I get asked hey Karl which do you recommend a clip-on night sight or a
dedicated night sight now clip-on sights are kind of new the whole concept behind
it is you can take your day optic leave your day optic on your gun and then you
just place a clip-on night vision device in front of it and it doesn't throw off
your zero at all so all your dope is still good on your gun
that's great however the one flaw with that is anytime you put anything in
front of the objective lens of an optic the potential is there to throw the zero
off and it's not just a small probability it's very high probability
for years they've been trying to work out the bugs of how to take and place
something in front of the objective lens of a day optic without throwing off to
zero we used to use the old KN 500 KN 250 night sights to put in front of
our sniper scopes but they always threw off the zeros just it it was not
repeatable if you mounted it on it was different than it was the day before it
illuminated great but it just threw off the zero of the gun so the alternative
what units would have to do back then is you would have a whole separate weapon
system with the optic mounted on it the in particular dedicated night vision
rifle fast forward a lot of really good marketing and a lot of good
advances in CNC machines and designs of night vision goggles they're to the
point now today where you can put a clip on night vision device in front of the
day optic without throwing off the 0 plus or minus one minute of angle that's
what the marketing says anyways however the potential is there to mess it up it
really is the advantage of using a dedicated night-vision device especially
if you're running an AR platform is all I have to do is take my day gun punch
two pins take my day optic off I can put my night optic zeroed upper on and I now
have a gun that I do not have to worry about my zero being off at all this zero
chance that this gun it would be unzeroed it's it's set there's there's
no issue at with it at all I won't ever have a problem with it so for the
civilian at home that can carry it in his gun case with them for the law
enforcement officer that can carry it in the gun case in the back of his cruiser
or in the SWAT truck you cannot beat having a dedicated night night vision
device this gen 3 device is crystal clear and my data is going to be accurate
where I aim is where the bullets going to go now the reason why the military is
pushed in this direction is because we're using really really good optics on
the guns and we do not want to have to pull that thing off right we're also
trying to cut weight here if you're going up on that mountain in Afghanistan
your rucksack already weighs 120 pounds you don't you don't want to have to add
a whole nother upper alright so by adding just the small night-vision
device it seems to make sense my personal experience though using all the
different generations to clip on since when we first started seeing them 2002
2003 timeframe have they gotten better yeah are they holding the zeros
sometimes some brands are more repeatable than others I'm not going to
go bashing brands here but basically any time you take a clip on device and this
is a gen three one made to go on your Magnum larger calibers it's got to throw
levers a little bit better more solid mount
but still the issue with this is the law with the laws of physics alone say
anytime you put something in front of the objective lens you're the potential
is there greatly to throw off the zero of that gun so my opinion when asked
Karl which do you recommend a clip on or a dedicated night-vision device again I
go back to what's your situation what's your mission if if your particular
situation is you have room in your gun case for a separate upper with that AR
system that you have when when the Sun Goes Down and you're going to go out for
hogs off the dark by all means put that dedicated night-vision device on there
it's going to be a lot cheaper and a lot more accurate however if your mission is
the other end of the spectrum you're looking to cut weight and you need
something that gives you that extra option when the Sun Goes Down there are
some great clip-on units out there