Night vision upgrade from Yukon photon

WAYNE

Well-Known Member
Good afternoon, the time has come to upgrade my photon to something better for putting the foxes down at Increased distance, it has done the job for last 2 year but time for something new, I use thermal to spot but and use night vision to shoot and want to stay this way, looking at the 1500 mark so where next? Must be new. Want to see around the 300 meter mark. Any good suggestions? With clips would be great
 
Spend slightly more and get a Drone Pro is what I would do if you are happy to have a dedicated night rig
 
l run a archer on a smidtch 5x25 x56 and back up with a pulsar q38 thermal, if you get it set right youll get 300yds,
 
Hi Wayne, break your neck to get a thermal scope, sell what you dont use, thermal beats any IR, ive tried the lot, and wasted good money along the way, thermals good out to 400yds if you know your ground. sit and watch move and intercept. 9 times out of 10 the fox doesnt know its dead. Also what activity you get to observe is off the chart.
 
Hi Wayne, break your neck to get a thermal scope, sell what you dont use, thermal beats any IR, ive tried the lot, and wasted good money along the way, thermals good out to 400yds if you know your ground. sit and watch move and intercept. 9 times out of 10 the fox doesnt know its dead. Also what activity you get to observe is off the chart.
Good evening. I do like the thermal but I find you can't guarantee for 100% what you see is what you think it should be, I know with more use using thermal you will get better at reconsigning but I don't want to mistake anything
 
They recommend using an ancillary IR torch as with all Digi NV units.

Check out the Night Vision Forum if you are not already a member. What they don't know about seeing in the dark over there isn't really worth knowing.
 
Drone Pro 10x is great, way better than the Photon I used to have. Couple with a thermal spotter and it is a formidable combination
 
I have a drone pro x15 and thermal spotter on a T bar linked to a 7 inch monitor, in my mind a good combo,
had a mate come over last night with a thermal add on,
very good but had the same problem as the spotter sometimes,
recognition of whats being looked at,
with the NV the shooter can see the target much better and say what your looking at.
 
I have both a pulsar and a drone pro, the image on the drone pro is far better. Only advantage on the pulsar is the range finder which is great if you are putting it on a .22 where range is important but if it's going on something flat like a .223 then I'd pick the drone pro every time
 
I have both a pulsar and a drone pro, the image on the drone pro is far better. Only advantage on the pulsar is the range finder which is great if you are putting it on a .22 where range is important but if it's going on something flat like a .223 then I'd pick the drone pro every time


I hope your comparing the 970 not the 550 which was no where as good as the 870 - 970

The Pulsar is £700 cheaper and I looked at the DP 10 and didn't think it was 800 better?

DP10X is about 1800 + the battery pack & no RF

Pulsar is about £1100 + RF +bat pack about 1600 which was the price bracket.

True about the RF on a 223 or 22.250 but I use my Pulsar on my .22 .17 and 22/250

The 970 is VERY good and whilst it possible to get better Id need to ask why?

I looked through a mates £2500 thermal spotter the other day and cpmpared it with my £700 Ray Marine (£1100 if you buy the exact same Flur hunting version) The advantage of the 2.5K unit was blatent it was far far superior to my one. However when looking at the 1100 970 against the Dron Rro 10X I was looking at finer margens I couldn't be botherd to spend an extra 700 on.
 
I hope your comparing the 970 not the 550 which was no where as good as the 870 - 970

The Pulsar is £700 cheaper and I looked at the DP 10 and didn't think it was 800 better?

DP10X is about 1800 + the battery pack & no RF

Pulsar is about £1100 + RF +bat pack about 1600 which was the price bracket.

True about the RF on a 223 or 22.250 but I use my Pulsar on my .22 .17 and 22/250

The 970 is VERY good and whilst it possible to get better Id need to ask why?

I looked through a mates £2500 thermal spotter the other day and cpmpared it with my £700 Ray Marine (£1100 if you buy the exact same Flur hunting version) The advantage of the 2.5K unit was blatent it was far far superior to my one. However when looking at the 1100 970 against the Dron Rro 10X I was looking at finer margens I couldn't be botherd to spend an extra 700 on.
At present I'm using the photon on a .223 but I'm wanting to do get rid of this. Then use my .243 as dedicated foxing rifle. To many in cabinet so time to reduce, so have 1 deer rifle, 1 night vision for foxes and a bunny bashed �� With what I have seen so far.243 will be ok to use with the drone pro and the 970 I think?cheers for the comments. There is so much coming on to market now you don't know which way to look.
 
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How about upgrading your Photon to an extreme? I can see on a pals in the UK really well out to 200m with just a 55mm camera lens and swopping it to a 85mm or 105mm camera lenses takes the same time as with a M42 Pentax camara ie seconds. Cost is around the 100 pounds mark for the adaptor and camera lens.
 
How about upgrading your Photon to an extreme? I can see on a pals in the UK really well out to 200m with just a 55mm camera lens and swopping it to a 85mm or 105mm camera lenses takes the same time as with a M42 Pentax camara ie seconds. Cost is around the 100 pounds mark for the adaptor and camera lens.

I've done the Photon Xtreme conversion and although I'm mightily impressed with the improved clarity/resolution and the circa 10x magnification boost from a 105mm Pentax SMC lens (with appropriate increase in illumination of course) I'm not convinced that an SLR lens can stand up to recoil over time.

My experience has mirrored others with a wandering zero, which in my case may have been down to an iffy lens to start with, but I can't afford to chance it. Now I've replaced the lens with a known good 'un the Photon sits on my Weihrauch .22LR where it's devastating on bunnies with subs.

For the 22-250 and 300BLK I've gone down the route of an add-on to the day scopes with a Ward-D-Vision 800L - as I wanted to keep them available with zoom and relatively high mag capability for day use. It's a bit fiddly to set up for the first time but with an appropriate illuminator it's looking good. A Sightron S-TAC 3-16x42SF works well on the 300BLK and I'll get it's bigger 56mm brother for the 22-250 at some stage.

PS. I use a Pulsar XQ38 for spotting in combination with both the above.
 
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I hope your comparing the 970 not the 550 which was no where as good as the 870 - 970

The Pulsar is £700 cheaper and I looked at the DP 10 and didn't think it was 800 better?

DP10X is about 1800 + the battery pack & no RF

Pulsar is about £1100 + RF +bat pack about 1600 which was the price bracket.

True about the RF on a 223 or 22.250 but I use my Pulsar on my .22 .17 and 22/250

The 970 is VERY good and whilst it possible to get better Id need to ask why?

I looked through a mates £2500 thermal spotter the other day and cpmpared it with my £700 Ray Marine (£1100 if you buy the exact same Flur hunting version) The advantage of the 2.5K unit was blatent it was far far superior to my one. However when looking at the 1100 970 against the Dron Rro 10X I was looking at finer margens I couldn't be botherd to spend an extra 700 on.

Its the 870 that I have and its fitted with a night master 800 IR but in my opinion the drone pro 10x with the standard IR that they supplied with it at the time is a far superior image
 
The only night shooting option you could call an upgrade is Thermal, theres nothing to beat it, Can you spot a sleeping fox with IR?. Can you spot/shoot a fox in a drizzly night with IR?. As for target identification a fox looks like a fox in thermal. a cat looks like a cat, sure you get a bit of a stare going on with a face on hare but you can see it at 3/4 of a mile so have a chance to have a cuppa whilst waiting for it to move to a different position.
How many have spotted Charlie in thermal not to find him in IR, having to squeek to get him to show himself, now hes on edge.
We have idiots around here educating foxes to HNC level, try shooting him in IR, He can just see it and if jumpy and will leg it if he gets shadowed with it.
Thermals an upgrade and light years in front of IR..
 
been playing with nv for years and i still find the image quality of thermal a major concern,

i think a lot of people on here will know my feeling on this and'of course my nv demonstrations to local keepers and foxing guys has ended up with a lot of them using drone pros,

we have 3 in use on the estate i have my own here as well and they are a mix of the older and the new colour ones, i have to be honest and say i have not found the need to use anothing else, i have taken long shots and the best was 415 yards on highclere with one of the under keepers with me,

i have to,say that the illuminator has not caused me any issues at all, well that's because i changed from a t67 to a fully focusable in 2 ways sunnranger, i have no complaints as the service from carl has been great when it was needed, the mount was made and supplied by neil mckillop and changes the scopes positioning on my tikka beyond belief and allows me to use it with no issues with my spinal issues,

so i i am a big fan, and having seen one of the most exspesive thermal rifle setups in the past few months i honestly state hand on hart i would rather keep what i have and get a new car with the money it cost for that set up.

please note : this is my opinion and yours belongs to you,

respectfully yours.

bob.
 
As i said in an earlier post i am not a fan of thermal scopes because of the identification issues with them sometimes,
allow i would not be without my thermal spotter when foxing
the thermal spotter allows us to drive around without lights and if in any doubt about what we are looking at the shooter confirms by looking with the NV
we do pick up many lamp shy foxes this way
 
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