Which Mount? Nocturn Alpha vs. Wilcox G24 Comparison

Because we've recently started carrying the new ALPHA Mount from Nocturn Industries to compliment our existing mounts from Wilcox Industries, many of you might be wondering which mount would be best for your purposes? We have some end use experience now with both of these products now (albeit its very skewed to the G24 given how long it's been around and for how long we've been using night vision), and wanted to provide some highlights to consider when choosing between these two great mounting options. 

Both of these mounts can of course be purchased directly from our web store (subject to availability). 

Alpha Mount - Pros and Cons 

The ALPHA mount from Nocturn has been a couple years in the making, and is now available. It's immediate appeal is a combination of very sturdy, wobble-free design and exceptionally light weight. This makes it worth considering as a mount option for essentially every night vision user right off the rip. It operates pretty similar to the G24 mount, which has set the standard for night vision mount operation in a dovetail style connection. 

With that in mind, the most efficient way to understand the two options is probably to compare the 'challenger' (the ALPHA) with the incumbent (the Wilcox G24). You'll find the Wilcox G24 everywhere, and it is the gold standard, though not without some minor faults. What are the pros and cons of the ALPHA compared to the existing standard, the G24?

Pros of the ALPHA vs G24

The benefits of the ALPHA mount compared to the G24 are probably pretty obvious. It's a very well made mount that offers all the core functionalities at about half the weight. That right there is enough to consider it, also when taking into account that the ALPHA mount also probably costs either the same or a little less than the G24, and both are made in America and original intellectual property and design.

Some other less obvious benefits of the ALPHA include things like a little bit of additional vertical adjustment in the mount to better accommodate certain systems or setups compared to the G24. The ALPHA also has the ability through some user modifications to become strictly a force-to-overcome style mount for those who prefer not to press a release button. This is not a super straightforward conversion and requires some disassembly of the mount itself, but it is possible.

Although its not super relevant to the majority of users, the ALPHA mount also touts a 'powered shoe' option, presumably to accommodate future Nocturn binocular NVGs which might route power through the mount similar to an ANVIS style setup. 

Cons of the ALPHA

We've noticed that the ALPHA tends to be pretty 'sloppy' in most common night vision helmet shrouds. Nocturn includes some rubbery shims with ALPHA mounts now to try to minimize this, but we're going to go ahead and warn you that if you aren't comfortable "bedding" your night vision mount into your shroud cavity with something like electrician's tape or adhesive velcro strips, then the ALPHA mount might not be the ideal choice for you. Here, please note that alternatives like the G24 often still also will be optimized with similar "bedding" steps, but the ALPHA mount seems to really require this a lot more obviously. 

Bedding a mount into a shroud is not a huge deal and shouldn't be a major turnoff, since serious users are going to do this with most G24 mounts also and it takes just a minute or two and some tape. 

The biggest difference which could be considered a 'con' for some users is the operation for the ALPHA in terms of rigidity for stowing night vision goggles with speed. The ALPHA is notable for the design of its hinge which allows the main arm to travel up when unlocked, which utilizes a ball bearing design. This design, out of the box, requires the user to both unlock the arm by pressing the release button (same as a G24) and then apply pressure to overcome the force of the ballbearing tension. 

And herein lies one aspect that some users might prefer the traditional G24 - the ALPHA mount cannot stow nearly as rapidly compared to the G24, and also will likely require the user to use two hands to effectively stow. Yes, this can reportedly be mitigated by disassembling the mount and adjusting some tension screws and/or removing the require to press the unlock button and convert to only force-to-overcome. However, we feel that many users aren't going to be comfortable or want to make this level of modification. It's not super difficult, but it's not just a simple conversion and involves some level of detailed stripping and handling (i.e. not losing) small parts, some under tension.  

Who We Think the ALPHA is For

Given the above, and to reiterate, we think everybody should probably consider the ALPHA mount due to weight savings and quality alone. However, we also think it's probably not the right choice for certain users. 

Because the G24 mount design allows it to stow effortlessly and rapidly with one handed operation, this is going to the mount you want if you are someone who finds themselves stowing your night vision frequently. If you're a user of a fixed bridge system, like the RPNVG for example, you're going to be stowing your night vision more frequently than someone using an articulating system who can simply move the optic pods of his system out of line of sight without requiring a full stow. 

To that end, guys who may need to rely on rapid transitions to visible light, and want to do a full stow technique in these scenarios, aren't going to want to utilize the ALPHA mount over the G24. For some performance shooting users, this would be a similar consideration to take into account. This may come into play for certain use cases operating vehicles as well, where if you do need to full stow a goggle you need to make sure you can do so safely using only one hand while your other hand retains control of a vehicle. 

On the flip side, if you're someone who can always simply rely on an articulating goggle and moving individual optic pods out of your line of sight instead of ever really stowing your night vision all the way up on your helmet via the mount, then the ALPHA mount is definitely something to check out. A lot of general users will fall into this category which should make the ALPHA a popular option.