Heya... welcome to the addiction! I have to admit that I never thought I'd give up hunting coyotes during the day, but since I've gone to night vision, I have no desire to hunt early mornings or evenings anymore, unless the sun is down.
I can't go into detail on every scope out there, but I can compare the two my buddy and I bought. I went with the Pulsar DFA75.... and I got it for a steal last Christmas for a little over $950 last Christmas on Amazon. They had an incorrect primary image for the product which is why I think no one purchased it, because it showed the wrong scope. I looked at the details and product number which matched, and lucky enough, they sent me the DFA75 instead of the imaged Pulsar N750. I saved $500 bucks on the deal.
Anyways... I absolutely hated it at first. The provided IR was pathetic and I couldn't make anything out past about 30 yards when hunting and it was pixelated beyond belief. Then I purchased a decent IR torch and the whole situation changed. The image clarified dramatically... the distance I could make out animals increased past 200 yards. I've literally killed every coyote since at night... with this setup, 2 last weekend in less than an hour.
Now... my buddy wanted to join in the fun and bought an ATN Xsight 5-18 HD. He brought it up from Nevada last weekend to go out with me. Think he spent $400 or so or so on it... but it's not even worth $100 for night hunting, not even with my added illumination from my IR light. I had so many coyotes lined up for him to shoot, and he just couldn't see them, some as close as 40 yards away. They were easy to see through my setup. I offered my rifle to him as I really wanted him to get a mutt that night, but he absolutely wanted to get one using his. Needless to say... I put my rifle away and tried to get him on dawgs all evening to no avail. It was literally painful to witness.
So... The Pulsar DFA75 is a joy... but you gotta have an additional IR torch. It fits to the end of your current optic via an adapter, and you can buy additional adapters to put on other scopes (they have a couple sizes.... with added inserts to fit different bell sizes). Also... the DFA that I got has a picatinny rail on the side and I have mounted my light there using a quick release scope mount... which works nicely, however, you could also mount one on your rifle if you have that as an option. If not, and you decide to go with a Pulsar... definitely get the DFA75 with the picatinny... as some models don't have the picatinny. It's on the right side of the unit.
Anyways... I've been looking for a cheaper option for my brother as he's fallen in love with night hunting and I had considered the ATN Xsight, however after looking through the thing this last weekend, I couldn't in good faith recommend it. Had I bought something like that first... I probably would have given up on night hunting. As things stand now... it's my passion.
Good luck and I hope to hear from others that have recommendations, as the Pulsar has jumped in price from the $1450 it was last year, to about $1750 this year. If you can find a deal like I did for $950... I'd snatch it up... or let me know.... cause I'll grab it!!
