Just thought I'd share, I got to check out a gen 3 night scope a couple of nights ago. I only had one other opportunity several years ago to use night vision and wasn't overly impressed, but this was awesome. There was slight illumination from the house nearby, but we walked across the yard away from the house and I could barely see where to walk but thru the night scope it was almost like day light. Even the difference at a distance was amazing, but near you there is no way something could avoid being seen through this. I also learned it was passive (I don't know anything about night optics). We played with a laser pointer at the same time and you could see the laser beam and the dot was like a pinpoint flashlight beam. If only they weren't so damned expensive...

Yea the coolest thing about gen 3+ night vision is the detail you can see way off in the distance. Usually your unaided eyes can focus in the dark enough to see human figures out to 40 yards or so but beyond that it's just a fuzzy dark blur. With NV it's like a whole different world, you can see people and objects far off in the distance if you have good Gen3 w/ milspec glass.

Can anybody suggest or know the best deals on Gen 3 stuff?

I saw a cool looking Gen 3 scope on ebay last night at ~$450 but there were several bids so it likely went much higher. I always watch Ebay while I'm shopping for something, had great luck & saved a bunch of money on things.

Just be carefull what you buy on ebay is what they say it is. There are bad NV from Russia. They leak....

I saved 1300 dollars off my nightvision scope when I purchased from ebay. Read the listing and get the persons phone number and then start asking questions.

As stated before be careful.

Mine is a ITT 160 and has done wonders for me walking around the woods at night.