Bridged Thermal Night Vision on a Budget | Pros & Cons

Everyone knows that night vision and thermal are superpowers. With any superpower though, it often comes at a heavy price. So how cheap can we go and still have a next-gen, functional system with both tools? In this video, we dive into the pros and cons of running night vision and thermal on a "budget".

*Correction* The Raven Rail / Bridge is only $375. Even cheaper than we mentioned.

00:00 Thermal Claps
01:13 Bridged Thermal NVG
03:26 Rural Environments
10:42 Urban Environments
20:04 Navigation
21:37 Cost
27:29 Budget?

[KwistophaRodgers]

No one cared who I was until I put on the nods

[PaulAmerican]

My "budget" means I will only be fighting between 6am to 6pm.

[trainedhands]

This is the exact approach I’ve had in mind for years
Now living on a 500 acre homestead, NV and Thermal utilized in conjunction makes a ridiculous amount of sense from a practical and progressive perspective

[noneyabiz]

I saved a boat load of money by staying inside at night.

[terrarecon]

Pros and cons with almost anything. Min/max your gear loadout as much as you can within your budget. Also have a special savings account to accomplish future acquisitions you can't do now.

[RunningWithSauce]

As a fireman I carry a personal thermal imagine camera for seeing in pitch black smoke filled areas. I don’t think many people understand the limitations of thermal like firefighters.

For example. I’d be wary of using thermal for CQB simply because pictures with glass frames and mirrors in homes reflect your heat signature perfectly. Most would take the shot. I’m used to it and it still catches me off guard sometimes.

In addition as you guys mentioned thermal sees differences of temperatures and the better the thermal imager the better its ability to see finite differences/contrasts in temps. People forget that these differences of temperatures only apply in the area being currently scanned. So if something is 98 degrees and something is 1000 degrees in one part of a picture it will stand out. However if most things in a picture is 95-100 degrees and one thing is 500 degrees in the same picture, the details for things in the 95-100 range will be blended and have no detail. No contrast whatsoever. That’s why thermal is useless to me as a firefighter when the interior of a structure is all heated the similar temps. It may as well be a black screen.

[marshiingo]

Just give Drew a red shirt at this point. Man always dies in the intros lol

[RADAMB]

Nice intro video boys!

Even 10+ years ago, equipping thermals at night on a sniper weapon system was a cheat code. Using a forward mounted NV clip on for the m110 and m2010 is nice. Tossing on a thermal scope with predesignated/zeroed/toque settings turned my abilities as a sniper to a whole different level, that and the special CACI course I was able to attend for a few weeks of thermal and NV only shooting.

In 2013, the United States Army had enough thermal weapon scopes to equip every single soldier in the military, combat arms or otherwise (literally 1 for 1), yet almost no one was given advanced or specialized training outside of SOF units in the usage of these systems.

In terms of lethality, I'll never NOT run a thermal at night during movement and while sitting in a static position. When it comes to gun fighting, thermal wins, period.

MUTC was a blast, hope to see you boys in WVa this April.

[Coemgenus]

Great video guys. I bought NV about a year ago. I also just bought the Armasight Contractor 320 for coyote and hog hunting. I was so impressed with the 320s I decided to get the Sidekick 640 for scanning. This morning I saw in an email an offer for the Ravn Bridge and looked for videos highlighting it's abilities when I saw your video. Before the video had finished I had made up my mind. I now will have the same setup. I'm a Marine veteran of the Iron Sight years so all of these optics and NV, Thermals etc has me intrigued.
Your “Dirty Civilian” channel speaks directly at me since my knowledge and experience straddle both worlds, the responsible civilian and experienced veteran. I'm certainly no Pat McNamara but it doesn't hurt to try and keep up with his caliber.

[SGTCap]

Gain adjustment and knowing which eye is dominant are they keys to getting a "Fused" image. Pet the 14 over your dominant eye, even if you're cross eye dominant. Adjust the gain on the 14 to where is is just a bit brighter than the thermal. I set my thermal to "outdoor alert" mode thats black hot, but adds color to really hot (living) things. All I normally notice through the thermal is colors popping up. It takes a little playing with but it works.

[tacticalhistory]

Dude your intro's get better and better! I would watch your videos just for the intro .

[tmgjurassic]

I prefer a pair of PVS14s with a handheld high quality thermal like the RH25. The thermal range is significantly longer than the nods so you hold still and scan with the thermal then drop the nods to move. The fact that it also clips on inline with the scope makes it pure gold.

[TheStudentOfNumbers]

Really enjoyed the insights and balanced take on this. A lot of YOU NEED THERMAL or YOU NEED NIGHT VISION but of course reality is much more nuanced. Appreciate it guys.

[DepressedCrayonEater]

Mind you the “budget” thermals they are talking about are 3k dollars.

[JacObKoEseR]

Whenever you guys explain something and then immediately put a few second clip of what you’re explaining it really helps a lot and I really appreciate it. Your videos are very well made. Thank you. Keep it up guys!

[ZGarage]

Me being poor, *invests in flares* to throw off all the nod bois

[kamikazelyricist]

I got my first set of nods from Steele, and they were great to deal with. I highly recommend them.

[firefox]

I have a gen 2+ and a flir breach. Guys at tnvc said not to do it but they're not my supervisor. I'm actually quite happy with the setup, it works pretty good.

[heyarno]

In everyday life, a handheld monocular in the pocket is of value too.
It allows to avoid dangerous situations, taking alternative routes or recovering from being lost.
I also agree on the pocket based thermal in most situations.
Having a pocket based PVS-14 while wearing helmet mounted dual tubes allows to hand the monocular to anyone who needs to be made aware of something.
A IR laser simplifies the communication greatly. But must be used with care, as it gives away ones own position.
A pocket based PVS-14 is also a backup for accidents or violence against the helmet and the nods on it.
So going any route that leads to having the complete set is a good thing.
But I think I agree that starting with a night vision monocular, then thermal, is the best value.
It allows for training with both technologies, while being extremely versatile in use cases.
It also becomes a benchmark that helps to select reasonable upgrades.
Dual tubes just add comfort, reaction time and make driving safer.

[irregularrex]

I'm just so happy thermal prices are coming down while retaining some solid quality.