First, A Little Background. Let Me Say That I Love The Scope. It Is A Good Concept. I Have Been Shooting Sniper Rifles For 17 Years, And Finding A Good Day/night Scope Has Always Been A Problem. I Could Have Really Used Your Riflescope In Afghanistan.
We Are Currently Using PVS-6 And PVS-14 NVGs To Assault With. We Use The PVS-10 Day/night Scope On Our Bolt-action Sniper Rifles. We Don’t Use The Bolt Action Rifles Much, Because We Mostly Work In A Non-permissive Environment, Unlike SWAT Snipers, Who Are Surrounded By Good Guys. We Prefer Semi-auto Gas Guns In Case The Situation Goes Bad, And You Have To Do A Lot Of Shooting To Get Out. I Use An SR-25, Made By Knight Armament. It Is 7.62mm, And Looks Like An M-16 On Steroids. My Spotter Carries An SPR, Which Is Basically An Acurrized 5.56mm M-16. On My SR-25, I Use The Standard Leopold VariX That Came With The Gun. Then, When The Sun Starts To Go Down, I Pull Off The Day Scope, And Put On A PVS-17. I Torque It With The Same 65inch Pound Wrench And It Holds A Zero. The PVS-17 Was Not Designed To Be Used On A Sniper Rifle. It Just Has A Red Dot In The Middle And No Magnification. But, Its Gen III Tube Does Illuminate Very Well. I Zero It For 200 Meters, And Use Hold-overs And Hold-unders To Engage All Targets Out To 400meters. We Were Using Simrad KN-200s That Clipped On The Day Scope But They Didn’t Hold A Zero And Didn’t Illuminate Well Enough To ID The Target. It’s One Thing To Just Shoot Steel Targets In The Dark On A Rifle Range, But Our Rules Of Engagement Dictate Hostile Act Or Hostile Intent. We Need Night Scopes That Will Let Us ID Targets At 300m. In Afghanistan, While Providing Cover For Our Assaulters, I Watched A Sentry Walk Around The Target Area For 20 Minutes. With The PVS-17, I Could Make Out His Beard, Eyes, And The AK Magazine Sticking Our Of The Rifle He Had Slung Over His Shoulder, At 210 Meters. A Guy With A PVS-10 Would Not Have Been Able To ID Him. My Point Is That, We Really Need Scopes That Let Us See In The Dark Well. I Wish I Had Found Your Company Before Afghanistan
Night Vision By ATN What Do I Think About Smaller, Lighter 4-12x80? I Think That Is The Kind Of Scope We’ve Been Screaming For, For Years. That Would Be Perfect For Our SR-25s And Our SPRs. If You Put A Mil-dot Reticle And A 7.62 BDC On It, I Know I Can Sell It To Higher. Hell, I’ll Buy One Out Of My Own Pocket To Put On My SR-25, If They Don’t. Keep Me Up To Date On How It Is Coming. We Need A Good Day/night Sight Bad. I Hate Having To Carry Two Sights With Me?
Again, I Love The Scope. Prior To Finding Your Scope, My .50 Cal Rifle Had No Night Capability. So It Was Basically Worthless. It Sat Out Many Missions In Afghanistan Because It Had No Night Capability. We Own The Dark. Here In Operation Iraqi Freedom, My .50 Cal Sniper Rifle Has Proven To Be A Force Multiplier. If Not For ATN And Your Scope, My Rifle Would Still Be In A Box.