Testing times

[philpot 5,003]

As most of you guys know, our Jimmy very kindly sent down his Photon 4.6 XT for me to have a play with and I am very grateful mate as it has saved me a load of money..........

I have been using both a home brew NV and a NiteSite Viper which have worked very well for me but fancied a change and the Photon having a very quick and easy zero change capability would be very handy so that I could switch ammo on either air rifle or on my rimfire. That was the main reason to go this route but to be very honest I found the Photon to be a total pain in the rear to set zero in daylight or at night including an indoor range where I could change the lighting or no lighting at all.

I will be the first to say that my right eye is not as good as it was which doesn't help but trying to even see an 8mm spot on white paper at 25mt was impossible, in fact I finished up making a cross with black 20mm insulating tape in order to fecking see the target at all. The contrast was shocking and after a couple of mags through the rimfire, I just gave up leaving the zero roughly somewhere near where it should be. 

I should explain straight off that the method we use to reduce the bunny population is shooting from the car window on the farm estate roads as the area is very large and the ability to scan the fields with my NiteSite Viper whilst the car is moving is an easy operation but not so easy with the Photon. I would need an NV spotter in order to use this type of scope on the rifle. It would of course be fine if I were to be laid up in a hide waiting for the rabbits to come out but that is not the type of shooting we do in the main. I will look into making a spotter this year as it would be handy anyway even if it is only to see where we are driving as we do not use any car lights whatsoever.

This exercise was to establish if a new Photon RT would be suited to my needs and it has shown me that it is not for me but that is not to say that it would be superb for someone else such as Si Brown who loves his Photon. Perhaps my eye sight is not helping matters and the NiteSite screen allows both eyes to be used in order to see the target and for sure the image quality with the NiteSite is sharper than the Photon with better contrast.

So where do I go from here, well I have just bought a Hawke Airmax SF 30 scope which I have tested on my NiteSIte and it seems to allow a little more light in when using the Viper so that will be the combination for the time being and sell one or both of my Mamba Lite scopes. I do not for one minute rule out a digital NV unit at all and will continue looking over the next year. I would very much like to look through a Ward unit and I certainly intend having a serious look at the Pulsar N355 which is out of my pension range at present but reviews and youtube footage shows it to be a cracking piece of kit. 

It may be the case that I need to stick with with a screen device if my right eye becomes a big issue and if that is the case, then perhaps a bigger sister to the Viper in the shape of the Wolf and the R-tec version would be my choice but we are pushing the price again.

I NEED a nice little win on the lotto, not a whopper, just a couple of hundred thousand so my dear wife could retire and I can have a few special bits of shooting kit.....................well we can but dream.

My thanks again go to Jimmy for the loan of the Photon which has certainly given me the chance to try it out. Can you send me your address Jimmy and I will return the Photon mate. I should have your addy but for some reason I cannot find it mate.

 

Phil

 

[si brown 8,486]

at least you've had a go now Phil and can knock it off your shopping list and the experience didn't cost you 500 notes!

there a marmite kind of affair... love them or hate them!

for me its spot on and zeroing its a doddle cos im use to it, takes me two minutes. 

good luck with finding the right one

if I was doing the rim/centre fire thing id be going thermal... bloody tempted to any way

atb si 

[bigmac 97kt 13,796]

Your more than welcome my old friend any time mate

as SI say,d you can now knock it off your list mate

atvbjimmy

[philpot 5,003]

To be honest Si, having looked at loads of thermal on youtube, I don't like it at all. I would have a thermal spotter in a heartbeat if I could afford one just to locate quarry or find shot quarry but from what I have seen, the image is very blurred compared to normal NV. I was talking to a guy in the RFD last week who had been shooting rats for the farmer, when he came out of the barn, the farmer's brother was there and asked if he had shot many. The reply was only a few so the brother gave him a Pulsar spotter to go back in with, he said there were rats all over the place that he had not seen before............................just a lot of dosh.

As you both say, one more off the list and bit by bit I will examine others before jumping in, not that I could afford to jump in.

 

Phil

[si brown 8,486]

after my last few rabbit sessions ive been well tempted to get a thermal spotter, had my finger on the pay now button at one point but like you said there bloody expensive