Good info, much appreciated. It's a bit intimidating when first looking into NVO's. It's just a lot of coin to drop to have something that won't run right and you can't in good faith pass it on to someone else without letting them know about it's issues. So you'll likely take a hit, I'm sure a lot of you have been down this road from the sound of it.
I've been thinking of getting something for hunting coyotes here locally at night. My father in law has the entry level Pulsar Thermal mono, it's ok for what it is. It is pretty amazing what you can see with even lower end thermal.
Plus there's the decision to go with NV or Thermal. Both have their pros and cons, I guess it would depend on location and users needs as to which fits the bill. Some of these optics are fairly sensitive to the environment, rain, cold temps, shock from being bumped around, etc.
I live in a fairly brushy, overgrown area. Where anything I take out at night is probably going to have to be tough. I'm thinking about just getting a PVS14 and running it behind a RDS or an EOTech. Where I'm hunting I'm limited to about 100-150yds and it's steep, slick and chances are good there will be some bumps along the way.