Pulsar N750 digital night sight

[fcat]

Short Part 2 added below..


UPS delivered a nice new shiny Pulsar N750 to my doorstep this morning, courtesy of Scott Country. Actually that’s not entirely true, its matt black and not at all shiny but you know what I mean… The cost was £1299 including VAT & shipping and the nice people at Scott Country also included a rechargeable 4 x AA NiMh battery kit as part of the bundle. Worth pointing out that they kept in touch via phone/email during the order/delivery process and it arrived exactly when they said it would and properly packaged too. I know this should be the case but all too often it isn’t, so they deserve a public pat on the back.

So what’s in the box? The N750 unit complete with rubber eyepiece hood, a mounting rail with three screws to attach it to the bottom of the unit + allen key, wireless remote control + sticky-backed Velcro, lens cleaning cloth and finally a decent manual that appears to have been written in English rather than translated from ancient Tibetan via Icelandic. The whole lot comes with a padded carry bag with several internal compartments.

See pix.. http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...1/IMG_0199.jpg

If you want to read a proper description of the unit the have a look here:http://www.scottcountry.co.uk/Pulsar...view-n1109.htm


Now the subjective bit from me. I have briefly played with an N550 but I haven’t used one in anger. I will try to get hold of a guy I know who has one and see if we can do a back-to-back comparison.

At first glance the N750 ain’t much different to the N550 and it works in almost exactly the same way. So if you loved/loathed the N550 then your opinion isn’t likely to be swayed by the new unit.

Let’s start with the mounting system. The supplied mount is fixed to the unit by three Allen screws. The mount is asymmetric in length in relation to the screw holes and can be fitted either way round to vary the location of the eyepiece to suit. In practice you can also move it a bit further if you’re prepared to accept using only two of the Allen screws. Not sure if this is recommended but you can do it. The mount expects a Weaver rail (or Picatinny) and includes a recoil-stop cross bar that is screwed in place. This can be removed – take out the screw from the top, re-insert in the cross bar from the bottom so that a thin punch or nail has something to rest on, then hammer the cross bar out from the top. May help to warm the whole thing in an oven first – warm not cook! The reason for this is that the cross bar is a friction fit with the screw being added security.

The mount will also work directly on an 11mm dovetail but will end up slightly offset to one side – approx 2-3 mm. No doubt there are wider dovetails around which it will fit perfectly. Of course 2mm may not be a problem for some. However for non-Weaver/Picatinny setups, some sort of adapter may be desirable. Anyway, the manual quotes Weaver, Euro-prism, Los, Side mount, MAK as suitable.


The centre of eyepiece is nearly 5.5cm above the mounts, the centre of the objective lens is around 5cm high. A bolt action rifle or an air rifle with a magazine that protrudes upwards will both need additional mounts/bases that give a bit more clearance which will further increase the mounting height.

As a quick experiment I have put the N750 on:

AR15, looks like this
http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...1/IMG_0204.jpg

Sako Quad using these BKL mounts
http://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/pro...daptor&cat=412
looks like this
http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...1/IMG_0205.jpg

Daystate Airwolf using these BKL mounts
http://www.opticswarehouse.co.uk/pro...daptor&cat=412
looks like this
http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...1/IMG_0206.jpg

On the AR15, the location for height is pretty much spot on for me – wonder what market Pulsar would like to crack…!

On the Sako and the Airwolf, it’s pretty high. There probably is some scope (sorry!) to reduce the height with ideal bases/mounts. Anyway for me, with my own unique & bizarre proportions, it is verging on too high. Other people may find it spot on – this is entirely down to the dimensions & preferences of the individual and the set up of their rifle.

Interestingly, I found that on the Sako & Airwolf, it was more comfortable to use my left eye despite being right-handed. Seems a little odd but I will investigate this further as my left eye is rather better than the right so there could be a bit of a win here.

I haven’t done more than take the N750 out around the garden & road tonight so I can’t do a proper report but my initial view is it does exactly what it is says on the tin, and rather well too.

So, wireless remote control to replace the wired control on the N550 – big plus, no cables getting in the way.

Screen image – very good, need to do a direct comparison with an N550 to gauge the difference but it is very useable. Contrast, brightness and focus controls combine to give a very good image.

Instant 1.5x zoom at the touch of a button. It works, what can I say. There is only a very slight degradation of picture quality but I can see it being so useful. I’m after rabbits with rimfire/air so I can’t really comment for longer range stuff beyond, say, 70-80m at night, but within my range 4.5x is great for target acquisition or close range stuff and 7x gives that bit extra for more precise aiming as the range extends. Just what I want. No doubt the Dr Bob doubler (1.7x) kit will be available soon which should get the longer range shooters rather excited.

Laser IR illuminator; for me, its all I’ll ever need. When there is no background moon/star light, the black areas are still dark (although the SumLight feature is useful here). Turn on the laser to just the lowest setting and its like someone put a floodlight on area, certainly out to 100m which is the furthest I’ve tried so far.

Weaver rail on the side; it takes an EPS3 battery unit which makes me happy.

So initial impressions are rather good. I need to get out into the field to give a more detailed report and I really want to try to do a direct comparison with the N550. Watch this space.

Part 2

Got down the range today with the N750 on the Daystate Airwolf (FAC), still daylight but overcast. N750 only just useable in these conditions - which is fair enough - but couldn't resist having a go with the new toy. (yeah, I know, boys and their toys as SWMBO likes to comment!) Never tried the "one shot zero" before - works a treat. Essentially you take a shot at a target, enter "one shot zero mode" where you get a secondary cross hair, point the reticle at the your aim point and wind the secondary cross hair on to the point of impact, hit OK - and Bob's your uncle - it does the required adjustment. The display even gives you X & Y coordinates of the secondary location wrt to centre so its easy to do a quick follow up +/- 1 to get spot on. Subjective feel is that +/- 1 click is around 5mm at 50m which is better than I can shoot at night at that range so it works for me.

Not very happy with the height of the scope at the moment.. Tried a BKL mount here:http://www.bkltech.com/BKL-1-Dovetai...-p/bkl-554.htm
which has sufficient clearance for the rotating magazine on the Airwolf. This also allows me to switch between the N750 and a Viper Connect which is my day scope. With respect to height, the Connect is just OK, but the N750 is a bit too high. I can use it but it would be more comfortable if it was 10mm lower. I tend to shoot off a pair of adjustable height sticks so I can sit/kneel/stand as my own land is a bit too rough for prone in most cases. At the shooting range, prone was not really comfortable with N750 on this set up but sitting worked fine so looks like that'll be the way forward for me. The problem here is a combination of the protruding magazine and the relatively high eyepiece centre within the N750 unit combine to push the resulting eyepiece location too high. Yes it works fine on the AR15 but not so well with a conventional sporting stock. I can see a market here for a custom stock that emulates the Ar15 ergonomics for guns like the Airwolf and also for a flat horizontal slide magazine like, e.g. the Steyr LP50 air pistol, that doesn't intrude upwards into the space required for the sights. Dr Bob, Gary Cane and the rest, are you there?

Also had a play with their free PC software to create your own reticle. The software is a little crude by modern standards but it lets you create your own reticle on a graph paper-like grid, pixel at a time. I have to say I really like this; none of the standard reticles in any of my optical scopes really hits the spot for me, so to be able to create my own is fantastic and even my first stab looks good - well to me anyway. Of course time will tell if I've actually come up with anything that actually works, but it will be entirely my own fault!

Plan to get out in the field later this week...

[thesmi]

does look rather high ! but very good on ar15

[V8 90]

Thanks for taking the time to write this report - look forward to an update when you've been out in the dark for a proper trial.

[fcat]

quick BTTT...

[FXHunter]

nice review, can i please just ask the what the major differences between the n550 and the n750 are ? thankyou

[fcat]

main differences are:

N550 has fixed 4.5x mag, N750 has two settings - 4.5x and 7x
N550 has a wired remote control, N750 has a wireless remote control
N550 has a conventional LCD display, N750 has an OLED display which is supposed to be clearer and faster.
N550 reticle can be inverted from black to white, N750 has red or green coloured reticle centre
N750 has a revised menu & info display
N750 has a more powerful IR illuminator

[FXHunter]

main differences are:

N550 has fixed 4.5x mag, N750 has two settings - 4.5x and 7x
N550 has a wired remote control, N750 has a wireless remote control
N550 has a conventional LCD display, N750 has an OLED display which is supposed to be clearer and faster.
N550 reticle can be inverted from black to white, N750 has red or green coloured reticle centre
N750 has a revised menu & info display
N750 has a more powerful IR illuminator

exellent thankyou

[dhopinto]

I have received my new N750, and I can confirm that my doubler kit fits in this scope to.
Please check this video, is important because recently the lens housing come with some glue for screws to fix the problem of backlash of the lens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37lR2...&feature=g-upl

[PietroBeretta]

So does that mean with the doubler it would make the N750 7x and with button press 12x magnification? (i'm right in saying the doubler offers 1.7x?)

ATB

PB

[norfolknbullets]

What's the eye relief like on your ar 15 when you are using your pulsar do you notice the recoil when shooting?

[fcat]

Only played at the range with the N750 on the AR15 but the ergonomics are good (for me). Eye relief; well the unit has a rubber eyepiece hood that is the right length so, put your face to the hood and your eye is in the right place give or take a few millimetres. The AR15 platform offers lots of scope (sorry!) for varying the mounting point backwards or forwards to taste so I can't see much problem in finding a setup that will suit most people.

The recoil from sub-sonics on my AR15 is pretty slight. There is more than enough give & take in the eyepiece hood to cover the small amount of recoil without getting punched in the eye by anything hard.
Can't really comment on anything more powerful, of course if anyone would like to lend me an AR15 chambered in 5.56 or 7.62 then I'd be delighted to give it a try !

[SandyB]

As I understand it these has been some upgrades of the display.... will teh N750 be plagued by the same old 'dead pixels' as the the N550's were /are?

[fcat]

update: I've created a new reticle using the pulsar software but I haven't tried an upload yet. Just as well, apparently Pulsar have diasbled this feature on the N750.
see this thread here http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....=1#post5615194

[bigtoe01]

So does that mean with the doubler it would make the N750 7x and with button press 12x magnification? (i'm right in saying the doubler offers 1.7x?)

ATB

PB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWWrI...feature=relmfu

says it all