Icon Logo Gun Mart

Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight

Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight

The ATN X-Sight comes in two models: the 3-14x and 5-20x. Having mounted, zeroed and tested both, I was very impressed with everything about them, including the price. These are solid and well-structured pieces of kit and seem extremely robust. Prices are £750 and £850 respectively.

Compared to the Pulsar N970 Digisight, which I have used along with the N870, the X-Sight is half the price and the performance is comparable and offers high-definition colour during the day. After 4 weeks of use, I’ve had no problems with it holding the zero, unlike the two Pulsar N970 devices that I had on test, which seemed to have accuracy issues.

The package

The X-Sight comes in a nylon carry case including, sun shade, occluder disc and an IR torch with mount. Power comes from 4 x AA batteries; if you use standard types it eats them, so Lithiums are the best bet, as they give an easy 6-hours minimum! I’ve been told that Night Master will soon be selling some very high power AA rechargeables, which will provide more than 4 hours of continuous run time!

The menu is an easy scroll-through setup and quite self-explanatory. The one-piece base is for a Weaver/Picatinny rail and secured by two 12mm nuts. It’s a good design as it pulls the whole side of the clamp onto the rail, rather than having two separate fixing points, which is a common spec on most other units I’ve used.

Zeroing was easy; as it’s a one-shot system much like the Pulsar uses and it works very well! Setting zero at 100 yds is no problem because the scope is so clear that it allows you to identify your target without issue. Also, I was using the new APEX UK rear extended stainless steel rail, which was supplied by Night Master. Having this on my Tikka T3 allowed for the X-Sight to be positioned further back, making it more comfortable to use. The company makes similar rails for many other makes/ models of rifle.

Day & night! The X-Sight is a ‘day and night’ scope, as it can be switched between these modes easily, both of which work amazingly well! On ‘daytime’ it works into dusk without needing to switch to the night mode and turning on the IR torch, which attaches to the weaver rail on the left side of the scope. To be fair, it will do to get you started but when you replace it with a Night Master 800-IR IC you will see a massive difference, with both distance and clarity. The NM800 removes the graininess and with it being IC (intensity control), it gives you full control of the light intensity for different distances. Zeroed in, I was ready to take this digital scope and NM800-IR to the field on my Tikka .243. My friend Mark and I met-up at my place, then headed up to a small pheasant shoot to see if we could perhaps catch sight of a fox, as the land owner had reported the smell of one at the side of one of the pheasant pens. After looking through the X-Sight and a quick adjustment of the NM800-IR, we were good to go. We spent an hour or so searching the land through the XQ38S thermal spotter, but there was nothing to report. I recently acquired this new bit of ground and within the first few visits we had eliminated 15 foxes with my Pulsar XD75 thermal scope and spotter. So I guessed the ones that were left might be sit-out jobs. I decided to head to another bit of permission where I was pretty sure we would see something, as the land backs onto a landfill site and it normally comes up trumps. On a few occasions that week the farmer had seen a fox crossing over the farm track in front of him. Generally at around 9pm. We made our way there and got settled for about 8pm, with the truck in position. Then we waited and watched. That’s the beauty of the thermal spotter; you can sit and spy for miles around without emitting any type of light – so you’re not disturbing the wildlife or the neighbouring farms.

Blind!

We were 20-minutes in and then we saw Mr Fox making his way along the skyline in the opposite field to where we were. There was no safe shot to be had and he was also over the fence, on a bit of ground I didn’t have permission on. Sometimes with foxing things just don’t go your way and this was one of those! All I could do was try a gentle squeak, but he kept on going. Some you win, some you lose. We sat there a little while longer but to no avail. It was time to move on to try and get our first fox with the X-Sight.

story continues below...

Before moving the truck, I walked a few hundred yards over the field to where it falls away down a banking to see if it held and foxes. There was nothing there, which meant it was safe to move the truck and get set-up there. I know from previous nights that this piece of ground usually produces a fox or two. So gave it an hour. Then two foxes came running out together. These two looked like they were pairing up, but the position where they exited the woodland meant that I couldn’t get a shot from the bonnet. I tried a shot lying on the ground but that was no good. You see, digital night vision scopes use infrared (IR) illumination with a beam that is invisible to humans and animals, but can be detected by night vision equipment. However, the beam acts like white light and will reflect off anything, which is this case was grass. The with IR light bouncing back into the screen, it created a white-out effect and I was unable to see anything.

Seen

When I stood up to find the foxes with the thermal spotter, they were nowhere to be found. But just then, I saw them. They had actually moved closer to me by coming up the banking and one of them was standing just 20 ft away, stiff as a board, just staring. The other ran back down the banking and made its way to where they first appeared and was calling on its mate by continuously barking. The fox closest to me high-tailed it but I never saw where it went.

But the barking fox was sat on a wall about 180 yds away. I got myself steady on the bonnet this time and squeezed the trigger. The X-Sight had accounted for its first fox and I felt confident using it. It’s very important to build confidence with any NV optic, just as you would with a day scope or rifle. If you don’t feel confident shooting with a particular device, perhaps if it’s not holding zero, then you should consider using something else. It’s very easy to blame yourself, when it might actually be the equipment.

Impressed

I was so impressed with the scope that I told a few of my friends about it. Many of them don’t own NV equipment, feeling it’s too expensive but after they had a look at the ATN and saw the price, they were converts. It’s an affordable unit for many people and easier to justify financially if you don’t have much ground or time, but want to make the most of your night shooting.

As there was a lot of interest amongst my friends, I decided to put together a last minute demo night. There were around 20 people eagerly waiting to see the ATN and Pulsar equipment and have a look through the X-Sight. Mark, the host, had created a viewing area with table and seats, which looked onto a field with a telegraph pole at 100 yds and electrical pylon at 200 yds, which gave an idea of the clarity at those ranges. As it has a Wifi capability, I was able to have the scope’s live feed on my phone for others to see and show them how to change the scope’s settings wirelessly through the phone – a very interesting feature.

The X-Sight gained a lot of attention and positive feedback; in fact, quite a few sales were made and orders are still coming in because the word is spreading among my community up here in Scotland. I can see potential for more sales of the new the ATN.

The ATN X-Sight and accessories (including APEX rails and IR illuminators) are available to buy from Night Master.

  • Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Nightvison Diaries: Digital Delight - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

Arrow