Man, that's a serious competitor...

Watching. This could get me into the game.

My rep at Sightmark/Pulsar still can't provide an availability date for this optic. He indicated that they hope it will be early Fall, but a November timeframe isn't out of the question either.

He has promised to contact me with any news that may arise. I'll be sure to update this thread when the time comes. Regardless, I think this product could be a "game changer" when it comes to entry level night vision.

I own a Sightmark triple duty rifle scope and I love it. That thing is well built and clear as heck.

The only thing I have an issue with, and it may be me not having used it a ton (I have had it like 2-3 years and only shot about 2-3 dozen rnds through it).... it can be hard to find the "sweet spot" in the scope to see through it.

What I mean is, the other day I was hog hunting and as the sun went down, I was having a hard time not seeing all gray.

Now, I was not in the stand and so might have been moving the rifle too much. We will see when I head out this weekend.

Russ

The nice thing about digital scopes is that the eye relief is forgiving because you are actually viewing a video display screen within the scope and not the actual image through the lens array as with traditional scopes.

It is pretty neat technology.

BB

Well after seeing the ScottCountry video I am more intrigued with this new scope, though I wish I would have been able to see the reticles. I know a lot of folks are not impressed with the notion of a 200 yard scope and I can understand that. Then again, most of us don't do a lot of night hunting at distances that far. For the places I hunt, I have only had a couple of chances to hunt that far in the last 6 years, day or night. The trees keep getting in the way. So a scope like this might actually be a really good combination of low cost, reasonable functionality, and good utility.

Exactly... I have a lot of trees and rolling terrain...very few larger open spaces. My experience has been that when you are night hunting with any reasonable amount of cover you can get closer than 200 yards pretty easy.

The furthest I've shot when night hunting is 175 yards. Since hogs can't see that well, especially at night, that gives considerable leeway. I'm also not a fan of body shots on hogs, other than the point of the shoulder hold. Simply blasting away at center mass is a lousy way to recover a hog, which is fine for pest control, but bad for hunting. Also, since many NV systems appear to be somewhat recoil sensitive, I shoot a fairly small caliber (.243) which makes bullet placement even more important. Any NV that will give you 150 yards is good for 90% of hunting opportunities, at least where I hunt. This looks like a great 80/20 solution. 80% of the fun for 20% of the pain ($$$).

http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/sh...s-and-now-VIDEO

The guys says it has a "dot" illuminated reticle, adjustible power.

Here is the link to the Yukon website with reticle pictured:

http://main.yukonopticsglobal.com/product-overview-photon-5x42.html

And they show a 3.5x mag model as well, which one would think would be even cheaper!!!

The guys in the U.K. are pretty up on the unit, which is good to hear.

BB

Benny, wondering if you have any specs that would indicate that this scope is rated for higher caliber rifles? I haven't seen any of the UK posts that would indicate that they have tried one on something like a .308.

I sure wish they had an option for at least a 7.5 zoom.

Sightmark Photon is rated at 5000 Joules of max shock resistance

compare to

Pulsar n750 being rated at 6000 Joules of max shock resistance

based upon Internet data

3500 Joules is just below .308 recoil

Note = Recoil Energy is calculated using Charge Weight / Bullet Weight / Muzzle Velocity / Firearm Weight so not all things are created equal.

Read more here: Basic Ballistics

Thanks! Enjoyed the ballistics link!

Just got this update

I emailed Sightmark and they sent this response:


Those scopes will not be available until next year some time..
We are still working on the packaging and doing some testing with them. Keep an eye out around October of 2014…

Michael Stacy
Quality Assurance
Sellmark Corporation

Thanks J.R.

I believe this will be Sightmark's first advance into the digital arena so I would suspect they would have some delays, keep us posted on whatever else you find out.

BB

I got another email from another person at Sightmark like 30 seconds after I sent this email that said the following (lol):

Russ,

Thank you for your inquiry. The reason you haven’t seen much about the Photon is it’s not available in the US yet. Our factory is gearing up production to be able to support the American market. We expect to have stock come in within the next 60 to 90 days. Additionally we are working on spec sheets for those units. As soon as those are finished I would be happy to email them to you.

Thanks,
Chris Aylor
Director of Domestic Sales
Sellmark Corporation
817.225.1704


--------------------------------


What I take from this is they are working very hard and kudos for them. They will get it out when it is ready and working correctly and ya can't fault that.

So, some time between December 2013 to October 2014... heh.. but it'll work

Russ

What I get from it is the typical marketing folks getting started way ahead of the engineering folks.

I think they know that they're sitting on a gold mine and are trying to get things out the door as fast as possible without screwing up. Clearly the race is heating up in the digital NV market. Whoever can bring a sub $1k unit to market that really works will make serious $$$.

Working on spec sheets? That should take what, a good 30-45 minutes? LOL.

I have no problem with the wait as long as they get it right the first time, which it seems they are trying to accomplish. Good on em.

Thanks J.R. -

Keep us posted on what you get via email

BB

Update and clarification.. so the earlier date is what we may be looking at.. i.e. 60-90 days. Let's hope:

Russ,

I’m sorry for any confusion. Our Quality Assurance team (which Mike is a part of) usually deals with issues on items that are already in production. My guess is he wanted to give you a safe estimation when talking about an item that’s not currently in stock. I talked with our Marketing and Purchasing teams to try to get a little bit closer read on a time line. If you have any further questions I would be happy to help.


Thanks,
Chris Aylor
Director of Domestic Sales
Sellmark Corporation
817.225.1704

Here is a decent review from Marky in the U.K.

Yukon Photon review

It looks very impressive, goodbye Gen 1 and 2 NV.......

BB

I want one!!

I am afraid that the link is no good without registration.