I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time with one of Vortex’s newest products, a rail-mounted laser rangefinder called the Impact 4000.
BLUF: it brings fantastic functionality to a much wider group of shooters with an accessible price and a somewhat hefty silhouette that’s packed with useful features.
Read MoreI rented a Nikon DSLR with its IR filter removed from in front of its filter, which allows it to capture a much wider frequency band of light. In this case, I put a visible-light-blocking filter on the front of the lens so I was only capturing light above 720nm. This allowed the infrared pointer and illuminator from the MAWL-C1+ to appear brightly and allowed for a direct comparison of the three different range modes. Thought it might be interesting to visualize for people that have just seen the charts B.E. Meyers puts out but not seen them in person through anything other than narrow NVG tubes. Target was about 40yd from the rifle on the tripod and camera lens was 17mm equiv.
I find myself leaving the unit in the mid range setting 80% of the time for the wide splash around the area along with the nice bright spotlight around the target. This is mostly because the shooting I do is at gun ranges or outdoors at friends properties. When indoors the short range setting is fantastic for filling a room and lighting up everything within my NVG's view, without blooming super close targets. I still have yet to hit another shoothouse class and make use of the C1+ but would imagine I'd be flipping between short and mid quite a bit there. The long range setting does a great job when used in conjunction with a clip-on unit like the PVS-30 and its very clean beam pattern really seems to stretch further than restricted units that have noisy, blotchy laser projections. While I didn't understand the long range lockout function on the range selector at first, it works great for me to be able to easily switch between my most used settings very quickly without having to find the middle position. Long range becomes relegated to when I put it on a DM or bolt gun and don't want the mid range flood to splash off grass and other obstructions.
A buddy and I visited the Iron City Gun Club in the evening this last weekend and stuck around after dark. We wanted to try using a Knight's Armament AN/PVS-30 clipped onto a 6.5 Creedmoor bold-action and a MK-12 Mod 1 5.56mm AR-15. We also used helmet-mounted Mod-3 night vision goggle tubes (from Nightlong Industries) firing an HK MR-556 SBR with an aiming laser.
Here's a couple clips, shot through one of the Mod-3 tubes and an ATN Thor thermal optic:
It's quite challenging to get good video content through traditional military-grade night vision systems. A few options have come to market that make it easier, including the FPRS from Night Combat Solutions. Here's a handful of videos I put together showing the view through NVGs using various illumination and laser systems, all recorded with the FPRS: