Photon XT 4.6x Night Vision Scope Review

McNutt,
I am having the same issue. The Photon is mounted on a B-Mag .17 WSM, using weaver bases and rings. The point of impact is 6 inches left at 25 yards with the adjustments maxed out. I put the photon on another rifle with different scope rings and bases and it hit the same exact place. Returned the scope today for a replacement.
 
Sorry to hear you guys are having difficulties getting the Photons sighted in. Have you talked with Sightmark regarding the problem? I have talked to customer service a couple times and thought they were pretty helpful. Please let us know what the problem ended up being. I was really impressed with how easy my Photon was to sight-in despite the poor indoor range conditions that I had, so maybe there is something wrong with the internal adjustment on your scopes.
 
6mm06, yes it really is sad, but I hope the tears didn't ruin your keyboard. I get choked up with emotion over it all myself at times.

Hrocks and McNutt, it might be the scope. That is certainly a possibility. Depending on whether you have shot the rifles with other scopes accurately, will tell you a whole lot. I have a friend who just had to return a new Rem. 700 because the holes were drilled off center in the receiver.

Both of my Photons were easy to sight in. I've been using Warne QD 30mm rings and they have been excellent.
 
Nice tests Double-up you pretty much proved the point that the white-out is caused by the IR reflecting off of the smoke plume....not an issue with the scope itself. Last year I tried using a pretty radical recoil suppressor that pushed the gasses to the sides at a 90 degree angle. I think for an AR that should work pretty nicely as it fits right on the end of the barrel. The only problem I encountered with this setup was complete shut down on the Gen 3 camera as the muzzle flash became too bright engaging the ABC. So I am either stuck with momentary shut off or whiteout with the Gen 3 camera mounted on my gun. I have chosen whiteout for now as occasionally a nice side wind eliminates it altogether and most of my sets are side wind if possible. Kevin
 
Wade S,
I have not talked to customer service about it yet. Figured I would get mine swapped out with a replacement and be done with it. I have heard their customer service is very good though.

Double up,
I did have another scope on both rifles and they sighted in just fine. I was really hoping it wasn't the photon. I have tried a couple sets of rings, bases, and rifles. The only possibility left was the scope.

I will let you know what happens when the new photon comes in.
 
hrocks, I'm sure you're disappointed in the first one. Maybe the replacement will work fine. Sounds like you did everything you could to eliminate the other possibilities. I did have to add a 20 moa base on my CZ 527 Varmint when I installed the doubler. It was fine without the doubler but I couldn't get enough elevation with the doubler installed. But the same setup didn't give any problem when installed on a Savage with a 0 moa rail.

Will be looking forward to your report on the new scope.
 
Ordered my Photon xt Friday from Outdoor Legacy Gear, Jason is a great guy and great to do business with. I will have my hands on it Wednesday im hopin the games about to change for the doggies.....
 
This past weekend when I was testing out a loaner PVS 14 I also played around with the Photon. Saturday night was dark, rainy and 100 percent overcast.

With some town light lume in the distance the PVS 14 was providing a useable (for shooting) closer range view, up to about 100yds with features like trees and shorelines visible out to maybe 600yds or so without IR light. Using a T20 the view was excellent at close range up to 100yds, some mist and fog degraded longer range view, but using the two power setting and zoom on the T20 we could control the IR feedback. Beyond 600 yds or so the rain and mist plus feedback interfered too much to make out even tree lines.

Guess what? Up to 100yds or so the view through the Photon using the T20 just wasn't that far behind the PVS 14 with 3x magnifier (with the Photon's lens cover center piece punched out and the cover closed.) My Reservist, not so long from active duty or Iraq (and much younger) predator hunting friend was SHOCKED! His budget with a young family doesn't have room for a PVS 14 set up, but I though he started to drool on the Photon when I told him the cost of the Photon and a T20 IR light.

We were able to easily see eye reflection from the T20 from about a half dozen deer in the marsh at about 250yds through the rain and mist with both the PVS 14 and the Photon, just no problem. With the PVS 14 my bud was able to see the deer heads and necks above the marsh grass when the occasional car passed on a road in the background - I couldn't. The Photon couldn't do that for my bud, the rain and mist caused too much feedback with the amount of IR light the Photon required. But I know from past experience that on a clear night the Photon would have done just fine.

The real utility of the Photon was brought home when we were examining details of a berm at 50yds and a boat house at 100. The Photon with T20 IR light (and lens cover center piece removed, cover closed) was right on the heels of the PVS 14 at those ranges.

As fantastic as the PVS 14 is, the comparison between it and the Photon just reinforced how useable the Photon really is.

JPK
 
Got my replacement photon XT in last night. I got it mounted on the rifle and bore sighted perfectly. Its looking much better than the last one I received. Will shoot it is the next day or so and see how it does.
 
Looking forward to your results hrocks. Jpk thank you for your information I am glad the photon is as good as they say I too cannot afford gen 3 stuff right now but I am determined lol......
 
Just got done sighting in. My final adjustments for this scope were +4 and +4. Much better than the last one which had the adjustments maxed out and still 6 inches off center. I am using the Sniper Hawg Light IR illuminator instead of the on board one. I couldn't be any happier with the results on this scope. I was looking at a milk jug across the field at about 110 yards and could see it clearly once I got the focus adjusted. I can't wait until I can use it on some critters!
 
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As I see it, the challenge of getting the best performance with the Photon lies with trying to balance the amount of IR light required for a clear view of the target with the Photon (lens cover centerpiece punched out, cap closed) with the IR feedback you get from closer range brush, or even grass.

The T20 has two power settings, and I've found that using the low power and a tighter zoom helps limit feedback in some circumstances.

Height helps, like being in a tree stand. For use from the ground I've been wondering, and my bud was too, if an adjustable light mount, like those available from Hog Lights or other hunting light wholesales/manufacturers might not help. If you were to mount the light mount on the Photon tube and adjust the mount so that your reticle/target is toward the bottom of the cone of the IR light when zoomed tight, it should limit the feedback from tall grass and low brush between you and the target. Then primarily use the high or low power settings to control the amount of light at the target. The feedback from brush and grass below the line of sight from reticle to target is the feedback that is most detrimental. My bud, who has a lot of experience hunting with red lights, has an adjustable mount and we'll give it a try at some point. He was pretty confident that it would help a lot.

Edit: Sorry for the typo's, I'm using an iPod at the moment and the friggin auto correct is killing me.

Also, just to mention that I had been primarily using the T20 zoom feature to control IR light at the target, but I recently started using the power setting to control the amount of illumination, and zoom to control feedback. the second method, using the power setting, and using zoom to limit feedback is a lot better.

I would love to hear DoubleUp's findings, he has a lot more time behind the Photon, and sure has been putting it to good use lately. You can see his recent baiting and calling successes in the Baiting thread under predator hunting.

JPK
 
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JPK, you're spot on (no pun, lol), but that is what I found early on. My T-20 has three settings for power of 15%, 50%, and 100%. I mostly use the 50% power setting and focus tight. I try to avoid setups with IR feedback. Of course every location is different throughout the country. We call a lot of logging roads, fields, and field edges. We try to avoid grown up paths and wooded areas which create the IR feedback. If I can't avoid it, then I may go to 15% power to help eliminate it as much as possible. You could eliminate some by standing instead of sitting, and having the IR light on a tripod to get it as high as possible. For me, I pretty much eliminate the areas where feedback is going to be a problem and look for another place to setup.

People living in areas with lots of brush are probably going to have lots of problems unless they can figure a work around. Remember that with the moon nearly full you can take some shots with the lens cover fully open and no IR. That would be the time to call the brushy areas and use just the 15% if you need it to get eyes. I also have a thermal so I have the heat signature without looking through the scope.
 
DoubleUp,

Thanks for the feedback (pun intended!)I started trying places with little or no tall grass or brush too. Sometimes that only means moving a few feet or yards. Most of our night predator hunting is shut down for the season here in MD, timing is bad, since I'm finally getting the Photon down.

I bought a tripod mounted rifle clamp mount that allows rifle mount onto a tripod. I have a couple of tall tripods, and one is particularly stout. I am going to try mounting the rifle on the tripod and standing to get some height.

JPK
 
Another thing, I generally try to scout a setup out during the daytime and carry a set of small clippers with me. It takes a bit of practice to get used to looking at a place during the daytime and figuring what you're going to see at night, but it gets easier after doing it a little. Often it only takes the removal of one or two offending branches or grass stalks to make a place work well. I usually carry my rangefinder when day scouting which helps to know what distances I'll be dealing with in the dark.
 
Thanks for the pointers. I do carry a rangefinder all of the time. The clippers are a great idea.

I was turkey hunting with my son Saturday am and swore I would bring clippers next time for trimming briars. I think I will just add a set to my general hinting kit.

JPK
 
Alright got my photon today, took it out this evening with the moon as it is I could see probably 100 yds well enough to shoot. With the built in ir it was pushin real close to 200 I am amazed at it and ive only played with it for all of about 15 minutes ill let you know more this weekend I don't know how to post pictures here but ill figure it out cant wait to actually get serious with this scope....
 
Bill, congrats on your new hardware. Posting pictures is pretty easy if you use photobucket dot com to host and store them. It's free. Just open an account and download your pictures to photobucket. Copy the IMG link and paste it here in your post. Once you hit submit, the picture will show up.
 

Bill, I assume your scope came with the new lens cover, that has the larger (approximately 22mm) hole in it? does it appear pretty clear and easy to focus?
 
I just received my XT purchased from a PM member and have already called sightmark and they are sending a new lense cover on Monday. I have only played with the XT around my condo outside area and have been impressed so far with what I have. I also have a Uniquefire UF-T20 that came with it. The scope now sets in a burris PEPR. My question is, I want to mount the T20 either on the scopes tube or atop the front mount of the Burris. Where can I find a mount that will work for tube or top of the Burris PEPR? I can tell by looking it will need to be a very high mount to clear the battery cap. I don't want to mount to the side of the scope if I can get away from it, simply because I don't want to use my right hand to do any adjustments to the IR when it should be indexed on the trigger. If the only option is to mount directly to the side of the scope then I will have to get a tail switch for the IR. This will be mounted on a bolt gun. Thanks, Bob
 
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