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Night Vision Vortex Impact 4000 Rifle/Rail mounted Range finder???
- Thread starter PowPowHawg
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Here's a few night pics. You can see that it illuminates the rifle quite a bit even with a full moon. My mounting location doesn't help matters with the brightness. The Impact was set on the dimmest setting and the Radius was second from dim for
I've had no issues at dusk or on overcast days. Full sun will probably wash it out.
It ships with retro-reflective stickers that you can use to make the laser easier to see in the bright sun. By definition these stickers reflect most of the light straight back to the unit with a lot less scattering outward. I had a hard time seeing the laser in the bright desert sun, but when it panned over the stickers it was plenty bright.
With those stickers, it is pretty hard to miss (scroll to the second picture). That's middle of the day in Albuquerque.
I would say no, I was really hoping that with above 15x I could see the visible laser without the reflective targets and that was a big no, put the reflective targets on and was able to see it clearly, but with the reflective target the beam is scattered so it's not a dot but a blob you see, I centered the blob as best I could on the reflective dot and was good out to 1000 yards no problem.
I’ll add, that was my experience too, but getting it close enough seemed fine. I was able to lase 2/3 IPSC steel out to 1000 easily. And the main reason I got this thing was for night shooting and it didn’t disappoint (except for the bright screen). It was such an improvement to just be able to center on an unknown target in the scope, hit the button on the remote, and not only get a reading but also a hold. It was a superpower I didn’t want to spend $10k on, and this thing delivered.
Am I understanding this correctly with respect to pairing a Kestrel?
It never actually pairs to the LRF, so phoneless utilization with onboard ballistics is a no go. The phone is acting as a go-between and taking environmental data from the Kestrel and ranging info from the LRF?
Obligatory pic
It never actually pairs to the LRF, so phoneless utilization with onboard ballistics is a no go. The phone is acting as a go-between and taking environmental data from the Kestrel and ranging info from the LRF?
Obligatory pic
Yes except the impact has its own environmental sensors so technically the only thing you're taking or that you need is the wind speed.
I'm actually really hoping that down the line they will allow the weather flow to connect straight to the impact without using the phone to go between. I could see weather vanes for weather flows getting more popular if that becomes reality. Having a weather flow giving real time wind speed and direction that feeds into the unit would be badass.
For what it's worth, I used paired environmentals from the Kestrel to true the curve on the Impact, and once that was done I haven't needed the Kestrel again (onboard sensors on the Impact work great).
Still sorting out how to best handle wind, but at least for elevation correction, you don't need the Kestrel connected.
If I was a betting man, Vortex has an ultrasonic windmeter in the works that’ll connect to this thing. Kestrel, watch out.
quick question. I zeroed the rangefinder 44 miles from home. Didn't get to shoot it as to many damn skeeters. When i arrived back home i measured a hallway at close to 29 ft. I used the Impact 4000 and lased it and it displayed 6.1 yards and U 34.86 and R 0.07 which translates to 18 ft 3.6 in. Almost 11 ft. difference. Anyone verify the accuracy of the laser? Was hoping to use it for hunting. I did send Vortex an email about this today. Wondering if anyone has come across any issues with the laser performance.
Mine was 4 yards different from my Leica 2800.com at 824 (or 828) yards this morning. I have no way to know which one is closer to correct. That’s obviously much closer to accurate than yours… can you try at 100 yards or so in your neighborhood (without drawing too much attention 
)?
)?lol. I measured with a 25 ft tape measure so I would probably look like a fool measuring in my neighborhood. I did not recalibrate when I came home but I think that would only affect ballistic solutions and not laser distance. I will see about borrowing my bros Sig 3000 and compare them. Thanks for the responseMine was 4 yards different from my Leica 2800.com at 824 (or 828) yards this morning. I have no way to know which one is closer to correct. That’s obviously much closer to accurate than yours… can you try at 100 yards or so in your neighborhood (without drawing too much attention
Bought this thing on day 1 of them being released and am super happy with it other than some weird app connectivity on one of my phones.
I went with the high Spuhr rail, I just found the display easier to see from my head position versus the lower one, it was partially blocked by the turret.
I tried taping a couple layers of Neutral Density Filter film and it sort of worked. What was a lot easier was to not use the backlight and instead use a red head-mounted light to just dimly illum the device to see. Not ideal, but it works.
I tried the red tinted tail light tape and it made the numbers unreadable. I'm going to try having a vinyl decal cut to cover the outer edge edge of the screen next. The brightest part of the light seems to be leaking around the sides of the display.
That may be the best choice for now. I wonder if brightness can be something firmware could adjust?
Perhaps, but I suspect to really make the device night-compatible it needs an inverted display with illuminated characters and not illuminated screen.
Good point, I think an Impact 4000N (N for Night) may need to be on the horizon
I haven't noticed any difference, of anything the Vortex is better.
It easily ranges cattle at 1200+yds and trees at 2k+. I've had no issues on coyotes either.
But I do miss the radius's three ranges and I've had a few minor issues with grass or brush in front of the object with the Impact. I wish it had first, best, and last modes, but otherwise it has worked very well.
My dope has also been spot on with no trueing using the same BC's I've been running.
I'm probably 10hrs deep into this battery, including a 5hr hunt with temps in the 40's and it's still going strong. The only thing I've noticed is the result came up a touch slower in the cooler temps.
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Yeah - I too noticed that on all of my units the results are SLOW when the unit is cold. So are any button presses or menu navigation items.
like ruin and opportunity slow, or just delayed a few seconds? im typically hunting when its 0-40 degrees
Going with a cap, don’t know that I need anti-reflective properties before the shit pops off.
For any of the night guys, i picked one of these up and ordered some thin plexiglass sheets off amazon, trimmed them to fit the screen area, took taillight tinting tape (about 1" wide) and made some covers for the screen. Tuned it up with a couple layers, and can play with the backlight brightness on the screen if needed to dial it in. Worked perfect and barely has any shine back at me. first prototype i cut thin strips of automotive double sided tape around the edges to attach, but i think im going to try it with velcro incase i switch it to a day setup.. I'll get some pics
This could probably be fixed with a firmware update. “Add 4 more backlight levels”. It’s usually a PWM driven system so you just reduce the duty cycle.
I wish there was a way to get the range number bigger when it’s side mounted. When mounted on a diving board etc, you can get the range number to be really big by not using the ballistic portion. However, when it’s side mounted it has pretty small digits, no matter the mode, which can be difficult to read when it’s all the way at the front of the chassis and especially when you are coming off your thermal and try and look at it
Australia got it's first batch of Impacts this week, got it mounted up, updated, syncd and roughly zero'd on a building at 50m... Hanging out to get it into the hills. Have a few different diving boards to run it on. Happy with it so far, great piece of gear.
I have no idea what the beam divergence is, but I was able to lase a 2/3 IPSC at a mile without issues.
Converging zero or is everyone doing offset? I set it up with offset but it’s a lot more work than a converging.
Very slightly converging. I want it to converge with the line of sight a couple of miles out.
ILya
It ain’t tiny.
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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
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
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I echoed that in my reviews pretty exactly. Great in the warm weather, but the cold nukes it bad.
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Vortex Impact 4000 Ballistic Laser Range Finder
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