guy on ar15.com a few months ago who was selling a few for the 3000 range and missed out because i spent my doll hairs else where.
    need to score a 27 so I can send it off to get a super tube put in it.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: nn8734
    So, one of the above units is mine, and I wanted to post about my experience with it so far, and with Jay on this project.

    First, as far as the customer service and communication, they are great. Tubes are hard to get right now, and this is a new project, so it isn't the kind of thing you can expect to send in on Monday and have back on Thursday. That said, Jay met every deadline he promised me, and was fully communicative throughout the process.

    As far as the end product goes, it is freaking amazing. I ended up with a 72/34.9 tube in mine. There are no blems, it is totally clean. It took me one session to get the hang of focus and parallax on the unit, as I had never really used a 27 before. I had used a 30, but sold it to buy a 27 for this upgrade. Without doubt, the 27 is an easier unit to focus up, but I found the parallax setting on my day scope needed to be different from what I was used to with the 30, but no big deal. Anyway, my first nights with it were with very little moon, and without illumination I could get a crisp picture through the whole range of the Kahles K318i I was using. I would say there was no degradation up to 18, but the easiest mag to shoot in was 13-14. Probably a personal preference thing. Mostly I use 18 max scopes, but as it got more to a half moon, I decided to put it on a 4-28 Steiner. Again, I could run the whole range, up to 28, without significant degradation. Would I run it this high? Not where I was using it as FOV was more important in dealing with steel targets tucked into forest, but on a longer shot I would have had no issues going into the mid 20s.

    Everything else about the unit, the finish etc is done perfectly. None of that really matters to me, but it clearly matters to Jay, and you can tell.

    So, in comparison to other units how does it compare. Flat out it kills other i2 clip ons i've used. Yes, the 2124 has better ergos, but the 27 is better in every other way. The 30 has worse ergos and a worse image. There is absolutely zero reason to consider any other i2 clip on when Jay is doing these, and given the collimation guarantee and communication, that goes double. Now, what about vs thermal? I would say that the unit is, as a clip on, far superior to the LWTS-LR. Clearly a lot cheaper. The LWTS-LR is a great stand alone scope too, so there is that. Compared to the UTC-xii, I would say that the 27 post mod is the UTC-xii of i2. One is not better than the other, they are simply a little different in what they offer, and in a lot of ways it comes down more to personal preference than anything else. The 27 resolves better at the highest zoom, the UTC is more ergonomic. The 27 kills it in the bright half of the month, but the UTC is better in the darker half. Just marginal differences, though. More than anything, it comes down to whether you like i2 or thermal.

    I can give my highest recommendation to Jay and this product. I will snap some on rifle pics later, but I don't know how to take through the tube shots. The image looks like Jay's pictures and video, but without the short shorts. Just too cold around here, and I don't like to shave my legs.
     
    Is the collimation shift consistent - i.e., if it is a 1.5" shift left on one scope - is it still a 1.5" shift left when moved in front of a second scope?
     
    Is the collimation shift consistent - i.e., if it is a 1.5" shift left on one scope - is it still a 1.5" shift left when moved in front of a second scope?
    Yessir it is. The shift is due to the prism alignment to the tube itself. It will be repeated in front of any optic it’s in front of.

    Jay
     
    • Like
    Reactions: deersniper
    So, one of the above units is mine, and I wanted to post about my experience with it so far, and with Jay on this project.

    First, as far as the customer service and communication, they are great. Tubes are hard to get right now, and this is a new project, so it isn't the kind of thing you can expect to send in on Monday and have back on Thursday. That said, Jay met every deadline he promised me, and was fully communicative throughout the process.

    As far as the end product goes, it is freaking amazing. I ended up with a 72/34.9 tube in mine. There are no blems, it is totally clean. It took me one session to get the hang of focus and parallax on the unit, as I had never really used a 27 before. I had used a 30, but sold it to buy a 27 for this upgrade. Without doubt, the 27 is an easier unit to focus up, but I found the parallax setting on my day scope needed to be different from what I was used to with the 30, but no big deal. Anyway, my first nights with it were with very little moon, and without illumination I could get a crisp picture through the whole range of the Kahles K318i I was using. I would say there was no degradation up to 18, but the easiest mag to shoot in was 13-14. Probably a personal preference thing. Mostly I use 18 max scopes, but as it got more to a half moon, I decided to put it on a 4-28 Steiner. Again, I could run the whole range, up to 28, without significant degradation. Would I run it this high? Not where I was using it as FOV was more important in dealing with steel targets tucked into forest, but on a longer shot I would have had no issues going into the mid 20s.

    Everything else about the unit, the finish etc is done perfectly. None of that really matters to me, but it clearly matters to Jay, and you can tell.

    So, in comparison to other units how does it compare. Flat out it kills other i2 clip ons i've used. Yes, the 2124 has better ergos, but the 27 is better in every other way. The 30 has worse ergos and a worse image. There is absolutely zero reason to consider any other i2 clip on when Jay is doing these, and given the collimation guarantee and communication, that goes double. Now, what about vs thermal? I would say that the unit is, as a clip on, far superior to the LWTS-LR. Clearly a lot cheaper. The LWTS-LR is a great stand alone scope too, so there is that. Compared to the UTC-xii, I would say that the 27 post mod is the UTC-xii of i2. One is not better than the other, they are simply a little different in what they offer, and in a lot of ways it comes down more to personal preference than anything else. The 27 resolves better at the highest zoom, the UTC is more ergonomic. The 27 kills it in the bright half of the month, but the UTC is better in the darker half. Just marginal differences, though. More than anything, it comes down to whether you like i2 or thermal.

    I can give my highest recommendation to Jay and this product. I will snap some on rifle pics later, but I don't know how to take through the tube shots. The image looks like Jay's pictures and video, but without the short shorts. Just too cold around here, and I don't like to shave my legs.
    Youre in luck. I run a leg shaving service and I take white phos PVS27s as payment.
     
    When my evil unit from the depths of hades returns, I will compare it with the latest arrival. Hot off the presses, manufactured just two months ago, factory sealed. Ain’t nobody broke the leather but me.


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    69EAB5E8-9D2C-4664-A05B-2E0015493A18.jpeg

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    067BA4FD-00FE-4598-A675-04E9A8F10C4D.jpeg
     
    Last edited:
    Just reviving this a bit. Did we ever get confirmation on refurbs of the 30s? I have a kac refurb which I actually think is pretty good lol but, compared to a pretty high spec wp 14 and some wp duals I’m kinda thinking I might need to change my 30 over at some point. Didn’t know if anyone had yet and if we had pricing for the 30s.
     
    • Like
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    Just reviving this a bit. Did we ever get confirmation on refurbs of the 30s? I have a kac refurb which I actually think is pretty good lol but, compared to a pretty high spec wp 14 and some wp duals I’m kinda thinking I might need to change my 30 over at some point. Didn’t know if anyone had yet and if we had pricing for the 30s.

    Wondering the same...
     
    Wondering the same...
    So I recently discovered that I can in fact swap the tube in a pvs-30. However, I can not re collimate it. I know how to re collimate it and I fully understand the optical train but the guys at KAC get a little carried away with the epoxy. There’s no way to remove all that epoxy off of the collimation system and collimate the thing without breaking it. I tried and failed, miserably lol.

    so if you want a 30 re tubed, by all means hit me up and i can do it without a doubt. But there’s no telling where the collimation will land. Could be close and it may be a half a mile off.

    thanks
    Jay
     
    Here at SSNV were not bigots or racist. We re tube them all. Black clip ons and brown clip ons are all welcome to get a white tube shoved in them!

    Here’s a 24 I just mailed off to a customer!

    View attachment 7467292View attachment 7467293
    I bought on of the marsoc pvs27s' and the tube is fantastic. But man I would love to send this thing in for a WP supertoob.

    It hurts me a little bit thinking that the tube would be ruined for the swap.

    But it would be great to upgrade the tube.