The Night Optics SVTS line of night vision riflescopes offers detailed images and fast target transitions.
What makes the Night Optics SVTS line noteworthy?
- The SVTS family includes the SVTS-80, SVTS-320 and SVTS-640.
- They are the first scopes featuring continuous calibration in a thermal riflescope.
- The scopes’ other notable piece of technology is their Heat Tracker function.
- This tool helps direct a shooter to the next potential target outside the field of vision.
- Other Night Optics releases are the Night Chase NC50 and the Night Optics FIR-i Focusable IR Illuminator.
The challenge of shooting at night or in low-light situations is fairly obvious — lack of light. The most widespread solution to staying on target in the dark, for the most part, has been rudimentary.
Flashlights in self-defense situations and a spotlight in hunting, while effective, share a disadvantage. Flick on the light and the whole world knows your position. And even in the case of filters, to cast a beam of light in a spectrum undetectable to animals requires toting that much more gear into the field and out again.
Night vision technology has changed much of this, offering a light and effective tool to quickly draw a bead when illumination is scarce. And while still at the upper-end of the optics market price-wise, today’s optics offer more functionality for the money than ever before.
Night Optics has taken this aspect to heart with the introduction of its newest line of thermal rifle scopes. The three mid- to high-priced optics that compose the SVTS line — introduced at the 2018 SHOT Show in Las Vegas — arm shooters with cutting edge optics, more than capable of defending a homestead or stacking up coyotes in the dead of the night.
The SVTS family — SVTS-80, SVTS-320, SVTS-640 — are the first scopes featuring continuous calibration in a thermal riflescope, according to Night Optics. The technology ensures shooters stay on target by all but eliminating one of the most frustrating aspects of night vision — screen freeze. With this exasperating anomaly squelched, Night Optics has created scopes that not only excel in the dark, but also in engaging multiple targets.
Target transition had to have been rattling around in the heads of the company’s engineers with the creation of the SVTS line given the scopes’ other notable piece of technology. Heat Tracker is intriguing because it directs a shooter to the next potential target not visible on the display screen. Detecting the heat signature outside the field of view, the scopes display an arrow directing shooters to its location. This makes a visual scan almost a thing of the past.
The scopes come in three magnifications, with core resolutions to match their intended ranges. The entry-level SVTS-80 is a 1x close-quarters optic with 80×60 resolution; the SVTS-320 is the mid-range optic, with 1x, 2x and 4x magnifications and 320×240 resolution; and the SVTS-640 is Night Optics long-range option, with 1x, 3x and 6X magnifications and 640×480 resolution.
Other standard features include recoil-activated recording that automatically saves 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after a shot is fired, along with Snap Back shot-sensing technology that allows the scope to automatically zoom out to reacquire targets quicker than ever before. The MSRP for the SVTS-80 is $1,200, the SVTS-320 $2,000 and SVTS-64 $3,500.
Night Optics also introduced the Night Chase NC50 and the Night Optics FIR-i Focusable IR Illuminator at the 2018 SHOT Show. The company claims the Night Chase is the world’s smallest multi-function IR device, delivering pinpoint accuracy beyond 500 yards with a laser measuring 1mrad at 100 yards. The FIR-i is a 600 mW rail-mounted illuminator capable of flood and spot focus, and it's effective up to 1,000 yards. The Night Chase is listed with an MSRP of $540 and the FIR-I $300.
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