Airsoft SpecOps: Revision: Mounting Night Vision Monocular to an Airsoft Rifle

Older Revision of Mounting Night Vision Monocular to an Airsoft Rifle

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Mounting Night Vision Monocular to an Airsoft Rifle

So I had a Night Detective Quest 5 (ND-Q5) Night Vision Monocular for a while. I used it to watch nocturnal animals and shoot photographs of them. Recently, I had gotten into airsoft, so I've been experimenting with this night vision monocular. This article documents my experimentation. The photo below is the 5x night vision monocular.

Cross Reference
This article documents the usage of the Night Detective Quest 5 (ND-Q5) Night Vision Monocular on airsoft guns. It doesn't talk about the monocular itself. However, take a look at the "Night Detective Quest 5 (ND-Q5) Night Vision Monocular Review" article to learn more about the monocular.

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Using it for Observation

The first idea I had was to use the night vision monocular for observation. It is useful in the dark to identify enemies on the field. It's very useful during an indoor light-out game, or a night MilSim operation on an outdoor field.

You can already use the monocular by itself. Just pull it out of your bag, your pants pocket, or where ever you carry it. But getting it out slows you down. So the idea is to attach it to your gun. Your airsoft gun is always in your hand. Having the monocular on the airsoft gun gives you quick and easy access to survey the field in the dark.

I preferred coming up with a way to attach the monocular to the picatinny rail on the gun. But couldn't really find any parts that would help. So I settled with hockey tape (see photo below). Wrapping the hockey tape around the monocular and the M4 quad-rail supported its weight.

I was able to view the night vision scope my moving my paintball mask up to the eyepiece. The clear paintball pane provided just the right distance to get a clearview through the eye-piece. And it has just enough clearance to right, which allow me to fit my paintball facemask without the gun getting in the way. The photo below shows the monocular attached to my Shark Raptor from the top.

Cross Reference
The Shark Raptor is a custom airsoft gun I built in the "Build a Science Fiction Airsoft Gun" article.

The photo below shows the entire Shark Raptor and the monocular. The monocular is quite heavy, so on a short gun like the Shark Raptor, it's a little off balance. But I had no problem holding it up and using it for battle.

In practical use, I found the 5x magnification to be too much for an indoor CQB field. I was able to see things in the dark clearly. But the field-of-view (FOV) was too narrow for it to be much of use. It'd be more usable with less magnification or no magnification at all.

Comments & Discussion >>

Complementing Red Dot Scope

Since I had limited success with this monocular on an indoor CQB airsoft gun, I decided to try turning my red dot scope into a night vision scope on my outdoor gun. My outdoor gun happens to be a JG M5-S6; surprise, surprise! Yes, the MP5-SD3 is longer than the Shark Raptor, so I use it for outdoor battles.

Cross Reference
You can take a look at how long the JG M5-S6 compares to the APS Mini Patriot M4, which is the exact same size as the Shark Raptor, in this "Size Comparison: APS ASR106 Patriot M4 vs. JG M5-S6 MP5" article.

The following photo shows my JG M5-S6 with the NcStar Tactical Red/Green Dot Sight with 30mm Cantilever Weaver Mount (DMRG130) and the Avengers Tactical 3X Magnifier already configured on the gun. The 1" riser and the 1/2" offset riser is normally not needed. But they are necessary in order for the monocular to work. It's difficult to see, but I have added the Aim Sports MP5/H and K Scope Mount to the MP5, so that this setup would work. (All these parts are reviewed elsewhere on this site as well.)