ND3 Laser Lamp Review by me part 1

[ellebarto]

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!!

[shot shot]

I take it you never have to hump around with the lamp on foot considering just how much more portable it is than any decent lamp, its worth that bit extra

[ellebarto]

I take it you never have to hump around with the lamp on foot considering just how much more portable it is than any decent lamp, its worth that bit extra

 

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.

[al4x]

its bug all use if you can't see them and does mean when walking that you have to scan with your rifle so really not perfect. Its interesting as the reviews are all good, wonder if it might be better on foxes as you have a lot more reflection from their eyes

[ellebarto]

its bug all use if you can't see them and does mean when walking that you have to scan with your rifle so really not perfect. Its interesting as the reviews are all good, wonder if it might be better on foxes as you have a lot more reflection from their eyes

 

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!!

Edited September 8, 2010 by ellebarto

[Blackbart]

What's the beam spread like at 150-180 yards ?

 

I am thinking of getting one of these but solely for charlie.Interested to hear part 2 :blink:

[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!

[Ozzy Fudd]

i found when i used one that you had to tighten the beam up at longer range, other wise it was too dispersed to see reflections back unless youre looking through the scope :blink:

 

what sort of range were you having trouble spotting them at? and what do you mean by identifying them - do you mean you could see reflections but couldnt work out if it was a bunny or not?

[ellebarto]

I'd say 75 to 100 yards. If I start by comparing it to my gun lamp. If a swept a hedge row at 100 yards from left to right anything at the foot of the hedgerow or 20 yards to the left or the right of the beam centre then I'd see the eyes flashing back or make out the rabbits movement. With this I kinda had to know where the critter was to start with or spend quite a long time searching 10 ft at a time with no vision outside the beam at all. If the bunny wasnt looking back (eyes not fully lit) then I wouldnt see it them!

 

First night out so perhaps there is some technique or perhaps my eyes dont work so well in green light! As I said, no great numbers out so not the best test!

[Ozzy Fudd]

no bother, be interesting to see what you think :blink:

 

i know at up to 100 yards i didnt have any problem, though you need to be spot on with the width of the beam at times - too wide and the view is very pixelated and hard to make anything out, too thin and everythings too bright and green and too hard to make it out youre right about scanning, a torch gives a far better field of view though the lasers far more compact

Edited September 8, 2010 by Ozzy Fudd