Hello everyone, introducing myself.
Posted: 20 Dec 2023, 15:01
Hello, I'm Steve, thanks for granting me access to the forum, I'm not a forum partaker normally. I'm keen to view topics and discussions though to help better educate myself and maybe pass on a bit of my findings where I can.
I live in north Cornwall, I'm into my shooting, I shoot air rifles and rimfire, but mainly into the foxing at the moment with my .223, shooting lamb protection on my in-laws farm and pheasant protection on the syndicate ground that I'm part of. Only as and when I can, for the enjoyment of it as well as helping the farmers/ gamekeepers etc. (I'm a carpenter by day.)
Night vision wise, I first got involved approx 3 yes ago when I upgraded from the red lamp to a pard 007a ( 16mm), and I swap it between several of the guns to use for ratting to foxing. It's fantastic, I look at others and like the idea of getting more nv kit ( and I probably will in time) but the pard does the job great, produces a clear image and is reliable. What more do you need.
It's greatly improved at longer range with the vcsel light I got from ludicrous lumens ( budget type). Again, I'll probably upgrade that in time to a wraith+ or a dark sun blade.
Earlier this year I was getting more into it and realising I was struggling in one area, spotting.
I would scan around with the gun and pard and get achey arms which doesn't help to take a shot when the moment presents itself. I found myself to be in the market for a ir spotter, thermal would be great but until I can afford a decent one, I'm going to skip the small lens ones as I believe they're only good for closer range work.
I looked for a while and eventually found myself with a nightfox cub, what a difference, now being able to scan around and leave the gun slung on my shoulder. The only thing I quickly found to be a limitation was the range the ir light would produce. I sorted this by buying the mount that threads into the camera thread and allows a person to clamp a torch to the other side. I believe the torch I have for this is an ignite X20, it made things a lot better but wasn't so pocketable unfortunately. I'm addressing this now by replacing the tir optic on the cub for a convex lens(, if it goes well, I'll post about it)
I've since been looking for a bit more range to spot the foxes so when the black Friday discounts were on, I bagged a nightfox vulpes, a bigger unit with a larger screen, 6x base magnification and a range finder. The lrf only works out to about 280m and the splash is a bit big but a nice featured to have for the price. Again I upgraded the IR by attaching a picatinny rail to the top so I could add a torch. This time I opted for a night sabre 48mm with xhd 850nm pill from ludicrous, the combination works great and in clear conditions, I can see out to 500m, larger objects like trees and buildings I can see out to nearer 700m.
I can provide mini reviews on any of these items if anyone's interested in the future.
I see a thermal spotter on the horizon maybe next year, especially if I can take advantage of one of these interest free finance deals etc. I also like the idea of trying a dedicated nv scope like the hik alpex or cheetah maybe.
Who knows what the future will hold.
Look forward to more nv use and correspondence on here.
Kind regards
Steve.
I live in north Cornwall, I'm into my shooting, I shoot air rifles and rimfire, but mainly into the foxing at the moment with my .223, shooting lamb protection on my in-laws farm and pheasant protection on the syndicate ground that I'm part of. Only as and when I can, for the enjoyment of it as well as helping the farmers/ gamekeepers etc. (I'm a carpenter by day.)
Night vision wise, I first got involved approx 3 yes ago when I upgraded from the red lamp to a pard 007a ( 16mm), and I swap it between several of the guns to use for ratting to foxing. It's fantastic, I look at others and like the idea of getting more nv kit ( and I probably will in time) but the pard does the job great, produces a clear image and is reliable. What more do you need.
It's greatly improved at longer range with the vcsel light I got from ludicrous lumens ( budget type). Again, I'll probably upgrade that in time to a wraith+ or a dark sun blade.
Earlier this year I was getting more into it and realising I was struggling in one area, spotting.
I would scan around with the gun and pard and get achey arms which doesn't help to take a shot when the moment presents itself. I found myself to be in the market for a ir spotter, thermal would be great but until I can afford a decent one, I'm going to skip the small lens ones as I believe they're only good for closer range work.
I looked for a while and eventually found myself with a nightfox cub, what a difference, now being able to scan around and leave the gun slung on my shoulder. The only thing I quickly found to be a limitation was the range the ir light would produce. I sorted this by buying the mount that threads into the camera thread and allows a person to clamp a torch to the other side. I believe the torch I have for this is an ignite X20, it made things a lot better but wasn't so pocketable unfortunately. I'm addressing this now by replacing the tir optic on the cub for a convex lens(, if it goes well, I'll post about it)
I've since been looking for a bit more range to spot the foxes so when the black Friday discounts were on, I bagged a nightfox vulpes, a bigger unit with a larger screen, 6x base magnification and a range finder. The lrf only works out to about 280m and the splash is a bit big but a nice featured to have for the price. Again I upgraded the IR by attaching a picatinny rail to the top so I could add a torch. This time I opted for a night sabre 48mm with xhd 850nm pill from ludicrous, the combination works great and in clear conditions, I can see out to 500m, larger objects like trees and buildings I can see out to nearer 700m.
I can provide mini reviews on any of these items if anyone's interested in the future.
I see a thermal spotter on the horizon maybe next year, especially if I can take advantage of one of these interest free finance deals etc. I also like the idea of trying a dedicated nv scope like the hik alpex or cheetah maybe.
Who knows what the future will hold.
Look forward to more nv use and correspondence on here.
Kind regards
Steve.
