Pulsar n450 vs ENV 10

[Titch]

Hi, I’ve just joined here so after some advice please. What are people’s thoughts on the pulsar n450, are they any good for foxing up to 200 yards or am I best just spending the extra and getting an ENV 10 first as last. Is it worth the extra grand ?? Cheers John

[phoenix]

No contest, ENV10 wins every time
The Pulsar N450 is overpriced - it's no better than a PARD NV008 which costs lot less than half of an N450

Cheers

Bruce

[Cottis]

No contest, ENV10 wins every time
The Pulsar N450 is overpriced - it's no better than a PARD NV008 which costs lot less than half of an N450

Cheers

Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I think I have finally decided to semi retire the ancient Ward 700 and move over to dedicated now that I generally just shoot one rifle at night now.

I certainly do not want to spend ENV 10 money but happy to spend a grand or so, so that obviously seems to give me a choice of 008, N455, the Yukon whatever its called that looks like an equivalent of the N455.

I like the idea of the pulsar due to having an XQ38f thermal and I like the battery and charging setup. I am not so keen on those natty little 18650 things. IR wise, I use a Solaris, so will almost certainly not bother with whatever on board IR's any unit comes with.

The Pard is certainly attractive from a price and basic performance point of view but 6.5 x mag as a base seems too much for me. I tend to do all my fox shooting out to 200yds or so on either 4 of 5 mag using the Ward. One thing I am hoping that will improve with dedicated is the FOV available and with the base mag of 4.5 on the Pulsar, would this be better than the 6.5 on the Pard? The Yukon is 6 x and also needs some batteries that look to be worse than the 18650's so I guess the choice comes down to Pard v Pulsar.

The other thing is shooting position. All these units appear to encourage your head in to a higher than natural position. The pulsar appears to be marginally the best but not having used any of these units, I am guessing just by viewing a variety of pictures and videos. The rifle this is going on has a pic rail on it.

Do you know if the Pulsar units, once zeroed, have the reticle in the middle of the screen or does it move wherever like the Pard, dependent on how the rail sits on the rifle?

I am leaning towards the Pard due to the obvious price difference but all the little potential benefits of the Pulsar, including a better warranty are making me unsure which way to turn. I wouldn't say money is no object but it is unimportant enough for it not to be the deciding factor. I just want the best all round unit for my needs. That is a rechargable battery that charges quicker than those 18650 batteries that take forever to charge for my illuminator, as wide a field of view as poss and a base mag as close to 4 as poss.

Thanks for any help or thoughts you can offer.

[phoenix]

At 100 yards, the FOV on the Pulsar is 32.7 feet and on the 008 at 100 yards it's 18.7 feet so the Pulsar has a significantly wider field of view but thinking about your present set up, the Ward adds about x1.7 to your scope magnification so your overall magnification with the Ward on your scope is not 4x or 5x it's actually nearer 7x or 8.5x and that's NV008 country rather than Pulsar.
The Yukon Sightline comes in 4x and 6x
All digital scopes have optical centre lines significantly higher than traditional scopes, so some sort of cheek raiser will almost be inevitable with any of them, unless you have a stock with an adjustable comb raiser.
The Pulsar is the same as all digital scopes in that the reticle moves and the image remains fixed, so it is highly likely that the reticle will not be in the centre of the screen.
I don't know how easy it is to mechanically adjust the Pulsar or Yukon scopes to try to get the reticle near the centre of the screen but I have modified the bases on my 008s and 008LRF so that I can easily get the vertical position of the reticle very near the centre of the screen.
If your 18650 battery is taking a long time to charge, then I think you maybe don't have a good charger. Something like Nitecore SC2 will charge a single high capacity 18650 in just over an hour.
To summarise:
If you plan to use a Solaris for illumination, then the higher sensitivity of the Pulsar and Yukons will be of no benefit - you'll probably just white out the image on them - that won't happen with the PARD
You are already actually shooting with a magnification of at least 7x so I don't think you'll be happy trying to shoot 200 yard targets at 4.5x
The sensor on the Pulsar and Yukons is 1280x720 so even at x2 digital zoom the image will be of lower resolution than your existing Ward
The sensor on the PARD is 1920x1080 full HD, and with x2 digital magnification there is very little loss of image quality.
Remember that any online UK purchase you make, can be returned, for any reason, for a full refund within 14 days of purchase - so try before you buy.
You might want to consider the Optics Warehouse 60 day Scope Out Guarantee that would allow you a much longer time to decide which model is best for you

Cheers

Bruce

[Cottis]

At 100 yards, the FOV on the Pulsar is 32.7 feet and on the 008 at 100 yards it's 18.7 feet so the Pulsar has a significantly wider field of view but thinking about your present set up, the Ward adds about x1.7 to your scope magnification so your overall magnification with the Ward on your scope is not 4x or 5x it's actually nearer 7x or 8.5x and that's NV008 country rather than Pulsar.
The Yukon Sightline comes in 4x and 6x
All digital scopes have optical centre lines significantly higher than traditional scopes, so some sort of cheek raiser will almost be inevitable with any of them, unless you have a stock with an adjustable comb raiser.
The Pulsar is the same as all digital scopes in that the reticle moves and the image remains fixed, so it is highly likely that the reticle will not be in the centre of the screen.
I don't know how easy it is to mechanically adjust the Pulsar or Yukon scopes to try to get the reticle near the centre of the screen but I have modified the bases on my 008s and 008LRF so that I can easily get the vertical position of the reticle very near the centre of the screen.
If your 18650 battery is taking a long time to charge, then I think you maybe don't have a good charger. Something like Nitecore SC2 will charge a single high capacity 18650 in just over an hour.
To summarise:
If you plan to use a Solaris for illumination, then the higher sensitivity of the Pulsar and Yukons will be of no benefit - you'll probably just white out the image on them - that won't happen with the PARD
You are already actually shooting with a magnification of at least 7x so I don't think you'll be happy trying to shoot 200 yard targets at 4.5x
The sensor on the Pulsar and Yukons is 1280x720 so even at x2 digital zoom the image will be of lower resolution than your existing Ward
The sensor on the PARD is 1920x1080 full HD, and with x2 digital magnification there is very little loss of image quality.
Remember that any online UK purchase you make, can be returned, for any reason, for a full refund within 14 days of purchase - so try before you buy.
You might want to consider the Optics Warehouse 60 day Scope Out Guarantee that would allow you a much longer time to decide which model is best for you

Cheers

Bruce

Awesome. Thanks for that. I didnt realise the Ward 700 magnified the chosen zoom on the rifle scope it is attached too. That means the pulsar loses its main attribute other than field of view.

Looks like the Pard a new charger is the way to go then. Thanks Bruce

[fizzbangwhallop]

Morning Cottis....

If you’re looking for 18650’s now then 7dayshop have been very good for genuine Nitecore chargers.

https://www.7dayshop.com/catalogsearch/ ... q=Nitecore

Torchy on eBay for 18650’s ...flat tops for the Pard8’s
These are the button top equivalents... the flat tops appear to be out of stock at the moment but I’m sure Torchy aka Jim will be able to let you know when he expects them back in.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Torchy-Pa ... SwYIhWkQ57

Cheers

Fizz

[Cottis]

Morning Cottis....

If you’re looking for 18650’s now then 7dayshop have been very good for genuine Nitecore chargers.

https://www.7dayshop.com/catalogsearch/ ... q=Nitecore

Torchy on eBay for 18650’s ...flat tops for the Pard8’s
These are the button top equivalents... the flat tops appear to be out of stock at the moment but I’m sure Torchy aka Jim will be able to let you know when he expects them back in.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Torchy-Pa ... SwYIhWkQ57

Cheers

Fizz

Good man, thanks Fizz

[fizzbangwhallop]

You’re more than welcome

Non-eBay-wise....ecolux shop have a good rep.

Cheers

Fizz

[Cottis]

You’re more than welcome

Non-eBay-wise....ecolux shop have a good rep.

Cheers

Fizz

I have just bought a Nitecore charger from The 7 day Ebay shop. Half million feedback score. Sheeeeeet

I think I might have some old flat top batteries at home. I will see what the charger makes of them. I know my more up to date ones for torches and illuminators are definitely not flat tops.

Just need to decide whether to relegate the .222 or the .243 to dedicated now. Or maybe that should be promote ha

[jthyttin]

This is my pet peeve since IMHO people are overly in love with Pard and tend to be blind for negative sides. With these non-sensitive units (be it Pard or other manufacturer) you're throwing insane amounts of IR at the target and surroundings and the usability is very severely limited without IR or in non-optimal conditions. And now it seems to be accepted that even the integrated IR is not enough, even though it's more powerful/effective than just about anything short of large lens VCSEL (Solaris, XTL, Dark Engine).

If you were considering ENV10 I'd certainly look at Yukon Sightline N47x series (N470 850nm and N475 940nm). It has 6x base magnification and larger 58mm diameter ~70mm focal lenght lens. That's 110% more cross sectional area than the smaller model. Or 270% more than NV008.

Pulsar N45x Digisight Ultra equivalent would be Sightline N45x (also two options on illuminator). These have lens about 40mm in diameter and 50mm in focal length. Significantly smaller and lighter, but Pulsar is quite long. 80% larger lens than NV008, but I think most of the performance comes from better (more sensitive) sensor.

All Yukons (and no doubt Pulsars but haven't tested) are usable w/o any illumination in conditions where Pard or Photon gives you just black screen. But like Bruce said, if planning on high power illuminator for long range, IMHO you just need adjustable iris. In a pinch you can make do with (included) flip cap that has hole and some kind of filter in the middle, but it has no adjustability. Only commercially available VCSEL that has even illumination seems to be 850nm XTL with diffuser lens.

Mounts are similar to Pard, or otherwise around. So the fore-aft location is adjustable by choosing which holes to use and where to place the mount in picatinny rail. Vertical shimming is easy but horizontal somewhat limited/trickier. Pulsar has been in market longer so there's third party mounts also (I used Innomount QD for Tikka rail, Yukon and Pulsar mounts are same/interchangable). While I had the units available I didn't even think to try how reticles move, since it's a minor annoyance at most. I try to get this tested tomorrow. In older Pulsar models there were "spare sensor area" vs. display so reticle was centered at least while moderately adjusting.

Before Sightline N47x came available I was desperate enough to consider DIY building more sensitive unit since they were not available (except ENV). Now I'm just figuring out what kind of mounting solution (including cheek piece) would fit... no financial interest in this other than competition keeping prices reasonable so would love to see sensitive units from other manufacturers also. If I were UK based I'd even look at ENV despite the high price.