To answer your question, the IR illuminator will only work with night vision. It is the same type of light that your TV remote control uses to signal the TV, except way more concentrated. If you have a night vision device, then you will see what the illuminator reflects. Having a standard rifle scope will not work because you are still not able to see in the IR spectrum. Take you TV remote outside and point it at you tail lights on your car. They will not shine, but with a NVG it will reflect the light. Now if you have a cheaper night vision set up, like a Gen I or II, you will still see the eyes reflect the IR light, but won't have the detail of the animal that you would have in a Gen III device and that in my opinion is crucial to shooting an animal at night. You want to be sure of what you are hitting. You can see the IR light through a video camera that has the night shot, like the sony cameras, but the result is less than satisfactory. You'd be better served with a red light. It would be very combersome trying to scan an area with an IR illuminator and a sony camcorder, find the eyes of an animal, cause that is pretty much all you might see; then in the dark pick up a rifle and try to find the animal again which is more than likely running, and you will eventually have to turn on a spotlight to see to shoot him; all in an incounter that usually last 3 or 4 seconds.