Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Nightforce

Was just over on Snipershide.com looking in the Hunting section. Their's a topic on George Gardner, owner of GAP custom rifles. Their are pics of him, his 7WSM rifle and on top of it is a NF 2.5-10x32mm. Here is a guy, who has the money and knowledge to build/buy about any rifle he wants and he picks the NF 2.5-10x32mm. To me, it just says something about him and his great choice of optics.

Alan

To me, it says he has better eyes in low light than I do.

Gotcha! That's a "CDS" knob I can afford...

It really doesn't work that way. It, any scope, works when there is enough light to allow it to work as it is adjusted.
I've seen nights where a scope or binocular with a 4mm exit pupil will work. And I've seen legal twilight where an optic, either a rifle scope or a binocular, would just barely work with a 5mm exit pupil.
That means the scope in question will work even when it has to have a 5mm exit pupil, but the user can't use 8X. He has to use 6X. Any more magnification and the scope simply goes black. You'll see nothing.
The other problem is the retilce. If it's a fine, tactical sort, they are often unusable even if the image is still present. E

Just got back from having a look around for a big guy in our late four point season here. Right at the beginnning of shooting light a doe and a fawn came out on the gas line I was on and crossed into the trees on the other side.

Quite suddenly they came ripping back out with their ears back and ran back into the forest from the side they came out on. I ranged where this had occurred (391 yards) and then waited. Maybe 30 seconds later two coyotes came out using that kind of loping trot they use that eats up ground.

I had a rest and led the first one a little using the 3rd hash mark on my unilluminated npr2 reticle and double lunged him.

This was absolute first light on 10x power. This picture was taken with a flash as the camera thought there was not enough light.



As an actual user of this scope and reticle in lowlight I can say it works just fine - just as many other scopes will work fine.

edited.

Not everyone has the same eyes Coaster...

Have you used one?

As a matter of fact I did (2.5-10x32). And guess what, it didn't do what I need a scope to do in low light.

Think it's a great scope, but it didn't perform for me in low light. Which wasn't a surprise with the 36mm objective.

Cool. You got any pictures of the animals?

More than you care to look at.

Really? I would love to see a truck full of critters that you killed using the little Nightforce! Be curious to hear your thoughts on it. What was your results as to the small objective keeping you from killing animals in legal light? How was the durability? Did you test the adjustments?



Thanks!

Unless the recticle is laser etched and can be lite such as most NF scopes.

Not with the nightforce clown. One hunt told me what I needed to know about the low light capability of that scope. There is better out there in that regard and I choose not to limit myself.

HINT: It's about using equipment that will effectively kill stuff in a variety of situations.

For me, Dark timber with deep ravines doesn't make the 32MM objective exactly shine in legal light.... If you actually hunted you might be able to see 1st hand how the smaller objective is a limiting factor in many low light situations.

If you need more instruction I'll be around.

JM

You saved a deer there, for sure. Ive seen them stay on a deers trail a while before it gave up trying to get away. I'd sure like to know how much you figure the lead was on that dog you got at 390.

I built a chart on a spreadsheet last fall after I missed a nice bull elk on my fly in. On one axis it has mph and on the other yards. I plug bullet velocity and I get approximate lead.

The guess work comes in with how fast you figure the critter is running. I guessed the dogtrot at about 5mph which gave a lead of about 8 inches at 2600ft/sec.

So my point of aim was about an inch or two ahead of the coyotes chest.

I thought this thread was about Nightforce?.... So you don't have more pictures then I would care to look at of animals you've killed? And you bought a $1,200+ dollar scope, used it one day in the "dark timber" and "deep ravines" (of Miss. and LA?) and determined it wasn't sufficient to kill with because of it's objective size?

Now I'm just starting out in this whole killing thing, but I would think that one wouldn't need nor use a scope set on 10x for "dark timber"... The little bit I have done says that using it set on more like 2.5x makes more sense thereby giving an exit pupil of 12.8mm. Matter of fact one could run all the way up to 6x and still have over 5mm. Of course I don't actually hunt, only being out for 39 days this fall and counting, across three states with only eight animals, and of course I did post pics of two gnarly old bucks killed in the last two weeks on a public land backpack hunt where I had never set foot before with said scope, so I am always ready for instruction on shooting and killing.




It wouldn't matter if this thread was about NF, Leupold, Ziess, BSA or Bushnell. I believe most people, when soliciting opinions, want feedback from actual users. I know I do.

quick question, does anyone know what the parallax is set for at the factory?

thanks.

You need instruction and a lot of it.

You guess too much.

Why would I buy a 2.5x10 Nightforce for 1200 bucks when a bud has one on his gun that I can use to see if I liked it or not?

Hmmmm. You guessed wrong once again.

Here is another tidbit for you to contemplate. The reason he let me use his rifle is because he wanted to sell the scope to me...

Why was he trying to sell the scope you ask?....

Because he hunts the same places I do and didn't like the fact that the scope didn't do as well in low light as his 6X42 Leupold.

I tried it and didn't like it. Simple as that. Now if you want to spend your 1200 on one and give it to me, that will be fine. I'll sell it for 1K and go buy something else That fits my eyes and the way I hunt.

I've guided hunts for years. Bow hunted for over 30 years and I've been asked to use calls by more than one company before they came to market...Deer and Duck.

I've posted picks all over this site of big whitetails I've killed buddy, go look for 'em. It will give you something to do and get you out of the adults hair.

So excuse me if I'm not real impressed that you hunt some public land a few days out of the year.

But I do find it amusing that you cannot except the fact that some people who hunt in dark holes may want a little larger objective in order to maximize their legal shooting time.

If somebody bolted you to Einstein, you would still be a imbecile.

I know nothing about the "dark" in the South.

Up here, we get +1/2 hr each side of the day, and with the low clouds and big trees and valleys and so on, not to mention a dark messy background (as opposed to say dry tan grass), it can be damn dark during "legal" light.

I'm always looking for "the" scope for low light. I'd be real hot to try say a 2.5-10x42 or 44mm Nightforce. Wish one existed.