THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180351
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID REED, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: 62 lines
At sunset, most deer hunters retreat from the woods and call it a day. Hunter Vermillion is just getting started.
Vermillion does his stalking after dark, using night-vision binoculars to scout for deer and other quarry. Before sunrise, he'll use the lenses, rather than a flashlight, to find his way to a prime hunting spot.
``You don't want all the game that's around knowing you're there,'' said Vermillion, an inn operator from Williamsburg. ``It gives you an edge.''
There's nothing illegal about spying on wildlife with equipment that makes the darkest night look like daytime, but it makes game wardens uneasy. Some fear the next move for hunters will be the use of the equipment to bag game at night. Hunting at night is illegal.
``It gives them a real effective means of breaking the law,'' said Maj. Herb Foster, the assistant chief of law enforcement for Virginia's game and inland fisheries agency.
The equipment allows vision comparable to what someone could see during the day through a piece of green cellophane. In New Hampshire last fall, a sharpshooter hired to control a deer herd used a rifle equipped with night-vision gear to kill 90 animals with 90 shots.
Sales of night-vision binoculars and other gear to hunters has jumped since Roanoke-based ITT Night Vision, the nation's top producer of the equipment, began a national advertising campaign a year ago.
Larry Curfiss, who directs ITT's consumer division, said the company sold between 7,000 and 8,000 night-vision binoculars and monoculars last year.
About 45 percent went to law enforcement agencies, including the state Game Department, which uses them to catch poachers and people operating boats without the required running lights. The remaining sales are about evenly divided between the hunting and outdoor market and the marine market, Curfiss said.
Night-vision devices made for the military collect light energy, or photons, and convert it to electrical energy, or electrons. The electrical energy is amplified and converted back to light when the electrons strike the eyepiece.
ITT began selling less sophisticated models to boaters and law enforcement agencies in 1993.
ITT limits sales of its night-vision rifle scopes to the military, though Foster said other manufacturers will sell the scopes to civilians.
Cliff Ferguson, who bought night-vision gear after his boat nearly collided with another craft one night, said it is impossible to hunt without the equipment at night; without a scope, a hunter can't see a target when aiming a rifle in the dark.
Vermillion said: ``It's basically a toy unless you need it, and then it can become a life-and-death-type situation.''
The price of the equipment is intimidating.
``There's a lot of interest until you show the price,'' said A.L. Bryant, a salesman for Trebark Outfitters in Roanoke where a Night Vision monocular has a $1,395 price tag. ``Once they get one out that sells below $500, they'll sell like hot cakes.''
KEYWORDS: HUNTING NIGHT VISION BINOCULARS NIGHT VISION
GLASSES