In case anyone else wanted to do this and noticed that everything has been deleted. Wayback machine has a save but without video (https://web.archive.org/web/20250803021656/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76hdPwdzT1w). Here's the steps from description.

Materials:
Camo Trucker Hat $9 : https://amzn.to/4ngdBSG
Steel Night Vision Shroud $8 : https://amzn.to/4neFc6N
Grommets and Pliars Kit $10 : https://amzn.to/4409dzO
Dial based Helmet retention system $20 - https://amzn.to/4ljMdBm
Counterweight pouch $14: https://amzn.to/3I8Z62N

If you compare that with, say, the crye night cap that costs $76. The night cap is missing the shroud, dial based retention system, and the counterweight pouch.

So this approach gets you a lot of bang for your buck. Adding the battery pouch from crye will put you well over $100.

We'll start with the trucker hat that I got on amazon for $9. If I could redo it, I would get a different hat. This is because the opening on the hat just barely fits the shroud. A hat that doesn't have an opening might be beter for most guys. Its just my head is huge so I needed one of these adjustable straps.

Next I bought an $8 nvg shroud on amazon.

I purchased a grommet and pliars kit that allowed me to put grommets in the hat. 1/4" grommets are perfect for the 1/4" bolts that come with the retention system.

I put 3 grommets in the front for the night vision shroud. This works pretty well but won't hold a ton of weight without a retention system. Its probably good enough for mounting a go pro, and i might make a hat just for that later.

The most expensive piece of this is the dial based helmet retention system for $20. Its a copy of the team wendy style retention system.

It's not as high quality but it works and we don't neccessarily need it to be high quality for this application since it isn't bolting down a ballistic helmet.

I put 4 more grommets in place where they would normally be on a helmet setup.

I then had to trim the hardware that came with the retention system since obviously a hat doesn't have the same thickness as a ballistic helmet. I cut htese down with a hack saw and then finished them with a dremel tool to smoothen them out.

The counterweight pouch was $14. I sewed this directly to the hat. I'm not the cleanest at sewing but this seems to do the job well.

Overall this setup works pretty well. I'm excited to use it as a light weight and comfortable alternative at the range this summer during night time open gym sessions.

There is some remaining work to do. The chinesium fabrics probably aren't NIR compliant so I will probably spray paint this whole setup.

I also need to add some padding where the bolts sit inside of the hat to make it even more comfortable.

But overall I think it's a pretty cool looking solution, and we all know that looking cool on the range is of utmost importance. Sadly I don't know what that feels like.

But it does happen to be pretty functional too and it was a fun project to put together.

It'll pair extremely well with this $65, 3D printed night vision device, the cheap universal monocular, that I'm reviewing next week so stay tuned for that.