Eddie0983

I've had a DFA 75 now for a number of months being one of the first in the UK to purchase one. How often do I use it? I don't! The unit is currently zeroed to an air rifle, but to be honest I don't like it and I've been really disappointed with it to the point where I would say that it has currently been my single most expensive waste of money.

Has anyone tried to buy magazines for the Savage .17 hornet? I've had them on order since march 2012 and yes it's a year ago and I can't get any. Does anyone know where I might get just one magazine to get me by? I've tried Edgar Brothers and they don't have any. I've tried Savage in the states and they tell me they are on back order. I've tried a number of gun shops here and they only have those which are on their rifles on display and understandably they refuse to sell those, becuase they don't know when they will have anymore in. I can't believe that a consumable as important as a magazine is in such short supply. Help!!!

I've got a savage .17 Hornet and I think it's a great rifle. Just a pity that you can't get any magazines for it. There are magazines in the uk but they are attached to new rifles in the shops. The shops understandably won't sell you a magazine from one of these because they don't know when they will be able to get any in. I received my rifle last march and I ordered 2 spare mags with it. Here we are a year down the road and I still don't have these magazines and there are no timelines on when I can expect them to arrive. I contacted Savage direct and they gave me the same reply that they have given their dealers which is that they are on back order. It's driven me bananas! I have a MAE moderator on mine, it's small and really keeps the noise levels down. Too bad I have to resort to loading it by hand.

Hi Eddie Just read your message and thats great information. Like you I'm no specialist, but your input is very much appreciated and makes a lot of sense. For me the POI on my Hornet with the DFA fitted has been consistantly 10" low. With this new information I should be able to resolve this. atb Eddie

I know what you mean, but as it happens it was pretty much the same picture through the scope. I am using an IR800 Night Master fitted to the scope and this really creates a lot of light much better than the integrated IR unit, which I have unfortunately broken. When you set the unit up for zeroing during the day, the image is a lot darker through the scope.

Continued shooting today where I left off yesterday. Rifle: Savage .17 Hornet Scope: 8-32x60 MTC Viper with DFA fitted. Again checked zero at 100 Metres and then fitted the DFA. Again today the shots fell 10 inches low with the DFA fitted but this was rectified by allowing for the drop. I then pushed the target out to 200 Metres to find that the trajectory of the round was pretty flat and didn't require any adjustments. Fitted the DFA and unfortunately forgot about the drop and made splat marks on the shoot and see target. On returning to the firing point I just clicked the cross hairs down 80 clicks and everything was good again. I've been told today that Pulsar are going to do a video on how to set these units up. So thats it from me on the DFA. If anyone would like to know more about the Savage .17 Hornet let me know because this rifle is so accurate I love it to bits. I used to love my CZ .17HMR, but the Hornet is something else! I'd love to know if anyone has got into reloading the .17 Hornet cases and if so where to buy the kit? Finally I know that I rave on about the IR 800 Nightmaster, but tonight I changed the IR for a red LED and what an experience that was. I was spotting and knocking down rabbits well out there and the rabbits didn't seem to be too bothered about the light. If you are going to buy a lamp to go on your scope or with your night site, buy a Night Master and save yourself some money in the long run. In the past 12 months I've spent a lot on lamps and night sites and finally after a lot of expense, I have what works for me. If anyone would like to know more just drop me a line. atb Eddie

Price of the Photon is an interesting point. The trouble is with all of these things, you don't really know whether it works for you untill you have it on your rifle. I see that Scott Country are doing a kind of try at home before you buy with the DFA 75. If that option was there for the Photon I'd be giving them a call to try it. I'm currently curious about it because it is perfectly in line with the scope, unlike the DFA. However, after tonight and with a little bit more practice and tweaking I think I'll be sticking with my DFA and IR 800 Night Master. I've just uploaded some footage to Utube.

I've been out tonight and successfully shot a few rabbits by simply adjusting my aim by using the reticules and allowing for the 10 inches of adjustment. Seemed to work fine. I'm going to post some video on Utube to give an idea of how the terrain looked to me with the IR 800 Night Master fitted. just do a search for DFA 75

I've been out today to try and fire a few rounds down range with this DFA 75 fitted. This is what occured: The rifle being used today was a Savage .17 Hornet with 8-32x60 MTC Viper fittted. I first set out a target to 100 metres and confirmed with laser range finder that the distance was correct. I then fired 4 rounds at the bull, which all bar one fell perfectly. This doesn't often happen for me. I then fitted the DFA 75 powered up and started to try and adjust the unit to focus onto the target. The day has been very much overcast and dull which I don't think worked well, because with the magnification set to the scopes lowest setting of 8, it was really difficult to focus on the target and the image was far from crisp. I fired four rounds and went down to check the target and the rounds had landed exactly below my last group a comfortable 10 inches low. This scope has a 1/8 MOA @ 100 metres so this equates to 80 clicks adjustment every time I fit the unit at night, or maybe I should use one of the lower graticules on the scope cross hairs. I had intended to stay out and try the 3-12x44 fitted to my .17 HMR, but the weather has been rubbish so I've left it at that for today. Does anyone have any suggestions? A friend of mine was out with me today and said "Well it's not exactly plug and play is it!" The DFA 75 isn't proving to be the easiest of units to fit onto the front of the scope because it is really stiff to click into place and at times I have to use both hands whilst making sure the locking catch is held back. Now I'm always very aware of where my barrel is pointing and the state of the weapon as unloaded and safe when fitting the unit. I guess this advice is hopefully obvious to most people. However, it has been my experience that people don't always choose the most obvious and safest course of action. I could imagine the problem occuring when going from day to night with limited visibilty and strugling to get the unit fitted. I'm not in any way trying to teach anyone to suck eggs.

Hi Telf As the video starts you'll see a wall of a building facing the camera leading up to the apex and around it floating a label "100 Metres" Everything beyond that out to the hedge would be a comfortable 80 metres more. Tomorrow I'll try and take some in day light in the fields and then the same area at night. I'll try and get this done tomorrow.

Hi Hitchin, My experience has been that you do get a much better image quality with a lower magnification. However, last night the unit was connected to my 8-32x60 MTC and it was a good image through the scope. I swear by the IR 800 Nightmaster making all the difference. I couldn't say the same for the integrated IR lamp which came with the DFA 75.

I've just added a piece of video footage to Utube taken titled "DFA 75" and it's taken during different times of the day using the Yukon MPR recorder plugged into the video port on the DFA 75. It's not very exciting stuff but I think it gives a positive representation of the possible image quality you can get through your scope, if you have a good IR lamp fitted. When you look at the footage, what you record from the front end is exacty what you see through the scope with the addition of crystal sharp cross hairs.

Hi Brian. After reading your post, I had to take a quick look at the Photon 5 x 42. It looks a really interesting unit especially with it fitting onto the end of the scope and being aligned to the cross hairs. The price also looks really attractive by comparision to the price of a DFA75. I really like these digital night vision units! It won't be long before someone has the idea to incorporate balistic calculators and laser rangefinders into them along with the ability to download software updates. I think digital is the way forward! atb Eddie

No worries. I'm waiting for some decent weather so that I can set it up properly and put some rounds down range to report back on. We'll have to see how tomorrow fairs.

Another thing that I can't get my head quite around is the information I've been told that the DFA is set up at the factory and aligned for 100 Metres. Now with different scopes with varying sizes in objective lenses combined with the height the scope is off the barrel which is determined by the size of the mounts fitted to the scope. How do they achieve this, that the one factory setting suits all? For myself and having not fired a shot yet, I'm just going to place the unit on a rifle that has been zeroed to 100 metres and see where the shot lands on the target. I'll adjust the turret, mark and record and that will be my night time setting when the DFA is fitted. Unless of course someone is able to provide me with an alternative method.