Night Vision Vortex Impact 4000 Rifle/Rail mounted Range finder???
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FWIW the spuhr isms .55" pic rail fits this thing flawlessly. Can use my left eye while in the scope and see the display perfectly at night
I was wondering if anyone had considered using a more accurate return to zero mount for these? Since this won't fit in my MRAD case it will have to be removed everytime I place the rifle in the case. One video I watched said the zero was off maybe 0.3-0.4 MOA horizontally with remounting. I was thinking of using using a QD style mount from ADM (like AD 170 VPG LOW). Or is it a non issue?
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I dont own one yet, but with the laser you could check zero and rezero pretty quickly. I know i did with my radius. I just check it in my yard or neighborhood at a known value before heading out.
I have run into the same cold weather issues. Sounds like Vortex is aware and it's based on the design of the screen materials. I hope they figure out a software fix. It may help to turn the backlight off. More testing needed on my end.Chiming in here after using my impact 4k now for a handful of night hunts in cold weather as well as night use at the range.
First off I love it over the radius. No question it's better than the radius in every way except maybe range button location/power button.
Ranging capability is nuts. 3600+yds in daylight. Zeroing using NV is all I've done but it takes minutes to do at the most. Didn't even use the daylight laser last time. Just double tap it to scan, check through the scope using a pvs30 for where the "/" slanted laser is impacting in the optic and coalign it to something a long ways away. Couldn't be easier.
Ballistics are within .1 mils of my AB app on the phone out beyond 1200yds and that could simply be due to the onboard atmospherics vs my kestrel and AB on the phone.
Now for the annoyances....
Location of the power button without using the remote is an absolute nightmare if using the unit farther up on an ar15 rail. Especially when gloved. The amount of times I missed an opportunity on a coyote trying to find the power button and ranging it were unreal. The smallest most non-discernable location for the most important button on the unit? Stupid. I don't want to need a damn remote and never even considered one with the radius. That button was easy.
The screen brightness on the dimmest setting is nuts. If you've been out on a moonless night and used this unit you might as well have powered up an x300 turbo in your face. Coyotes will undoubtedly notice you glowing like the sun when you try to get a range. Not cool. I have solved this issue by adding a thing piece of neutral density filter. A drop of water on the screen, a cut to fit piece of filter and a q-tip to press it on and squeeze the water out like doing window tint. So far it's held up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit and I did two 3% layers. I will be swapping to a single 6% or 9% piece in the near future. So far. That problem is solved fairly easily.
The moon glinting off the huge glass front end is real. Setting the caller and walking back the other night was pretty obvious something looked off due to the lens. Mkm ARD on order.
The battery life at low temps (sub 30 degrees) is poor. I chewed through 3 cr123a in a single night (same 11 degree night) not necessarily because the unit was dead yet. But because it ate 75% of the power and I didn't want to risk a dead unit on a stand. Warm the batteries back up and they're about 50% alive yet but kind of useless for the winter hunting use... 4$ a piece. Ouch.
The cold also made the screen go blank yet back-lit for about 1-2 seconds before displaying a readout. Scan mode basically kept the unit non-display and back-lit but no read out due to the continual pulse of the ranger and obviously this nuked battery life quick.
As a whole I enjoy the unit and it has helped me take shots faster and more confident on steel in the dark than the radius ever could. The readout for ballistics is near instantaneous when it's warmer out. The ballistics are plenty close enough to anything I could ever expect from anything other than my phone and AB. I will be adding a small rubber bump stop to the ranging/power button to see if that helps with identifying the button with gloves. Hopefully it doesn't tear off right away.
More to come
I design electronics for a living. There is no software fix for this.
There is a company that makes screen warmers because LCD screens do not do well in cold temps. However, it is something that needs to be integrated into the unit when it is designed.
I was in Wyoming last week and when it got down to 7 degrees, the display slowed down noticeably. Still worked though.
ILya
I think the thing that annoys me about all of this is that the Razor 4000 GB is less than half the cost and probably has almost entirely the same internals. Same solver, laser engine, etc.
This unit is $1200 more and is the only unit marketed that does anything like this. The $800 Silencerco radius had no such issue.
And it’s made in Asia. It’s not like a US display was sourced.
High resolution displays that would have catapulted this product to another dimension functionality would have been very worth it.
It is not made in the same place as Razor 4000GB and shares no hardware with it.
The ballistic app is obviously the same.
ILya
Almost all of the complaints I've seen revolve around hunting at night or in the cold. Or both. It makes me wonder if we were the targeted consumer and what portion of sales we make up. Regardless, a few minor changes would have increased its versatility.
If we were a targeted consumer, whoever did the field testing dropped the ball.
Regardless, I still like the unit.
If the Vortex unit was half the cost of a RAPTAR S or MRF Xe, then it might not be as viable a product because the target consumer is obviously ones who can't justify $10k for a weapon mounted LRF, be it the private individual or lower budget LEO. But at 1/5th the cost, it's very much a viable product, though that reduced cost requires many compromises. It's a beefier unit, the display is LCD and isn't well suited to night shooting - but that's still a reasonable compromise in the grand scheme of things.
Isn't this the 1550nm version with other premium features !!??
Of course it will probably be a few weeks before we get any !!
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Totally agree, the current VO isn't perfect, but it real close to what every body has been hollering for - for the last 5 years !
( a radius with AB )
And for $2k.
I afraid when you say a few weeks, you're using the same week that Daniel used to talk about the end times... meaning a long timeIsn't this the 1550nm version with other premium features !!??
Of course it will probably be a few weeks before we get any !!
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Totally agree, the current VO isn't perfect, but it real close to what every body has been hollering for - for the last 5 years !
( a radius with AB )
And for $2k.
Totally agreed on the cost / capability of this unit. I'm not engineer, but making something work in cold weather and display brightness shouldn't be terribly expensive changes (I'm sure there's a reason they built what they did). And honestly, if the display is the only thing to complain about, then they crushed it
It’s a good product andI would buy it again. It was $10 more manufacturing cost away from being perfect.
Nothing is ever perfect. Impact LRF has a couple of flaws, but none of them is a showstopper for my purposes. Not even close to it. Hell, it is in the running for my "optic of the year" (I whittled it down to three options and it is one of them).
ILya
ILya
Funny how everyone’s been clamoring for “a de-tuned Raptar with a 900nm laser for $2k or less” for like a decade and when one finally comes around, people are like “yeahhhh, it’s ok, but it would’ve been better with a 1550nm laser…” 
I want one of each! Or 2 of the 900nm and one 1550nmFunny how everyone’s been clamoring for “a de-tuned Raptar with a 900nm laser for $2k or less” for like a decade and when one finally comes around, people are like “yeahhhh, it’s ok, but it would’ve been better with a 1550nm laser…”
My only two changes would be a fire button somewhere other than the middle if a flat, feeling less keypad and a display that worked when cold.
Compared to some other products Im delighted to be left with these two complaints.
Compared to some other products Im delighted to be left with these two complaints.
Bingo.
I am also not hugely impressed with the clearance around those 1/2" lugs. I move things around a lot and would much prefer some sort of a simple T25 cross bolt or two. They do provide a tool to fit the minimal clearance around the lugs, but I misplaced within hours of opening the box. However, I have T25 wrenches all over the place.
Aside from that and the fire/wake-up button, I have almost nothing to complain with. The display on mine slowed down in the cold, but not enough to mess anything up for me.
ILya
That screen in the often -25 degree weather I night hunt in, may be a true problem. The battery as well. And wearing double gloves will make the onboard fire button even more impossible to locate requiring the remote that's half an inch too big to nicely fit the lower of an ar15 magwell area, required.
I've got complaints for sure. But there's absolutely nothing I can compare it to that is a remotely rational comparison. It just sucks that such a smart, forward looking company can't find someone other then a handful of engineers and shills to give them feedback. I discovered all of these problems within a single hour of use......
I've got complaints for sure. But there's absolutely nothing I can compare it to that is a remotely rational comparison. It just sucks that such a smart, forward looking company can't find someone other then a handful of engineers and shills to give them feedback. I discovered all of these problems within a single hour of use......
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That’s a pretty extreme environment, in all fairness.
Unless he meant 30 Kelvin, in which case it wouldn't be just the vortex having a bad time.
Which rangefinder works best at absolute zero? Lets find out!
I can only test down to -320F/77K in the thermal chambers at work, and I do have one chamber with an optical glass window to try ranging through, but I bet that would be cold enough to take advantage of the Vortex VIP warranty.
It would certainly give their service department something to talk about...
I left out a huge portion of my question, but given what I wrote thats an excellent point. Those big lugs and requiring a special tool to mount to diving board mounted to a very precisely mounted scope mount makes me nervous. Seems like attaching it to a QD mount would make it much less tedious. Ive got an ATACR 5-25 on my MRAD so I was thinking I could do the low diving board and then the QD could make up the distance to get the screen clear of the elevation turret? Or is there a reason this wouldn't work?
I was going to try the Spuhr A 0019D with the ADM QD.
You don't have to use that tool to mount the Impact, I think it was included only so that someone without a set of tools would have a way to mount the device.
I use a 1/2" socket on a torque screw driver, and given that the manual says the mounting bolts should be tightened to 45 inch pounds, it's probably safe to say Vortex recommends folks mount the device using this method whenever possible.
Return to zero was sometimes a problem for me with the QD mount on the old SWR Radius. Being able to torque two 1/2" bolts to the same spec each time I remount the impact seems like an improvement to me. Especially if I choose to use the Impact's wind feature (that requires you to remove the device for compass calibration).
If someone has one they can loan me for a few weeks, I can make an external power adapter for a USB battery. Free one for the person loaning out the device.
Ship it to me here at Gunsite with my name on it.
Cory Trapp
c/o Gunsite Academy, Inc.
2900 West Gunsite Road
Paulden, AZ 86334
My thought is to use a 90 degree Lemo connector to the battery compartment, as I have them on hand for the new COTI adapters. Reasonably weather proof and fits a CR123 footprint, plus locking in place. What cable length would work best?
Cory Trapp
c/o Gunsite Academy, Inc.
2900 West Gunsite Road
Paulden, AZ 86334
My thought is to use a 90 degree Lemo connector to the battery compartment, as I have them on hand for the new COTI adapters. Reasonably weather proof and fits a CR123 footprint, plus locking in place. What cable length would work best?
Super interested to see the COTI battery adapters, not to derail the thread
I need someone to make me a mount adapter for my unit to fit over my PVS1531 goggles so that I don't have to run the PVS 14 adapter on a lens that rotates.
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The COTI adapters will be at SOK next week. The caps and cables are done, just waiting on connectors for the Lemo end of the cable.
I could also make the Vortex adapters with a splitter to go to a thermal as well, powering both of a single USB post battery.
I could also make the Vortex adapters with a splitter to go to a thermal as well, powering both of a single USB post battery.
Roger that. I don't think it will take too long to work out. I had one here for a bit looking at the lens cover/ard, but Tyler at MK has that already covered, and we did not give all that much thought to the power issue.
I have one of those, it should have come with the USB cable, so a two port battery would cover you. If I can ID the Fischer connector model, I could make a Y cable for it. I've considered making a Y already that would connect both the power and remote control cable, so one more reason to work on it.
Now that I look at it again, I'm not sure who makes this connector. Might have to try finding someone at EoTech that will give out tech info.
Back out again. Pitch black nights, having 2, 3% gel density filters stacked is still too bright. There was a noticeable glow on me when using it as coyotes came in according to my bunting partner.
Got a new pack of filters to try. 9% might be the ticket.
The unit when used in 10-20 degree weather takes about a full second to display distance and data regardless of distance. Battery life was good enough for a single battery with maybe 20min of run time total on 4 stands for the night. Worst part is finding the power button in the dark when they're coming in fast and worrying they can see me due to the brightness.
Ballistics were spot on for a 464yd standing tripod shot to bag me one solid center mass kill. New record. Readout read 2.7mil. Held 2.7mil. Heart shot. New distance record for me at night on coyotes.
I'm still happy with the unit but battery life in the cold, LCD screen lag in the cold and power/fire button location continue to be the largest problems with the impact 4000.
2 of 3 of these issues would be easily avoided with any sort of real night time t&e.
Once i get one, i may have to pick one of those up from you. Since i am local and all.
I got lost on what we’re trying to accomplish here. Run the ELR off an external battery? Where would you put the battery? Would you wear it? And what would the advantage of that be? Are you trying to save weight by removing the 4 lithium batteries?
