My first exposure to night vision scopes was actually watching nature channel documentaries. Like most hunters, I began as a wildlife lover and remain so in many ways. I remember in particular watching videos of the African Safari at night. They would show animals with glowing green eyes staring off at invisible cameras and tracking down prey in the darkness. They would show small bats and moths mingling with tigers and giraffes. All of this they was shot through night vision cameras and scopes, filmed by some intrepid soul exploring the plains of Africa.
It was easy to take it all for granted. After all, it was no surprise that you could see all of it – it was on TV. I never really thought about what a cool technology night vision scopes were until I actually had the chance to try one myself. It was after I'd been hunting for a few years, and a friend of mine decided to take me out for a nighttime hunt. He had a night vision scope installed on his precision rifle. I thought such things were only used by assassins, and was surprised when he told me that he often went hunting with it. I decided to join him, and we went off into the woods together.
Back then, the resolution of night vision scopes wasn't that fantastic. Even so, I do see things much more clearly than I could have with my naked eye or a flashlight. Large shapes were clear, and movement was obvious. I could see a large doe 100 meters away that had no idea we were approaching, and quietly aimed my rifle at it. I killed it cleanly with one shot, feeling like a masterful hunter. Suddenly, I was no longer burdened by the constraints of daylight. I was able to hunt and kill my quarry at night. The power was intoxicating.
Of course, night vision scopes do have one problem and it is a potentially dangerous one. Using one makes you feel like you can see more than you actually can. A night vision scope tends to turn everything into either grayscale or green scale. Either way, it is easy to miss nuances. If you are looking at a target that is radiating a lot of body heat, for example, you can miss something slightly behind or to the side of it that you normally would see in the daylight. That is why hunting with night vision goggles and scopes requires even more caution than normal. You never know where another hunter might be.
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