ellebarto

10ft across at that range but very dispersed! If you tighten the beam however to fox size an you have a rough idea where he is then I could see it being pretty good! Next time I go out wil try just that!

Well that was the purpose of putting a review on here! The reality is very often a mile away from practice! Early days still and I have yet to have a fox in my sight or indeed anything like a decent number of bunnies! Grass needs cutting as well on my permission so perhaps its down to conditions more than the kit! Trying to keep an £188 open mind on it!!

I dont ever do that to be honest but perhaps I will in future and on that basis it would be a better bit of kit! I guess my review is based purely on my style of shooting and hopefully there will be a better balanced part 2.

Its all about the fit for your first gun. Dont worry about anything else at all. The mechanics of an over an under are simple. If it comes up well then you have half a chance. If you can spend at the top of your budget, maybe even a bit more then Browning and Beretta usually keep there value better if you get into it and want to move on to a better gun! Not because they are better but because the names are more familar to people (I think)

Right then, having been introduced to this bit of kit by chaps on this forum I developed a contact in the US and managed to get one delivered for £188. So far so good! I'd watched every utube clip of people using it and it looked an amazing bit of kit. OK it's not NV but it looked to give excellent illumination, was compact and from utube it looked to light up the kind of quarry I was after (bunnies & foxes) pretty well. At the moment I'm going out at night with a scope mounted lamp powered from my cigarette lighter and I'm shooting from the Land Rover. It works but I'm all wires and switches and the bunnies are starting to get lamp shy! So anyway, the ND3, first thoughts are its fantastic quality. Everything from the box and padded carry case it came in, to the mounts and fittings. 10 minutes max and I had it fitted to my .17HMR Savage with a Leo 4.5-14 45mm scope. By no means the best glass money can buy but no slouch either. http://www.photobox....album/479891909 It all just fitted nicely and was compact and still fitted into my slip so again nice big thumbs up for that! I even had a quick go in the living room at trying to line up the focal point of the beam in my cross hairs and the adjusting dials for elevation and windage were, well, fantastic. Dead simple very strong and robust and a minute later it seemed to be done! Right then off to blast some bunnies! I hadn't shot with the Savage for a while so I started by checking the zero at 75 yards. Now I'd never done this before at night so I put a reflective dot on a target and flicked on the ND3. Have to say initial thoughts were it was pretty damn impressive. Perfect NV type illumination through my scope. In fact it was so bright my biggest issue was the reflective dot bouncing back too much light and even though I thought the rifle was perfect at 75 yards it seemed to be shooting 10 mil to the right and in darkness I couldn't seem to correct it. I think that was more down to me being dazzled by the reflective dot though! I did some fine adjusting to the elevation of the ND3. Again, I was very impressed with the ease of this process and considering I had only loosely attached the ND3 for now (as per the instructions) it all seemed solid and sturdy and I just nipped up the mounts a tad before hitting the field. Now this is why I have called this part one. My permission was strangely quiet and I only saw 4 bunnies in 2 hours. Farmer had been ploughing all day, it was a bit windy and a bit wet. Not really bunny conditions and I wouldn't usually have gone out but I had my new toy to play with!! So to the end of my night and a bit of a downer really on the promising start. What I was finding was that the green ND light even on its widest setting wasn't identifying targets very well. I'd sweep an area I thought would usually contain bunnies and it seemed to light up everything it hit (lots of beads of due looking very bunny like) but reveal nothing. I'd then click on my scope light and holding it in my hand sweep the same area and on more than one occasion it would reveal a bunny that the green light had not really helped me identify! The green light just didn't seem to reflect back their eyes as well as red or white light. So in those cases it was quickly off with the powered light, chuck it in to the passenger seat, lean over for the rifle, try and remember where the target was, click on with the ND3, where the have you gone and…………..too late! So about 4 bunnies scoped and one kill at about 90 yards and that was my night. In fairness the one I hit at 90 yards sat there for a minute or two happily munching not knowing I was scoping in on him to test its capabilities where if I had lamped him he would have given me 10 seconds max. So then how do I summarise my first night with the ND3. A really promising start but overall disappointing. If I have to sweep the ground with a lamp before scoping in with the ND3 then it's going to fall short of what I wanted from this kit and the amount of money I spent on it but then the lack of wires to line up the shot is a bonus, the green light does give you good detail through the scope and when you do identify a target its very well lit up in a narrow beam that does scare everything else away! I'm obviously going to have to give it another go in better conditions with more quarry but perhaps the best way of expressing my initial thoughts are by telling you that as I drove off my permission I was wondering if I could get one of you lot to take it off my hands for £150 and go back to my £60 scope lamp!!

MMMM!!! Do they taste different??!?!

North of England! Youre in a whole different country!!!

Know nothing about trail cameras but if you find a dealer in the US, my recommnedation would be to find one via ebay with good feedback, email them first and ask if they will mark the parcel as either a gift or a trade sample with a $1 value! Not a gurantee however its never failed for me yet! I have my crafty wife and her knowledge of import duty to thank for that little gem!!

It was the farmers secret singal this weekend to harvest everything that moved! Every farmer on my permissions was out cutting or bailing something. I think we just had a decent few dry days that meant it made sense and it brought them all out! Problem was, at least in the Northwest, there was that much food on offer they were moving freely and not sticking to anyone area!

Well, friendly US ebayer and a package that says its a gift and we have a £188 ND3 on my desk this morning!! First thoughts are its very well made, packaging and attachments look and feel solid and it switches on so a good start! Shining it under my desk (not attached to a rifle) the green beam looks very narrow even at its widest setting but then that is 1.5ft infront of me. Presumably its a wider beam over distance! Planning to do a zeroing session later on tonight and hopefully will review the kit during this week for anyone thats interested! Still want the Pulsar N550 really but wanted to try a few alternatives before I took the plunge!

Yeah that all makes sense. I sat and watched them come in groups of 5 or 6, overfly a copse of trees and then circle it and come in around it onto the stubble but within 20 yards of the trees. A further 35 yards away there was a bush on the field boundary and I setup infront of that. Felt like a good setup but on reflection I think I might have been too close to the high trees.

Is it in camo?

Do like the look of that but never quite sure how gun sales work when you live a million miles away!! Actually looking to buy something very similar to that this weekend!

I shot over Barley stubble Friday then Sunday. Both times small pattern of crows which I added to as I shot a few and then a horse shoe of pigeons 15 yards to the right with 2 floaters! Friday 51, mostly crows and shot really well. Sunday 14, 200 yards from where I was on the Friday in much better cover, mostly pigeons and shot like a big girl. No matter how long I shoot for I'll never really understand why things change so drastically! In theory day 2 was over a flight line I had observed when last shooting, was a much better setup. I did take my brother along so maybe he's just a jinx!!

An the 612 is its predcessor and almost identical right?

I'm chopping in my auto FAC Hatsan. After a good start I've just got fedup with it being picky about what shells it will load etc. Shame cos when it did load it comes up very well indeed. Anyway, I only ever bought it as a cheap pigeon gun and now I want to replace it. Doesn't have to be FAC but I want reliable and tough. I've been offered the Franchi by my pet gunsmith but know very little about them and cant find any reviews on line. Anyone have an opinion or even better own one? I'm looking at it in McAvoys in Standish so if you traded a duff one in there, let me know!!! Its about £650

I've kinda gone through this whole process and your wasting your time with NV on the cheap. If you want to spend less than £150 you will get far better results with a lamp or decent torch setup. For between £850 and £1000 you get the pulsar N550 but thats the least you can really spend on night vision up to 100 yards without spending a fair bit more! It wont be what you want to hear I know, having been there myself but it really is the truth and Ive done this one to death! Currently wavering on the brink of stumping up for the N550 but its a bulky scope and with only x4.5 mag maybe not enough!

Cheers chaps!

Popped one by accident on Friday for the first time! Is there any preferred/recommended approach I mean would the owner rather know what happened to it or his he just got try and chew me out for blasting it to bits? I guess I should of know cos all the woodies stayed a million miles away ffrom me and this was the only fella to be perfectly decoyed in!

Bang on, literally. You can spend more and you wont get £100 better quality than could have with a £35 SAK. Its a nice, accurate LOUD gun! Get used to it! lol

Ive got the thumbhole version of this gun! Best gun I own for quality, accuracy and general feel. Not a big fan of its looks but thts secondary for me in a working rifle. It is a different price bracket though!

lol. OK. OK. Ive stepped away frmo the camo gun idea and am concentrating on the shiney head theory!!! Shooting tomorrow so will advise on success of camoing said shiney head!!!!

Snap!!

I owned one about 4 months ago and traded it in the McAvoys in Standish. He had 2 others in at the time and I believe he still has some in. If mine is still there it was mint with lots of extra bits including mags. They have been discontinued now but I'd recommend it and the only reason I traded it in was because I was shooting it mainly from my Freelander and it was spitting the spent shells out with a lot of force and they were bouncing around the dash and windscreen.

rfd & duracoat?? Idiots guide required please??