Cheap (under $1000) air rifle + night vision setup

[Miami Airgunner]

So, I bought a Hatsan Vectis for $249 (refurbished direct from Hatsan) and combined it with a Sightmark Ultrashot R-Spec red dot which is around $100, and the Armasight Core Spark that I've had laying around since I got my nice PVS-14's. ($500 or so), and a Donny FL silencer for another $100 or so, and an IR illuminator (I cheated and used a $500 surefire vampire light, because I already have them, and I didn't want to buy a cheap light to fit the budget, but you can get a decent one for $50 or so if you look) - then assembled the whole kit into a working package. The worse part was needing to shave the top of the picatinny rail down in the rear of the Vectis, in order to be able to mount the NV far enough back to clear and be at a reasonable distance from my eye. I just used a chisel and then cleaned it up with a file and sandpaper. Also did have to chop off the muzzle brake to get to the barrel to attach the DonnyFL.

Overall? I'm pretty happy with the result - this will make a really fun & quiet night time hunting gun that's cheap enough to simply not need to worry about loaning it out as a 'buddy' gun when I'm using my nicer gear, but still nice enough they won't feel left out or cheated.

Please forgive the terrible shooting, doing this in darkness, holding my cell phone up to the NVG eyepeice, and trying to aim/fire using that as the view, well.. LOL, it's a little challenging.

If I was to recommend an upgrade, it'd definately be the red dot. - the M-Spec is a big upgrade

 

[Reed859]

That’s pretty sweet!!

 

[dizzums]

put ya a flashlight on a prod .. deadly .. i imagine one could use a regular cam that has night mode with a phone mount and a cheap infrared torch in a pinch if they wanted to get fancy ..

 

[elbeau]

Really enjoyed this one - the pellets look like tracer rounds! Left me wishing the scope had more magnification.