Sightmark Photon XT 4.6x42 Digital Night Vision Rifle Scope

Here's some reading that should keep you busy for awhile!
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Night hunting thread @ Texas Bowhunter

I have one and love it. I've never looked through anything else night vision related though, so take that with a grain of salt!
Bought a cheaper IR light off ebay and it works the same as ones that were $100 more expensive. Or you can build one yourself for less than 50 bucks if you know how to solder.

Have no reason to video my hunts, so can't help you there..
 
Got my photon sighted in this week and hope to hunt with it this weekend. So far I am really impressed with the scope. Very easy to use and sight-in. I am shooting the same size groups with the photon @100yd as I was with my Leupold scope on the same rifle.
 
Originally Posted By: Coach512Go on the night calling thread I believe it was 6mm did an In depth review on the 4.6

I have a Photon XT and , fwiw,I have to say that I think 6mm 06's review doesn't do the scope justice. Even before I bought mine, while looking at his video on you tube I thought he was being overly critical, and where he was saying he couldn't ID his stuffed coyote I wasn't having issues. That assessment of his review didn't change when I got the Photon in my hands.

BTW, not implying 6mm 06's review wasn't fair or absolutely as he saw it, just that it seemed he might be expecting too much or not seeing what I was seeing and am seeing through mine. He sold it off to Doubleup, who has enjoyed it and used it with success, as he reports, and without the negatives 6mm 06 found.

I think for ~$500 it is a deal, and very useable. In fact will be putting it to use with my son this weekend.

JPK
 

Boss Hogg, Look in the Night Calling section at the Photon post. DoubleUp posted a video just this morning of a coyote kill shot with the Photon XT 4.6x scope.

JPK, as to being overly critical, I called it as "I" saw it. I stand by my assessment of it. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I had them thinking the Photon, a dedicated commercial scope, would be at least as good as my cheap home-made unit, but I expected it to be even better. It isn't, considering clarity. Fact is fact. As a matter of fact, my old Gen 1 scope had better clarity and ability to focus for a clean view at 60 yards, than the Photon did. Granted the Photon can see greater distances, is a neat looking scope, more like a daytime scope, doesn't have the wires, battery and such that my home-built unit does. My main issue with the Photon continues to be clarity.

DoubleUp has experimented quite a bit with it and added a doubler which helped the clarity issue somewhat. The doubler, naturally, also helped ID a target better at greater distances too. As well, he found that drilling a 22mm size hole in a Butler Creek lens cap helped even more, apparently by reducing the amount of light entering the scope. The scope was / is too sensitive to strong IR light. The company is now offering the scopes with a new lens cap that has approximately a 22mm hole, and according to DoubleUp, that has helped with clarity somewhat. He and I talk daily and he keeps me up to speed on the new developments he has found.

The scope, as I have said all along, and in my opinion, is the best buy in an affordable night vision scope on the market at this time. Just because I don't like the clarity issue with the scope does not mean that it is not a useful scope. I still hope to see the scope improved even more as time goes on, and I plan to keep an eye on the 6x model once it becomes available. I think the scope needs some refinements, as I have mentioned numerous times in previous posts.

Enjoy your Photon JPK. If it works well for you, then that's all that matters. I will continue to use my home-made unit until the Photon is refined and improved, or until something better comes along.

 
Just thought I would give a little input on the Photon 4.6 XT. When 6mm06 sent me the scope to try, I really had no intention of buying one. He just offered it to me to try so I could get some personal experience with NV. I had read his review and knew the issues he was having. I think a major part of his disappointment was that his homemade NV was clearer for a lot less money.

So, I fully intended to just try it for a couple of weeks and then return it to him as he had several people offering to buy it. I managed to kill a couple of red fox with it, but it took me a while to figure out that the IR light I was using was putting too much IR out and even though it was focusable, it was always 100% power. That made everything have a grainy appearance. The focus was also very sensitive as well. Once I decided to actually keep the scope, I added a T-20 IR with 15%, 50%, and 100% power. I discovered that I only needed 15% IR pretty focused for close shots like 60 yds. The graininess also disappeared with the much lower IR setting. I had noticed that on full moon nights the grainy appearance disappeared when no IR light was used.

I subsequently purchased a Doubler lens from UNV. Of course that added $200 to the total price of the unit, but it immediately made the scope clarity and focus much better. Part of that is the extra lens in the Double cuts down on the amount of IR light that penetrates the scope. Still I can easily shoot 250 yds. at 50% IR power and fully focused. At 100% power I could shoot to 375 yds and be able to easily identify the target.

In the meantime I had received news from 6mm06 that someone in the UK suggested using a 22mm hole in a Butler Creek lens cover. The cover that came with the Doubler had an insert that would pop out and left a hole just slightly under 22mm. So, I popped out the insert and tried it with the 22mm hole. It didn't work with the Doubler very well, but with the Doubler removed, it made a tremendous difference in clarity and focus. It reduces the incoming light enough to loose the grainy appearance from the IR, and the smaller hole makes the focus less fussy and much sharper.

Sightmark sent me a new replacement lens cover for the Photon which also has the insert that can be popped out and made to about 22mm. The advantage in this setup (without the doubler) is that you can use it during daylight with the insert in place, use it at night with the insert removed, and use on on moonlight nights with the cover flipped up to get full ambient lighting.

I plan on using the current Photon with Doubler for my bait site. I have killed a bobcat and coyote at 240 yds with the Doubler installed and last night I took a coyote at 145 with the Doubler. However the field of view is too small to use as a calling rig with the Doubler installed, so I plan on buying another Photon and using it without a doubler, but with the insert removed for night calling, insert in place for late evening calling, and cover flipped up for moonlight nights. I know this is long, but I thought it might help someone understand the progression and trial and "some" error that has been involved. Now that I have the Pulsar HD19A for scanning and the Photon for shooting, I feel pretty confident that I have a good night time calling outfit for about a $2,500 investment.
 
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Doubleup & 6mm06 Thanks for the great write ups you both have done on the Photon. It has been very informative. I have kept this thread bumped because of pharmer Jon's post over at Texas Bow hunting. Very long read but you can go through and find some useful information. I read much more than I post.
Question for you Doubleup. If I was using thermal for scanning and the Photon with doubler for ID and shooting wouldn't this work well ? I can see that with the doubler you will lose field of view but it should not matter if you are using the Photon only after you have detected with your thermal. I can see that if you was using the Photon to scan with and shoot that field of view would be a problem and you will tire quickly swinging your weapon around trying to detect animals.
Thanks, Bob
 
Bob, I am using a Pulsar HD19A for scanning. I guess a lot of the answer to your question would be where you do most of your calling. If you have lots of open areas there in Washington where you call, then the Photon with Doubler installed might be fine since you could probably pick the animals up with the scope out a couple of hundred yds. or more, and of course the field of view would be much greater at that distance. Here in the east, most of our calling shots are 100 yds or less and even with the Thermal the animal can be on you close before you see it. It can be really tough to pick up a charging coyote in the scope when it is that close. For calling I prefer the 4.6 mag.
 

One other issue to address with the Photon is that of white-out when shooting with an IR illuminator attached to the rifle or scope. If a guy is looking for video while out calling, he will not like the white-out that occurs when the trigger is squeezed.

DoubleUp has solved the white-out issue at his bait site since he has IR lights mounted on a shed and aimed at the site. As well, he has trail cameras that provide IR light at the site, so no IR is needed to be cast from the shooter, thus eliminating white-out. That works great for bait site hunting, but for hunting out and about, it isn't so good.

But also, even if a guy doesn't record video, and attaches an IR light to the scope, he will still have the white-out issue to contend with, which will cause him to lose sight of a coyote (or whatever) momentarily once the trigger is squeezed. The white-out reminds me of shooting a muzzleloader, with all the smoke etc. It takes a few seconds for the air to clear. DoubleUp missed a coyote with the Photon and a mounted IR illuminator. He got white-out and lost sight of the coyote when shooting, so was unable to tell at the time if it was a hit or miss.. Maybe he will chime in with that and relay more information.

Just mentioning some real issues here. Not bashing the Photon for the sake of it, nor am I being too critical of it. There is a need for something better, and hopefully the company is taking notes of posts like this and will make improvements down the road. That's how we all will come by a good product that works the way we want it to and the way it should. If everyone is content with mediocre, then that's all we may ever get.

Below is a video I took of a Possum at 60 yards. As you can see, the focus leaves a lot to be desired. However, that was with the scope as it came, out of the box, without the newer lens cover with the 22mm hole, and without a doubler. I could never bring the scope to a good focus as the video reveals. Also, you can see the white-out when an illuminator is mounted on the scope.

Click both videos and have them going at the same time to get a side-by-side comparison.

Here is a link for a larger view in YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6Smqp8Dw0&feature=youtu.be



Now, for the sake of comparison, look at this video below of a possum at the same 60 yard site,
viewed through my home-made unit. The scope setting is at 6x. No doubt the clarity would
be even better if I had backed the scope off to 4.6x like the Photon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMPC5OX4OYU&feature=youtu.be




As to white-out with the home-made unit, it does give slight white-out at times, but rarely. Most shots are clean and easy to see.

So, maybe you can begin to see why I was disappointed with the Photon after having used the home-made unit for two seasons.
I had great expectations of the Photon and it didn't deliver to my liking. Still, it's a good scope for the money, and hopefully it will
only get better as time goes on. With modifications, it can be made better, however, as DoubleUp has proved, but if you go the
doubler route you will spend another $200.

 
Yes, I agree the whiteout is a problem particularly for recording. The more weaspon mounted IR that is used the worse the problem becomes. It isn't nearly as bad at 50% as it is at 100%. Those who use IR on any NV devices realize it has it's own set of problems by reflecting back of grass, bushes, trees, etc. as well as the whiteout.

One of the great things about thermal is not just scanning, but what happens after the shot. With the wide field of view it is easy to spot the heat signature of a downed animal or even a blood trail if hunting in a more wooded area.
 
DoubleUp, I have had my Photon XT for about 2 weeks. After reading your post, I checked my lense cover and it does not appear as though it has an insert that will pop out to make the 22 mm opening. How did you go about ordering the lense cover you got from Sight Mark? I couldn't find anything on their website-- do you have a part number? Also, it appears that the lense cover ring is permanently attached to the scope, so I take it you just change out the cover?

Thanks, PS99
 
6mm 06,

I know you called it like you saw it, that is why I wrote in my post what I quote below.

Perhaps your take on the scope reduced my expectations, so now having one in hand I find it better than I expected from reading your review. I don't know. Also, maybe its because I was able to take advantage of the mod you suggested to DoubleUp to improve the clarity from the git go.

I will say that the close range whiteout from the IR, whether using the built in on high power or the T20, can be annoying.

On the whiteout at the shot, I was watching a night hog hunt where the camera was looking through a Gen 3 NVD, and you could see the smoke from every firearm as several guys were shooting at hogs. The guys were all shooting AR's and my first though was, "Wow, they are shooting some dirty ammo," but I think it endemic to NV and exacerbated by using an IR source.

JPK

 
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Originally Posted By: Powerstroke99DoubleUp, I have had my Photon XT for about 2 weeks. After reading your post, I checked my lense cover and it does not appear as though it has an insert that will pop out to make the 22 mm opening. How did you go about ordering the lense cover you got from Sight Mark? I couldn't find anything on their website-- do you have a part number? Also, it appears that the lense cover ring is permanently attached to the scope, so I take it you just change out the cover?

Thanks, PS99

Powerstroke99,

I will take a photo of the lens cover on my Photon later today and you can compare with mine. I wasn't sure the center was removable and it took a little leap of faith to push on it hard enough to get the center to pop out.

If I hadn't had DoubleUP and 6mm 06's tip I wouldn't have known that the center might be removable.

FWIW, last night's planned program with the Photon at my hunting club didn't happen. I took way longer to install windows in the deer tower we were finishing up than planned, and we finished right at sundown. We were in the tower with our caretaker; the rifles, Photon, etc, were across the way and rather than grab everything and rush to get set up the three of us took a break to watch the sunset. Since it was a Sunday and my son was pooped we headed home so he could get some rest before school today.

JPK
 
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