The gist of it was you need the hard-hitting subsonic round in addition to being able to see the critters at night, or else the whole herd will quickly take a powder after the sound of the first shot. Even so, the pigs were smart enough just to recognize the sound of bullet hitting meat and scatter when that signal was registered.
Gen 1 isn’t worth the money. You definitely won’t be able to get any decent capability past 50 yards with it.
For longer ranges and positive ID on your target, I’d go with a gen III minimum. You’ll spend quite a bit to do this but it’s worth it.
Contact US Night Vision and talk to Steve Gibbons. He’s our contact for this type of technology and he knows what he is talking about.
Eat more carrots.
The best scope for the money is a used AN/PVS-5 with at least GEN II Image Intensifiers in them. The PVS-5 has a very large focal objective which collects more ambient light than smaller objectives. This permits you the highest resolution of target available. The scopes that mount to your day scope are problematic. First, the issue of alignment of two separate optics is a real ball breaker. Second, as stated the smaller focal objective collects less light, thus presents less resolution. Third, the image on the back side of the image intensifier tube is magnified by the day scope (8x, 10x) thus presenting a very grainy picture to the shooter. It would be cheaper to designate one rifle as a night shooter and dedicate the night scope to the rifle than to attempt to have one rifle do it all. BTW, rifles are a lot cheaper than quality night scopes. Just sayin. With your range requirements you could easily get by with a rifle offering 3 minutes of angle inaccuracy.
Correction, I meant AN/PVS-2 Starlight Scope. PVS-5 is goggles and TVS-5 Crew Served Weapons night sight. Its been a while since I work these things.
Have you thought of back lighting them with low wattage lights?
a great combination for your NVG scope would be a cheap visible laser ( you can buy an IR one if you can afford it), or you can use a Infrared Filtered flashlight to illuminate and mark your targets.
Also consider a suppressor. It will help contain the muzzle flash, help control muzzle flip, and not alarm those within earshot of your nocturnal activities.
Are you speaking literally or euphemistically?
*Night Vision ping*
Bump ‘cause I need to get some of this stuff, too.