Reply With Quoteyou like it thenhow much did it cost with the laser?
i have to say that i am very impressed and also thankyou to baldie for supplying the unit and for the two demo's.
we went out a couple of weeks ago and tried the xvd on a swat scope and it was pretty good, the range was a bit limited though on a very dark night and although suitable for airguns it would be a bit low for the rimmie.
i got geoffrey to order a laser illuminator instead of the standard one, the second demo with my new unit was stunning, you could turn mag up to 16x and get 70yrd bunnies taking up most of the picture. i would like a swat but this will turn into an very expensive piece of equipment although i think you would be able to take out foxes at a great distance as long as you knew the back drops well.
the two scopes that are on my rimmie and fac s410 are a simmons pro air 4-12x40 and and bushnell banner 4-12x40, both reasonably cheap scopes with good quality optics, i was not too sure whether the 40mm objectives would pass enough light to the xvd and i am sure that with the standard illuminator you would be looking at sub 40yds ranges.
geoffrey left good intructions about setting up and had also showed me on the demo's, i tried both guns with the unit last night although the s410 is not zeroed so i could only shoot the rimmie. i tok them onto the golf course so the land was open and the grass was short, both performed imho better with the laser than a swat with the standard illuminator. you could see rabbits at a silly distance and i stalked up to a fox that was cleaning itself and legged it when it smelt me at 40yds. although the moon it fullish it was very cloudy here and so was quite a dark night, i got to what i thought was about my 55 yrd zero from a bunny, got down on the bipod and shot it, i needed a second shot as we were a bit closer and i should have held under. later i shot an 80yrd (probably the one that both me and zooankski missed last monday) and it dropped cleanly, i shoot at 6x mag but found you could have it up to 10ish quite happily although the depth of field was then narrowed. this was one place the 40mm scopes won hands down over the swat, on medium zooms you had to scan in layers with the swat as when paralaxed at 45 you could not see **** at 70ish. with the small scopes you could scan from 20-100yds and then make adjustments before taking the shot.
i have mounted both scopes quite far forward but its not uncomfortable with or without the xvd on, the s410 has a very high cheek piece and was no good with another scope i tried on it but seems fine with the £89 bushnell which seems to have a long eye relief, the simmons was a touch brighter and so will stay on the rimmie but the bushnell will piss fac air ranges.
does anyone have any tips for the xvd, mine are to mark the parralax ring (i am trying a thin strip of velcro at the 50yrd mark)
i have also punched a hole through a small square of velcro and stuck it to the xvd lens cap, it can then be securred to the units side to stop it flapping.
you can also make 5.52 velcro pellets by.....
all the best and sorry for poor punctuation and spelling
ben
Nothing ventured, Nothing gained
you like it then
i think sb do them for £430? but sepparatly they should be £530 with the normal illuminator too, i got it as part of another deal so i'm not sure.
i would recomend trying one
Its a first class system,,XVD/Swat,, and here are my tips.
1, Mark the 25yd point on the PX knob with a thin piece of silver duct tape,,its easy to see in almost pitch dark.
2, Pull the lens cover OFF,,and leave it at home. It will drive you mad rattling away there.
3,, Put a smear of motocycle visor de-mister on the XVD eyepiece,,it tends to fog up quite easily.
4,,When fitting the unit to your scope,,ensure that the front,objective lens on the XVD unit is fully screwed out bfore clamping the adapter unit to it,otherwise it can just foul the XVD on/off rotary switch. I filed a section of the adapter away to be quite sure
5,,Try to get the best,Laser, illuminater you can afford. I t really transforms good performance to brilliant.
Good Hunting.
just an add on from last night, the unit started fading. laser beam seemed strong on my hand but i could barly see trees at 30yds. i was gutted that it had eaten batteries so quickly until i....
turned the ****** thing back on, silly tarti had turned it off five minutes before and forgot about it.
Having just got back into NV gear, I was going to write up my own review of my recently acquired XVD-14 Gen2.
However, Ben has done such a good job of reviewing the XVD that there is not much more to say
Was it worth the extra for going Gen2, instead of Gen1?
Well if your eyes arn't as good as they could be then definately yes.....
Compared withthe Gen1 D141 I had a couple of years ago, the difference is astounding. Wereas the D141 was 'usable', especially if you used it in conjunction with a lamp fitted with IR filter to provide additional illumination - the usable distance (for bunnies) was limited to about 45-50yds
As Ben has already said, with the XVD utilising the optics of your scope, spotting/targeting out to 60yds is not a problem with the Gen1 XVD-04, (80yds with the Gen2 XVD-14, due to its greater resolution, i.e. gives the user the ability to identify and target smaller objects further away).
As the XVD-04 & XVD-14 are to all intents the same, the only difference being the 'tube' it follows that all of the comments given about are relevant to both NV adaptors.
One tip not yet mentioned is to remove the mount/adaptor completely from the NV adjust the front ring to its full extent. Then refit the adaptor and mount onto your scope.
Failure to do this little thing can result in problems when trying to focus onto the reticle after mounting onto numerous differing scopes.
Hmmm. Tempted to sell my NS156 and get one of these.....
lewis, come and have a look when you want mate. kev, it would be good to see them together some time too.
i just cant wait untill it gets dark
have you got the laser kev? it really improves things over the standard illuminator.
Yep, much better than the 'standard' illuminator.
I was out Friday night, too much moonlight but wanted to see what Gen2 was like 'in the field' - an me being impatient I could not wait
It was miles too bright for a serious session, coupled with a lack of wind to mask my noise. Bunnies could see me a mile off, a plus was that there was so much ambient light, no need for any additional IR illumination.
Will certainly be using it on the golf course in ernest later in April
Lewis, much better than a dedicated NV setup, allows you to easily swap over to any of your rifles. I'm well impressed.
Ben, I'd like to do a side by side comparison, when you inviting me over to yours then, or do you want to come over mine for a evening.
Kev, you can come whenever you want mate or i am happy to come to yours. i have got some land up your way but there are too many sheep to use anything more than fac air, let me know when you are free.
what scope are you using it on? i think you could quite easily use the gen1 with hmr over 100yds, i got another two last night which were 40 and 70yds which were both stalked up on from 100+, saw a badger too. its been really dark the last two nights and with some wind going in a reasonable direction.
all the best ben
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