Shooting PVS27/ PVS30 unsuppressed

[m1ajunkie]

I'm toying with the idea of running a newly acquired PVS27 or my PVS30 on my 300PRC or 338LM. Neither of these are suppressed however and my only nighttime experience is with a suppressor.....

How annoying is it going to be to run either the PVS27 or PVS30 on an unsuppressed magnum rifle? I understand it's not going to be an actual issue for either device, I'm more curious about the image whiting out due to muzzle flash and making it difficult for me to spot my shots.

 

[hlee]

I think it will depend, to some extent, on your muzzle device. I was shooting a 300 Bo with a cherry bomb muzzle device at an indoor range. Even Without a night vision device, the muzzle flash is absolutely obnoxious.

 

[rlsmith1]

My F1 suppressor (somewhat flashy) would autogate the tube and it was annoying. A flash hider may help this (but be no fun on a 338).

I would be just as concerned with the muzzle brake redirecting material on the lens of your optic

 

[nutation]

I haven't run either on a magnum, but with .308 at least, the flash visible to the tube has some dependence on the muzzle device. With a brake, unsuppressed, the flash blows mostly out to the sides, and very little is picked up by the tube. Any visible flash is very brief, and spotting shots is not an issue. Even blazing a laser illuminator hasn't caused trouble for me, since the brake just blows all the gas away from the line of sight.

Contrast this with using a flash hider and illuminator - in that case the tube whites out on the relatively long lived reflection from the gas, enough to obscure both the flight of the bullet in the laser beam and the impact. This would be worse with magnum cartridges, since there is so much more gas.

 

[m1ajunkie]

Appreciate the feedback from each of you. While I think it would be fun to shoot either of the magnums after dark, maybe I better just stick to the rifles I've got suppressed as these are plenty capable of making hits to the limits of the PVS30 (I haven't had a chance to shoot the 27 yet so not sure about it).

 

[stefan73]

I've never tried it unsuppressed. I figure my neighbors wouldn't be happy.