I received a Pulsar Digisight N550 from "Ceylonc" AKA Ceylon Blackwell (he is a great guy to deal with – a real southern gentleman) here on the Hide who owns Deltaoutdoorsman for some testing. I live in a rural area of Virginia so I have the opportunity to take the sight out into some farm fields looking for animals. I wanted to give the scope a real test to see if I could identify animals. I received the scope via USPS rather quickly from Ceylon. I had my wife bring it to me at work so I could read the manual before I started messing with the scope. The manual is relatively short and pretty easy to read. It comes in multiple languages for those that like to read in Deutsch for example. The scope is not too hard to figure out but there is one word of warning – there is no automatic shut off – yes found out the hard way.
The scope comes in a pouch that can easily be turned into a carry bag for trips into the woods. When I took the scope out I really thought this thing would weigh five pounds by its looks; however, I was surprised that it was actually pretty light and weighed 35.2 ounces by their instructional booklet (My AR, LWRC Lower, AR Performance 6.8mm Upper weighed in at 9.8 lbs as pictured). This particular scope also came with an IR flashlight that I mounted on its attached rail – again a really easy task. The scope takes four AA batteries as well as the two for the flashlight – the manual says to use “quality rechargeable” batteries but I just had Energizer AA and it seems to work fine. But, I would recommend the rechargeable because I used the scope for about an hour and I was almost at ½ power left in the batteries.
The first night I had the sight it was a rainy night so there was limited illumination outside. I didn’t get a chance to take it out to the fields due to the rain but I did the next best thing. I have a Shepherd that is 29” at the shoulder so I had my son take him out so I could see if I could identify him and the dog (I was hand holding the scope and not using it on a weapon). The dog is about the size of a deer. At 100 yards you could easily identify both my son and the dog very easily without the IR light. As I pushed him out to 150 yards I could still see them easily but I added the IR light to make it easier. Tonight I will get it out to 200 yards and beyond.
As someone else has said on the Hide the videos that are on YouTube really don’t give you a good feel of the scope. The contrast is up way high on the videos. There are two image adjustment settings – Contrast and Sum Light. “Contrast allows rapid image enhancement” and it does do that. It is kind of like turning up the lighting color on a T.V. If you are from my generation (Baby Boomer) you may remember a Black and White T.V. – when you messed with the color it would turn the T.V. lighter or darker. That is what contrast looks like on this sight. Sum Light is supposed to be for “low light conditions” or complete darkness.” I had not had it in complete darkness so I have not had to work it yet. One thing I did notice is that when you turn on the scope it comes up in the Sum Mode and you have to turn it off. There may be a way not to do this but it is too new to me to figure that out.
I did test the scope during the day time to see what it looks like. This is not a day time- night time scope – it is very fuzzy during the day. You can zero it easily but it is not meant for that. I would have love to seen the ability to use the scope as a day time optic without having to turn on the sight as to wear out batteries but to just to be able to see the cross hair. I would hate to take the scope on and off my hunting rig for day and night usage.
Pros – it works as advertised as it can easily make out objects out to 200 yards and I am sure that in some case well beyond that and would make a great night time hog killer.
Price is good for this level of night optic
Mounts easily to a rail. For grins I had a 6.8mm upper that was waiting for a lower so I attached the sight to it and it went on very easily and fit snugly to the rail.
Cons: When you turn on the IR light that is on the sight it emits a red glow. Not sure if there is a cover you can put over this. If you use the IR flashlight you don’t have the red light glow.
No automatic shut down of the sight – have to manually turn off the sight and flashlight.
I will get some pictures up today of the sight and work with capturing some of the images of the sight if I can figure that part out next.
The scope comes in a pouch that can easily be turned into a carry bag for trips into the woods. When I took the scope out I really thought this thing would weigh five pounds by its looks; however, I was surprised that it was actually pretty light and weighed 35.2 ounces by their instructional booklet (My AR, LWRC Lower, AR Performance 6.8mm Upper weighed in at 9.8 lbs as pictured). This particular scope also came with an IR flashlight that I mounted on its attached rail – again a really easy task. The scope takes four AA batteries as well as the two for the flashlight – the manual says to use “quality rechargeable” batteries but I just had Energizer AA and it seems to work fine. But, I would recommend the rechargeable because I used the scope for about an hour and I was almost at ½ power left in the batteries.
The first night I had the sight it was a rainy night so there was limited illumination outside. I didn’t get a chance to take it out to the fields due to the rain but I did the next best thing. I have a Shepherd that is 29” at the shoulder so I had my son take him out so I could see if I could identify him and the dog (I was hand holding the scope and not using it on a weapon). The dog is about the size of a deer. At 100 yards you could easily identify both my son and the dog very easily without the IR light. As I pushed him out to 150 yards I could still see them easily but I added the IR light to make it easier. Tonight I will get it out to 200 yards and beyond.
As someone else has said on the Hide the videos that are on YouTube really don’t give you a good feel of the scope. The contrast is up way high on the videos. There are two image adjustment settings – Contrast and Sum Light. “Contrast allows rapid image enhancement” and it does do that. It is kind of like turning up the lighting color on a T.V. If you are from my generation (Baby Boomer) you may remember a Black and White T.V. – when you messed with the color it would turn the T.V. lighter or darker. That is what contrast looks like on this sight. Sum Light is supposed to be for “low light conditions” or complete darkness.” I had not had it in complete darkness so I have not had to work it yet. One thing I did notice is that when you turn on the scope it comes up in the Sum Mode and you have to turn it off. There may be a way not to do this but it is too new to me to figure that out.
I did test the scope during the day time to see what it looks like. This is not a day time- night time scope – it is very fuzzy during the day. You can zero it easily but it is not meant for that. I would have love to seen the ability to use the scope as a day time optic without having to turn on the sight as to wear out batteries but to just to be able to see the cross hair. I would hate to take the scope on and off my hunting rig for day and night usage.
Pros – it works as advertised as it can easily make out objects out to 200 yards and I am sure that in some case well beyond that and would make a great night time hog killer.
Price is good for this level of night optic
Mounts easily to a rail. For grins I had a 6.8mm upper that was waiting for a lower so I attached the sight to it and it went on very easily and fit snugly to the rail.
Cons: When you turn on the IR light that is on the sight it emits a red glow. Not sure if there is a cover you can put over this. If you use the IR flashlight you don’t have the red light glow.
No automatic shut down of the sight – have to manually turn off the sight and flashlight.
I will get some pictures up today of the sight and work with capturing some of the images of the sight if I can figure that part out next.