Originally Posted By wganz:




Taking my grandfather's advice, "If you don't know about something, deal with those that do. Pay more but get it done right so you don't have to go back to town to get it done again." I'll highlight/bold the four questions.
Parameters: Over 90% of the shooting will be from a stand at ranges from 10 - 140 meters. There may be shots (=< 10%)across a field at 250 meters. The targets will be pigs from 20 - 250, with atypical boars up to 650#'s and coyotes that may be have some atypical up to 100#(large as a full grown GSD). Since this is going to be from elevated box stands, I'm just going to mount one on each stand and hook it up to a battery pack I carry in with me.



CMVision IR110 - 114 LED Indoor/Outdoor Long Range 200-300ft IR Illuminator







http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/412Uhxtrk3L._SP160,160,0,T_.jpg
I chose to deal with Ultimate Night Vision since they're both a site supporter and local to me in the DFW area.  The scope I've initially picked out is ATN Night Arrow2-2 Night Vision Rifle Scope .



http://www.ultimatenightvision.com/v/vspfiles/photos/ATN-Night-Arrow2-2-2T.jpg
1. How well will this scope for pigs & coyotes out to 140 meters?


Not quite enough magnification for this distance. I would suggest something in the 4-6X range.







2. There is one spot in a well grazed field that I could get out to 250 meters(yes, I know that is starting to push things but you know how customers are ), but how well would that work?  This is assuming that there is no brush intervening and the target is well illuminated with an IR Illuminator.


Magnification would really limit you at this distance. Try looking 250 meters during the day with your naked eye and it's easy to see that a 2X will not work very well at this distance especially with NV.
Right now my only larger caliber weapon is a T/C Dimension which is a nice rifle but isn't quite what I want for a mag dump into a passel of porkers since it is limited to a 3 round magazine by its interchangeable design. What I'd like to get is an AR15 with a 7.62x39mm upper in the standard M4orgery configuration with a 16" barrel, flat top upper, MagPul MOE furniture, and collapsible stock. The LGS also has a new DPMS LR-308. Still undecided about which one to get.



3. Is there a top end amount of recoil that the scope will take that would limit my choice either way?(ie. 7.62x39 in a lighter rifle may have a faster recoil than what the scope may be rated for) .





7.62x39 is fine for pretty much any NV rifles scope. NV scopes can be rated from .223 to 50BMG depending on the system.


4. As an admitted NV newbie, would an IR illuminator such as I linked above work OK if mounted on the outside of the stand and a pressure switch installed so that it could be turned when needed? Obviously the battery pack would be carried in/out to avoid having the local tweakers steal it.





Most IR lights made for CCD/CMOS digital night vision will also work with I^2 systems, but you need to locate the power rating and wavelength on the IR Light. Around 850 works on most everything but some gen 1 systems. I have seen this type of system done, but you would be better off with a powerful external IR such as the UNV-20IR mounted to your weapon.