Thread: Looking for advice on night scopes

Originally Posted by Fat ninja

I’ve had the gcsi, have moved onto a pard thermal. The warranty on the gcsi is amazing but it doesn’t have rangefinder or Picture in Picture and the clarity isn’t as good as my pard. Have a look at the pard website there is some comparisons between the different brands for both thermal and nvg.

Really - that is interesting
GSCI is Canadian isn't it ??
Sounds like the Pard is the pick over the latter entries

I extensively tested the PARD 008 recently on .22LR, .223 and .243. Used it with its own inbuilt torch for the rimfire and added an torch for centrefire.

I was surprised how effective this device was for lining up both rabbits and deer. But I think it is absolutely essential to have the model with the inbuilt rangefinder, PARD 008 LRF. The one I was testing didn’t have that and I was constantly frustrated especially on the rabbits with the rimfire, shooting subs.

In the past I have used a thermal monocular for spotting and then a simple flashlight arrangement once you’ve worked out where your quarry is, got to where you need to be and then set up. To be honest that’s how I would do it again, I found it more effective. I did not like having to search for my quarry using the optic on top of the rifle as it’s just nowhere near as efficient.

Yip Canadian, I’m really happy with the pard units. They are Chinese made but have French internals same as the pulsar units

Still good money for the Pards. And for that money you'd have thought they could sort out the absolute crap owners manual. Garbage. There's YT guys who run through all the really useful stuff, plus Owl Optics have some decent info and links

Originally Posted by XR500

Still good money for the Pards. And for that money you'd have thought they could sort out the absolute crap owners manual. Garbage. There's YT guys who run through all the really useful stuff, plus Owl Optics have some decent info and links

Yes - but isn't that typical with all Chinese mauals - absolutly useless
Thank God for U Tube

Originally Posted by Sarvo

Yes - but isn't that typical with all Chinese mauals - absolutly useless
Thank God for U Tube

Agreed on that - I’m re-writing it for them
Nz copies are online now under support

Been using a pard nv008 for a while now. Daytime mode is a gamechanger, especially when it starts to get dark. It allows you to clearly make out game well after a top end scope has given up.
As a NV scope it's light, and compact with it's built in IR illuminator. (which turns out to be a better than the Yukon one), has video recording, Wifi so you can see the screen from a phone or tablet, has a true one-shot zero, and happily works out past 200M without having to buy anything else.
Downside will be the minimum magnification of 6.5x which makes scanning a large area painful. I'm getting a handheld thermal to meet the "scan a large area fast" requirement.

Originally Posted by quentin

Downside will be the minimum magnification of 6.5x which makes scanning a large area painful. I'm getting a handheld thermal to meet the "scan a large area fast" requirement.

@faregame, if you have any influence with PARD this is what I would change in a heartbeat. A 1x or 2x option for scanning an area would be a game changer. I tried with purpose made sticks for the standing position and I still found 6.5x far too much mag for picking out rimfire targets, not just FOV but DOV.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

@faregame, if you have any influence with PARD this is what I would change in a heartbeat. A 1x or 2x option for scanning an area would be a game changer. I tried with purpose made sticks for the standing position and I still found 6.5x far too much mag for picking out rimfire targets, not just FOV but DOV.

I do and will pass that on

i can assure you the only issues with chinese ATN scopes is owner based, leaky batteries and stuck sd cards (usually with very rough housings)

On deer there seems to be less recovered animals than when using a spot light...different blokes, calibers, areas...don't know why but maybe shooting from too far away.

Can 100% say that the handheld thermal is worth it's weight in dead rabbits. Went out shooting a few paddocks that were showing no rabbits when scanning with the NV gear. Got out the thermal, and hey presto - there they all are.
Interestingly I could walk up on the rabbits when just using the thermal, but as soon as I flicked on the NV with the 850nm illuminator, they were off. With the 940nm illuminator - just dead rabbits, shot from really close.