Highseater
Well-Known Member
Good evening, does anyone know where to find a readily available Pulsar Krypton at a competitive price?
Pulsar Krypton
- Thread starter Highseater
- Start date
Look to me to be the same price everywhere even non shooting related retailers, Testers & Pass Thermal. £3’999.95 ouch!!
Mind you it’s does get brilliant reviews everywhere.
Be interested to know if you take the plunge how you get on with it as I am considering one myself.
Mind you it’s does get brilliant reviews everywhere.
Be interested to know if you take the plunge how you get on with it as I am considering one myself.
Highseater
Well-Known Member
Thx Nick. The Krypton sensor seems to be by far the best around. I’m used to the quality of my Helion XP50 handheld and now would like something that clips onto any scope. So far I have used a Pulsar Digisight scope. I must say it’s excellent for the money, especially with a better IR attached. However, in pitchblack nights and at 100 yards+ it’s just not good enough. I used it for stalking wild boar in Turkey in March. The first 2 nights were fine thanks to excellent moon light, the third night it failed entirely. The 4th night we mounted a Liemke Merlin and that did the trick again, although I was not convinced at all about the crispness of the image.
No-one advertises Pulsar/Yukon products at less than rrp cos they get into bother with the importer Thomas Jacks.
Call a seller (don't e mail or text) and ask for their best price - you may be pleasantly surprised by their response
You might want to try Blackwood Outdoors or McLeods of Tain to start with.
Cheers
Bruce
Call a seller (don't e mail or text) and ask for their best price - you may be pleasantly surprised by their response
You might want to try Blackwood Outdoors or McLeods of Tain to start with.
Cheers
Bruce
First impressions of the Krypton are that it doesn't ace a dedicated unit as much as one might hope.
Partly this is because, in place of having an adapter "permanently" mounted to each day scope and to which the thermal unit attaches via a QD fitting (as per their front-mounted digital NV unit), the thermal is clamped to the adapter so that the whole assembly has to be removed or fitted together. If you're lucky all you'll need to do to swap between day scopes is to change out the plastic bushings, but if the size difference requires a different adapter some fiddling about with an Allen key is required.
It's worth remembering too that the resulting set-up is considerably heavier than a single dedicated thermal unit, puts the controls further away from you (whyever did Pulsar do away with their excellent Bluetooth remote!), and won't show the position of the crosshairs at the shot for subsequent analysis.
On the plus side you can count on the solid zero of your day scope(s).
Comparing the image from the Krypton with the host scope wound down to its minimum 4X magnification with what I see in my Trail XP50 at 3.2X, I'd say the Trail has the edge. But it's still very early days and I've yet to observe any wildlife through the Krypton let alone do any shooting with it. Nevertheless, I can't deny that does look very smart!
Partly this is because, in place of having an adapter "permanently" mounted to each day scope and to which the thermal unit attaches via a QD fitting (as per their front-mounted digital NV unit), the thermal is clamped to the adapter so that the whole assembly has to be removed or fitted together. If you're lucky all you'll need to do to swap between day scopes is to change out the plastic bushings, but if the size difference requires a different adapter some fiddling about with an Allen key is required.
It's worth remembering too that the resulting set-up is considerably heavier than a single dedicated thermal unit, puts the controls further away from you (whyever did Pulsar do away with their excellent Bluetooth remote!), and won't show the position of the crosshairs at the shot for subsequent analysis.
On the plus side you can count on the solid zero of your day scope(s).
Comparing the image from the Krypton with the host scope wound down to its minimum 4X magnification with what I see in my Trail XP50 at 3.2X, I'd say the Trail has the edge. But it's still very early days and I've yet to observe any wildlife through the Krypton let alone do any shooting with it. Nevertheless, I can't deny that does look very smart!
Highseater
Well-Known Member
Thanks a lot for your analysis. Spot on! Like I said, my only experience with a clip-on is a Liemke Merlin 42, which I attached to a Zeiss Conquest V6 in Turkey. Magnification was x4 and I really was disappointed about the poor image quality. Did it do the job? Yes. I shot 2 boar with it at distances between 100 and 150 meters that night, but one could say I was aiming at a blurry shape. Despite this, shot placement was good though, but we’re talking boar of 200kg live weight and more. A 25kg one would surely have been a different thing.
I perfectly agree a thermal riflescope will always be a better option. However, now we get to the tricky bit...: any use of thermals to shoot animals is illegal in Belgium and many other European countries. Nevertheless, many people use them as it‘s your best chance of dealing with the ever growing population and the damage they cause. FYI: moderators are still illegal in Belgium as well. Even owning one is illegal. In other words: legislation is lagging behind a lot. That’s why many people do take the risk of using thermals but clip-ons are just easier to take off than entire riflescopes, should they be asked to show their rifles during random checks. In my personal case, a clip-on is just very handy to travel with. I stalk in many different countries and the only thing it takes is to mount it onto a scope. A set of adapters to fit different sizes of scope bells does the rest.
I would be very happy to learn about your ongoing experience. Do keep me informed!
I'll be happy to add updates to this thread. I can see how to the untrained eye that a clip-on may be more "deniable" than a dedicated scope, especially if a regular eye piece is fitted after "use". It's a shame that fossilized legislation is failing to keep up with ecological changes and technological advances and thereby constraining effective approaches to managing habitats, but the principle of the rule of law and the potential consequences of conviction remain strong arguments for compliance. Are hunting/conservation organisations lobbying strongly for legal permission?
Highseater
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately lobbying in Belgium is very weak. It starts with the fact that, within organizations the likes of BASC, there is no clear line as to how to handle these challenges. In my opinion they are way to soft. Partridge shooting is now about to be banned as well, even though our Dutch neighbors proved years ago that such ban leads to complete decimation of the population. Indeed, hunters drop their efforts to create appropriate habitats and cull predators. I don’t do much stalking or shooting in Belgium anymore. We are a small and densely populated country where people from the city know everything best, I’m afraid. Until a saunder of boar ruins their garden or a fox kills their chickens obviously... For the rest of the time they rave about rewilding. We’ve already got wolves, jackals, lynxes,... All illegally reintroduced by some extremist nutcases...
I have these in stock and the various PSP adaptors to suit , drop me a message ..
A sad tale, and one heard too often everywhere these days.
On a more upbeat note, I've been out with the Krypton and it is most definitely growing on me.
To start with, I've got the inserts sorted out for the adapters so that all I have to do to switch between rifles is open the clamping arm, slide off the complete unit, swap out the plastic bushing and re-fit. At first this seemed much more fiddly than it actually is. I'm not sure why!
Also good was the discovery that the controls are easier to reach in the field than I expected, perhaps because I was on sticks and then on a highseat rail, but that's usually the case anyway.
As for the image quality, you can judge for yourself via these videos. The first one is the raw Krypton recording, and the second one shows the shooters view as recorded via a Tactacam 5.0 and FTS adapter.
Video 1: Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_01.mp4
Video 2: Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_via_Tactacam_01.mp4
It was most obliging of this doe and her kids to be in their usual spot, despite a driving chill wind and some rain in the air.
[Edit: the scope is a Minox ZP5 3-15x50]
delta wolf
Well-Known Member
Don't know if it's me but the links don't work? Would love to watch them.
Sorry - I suspect they're still uploading. I'll post again once I know they're there.
Highseater
Well-Known Member
They do work indeed. I find the Krypton recording brilliant (Video 1). It was handheld, right? I would love to see some footage when mounted in front of a quality scope instead of the Tactacam. You’ve been given a new assignment... 
OK, so the Krypton is on the front of the Minox ZP5 and the Tactacam is on the back. I suspect I mucked up the Tactacam settings in the dark because it ought to give a better image than that. Despite this, I thought it was worth linking to the Tactacam footage to show how the scope reticle and FOV and the Krypton display look. The videos are several clips spliced together. The first shots are from about 150 m from the deer, the next from about 100m, first from ground level, then from a 12' high seat. The deer on the opposite hillside are about 320-350m away.They do work indeed. I find the Krypton recording brilliant (Video 1). It was handheld, right? I would love to see some footage when mounted in front of a quality scope instead of the Tactacam. You’ve been given a new assignment...
Highseater
Well-Known Member
OK, clear! Thanks for sharing this. Very useful indeed. The image of the Krypton is definitely a lot sharper and crisper than that of the Liemke Merlin 42, which is (or maybe was) about the same price.
delta wolf
Well-Known Member
Brilliant, thank you. I can see them now. Wish I hadn't, really fancy one now!!
Whilst I have no personal experience of this unit, several of my colleagues use various thermal imaging spotters, I can’t see the point in paying out several thousand pounds for a spotter when for not a lot more you can have a unit that can provide both spotter & dedicated night sight performance. Following finding out about the existence of the Krypton FXG 50 & a fair bit of internet research it would appear to me that the unit is about as good as it can currently get as far as a front clip on unit & with the eyepiece attached it performs double duty as a night sight & spotter very well. You just have to get past the 4k price tag, if you can justify this it seems the seems like the unit to have?
An even more enjoyable outing last night. Here's the raw Krypton video:
Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_02 (1).mp4
And here's the view through the Tactacam -this time on a better setting, but as you'll see, I've still got to get a better focus on the Krypton screen: Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_via_Tactacam_02.mp4
The videos are quite long, especially the first, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the last third...
Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_02 (1).mp4
And here's the view through the Tactacam -this time on a better setting, but as you'll see, I've still got to get a better focus on the Krypton screen: Pulsar_Krypton_field_test_via_Tactacam_02.mp4
The videos are quite long, especially the first, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the last third...
I don't have the monocular for the Krypton, but it would certainly add to its versatility.
A spotter is definitely the first place to start with thermal, and there's a lot to be said for doing the actual shooting with tubed or digital NV -for image clarity as well as cost. Nevertheless, it isn't always easy to pick up a target again when transitioning from thermal to NV, and that difficulty goes away when you use a thermal scope as well.
I used rear-mounted tubed NV add-ons for years. Spotting targets with the monocular before fitting it to the rifle in readiness for a shot consequently became second nature, and I can see that working just as well with the Krypton.
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