Sightmark Photon Night Vision

[SidecarFlip]

Not exactly where to stick this but it is a rifle scope.

I have a killer deal for one from Cabelas. They were sold out so the store manager gave me a raincheck at the sale price ($150 bucks off) when the get back in stock.

I'm going to mount this on a Savage 22-250 bolt rifle that will for now shoot factory ammunition. It's exclusively for hunting song dogs on my Northern Michigan property, the song dogs are decimating the deer population by bringing down fawns. All over the place up there. We camp there in the summer and after dark it sounds like a convention.... Makes my wife very uneasy. At times they sound like they are right in camp with us.

While I have both a 17 and a 223 bolt gun, I've heard that the 22-250 is the optimum song dog rifle. I have yet to purchase one but will very shortly. Not interested in pelts just want to reduce the population

I have them down here (South East Michigan) as well, they run the ditch bank at night, the ditch bank is about 75 yards from the house and I've observed tracks around the house in the snow

This is all fairly close in shooting, maximum range will be less than 150 yards with most shots within 75 yards. Michigan now has a 'kill on sight' policy with no season, all that is needed is a general license.

I realize it's a basic NV optic but I'm interested in hearing any user opinions like reliability and ease of setting it up and recommended factory ammunition and bullet weight would be nice too.

At some point I will handload but for now, bullets in a box will work fine

I will add an external IR Illuminator, probably a Streamlight but if someone has a better one, I'm open to that as well.

 

[Deleted member 48126]

Sidecarflip you're back! Welcome back to the forum! We missed your advice and commentary!

 

[guru]

I picked on up at Cabelas about a month ago on sale too. I'm really impressed with it for the price. I put mine on a suppressed Ruger 10/22 to shoot coons with. Sighting it in is very simple. With the factory illuminator I can easily see about 150 yards well enough to shoot. I was planning on buying a better IR illuminator but for my needs I don't think I need one. I had to play with the focus and brightness for a little while to find the best setting but it's pretty dang good for what it is. My buddy has a regular Gen 1 scope and the Photon is much better to me, closer to Gen 2 performance . Keep some extra batteries with you , I can only get a few hours out of a set of Energizers

 

[SidecarFlip]

Sidecarflip you're back! Welcome back to the forum! We missed your advice and commentary!

I never left actually, just didn't have anything to comment on. Thatnks for thinking of me though, It's appreciated

 

[SidecarFlip]

I picked on up at Cabelas about a month ago on sale too. I'm really impressed with it for the price. I put mine on a suppressed Ruger 10/22 to shoot coons with. Sighting it in is very simple. With the factory illuminator I can easily see about 150 yards well enough to shoot. I was planning on buying a better IR illuminator but for my needs I don't think I need one. I had to play with the focus and brightness for a little while to find the best setting but it's pretty dang good for what it is. My buddy has a regular Gen 1 scope and the Photon is much better to me, closer to Gen 2 performance . Keep some extra batteries with you , I can only get a few hours out of a set of Energizers

What I planned on doing but they were sold out so no scope. I know the store manager personally so he gave me a raincheck on the 150 buck off sale price to when they show up again. When they get back in stock, I'm all over it. They look kind of odd with the toilet plunger like eye shield but so long as it works as advertised, I'll be happy. It's for song dogs at 150 yards or less and like I said, on a 22-250 Savage. Hard to beat the 150 off retail, I thought at first it was a misprint.

Don't even have to stick yet but I will. I actually have enough 'Cabelas Points' to get the stick and the scope.

I had read that it was hard on batteries and you'd better be carrying extra's in your pocket. Never read a bad review except for the battery life. Up here it's 24-7-365 on yotes. No season, just a general license and the 22-250 should be the ideal yote eliminator. I have a nice 17 but my concern is with the 17, shooting a yote won't drop it, it will run away and expire. I want to insure I kill what I shoot at and of course I can handload the 22-250, the 17's are shoot and toss.

 

[guru]

I took the rubber thing off of mine, it works fine without it and looks better

 

[SidecarFlip]

Rubber gizmo looks like a plunger...

 

[guru]

Or something from the adult novelty store !!

 

[Viking264]

I've had one of these for a year or so. Bought it to replace a NVRS scope that was factory mounted at an angle to the base. I've used the Photon around our farm for predators; the most use it has gotten is in helping me eliminate rats from our bird pens. I use it with a 6.5x55, 100-grain subsonic loads. Compared to the NVRS, it's far superior in clarity and features. Lately, the scope has started shutting itself off randomly, even with a fresh set of batteries, leading me to wonder if it has developed a bug. Very frustrating when you have a large pregnant rat in the crosshairs and can't take the shot because the scope turns off. For the most part, though, it has been a reliable scope. If this one died, then I'd likely replace it with another one rather than go with a different option. For the price, it's in a class by itself. I bought mine on Amazon and still consider it to have been a good deal, though I paid more than you probably did.

 

[Viking264]

Follow-up: I should also mention that I purchased the Streamlight Super TAC to use with the Photon. I don't use it all the time, but it has come in handy on a few occasions. The increase in visible area is more than 200% compared to using the illuminator built in to the scope. That's a benefit in some situations, particularly when I'm taking shots at predators running inside the tree line of our property. It's also great from the perspective of illuminating the area from a different angle, giving me access to targets that are not easily illuminated from my shooting position. For instance, if I'm behind some low-lying foliage, the built in IR will scatter and I have a poor sight picture; setting the Streamlight up where it's flooding the area from an unobstructed location has helped me close the deal several times. Lastly, I have noticed (primarily when ratting) that the IR illuminators are visible to the animals; they're plainly visible to me when I look at them, even from a distance. This is most problematic when I need to move my angle of aim to cover different targets; without question, the movement (presumably of the light) is picked up by the targets. This is less of a problem when the light is coming from a remote source. Note that I am not saying that the animals are seeing the IR light flooding the area, but the actual illuminators have an obvious dull, red glow.

 

[hunterbob]

Not exactly where to stick this but it is a rifle scope.

I have a killer deal for one from Cabelas. They were sold out so the store manager gave me a raincheck at the sale price ($150 bucks off) when the get back in stock.

I'm going to mount this on a Savage 22-250 bolt rifle that will for now shoot factory ammunition. It's exclusively for hunting song dogs on my Northern Michigan property, the song dogs are decimating the deer population by bringing down fawns. All over the place up there. We camp there in the summer and after dark it sounds like a convention.... Makes my wife very uneasy. At times they sound like they are right in camp with us.

While I have both a 17 and a 223 bolt gun, I've heard that the 22-250 is the optimum song dog rifle. I have yet to purchase one but will very shortly. Not interested in pelts just want to reduce the population

I have them down here (South East Michigan) as well, they run the ditch bank at night, the ditch bank is about 75 yards from the house and I've observed tracks around the house in the snow

This is all fairly close in shooting, maximum range will be less than 150 yards with most shots within 75 yards. Michigan now has a 'kill on sight' policy with no season, all that is needed is a general license.

I realize it's a basic NV optic but I'm interested in hearing any user opinions like reliability and ease of setting it up and recommended factory ammunition and bullet weight would be nice too.

At some point I will handload but for now, bullets in a box will work fine

I will add an external IR Illuminator, probably a Streamlight but if someone has a better one, I'm open to that as well.

I have had the XT 6.5 for three years now...I can ID a critter 285 yds

 

[hunterbob]

My NV is the sightmark 6.5 ...pitch dark I get an ID at 285 yds, without any extra illuminator. A lot further than that, on a moon lit night too..At night, i try to stay within 125yds for my targets . I have a redfield scope I can switch too, with a green light. Its the same light I got from Hog Heavens (350 yds) Animals can't see the green light or the infrared...They might get spoked if you burn them so they see thier shadows , but hogs and coyotes don't see the infrared, nor green or red light. I love the NV scope.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Sidecarflip you're back! Welcome back to the forum! We missed your advice and commentary!

I'm around. I've sort of switched my hunting from long guns to magnum revolvers.

I waited and waited for the Photon and Cabelas decided not to carry it anymore so I bought an ATN Day / Nite scope. It's a bit larger physically but has some nice features like one shot zero (works) and it's Wi-Fi enabled. I put the Obistan App on my Android and I can do streaming movies plus I can control the scope from the phone and if anyone is with me, they can see exactly what I see, on the phone in real time. Unlike th the photon, you can go from daylight to dusk to pitch black night without any changes (except the IR illuminator) which it comes with. Had the points so the cost was zip.

 

[geo4061]

SidecarFlip how about a review. Varmints can't see the lights. Come on. They may freeze like deer or not realize what is going on. But once they associate it with danger their gone. Rats are easy and will just stand and challenge you, dumb rat. Stand away from the unit and look back. If you can see it they can. The brighter the light the higher the chance of immediately spooking them. We use green and red light because it tones down the burn. Most people including myself use way too bright a light.