Gun Lamps

Gun Lamps

www.diffcal.co.uk

Much of the shooting we do is at night given that most of the time we are out pest controlling on the farms. This means that a gun lamp or night vision is essential. There are loads of different varieties on the market at the moment at prices to suit all budgets. Traditional night vision scopes have been around for ages but I don't like them due to the ease of damage you can cause. (Friends have had some horror stories with earlier models!).

My own personal preference is the Nitesite Viper. This fits onto my day setup with no need to re-zero and suits my style of shooting. (Sit on my backside waiting for things to come out!).

The shooting position is completely weird, the tv screen sits atop the scope and with a bipod fitted I can sit back and simply hold the stock of my gun to aim.

It does look a bit on the bulky side and won't suit everyone, however the picture quality is exceptional and due to it being an IR camera and not a traditional 'night vision' scope you don't need to worry about having the lens cap on during the day. In fact, you can use this system in day time conditions, something a disabled friend of my mine finds most useful being partially blind.

Picture clarity is excellent.

The drawback of these systems is that you do get a glare off the screen. Whilst this doesn't seem to bother the quarry, it does mess up your own night vision and so walking around with one can prove difficult. (I walked into a tractors fork lift prongs the other night and took out my shins!) The battery lasts for 3-4 hours which is more than adequate for my night shooting, this takes about an hour to recharge. The mounting system is easy to use and takes just a couple of minutes to clip on to the scope. I have been using a standard BSA 3-9x50 Essential (no parralax) and it works fine with this, however a bit of focus control wouldn't go amiss.

Others in my group prefer to look down their scopes and shoot more traditionally. 

The Tracer LED range of gun lamps are a great cheaper option and do the job.

These come in a variety of sizes and prices. We have found that they do tend to chew through the batteries (c123 camera types) and this can get expensive unless you buy them in bulk. The light these give off is fine for up to 40 yards (listed as 100 but in reality it isn't practical). Everyone I know that uses these have fitted red filters to them so that the quarry aren't spooked so easily. Most of these lamps are detachable as well which is useful for storage if your gunbag isn't particuarly deep.

Finally there are the 'laser designator' lamps. We had a play with one of these last night.

 These give out a green laser light (which when looked through your scope looks like a traditional night vision set up). The light easily picks up quarry and their eyes reflect well off it. It doesn't seem to spook them in the slightest and we found that the adjustable sizing system for spot size worked really well. The power of this lamp is amazing and it produces a crisp circle of light well out to 100m which is not needed for our purposes, but good to know. It is rated as a cold weather lamp, but this doesn't bother us as we don't tend to shoot out in the cold anyway. The mounting system is a real pain to get on and off the gun, whilst the adjustable mount works well once installed the 2 screws are really fiddley to use which is a shame as the rest of the setup is amazing. It comes with a tough 'soft' carry case for storage and an optional pressure switch which can be attached if you don't want the light on all the time. More to follow as we go out an play with it more.