What to bring to an Night vision class

What to bring to an Night vision class, tips, and how to prepare.

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hey what's up guys so today let's talk

about what to bring for a night vision

class right like a lot of people just

don't know what to bring and a lot of

people just don't know how like what to

expect if there's it's their first night

vision class and I'll tell you this from

uh from my experience going to multiple

night vision classes uh myself and also

I teach them so it makes sense that I

would have an idea of what to bring and

stuff so let's kind of go through a few

things

um I know I put a requirements list on

my website and we'll kind of go through

them and kind of talk about each of them

so first thing I put on there is some

kind of helmet mounted night vision that

is Gen 2 or better

now the reason I say Gen 2 are better

because photonis is technically Gen 2

night vision and I don't want to

Discount those dudes because you can

still see with that night vision and it

works really well now

the downside to it is it needs more

illumination most of the time or

depending on specs to him uh it may be a

little too dark because of their ebi or

something like that but that's a

question to kind of go over to the

silent Solutions patreon Channel and

look up what ebi is and he'll help you

out with those kind of things now helmet

mountain night vision pretty simple now

it doesn't matter what kind of helmet

you bring to class I don't care if you

have a Chinese helmet you got a bump

Helmet or whatever you don't need a

ballistic helmet you don't need the most

expensive helmet you need something that

holds your night vision sturdy and and

keeps it on your head where you can see

that's really what matters now

if you want to go out and get more stuff

or get uh better helmets or better

accoutrement for your helmet rock on man

that's your prerogative that's based off

your budget but realistically like

that's all you need you need some kind

of helmet to hold your night vision or

some kind of skull crusher to hold your

night vision that you can not be messing

with the whole entire night or really

just bothering you the entire night

because remember this thing is

kind of supposed to be on your head for

a little over eight hours and you're

going to start feeling the strain of it

over and over and if you got to keep

taking it off because you're starting to

feel a strain you may be suffering a

little bit from fatigue and that fatigue

is obviously going to start affecting

how much you're learning because you're

not going to be paying attention now

something I suggest if you have your

system already set up and you're not

like renting something from me

um wear it around the house a little bit

right the whole week prior week two

weeks prior get used to it being around

on your head walking around and feeling

what that weight feels like and it can

only be like I don't know 30 minutes to

an hour a day or something walking

around doing [ __ ] throughout the

house and you can get used to it and not

have the The Strain and all those

muscles being fatigued very quickly you

can start to build them up a little bit

just like any other muscle they need

exercise they need to be worked a little

bit to help you out so recommend that

when it comes to your helmet now the

other thing that comes with your helmet

is making sure that you can wear earpro

under on or just foamies with your

helmet it doesn't matter which ones you

choose but if you're a fan of electronic

hearing protection which I am especially

in a class setting where I may be

talking

um and you guys may need to listen or

other people may be talking to you and

you may want to listen to them

I suggest electronic hearing protection

but if you can't Mount them to your

helmet it's okay all you have to do is

set up your pads on the inside to give

you a channel where you can actually

wear your helmet over your ear Pro it's

kind of cool also kind of the way that I

used to do it back in the Army too so

just an option there

um and and is something that you want to

think about is how am I going to wear

ear Pro while I wear my helmet some

people don't realize that and then they

get to class and they're like ah son of

a bee and then they have to borrow

foamies from me

um so that now the other thing too on

your helmet or at least bringing to

class is some form of a headlamp let me

pull mine out

all right some kind of headlamp I highly

recommend one it's super useful to go

hands off because you do not use your

rifle light to like illuminate the

target to see what your bullet holes

look like and to Mark Mark targets a

super unprofessional it's unsafe you're

not using it in the manner it's supposed

to be used

this is what that's for a lot of times

I'll route this over my neck and all I

got to do is just turn it on and I can

see the target I can see my notebook I

can take ample amounts of notes in the

dark with some kind of headlamp

highly recommend it for administrative

stuff like that

um and in they're relatively inexpensive

and they can help you with a ton of

different things like if you're working

on your workbench you're kind of

Smashing on [ __ ] you may need some extra

light use a headlamp so just other

options there but recommend some kind of

admin light you can use a pistol light

on there and like angle it if you're

using the right pistol light you could

also use some form of a Princeton Tech

or something and angle that bad boy how

you want but

those all cost way more money than a

simple headlamp from Walmart

so that's the helmet stuff right now

looking at it further right we have on

here eyes and ears right we talked about

ears already but eyes uh it is mandatory

in almost every night vision class I've

ever been to

um that's run by professional that you

wear ipro

um your night vision is not eye

protection it only covers freaking small

amount of your face and your eyes and

easily if you guys are shooting steel

you can get rounds thrown right through

the sides of those bad boys highly

recommend some good eye protection clear

eye protection to top it all off now I

prefer M frames and

and Frames give me good air flow between

the sides so that it's not being blocked

by a frame of some sort so if you wear a

framed version of Clear Eye Pro just

realize that full frame I mean you're

going to start blocking airflow and

start keeping that heat within the eye

Pro a little bit causes fogging a little

so keeping them clear and open for the

most part or keeping an open frame style

night or eye protection will help you

out the other thing is making sure you

defog those bad boys and use some kind

of anti-fog on it whether it's wipes

like these kind of wipes or it's some

form of cat crap or the Breakthrough

anti-fog or anything like that all of

them help none of them are going to

prevent things for 100 of the time but

it'll it'll definitely help compared to

not being treated

all right so that's eyes and ear

protection

um going down right a zeroed rifle all

right

um and and some of you guys are probably

laughing like why do I have to say that

why does he have to say that but the

amount of people that come to class

without a zeroed rifle is uh pretty

large right like think about how much

time you're spending zeroing your rifle

now wasting the time of other students

now I know it's part of the whole

process of learning and stuff but if

you're coming to a night vision class I

assume you've shot your rifle before and

learned how to use your rifle and you

should have been at least now if you

don't know how to zero it that's a

problem now if you know how to zero it

and you just flew in and you just

haven't had a chance let me know email

me and let me know and I'll get to the

range early right I will get to the

range early to be there with you to go

ahead and zero your rifle with you

because that's how much I give a [ __ ]

right I give a [ __ ] so so I want you you

guys have zero rifles because it makes

zeroing lasers hell of a lot easier at

least getting them close so that we can

work through class all right so making

sure you have a zeroed rifle and to the

ammo that you're shooting too right if

you're zero to some other ammo like

we're obviously going to have issues or

if you come with a Skittles pack of

ammunition it's like this brand this

brand there's like 17 brands in there

that's also a problem we're not going to

zero a rifle to that that ammo because

you can't zero rifle to at a at a decent

distance to that kind of ammo because

it's too sporadic right it's none of

them are the same

now um going further if you have an

Aiming laser which you should of some

sort it would be nice if it was zeroed

and then we just confirm that'd be sweet

but I teach you guys how to zero we talk

about zeros for lasers because it is a

night vision class and that's what it's

about now something to talk about with

Optics and lasers

when mounting any of these tools right

it is mandatory and I I say mandatory

because it's the smart way to do it when

you put it on the rail before you

tighten it down push it forward towards

the muzzle right in the pick rail

because you'll notice they wiggle right

they'll wiggle around in the rail you

have to push it forward and then tighten

it down remember energy is going

backwards when the gun's fired energy

comes back forwards while it settles

after recoil so that optic or that laser

will shift forward each shot until you

don't have a zero anymore so make sure

you set it there that way when recoil is

happening it settles at the point that

it's already zeroed and we're good so it

doesn't wiggle out of that spot all

right so when it comes to zeroing or

mounting your lasers or uh Optics

now going further right one of the

things I put on there is an optic

equipped handgun if you have a red dot

on a handgun that is preferred if you do

not we you can work around it right

there are ways of shooting knight uh

under night vision with iron sights with

iron sights that are tritium or even

fibers right sometimes it's just hey we

just got to go to White Light that's an

option or hey we have to use a focus cap

or something like that so I teach a

bunch of different techniques I've done

a bunch of ways to do it and we test it

out we see where your limitations are if

we can and then uh and then from there

you guys learn further but uh but red

dots are preferred by far it's much

easier it's much well in the grand

scheme of things it just works with our

anatomy and our eyes and how the eyes

work way better

so further down

um mags right I usually ask for at least

three mags for pistol and for rifle it's

not a huge thing we don't need that many

more but three mags at least and being

able to carry at least three mags on you

one in the rifle two in your pocket

don't matter you don't need a cool belt

you don't need a chest rig you don't

need kit all that stuff for the most

part when learning actually starts to

hinder people because they're like oh

shifting around with it now if it's the

comfortable thing that you've been using

for a long time that's what you want to

use rock on girl as long as it hinders

you zero percent right so make sure it

doesn't become a problem that way you're

not paying attention in class because

you're busy tightening something okay

now here's here's two very well let's

say three very very important ones

one is some form of a personal medkit

right uh not to say I don't bring one I

bring one for the class I bring one for

myself but everybody should have one of

some sort on them uh mandatory man in

class it is super important to have

something like that making sure that you

have what is needed uh for yourself and

make sure it's stuff that you want me

using on you like think about that right

if it's some Wazoo Shenanigans you just

put like 13 tampons in there I'm not

going to use them right I'm going to use

my own stuff but like that that was your

life saving equipment bro like don't be

a cheap ass when it comes to that you

bought whatever thousand dollar night

vision you set up your rifle with

whatever thousands of dollars of [ __ ]

you can buy a couple hundred dollars

worth of Med gear that will be probably

more useful than both of these combined

so just something to think about don't

don't [ __ ] cheap out on yourself

because that's what you plan on using on

you come on man so Med gear

second one notebook very important bring

some kind of a notebook whether it's a

right in the rain or it's you know a

couple index cards clipped together I

don't care like as long as it's a

notebook of some sort that you can take

notes on because so many people ask me

for a handout out after class they're

like hey man it would be nice if you

gave a handout no I'm not going to give

you a handout the class changes too much

because I'm constantly evolving it also

no you should be taking your own notes

your own [ __ ] notes this isn't high

school man take your own notes and

really

take the time to write them so that you

can you can digest it later so something

big and then black markers right some

kind of Sharpie of some sort to mark

your targets we are or I am at least

very heavy on accuracy standards and

keeping a shooter even under night

vision accurate usually we don't use

anything bigger than a five and a half

inch circle right on the Target right we

use B8 for the most part or B8 size

holes or circles and stuff and that's

because I am a huge fan of keeping

people more honest with their accuracy

you will Mark out all your outs we will

see them all all of us will walk around

and see each other's targets it is

constant and if that makes you scared

man that may be something you need to

look at in your own training all right

if you're nervous about shooting small

targets like

what are you doing on your own practice

time all right if you're shooting

ginormous V tax or something you may be

missing out on the the process of

learning because you're you're giving

yourself too big of a target for

like

training man small targets for training

big targets for real right that's what

we get so it's it works out nicely so

it's the whole aim small Miss small kind

of thing or it's really just aim small

right shoot small

get big in real life

so

going further right we have some um

additional things that are kind of not

required well semi required so we'll

call it uh somewhat required but mostly

just additional items so first one is uh

batteries right spare batteries super

important right you got to have

batteries for all your equipment very

important that you know and you have

them for all your Optics your your night

vision obviously your lights your lasers

your ear Pro all those little things

that you need lights for or I'm sorry

batteries for and some kind of

um powering of that unit you should have

batteries for it now if you don't you

forgot them or something it's no big

deal most likely I'll have some but

come on be prepared

um next next thing

knee pads right sometimes we take knees

on things or we get lower on on the on

the ground and shoot like if you need

knee pads man you know your knees I

highly recommend it it's not going to be

an all-day Affair but sometimes we do so

it may be something you may want to

bring just in case uh spare Firearms if

you have them it's always nice to bring

a sparrow in just in case something

happens you could just instead of trying

to figure it out and stuff you just swap

guns and figure that [ __ ] out later when

there's light outside and you have more

time

um snacks and food

recommend it man we don't take breaks in

my class in the sense of like a lunch

break or a dinner break there's no

hour-long hour and a half long whatever

there's even a half hour long one

um the only time I usually do one is for

classroom stuff uh if there's some kind

of small classroom thing I want to do

bring your snacky poos and you can sit

down and eat and stuff but other than

that most of my night vision classes

don't have that so we are doing you are

eating on the go and it's a it's a

rolling dinner if you want to call it

that right or a working dinner

now

a couple other things a cleaning kit

obviously extra oil that that should be

a standard for anything that you bring

when it comes to shooting you should

have the things that you need to clean

and maintain your rifles and then uh and

then obviously the the attire you wear

for

um wet weather cold weather or hot

weather is very very important so think

about this right cold weather

I need some kind of layers you need some

kind of gloves you need to be able to

like maintain so that you don't freeze

your ass off and then not be paying

attention to what you invested money

into learning and invested money into

having so making sure you take care of

that as well right take care of yourself

if you don't know how to layer email me

man I had somebody I email me about a

class in a couple weeks and he was like

hey what should I wear it says it's

gonna be cold I'm like well I wear this

on my top my bottom my shoes right like

make sure I I take care of things like

that and uh and we can go over that in

different video as well

hot weather obviously you want to be on

more looser clothing and lighter

clothing that way you can kind of like

breathe and let your body breathe

hydrating is super important in either

weather condition

um and then

what you'll find you'll fog up in both

conditions depending on how much your or

how extreme you go in each Direction so

the hotter it is obviously you're going

to be sweating your body heat is going

to radiate onto the cool lenses that are

on your

um night vision may want to make sure

you take care of that obviously with

bringing a little raggy rag or or some

kind of anti-fog Prior or both and then

from there on the cold weather nights

your condensation coming out of your

mouth right all of the the the puff of

air that you can see that condensation

is going to get on everything it's going

to moisten the the actual lenses can

cause condensation as well so you want

to make sure you pay attention to those

two things in those two different

environments and if it's hot and then

starts raining it's going to cool down

really quick you're going to see

condensation different or temperature

differences in your night vision your

eye Pro things like that and then the

same thing the opposite way if it's cold

and then it starts raining it's going to

heat up a little bit and then it'll cool

down afterwards and you may want to

really take care of yourself because

that's probably the most miserable one

so Pro tip

bring Gore-Tex boots for almost any

night vision class right bring some form

of rain gear right some some kind of

rain jacket that's non-uh permeable

right it doesn't let in anything that

way you always have a wind layer or you

always have some kind of rain layer and

then obviously

on the cold days you want to make sure

you bring a bunch of layers long sleeve

shirt waffle top mid layer some kind of

insulation layer or whatever it is and

then some kind of top that you can wear

that'll keep you warmish

um just realize like there's a lot of

people that froze to death not death

they froze really bad in like South

Carolina recently when I was up there

for the night op Summit and because they

didn't dress appropriately my Floridian

tropical ass dressed appropriately I

would suggest also hot hands right some

kind of warmy hand things

um make sure you bring them I would

bring an extra pair of socks so you can

change them when you start feeling like

too cold on your feetsies because that

means they're probably wet from moving

around right sweating the cold air makes

them colder right they're not going to

dissipate so change your socks and then

now they're warming up let your other

socks dry out really really easy to keep

swapping if you wanted or just I mean

you won't need a swap again most likely

until you go home and uh and need to go

to sleep and get up and do it again so

for night vision class like that's

essentially how I do it

um it's nothing way out of the norm when

it comes to a normal class but because

it's in the dark because it is in

different uh like State of Mind for most

people right their exhaustion they're

just like that people like get tired

around 10 30 11 and then and we're going

into one or two in the morning sometimes

and they're fading fast so if you need

to go to bed late then the first night

get up late the the first morning or the

next morning if you can I'd recommend it

man get kind of used to that time frame

a little bit so you can get used to

playing in that in that game in that

night or just suffer out and drink some

caffeine you know like figure it out

that way uh but be careful take care of

your bodies kind of thing

um after classes

this is something that a lot of people

don't know or pay attention to but

afterwards you'll notice there's

condensation usually all over your

equipment uh whether it's cold night or

a hot night it's usually wet because we

get to that point in the dark make sure

not to put your night vision into a

Pelican case don't put your rifle into a

Pelican case and leave it like that all

night if you get back to your hotel room

pop them open let them air out I usually

open up my battery cap for my my night

vision so that it can it can also be

fresh without the battery in there and

kind of air out my helmet ear Pro goes

somewhat like this so that it lets them

air out if you have air pro

like so-ish right some some muff style

ear Pro that you were wearing go ahead

and rotate the pads

right outward so they sit like this all

night so the pads can just kind of

breathe right and then

uh to top it all off I like to keep my

helmet upside down so that my my pad

system underneath inside can kind of air

out and dry off as well

um take your insoles out of your shoes

right things like that you have to take

care of your stuff otherwise you're

going to suffer the next night or just

your shit's going to get rusty and bad

and [ __ ] I always squirt some lube

in my bolt so that my bolt has some lube

after being shot that much after class

and any any class and then let it go if

it's crusty in the morning I may pull

the bolt out wipe her down really good

and throw her back in lubed so sometimes

that's the need as well so it just

depends for example first night of night

op Summit when I sent my bolt home after

reloads it would kind of sluggishly move

forward and and get into battery and I

was like that felt funny it felt yucky

like dirty and sluggish so the next

morning woke up nice bright and early

and had a little bit of breakfast and

then went right to it right cleaning up

my bolt cleaning up my inside of my

upper receiver some of my low receivers

some of my chamber and then lubed it

back up threw it back in and then shot

the rest of the next two nights

flawlessly right so

recommend it man if you shoot your guns

enough you know when they start feeling

yucky and you need to fix them so just

do it man it's not a big deal

um but yeah so if there's any questions

about this guys let me know

um like I said this is mainly for my

class but it would probably work for the

majority of night vision classes out

there

all right guys so I hope this helps guys

take care