Beginners guide to Hunting with NV

[longy0710 2]

Guys,

 

I have finally laid out for night vision after long deliberation. I have gone for the pulsar challenger add-on with n1000 ir laser. Right now I need some advice of the basic principles of hunting rabbits with night vision using an air rifle. I am pretty good with a lamp but this is new to me so any advice is more than welcome.

 

Thanks

Martyn

[zini 1,939]

Hi mate,

 

Nice bit of kit you have purchased there.

 

ive been after one for ages but cant afford it at the moment while im having to pay the ex wife so much money.

 

Will get on within the next 2 years though, 100%.

 

Regarding using your new NV scope, my suggestion to you is go onto Youtube and make a account.

 

Once you have done that send a PM to my mate who has been using one for a while now and has many clips up on youtube of him ratting and rabbiting with his Pulsar.

 

His Youtube name is Carbonrocket and his real name is Kent.

 

Just mention my name Si Pittaway and he will sort you out.

 

Cheers

 

Si

Edited January 20, 2011 by zini

[longy0710 2]

Thanks Si, it's the add on I have bought not the digisight. Couldn't stretch that far!!! I subscribe to carb so will have a look but I'm sure he has the dedicated digisight scope

 

Anyone any general NV usage/hunting tips??

[zini 1,939]

Mate,

 

Ive got tonnes and will try and send them you once ive finished work.

 

Just popping in to the section for a quick read.

 

See you soon

 

Si.

[longy0710 2]

Thanks Si, I would really appreciate some help knowledge on the do's and dont's from someone with more experience than me. That would be great and i await your response.

 

Thanks mate

 

ATB

 

Martyn

[zini 1,939]

Hi Martyn,

 

Well as promised, here is some info gained through my short time in using NV equipment buddy.

 

Points:

 

1. Use the best NV generation that you can mate. Ensure that you have got a good IR illuminator with this device. If not then either get one or make your own like I have done by buying a £4 piece of infra red plastic and cutting it to fit on my Deben lamp. If you have a gen 1+ intensifier and only a low output illuminator your range will be greatly reduced for shooting accurately. You will be able to spot the rabbits easy enough by their eyes but to either film it clearly on scope camera or shoot it accurately it will be much harder.

 

2. If possible use the NV scope in conjunction with a laser. The laser will act as a range estimation device and shows up really well through the scopes eye piece. What this will do is give you a lot more confidence when range estimating a rabbit or rat at night. Looking through a NV scopes eyes piece into a green world, or at a LCD scope camera screen at night can be quite misleading mate, and ranges are very hard to judge. What you think is 40 metres will probably be only 25 to 30 metres. It doesn’t help that the majority of the gen 1+ intensifiers are only about x2 to 4 magnification at best, so rabbits do look further away than they actually are. This isn’t such a big problem when ratting indoors as you would of already recce-ed the shooting area and will know the distances to things inside when they appear. In an open field though, you are in another world, so give yourself the best fighting chance.

 

3. To stop yourself walking around with a rifle stuck to your face while you look for rabbits, and to make shooting a bit more comfortable for yourself what I like to do is have a red lamp with me. This lamp needs to be very low powered so not to frighten the rabbits. I use this to spot rabbits at distance. All you need is a quick flick of the red lamp, no more than 1 second just to see the rabbits eyes then you know where you will be walking to. Once you think that you are within shooting distance then lift the rifle and take the shot.

 

4. Remember that using NV scopes and NV scope cameras don’t make you invisible to rabbits. Its not a Klingon cloaking device, its just a very handy advantage to you, so still move slowly and quietly and don’t forget the most important thing, walk into the wind or even with the best scope in the world you wont get within range to get that shot off.

 

5. When using a NV scope (not a scope camera) try to zero a little closer than you normally would do if possible. I did this with my Paladin NV scope. This is because zeroing with most gen 1+ devices is pretty hard. Seeing a small target at 30 metres (drawing pin size) becomes difficult through the NV scope. This is because the illuminated reticule sometimes covers the small target at 30 metres making it difficult to get a very fine zero. (maybe a better NV scope wouldn’t do this) A 20 metre zero should be fine though for most gen 1+ devices.

 

6. Remember that the focus of a NV device changes very quickly, so what was clear at 20 metres may be very blurred at 25 metres so be prepared to adjust your focus for every shot. To do this you need to know and feel every switch, button and focus ring on the device in the dark.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Si.

Edited January 21, 2011 by zini

[ghillies 209]

tactics wise, its better if they dont know your there at all, that way they arnt looking about, i've stood over a hundred yards away looking towards the IR illuminator and it is visable..very if you look straight at it.

 

LED lights arnt worth putting IR filters over, its a very poor dwindly light.

theres ebay IR cree LED torch's about, i have one that was 15 quid all in, it still works but i havent used it much.. it does the biznes out to -100 yards enough to se rabbit shapes of body.. lights up eyes way further.

 

the main problems are the sme as lamping, oh yes yuo can see the bunny eyes, bang and oops was a cat?? make sure before you squeeze that trigger.

 

ohhh...some materials dont show up on IR.. as in it passes through it, so things like a canoe arnt there till you walk through it lol..

 

a light is a good idia but be very careful nott o light your unit up..costly mistake.(unless it has the full protections on it..as in gain controll or shut off, light 'protection' just reduces power to the unit..reduces the damage but dunt stop it)

a big help is a mate with a lamp...its inevitable you'll get lit up with the unit switched on...accidental or not its a pain int ass.

 

 

for the ideal sinario, you'll shoot every bunny you see, or rat, without freeking any others up. in short every miss is a hint to targets, and the more they get hints the less you'll see... its sort of an opertunaties count, if you miss one you'll not get chance at 2 others, miss twoo.. you'll not get a shot at 4 and so on, miss loads they'll suss you straight off.

 

a hint for rats, theyre cheeky bleeders lol.. and theres always a spooker in pack, it'll watch you, learn you...and shit yu up untill you get it lolol... beleive me or not but no doubts you'll come accros those s trange bumps in the night ........it'll be sat watching just to the side of where you narmally look.

 

hmmm batteries... rechargeables save money in the hundreds to a thousand quid on the units user life alone..but get the right voltage ones, seriously. the tubes use 1000's of volts, just using the rong power input makes a feckin huge difference at the tube end.... 3.5 v to 1000 step up sort of thing.

(1000 hours use, 10 hour per battery, or what ever the figures are...for a grand and a half you can get some shit hot battery chargers and batterries lol).

 

last tip.. just like lamping the spacial awarenes thing differs a bit, if you learn a place by NV dont be suprised if its not all where you thought it was lol...what ever went missing is usualy a couple three yards away by torch to where it was on NV. the further away it was the further afeild it may be..

[akton 15]

get yourself a decent ir torch

you will need this to light up the areas and see eyes more clearly.

a good ir torch working with night vision is important

[ghillies 209]

get yourself a decent ir torch

you will need this to light up the areas and see eyes more clearly.

a good ir torch working with night vision is important

 

good point, a wacking 1000mw laser illuminater isnt going to be too kind at 10 yard shooting...bright white! too bright!.

 

lasers.. i use a five quid ebay effert, but it has two adjustment screws on the side like a scope, theres some that are three scerws in the front, like a triangle wiggle, theyre a bitch to set up! thats if you can..

the five quid one does very well at raating to about 20 yards before it diverges too much and becomes a huge dot.. but, it takes three 1.5v button cells, i use two cells to dim the thing so its not burning the NV tube with a huge eye peircing white center..just pur a spring inbetween the two batteries, or anything that conducts.

 

again on the ratting front, barrel mount the laser, if you've got a pcp with the air cyliner running along side the barrel, thats an exxselent anker point, seriously just use a thick elastic band.. worst case sinario the laser doesnt pass the silencer then rap tape around the laser so it just gets past.. spoy on from 2-20 yards as an aim point.

for range finding above the scopes a better choise, and the further away for the bore center the better it moves on the ret for more accurate range finding.(8 inch's is about as near as you'd want for better accuracy...2 feet wouldnt go a mass at all! lol but its a silly bit of kit at that.)

under the barrel you lose the on target range, so itd be 4 yards to 16 yards instead of 2-20... above the barrel is better than below because obviously the pellet drops..so under the barrel its pointing up in the rong rong lol.. dunt matte that much as a range finder though, above or below...whatever you want to put up with.

 

if you want more on the barrel mounting just shout up...its easy peezy...shoot from the hip stuff with 100 percent lol.

[longy0710 2]

Thanks Si that's great, gonna have a play with targets tomorrow night to get used to the setup before I tackle the bunnies

[buschmaster 0]

Im looking for a monitor with brighnes control so the animals dont see my whole face and the area behind me lighted up.

[philpot 5,031]

You can buy filters from ebay which is far cheaper than buying a monitor with brightness controls.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151007461217?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Phil

[Rez 4,961]

I was like this a post I ain't seen... Only to find its originally from 2011.