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Thread: Connect 01 review part 1

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Walsall, Midlands Uk
    Posts
    11,142

    Connect 01 review part 1

    Connect 01 review

    OK, been a while coming this one – mainly due to a bout of food poisoning through buying a dodgy chilli and then a bout of arguing through buying a dodgy car...

    I’d never heard of a Connect 01 before I saw one for sale on here and thought I’d do a bit of online research for further details. From what I discovered, the Connect looked pretty impressive and pretty much ideal for my lamping requirements onboard my Ruger 10/22. I made enquiries to see if anyone local to me had one I could take a peek at.
    Enter Mr. Gary C, who very kindly loaned me one so I could have some proper field time with it. The Connect arrived a couple of days after I received the offer from Gary and Sammie, so here are my findings:

    It arrived in quite a below par box if I’m being totally honest here, well packaged but not very well ‘sold’…maybe I’m being hyper critical because my main job ( let’s not mention the other here eh? ) is working in advertising/packaging – so I do like to see a bit of ‘subtle flair’ on a product - the Connect is subtle but does do flair in the lightest sense of the word.
    Expectations rose however, when I opened the box and saw a nice, ‘purposefully tactical’ looking weaponsight peering back at me…Also there was a handwritten note from Sammie saying she’d fitted the battery for me in advance – which I thought was a nice touch.
    The Connect is a 10x magnification daylight use unit, which is similar in appearance to an NV monocular or small NV weaponsight. It has a large objective with parallax adjustment and ocular focussing, the same as a conventional scope. Moving rearwards finds the oversized windage, elevation and reticle illumination adjustment turrets and right at the rear end, a rubber eyepiece.
    The instruction leaflet informed me how to use the MP8 reticle ( for those unfamiliar with this, imagine a mildot ret with lines as opposed to dots, which cross the main horizontal and verticle stadia at finer intersections – roughly 3 per conventional dot space ). Good for rangefinding or ultra fine shot placement on live targets, when time permits, obviously.
    So, removing the Connect from it’s sealed inner bag, revealed it’s weight to be around the 1.5 – 2.0 lbs mark ( christknows what that is in grams or whatever – soz ) which is on a par with a heavyweight hunting scope or large FT scope. It’s a beautiful matt finish and a very solid, purposeful look to it – I like it. Initially I did think it might be a little on the heavy side for my liking when you consider a heavy lamp, battery, field bag etc on an average lamping trip…
    Reading the detailed instructions explaining how to power up etc, told me to focus the MP8 reticle sharply before even thinking of zeroing the unit, which I set out to do and looked through the Connect for the first time…

    …Jesus…the depth of field on these is simply tremendous. Imagine the visible area of a 3-4x magnification scope – but imagine that same view at 10 magnification. Now picture the reticle as if it’s placed right on your iris ( the Connect is a no-eye-relief affair ) and you’ve got a basic idea of what it’s like peering through one of these – very impressive. The clarity is on a par with that of a conventional high end dayscope, offering excellent light transmission. I was impressed. I rapidly bought the reticle into sharp focus, which it snapped into after I rotated the ocular eyepiece whilst viewing the neighbours white extension wall.
    Reading the instructions revealed the impact adjustment worked opposite to a ‘normal’ scope, no real problem there then as most people look at what they’re doing and don’t rely on counter-clockwise memory. So there was little left to do except slap it onto my 10/22. This is a piece of the proverbial thanks to the Connects one piece mount with knurled locking bolts. My concerns of the Connects weight were put to bed after seeing ( or feeling ), how far it ‘sit’s back’ on a scope rail. Roughly 4 inches rearward from the mount. This dissipates the weight and brings it evenly in on the user. Also, there’s no need to worry about whether the unit is central to mount and rifle as the Connect is ‘ready fitted’ in it’s mount.
    The mount is pretty high up – around 2.5 inches. So that’s quite a distance from the barrel. Not a great concern and perfect for shooting at longer ranges but I could see close targets being a touch hit and miss. Personally it doesn’t apply to me as most of my shots on the golf course are 40 yards plus, so after tightening the locking bolts with my fingers, I nipped them up with an allen key, grabbed some bullets and headed off to Wedgenock ranges to zero it.
    Ah, this is where I run into a problem. Having no eye relief means the ocular bell, although protected by a rubber shroud, is pressed firmly up against your eye. Now a .22lr recoils, not that you’d really notice as it feels like a Txsr ( for the airgunners reading this ) but perhaps enough to shunt the Connect into your eyebrow and make you look like Jake LaMotta…
    My solution? Equip the help of a non-shooting mate who really fancied having a go at firing live rounds, be all gentlemanly and allow him the first few shots….( open day at the range allows non FAC holders to try it out – before the legal group start getting all moist-cheeked ).
    Handing the rifle over to my mate allowed me to see how he adapted to using a high set, non eye relief scope after using my Martini ( which uses a ‘normal’ scope ). He did that, fliching, tilting of the head thing that most people do when they first use NV but soon settled in…and squeezed the trigger….
    Now seeing him settle down for his second, third and forth shot, revealed he wasn’t experiencing any discomfort, not was he morphing into John Merrick, he was missing the target completely – but comfortably.
    Time for me to zero it properly for a hunting trip, so I settled at 60 yards for my .22 Eley Plus subs and took aim. There’s a certainly novelty to kit like this for me and I get the feeling that even if it doesn’t perform correctly, I still like it as it looks and feels the part. The Connect showed that it wasn’t just a pretty face and was soon helping in planting all of my rounds in the head area a rabbit silhouette target – looks and performance – I was more impressed than before.
    I thought a few minutes spent gauging the size of the rabbit target in the reticle might come in useful (most of my shooting involves a 30/30 ret or occasionally mildots ) so I did at various ranges, still enjoying that massive clear view. OK, zeroed up, I’m leaving the range and going hunting – can’t stand club shooting if I’m honest.

    ....cut to part two - limit character space...
    Put on heading 270, assume attack formation

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Escapee from Londistan
    Posts
    16,396
    Craig, I must reply to offer my admiration for a really excellent, informative and amusing review - especially the bit about the unsuspecting "mate" (you nasty man!) offering himself up for the black eye treatment.
    Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill

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