Mr. Rawles:
I ran a recon/sniper unit in Viet Nam. We had first generation starlight scopes and tweaked M14s and we shot the dickens out of the bad guys. I was tasked with keeping a critical part of Hwy 1 open and would often do road security taking a jeep with a borrowed xenon searchlight to provide additional infrared (IR) support for my snipers. It would cast shadows at 500 plus meters and you could not see it with the naked eye.
Many of us have more prep to do than budget to spend… but being able to see at night can literally amount to life or death. An inexpensive Yukon Gen 1 device (under $200) with a $40 Brinkman 3Meg Searchlight (comes with a yellow, red and blue plastic filter) and eight 4″ x 4″ sheets of red and blue cellophane ($2.99 per roll at Hobby Lobby) will create a situation where you can light up your surroundings (no visible light) to make sure the bad guys are properly welcomed.
Powering up the Brinkman (with the blue filter and cellophane sheets), you do not see anything but a soft blue/red (barely visible at 10 feet) haze, yet you can see into and behind bushes, trees and all other types of cover at distances far enough out to make a difference. The down side is that with and active IR emitter you do become a target for other night vision devices (unless they shut down due to overload… which the Brinkman will provide if they are looking at it directly)… unless you have a standoff. Several of us are working on mounting the Brinkman (multiple locations) with remote directional turning and on/off switch so we can activate, point and take action and not be in any light splash or reflection.
This combination works almost as well as the equipment I used 40 years ago in Viet Nam. Just wanted to pass on a good solution. – David R.