You know, to me, nighttime hunting used to be so simple. I would just throw on my flashlight, hope my red lenses did not catch the hogs’ attention, run them off before I could get my white beam on, and squeeze a couple of shots with the suppressor before all the other hogs were gone. Those days, however, at least for me, are gone. Modern hunting in East Texas has really focused on technology and how I can better get to the hogs before they run off. As you guys may know, we have been working with Armasight and currently have their BNVD-51 night vision goggles, which give you 51° of field of view. The newest thing we have added to our hog gun is the Holosun Iris GR4, which is a quad-function aiming and illumination platform.
(Night Vision + IR photos at the bottom)
What the Iris Does
So what is the Iris for? In simple terms, as I said, it is a quad function platform that gives you a visible green laser, an infrared laser, an infrared illuminator, and a white visible flashlight all in one small, sleek platform. Holosun built this out of 7075 Ti6 aluminum and made it a rather small illuminator for what it is. Their goal was to give you as much rail space as possible without having to worry about a massive box on the rifle. They wanted it to be relatively lightweight and easy to wire onto your gun for other accessories you might have.
Core Specs
- Visible laser: 5mW Class 3R green
- IR laser: 0.7mW VCSEL Class 1
- IR illuminator: 60mW VCSEL adjustable focus
- White light: 1,000 lumens / 25,000 candela
- Power: 2x CR123A or 18650
- Weight: 8.5 oz
- Adjustment: 0.5 MOA clicks, ±50 MOA range
- Waterproof: IPX8
Street price sits right around $999 with MSRP roughly $1,176.
Now, I did say we have been pairing our hunts with the Armasight BNVD-51, and if you are interested in why that is such an important part of this review, it is because this is a dual-tube night vision with white phosphor. It essentially makes the hunt feel like daytime. You see better, interact with your terrain, and are able to see things in a world that feels more like daytime than pitch black. A nice thing about these night vision goggles is that they come with an IR illuminator already built into the goggles themselves, which makes it a very nice platform for general day-to-day usage. However, when you want to be able to focus that IR illuminator, you are stuck with the field of view it has.
Through these night vision goggles, you want to see everything, whether that is your optic mounted on your gun or, in cases where you do not have perfect depth perception for distance, a laser that can help you get onto closer targets as you zero it to your rifle. The first time you shoulder your rifle and watch that glowing laser connect your muzzle to a hog at 60 yards without a single visible beam of light to the animal, the entire concept of hog hunting shifts from reactive to predatory and honestly makes you feel like you are playing Rainbow Six in real life.
East Texas Conditions
Looking at East Texas, where I do the majority of my hunting, here are some of the things you run into. Sometimes the humidity is so thick that when you run a regular flashlight, it just reflects right back at yo,u and you do not see much in front of your face. We live in very thick woods where the second an animal gets behind two good-sized trees, they are gone from sight forever. We also have a lot of tall grasses that can completely envelop an entire animal, and any noise you make walking in it can cause the hog to disappear in the blink of an eye.
This is where traditional flashlight hunting becomes a nuisance rather than help. Even with red lights on your rifle, you do not necessarily have the ability to stalk hogs well enough to eradicate them. IR does not have this issue. With the laser zeroed, shots become instinctive. You are not looking just through your optic. You are simply looking in your space and figuring out where your animals are and where you need to drop them. Now, you have the full advantage of knowing what is prey and what may be cows in someone’s pasture or a dog rather than a coyote. You get faster acquisition time, and you do not need to constantly have your rifle welded to your cheek to get proper sighting when using the IR laser. It works well enough that you can shoot from awkward angles.
Night Vision vs Thermal
In thick brush, hogs tend to disappear, and in many cases I would rather depend on thermal to engage them. However, whenever I am hunting pasture that is maintained and mowed for feed, this is where night vision and IR illumination become my focus. The way the Iris GR4 separates itself from other IR units is that you can focus the beam from a wide flood to a tight spotlight. Even in an open pasture, when you narrow it down for distance identification along the timberline, you can clearly see what you are spotting. The night vision goggles take that amplified light and make everything feel like you are on a warm sunny day, looking with your own eyes. You are not lighting up the hogs; you are revealing them without them knowing.
Hog Behavior and Stealth
Hogs react to several things. First, they do not like brightness, so shining big lights on them will cause them to run away. Anything in the visible wavelength of light is going to cause them to run. The other big thing is environmental change, whether that is driving a UTV down the road or making noises while trying to identify a pig with insufficient light.
This setup becomes much more stealthy than other situations. There is no visible beam of light and no lights flashing around to alert pigs in the distance. It also creates no shadows on the terrain that might spook them. This lets pigs keep feeding completely unaware until you make the first shot. We have watched entire groups ignore suppressed shots because they did not understand what was happening, allowing us to harvest two to three more pigs before they started moving.
Why I Hunt Hogs
I want to take a minute and talk about hogs and why I hunt them. Hogs are not native to North America in the sense of the pigs that now need to be eradicated. They were brought over by early settlers and have no natural predators. While they still have prey instincts, they grow and repopulate at such an extreme level that they must be managed by mankind.
Since this is a man-created problem that needs to be handled by mankind. Hunters and conservationists have a responsibility to reduce populations that destroy farmland and natural ecosystems. I do not view this as an excuse to hunt without respect. Each animal is sacred, but this is a culling situation that, without intervention, will only get worse and destroy native species of plants and animals.
White Light Use
So when do I use the white light? Rarely during actual hunting. I mainly use it after animals have run off to confirm harvests or while navigating with vehicles. The high candela beam at 1,000 lumens gives you the ability to put bright light exactly where you need it. The Iris replaces my handheld flashlight because if anything is in front of me during a hunt, it should not be a person due to proper shooting positioning.
Zeroing the Laser
One of the coolest things about the Iris is the co-alignment between the visible and IR laser. You zero the green daytime laser, and at night, the IR matches your point of impact. No nighttime range sessions required and no struggling to see targets in darkness. It is a massive quality of life improvement that removes a lot of intimidation for new shooters entering night vision and IR laser setups.
Build Quality and Power
The housing feels solid. It does not rattle, flex, or have questionable mounting. Years ago, that was not always guaranteed from Holosun, but they have stepped up their game and now produce equipment meant for real shooters. You see their optics on everything from high-end rifles to budget AR builds.
At 8.5 ounces, it is not featherweight, but it replaces multiple devices and multiple pressure pads, so overall weight savings can still be significant.
Holosun also chose standard batteries. The illuminator ships with two CR123A batteries, but you can swap in an 18650 for longer runtime. That flexibility matters since most modern weapon lights and illumination tools already use these battery types.
Value
For about $1,000, you are paying for a civilian legal Class 1 laser, VCSEL illuminator, durable housing, and integrated design. What you are not paying for is multiple accessories and military contract branding markup. Considering night vision goggles already cost several thousand dollars, the Iris becomes budget-friendly for high-performance night hunting.
Limitations
No gear is perfect. This is not as powerful as restricted military lasers. It can be slightly bulky on smaller guns. Switching modes with gloves can take practice. None of these affect real world hunting success, but they are worth noting. You should not expect military distance performance. For East Texas shots between 25 and 500 yards, it fits perfectly.
Final Thoughts
The Holosun Iris GR4 fundamentally changed what I can do at night. Pair it with the BNVD-51 and you stop hunting in darkness. You move quieter, faster, and stay hidden longer. Stealth equals success, and success equals fewer crop-destroying animals tearing up property overnight.
If you run night vision, this is not just an accessory. It is half the system. For roughly $1,000, the Iris GR4 delivers a practical, field-proven solution that gives the hunter control. Greater distance, greater accuracy, and animals that never knew you were there. It provides IR lasers, IR illumination, white light, and a daytime green laser, making it useful any time you are out hunting.
