Coyote Down With Home-Made NV

6mm06

6mm06

Well-known member

Last night I stayed at my hobo-shack cabin mainly for some rest and relaxation, but I unexpectedly ended up with a coyote this morning.

The alarm sounded around 7:35 AM and got me out of my bunk. A female coyote was at the 60 yard bait site. My truck was parked beside the cabin,
which is unusual. Generally I park it over near the barn and walk the 300 yards or so to the cabin. The coyote looked toward the cabin and no doubt
saw the truck, but didn't seem alarmed by it.

This is an example of a daytime view through the home-made outfit. I didn't have to use an illuminator naturally.

Here is a video of the kill shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6TldFpnmL4&feature=youtu.be





The coyote was a female and appeared relatively young. I shot it with my CZ 527, .17 Remington using
a Hornady 25 gr. HP. The distance was 60 yards. I couldn't find the bullet entry and there was no exit.












 
Superb and nice shooting, great to take advantage of your home-made rig at home no doubt!
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I'm very envious of your setup. The mosquitos have been bad around here and they are getting more action than I am.
At least at night. I've been getting some day shots and I'm editing the footage for a future post.
CH
 

AP,

It's not bad at all, considering. Just wish I would have got a larger building. It's an 8x12 storage building turned into a mini hunting cabin. I insulated and heated it, have a propane stove to cook on and a nice comfortable bunk, plus a shooting table. The coyote above makes number 11 at that place, all taken with night vision ( Gen 1 and home-made ) and all at night except this one.

 

Kevin,

The .17 Remington has exceeded all my initial expectations. It is truly a magnificent little cartridge. That tiny 25 gr. bullet at an average of 3921 fps just flat out drops them. The above performance is typical. Actually, most critters just drop on the spot, but this coyote rolled and tumbled down hill a bit.
 
6mm06,

After reading about some of your disappointments with the dedicated NV, maybe you just need to go spend some more $$ with Vic @ TNVC and get his mini DVR!! For the price and size, the screen resolution is decent, plus it records!

I've built Rolaid's scopeless version and have decided to go back to this for the upcoming season so that I have the ability to zoom (out mainly) and to switch back to a day scope without losing zero. The image quality was about equal between the Vortex and the scopeless.

The ability to record the day shoots will be great too, as long as I remember to turn it on!!

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Scope1_zps1owtgjce.jpg
 

That's pretty neat Simojo. The home-made version are actually pretty darn good, just a bit unconventional of what we think of in a scope, but they work great. The resolution and brightness is hard to beat, even with dedicated scopes.

I have a mini-DVR recorder that I attach to the Rolaids 1.0 version. That's how I get video. You are using the DVR as the LCD for aiming and also recording. Your model is a bit larger than mine. I just use a basic LCD screen.

Looks like you are using the EJ-230 camera, correct? I understand that crosshairs can be configured but I haven't tried that yet.

Keep us posted how it works out. Hope to see some good videos.
 
Yep, its the EJ230. I picked up one of Rolaid's custom housings and a Tamron 20-100mm lens for the scopeless version.

Here's a clip of some of the comparison shots between the two systems. Video was recorded using the TNVC mini-DVR, thanks Vic!

 
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It seems the scopeless 230 configuration has a much finer crosshair that the scoped version.

Have you tried to sight the rifle with the scopeless version? If so, how difficult is that to do?

How much is the custom housing for the EJ-230?

Do you have a link to the Tamron lens lens you used?

Which do you prefer, scopeless or scoped version?

I'm full of questions but this stuff is fun.

 
Yes, the scopeless reticle is always in focus whereas the scoped version is a compromise between image focus and reticle focus.

I haven't tried sighting in the scopeless version but, as seen on Rolaid's videos, it shouldn't be much different than a regular scope. You probably thought the same thing about the M845 too though!
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http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/414191-REG/Tamron_13VM20100AS_13VM20100AS_20_100_mm_f_1_6.html
As far as the lens itself, it seems to be good quality for the $$. It has small thumbscrews for the focus, zoom, and shutter aperture that can be tightened down to maintain the settings. The entire lens rotates about 350 degrees (it has a stop point) around the shaft to allow access to the thumbscrews. The rotation doesn't change any settings, but is somewhat annoying when trying to adjust zoom and focus if you don't have the setscrews backed way off.

There's pros and cons to each system. The scopeless version is over a pound lighter, is more compact and would allow for a normal cheek weld with an offset, backup sight system, and always has a crisp reticle.

However, the scopeless is a dedicated system with its own zero, it doesn't seem as durable, won't allow you to change zoom levels without changing your POI, and the focus isn't like a regular scope; ie with a regular scope if you zoom from 3x to 9x, the image remains basically in focus. With the scopeless, zooming between 2x and 6x requires readjusting the zoom on the lens which isn't difficult, but probably not something your going to have time to do with an animal in the crosshairs.

If I'm day or night hunting and something goes down on the scopeless version, my only backup is some type of offset, unmagnified back up sight. With the scoped version, I can quickly remove the whole camera system and be back to my 3x9 scope.

At this point, I think I prefer the scoped version like I have setup on my rifle now, but like you said, its fun to tinker with!! If the lack of zoom isn't an issue, I would considering trying a Vortex or similar 3x magnifier in front of the EJ230 with the crosshairs configured instead of the CCTV lens. It doesn't solve all of the problems, but would be much more robust than the CCTV lenses, wouldn't require the CNC housing, and would actually be less money in the end and could be used for configurations on other rifles with red dots or such. As SkyPup mentioned in some other thread, the lower zoom levels may be preferable, as a 6x zoom does no good if you can't find the animal.

Check your email if you haven't already!
 
Those set ups look awesome! Simojo...I want to build a scoped version for my R-15, will the camera and screen hold up to .223 recoil? Roland uses an air gun so I have often wondered if it would hold up to .223 or .243 etc.
6mm06.... what about Roland's other project? The one where he uses the Vuzix glasses as a scanner and then switches to the scope cam for the shot..... Anybody tried that?
 

Tyrod,

Roland has some nice projects, but the only one I have done is the 1.0 version that I have been using for about two winters now. It is working great as the videos indicate.

As to a scanner, I have been wanting to do one myself. I know some others that have. A small hand-held scanner (with the monitor) would be great. Those things work very well from what I have seen. Here's a couple to take a look at. Pretty neat.




This one has a 5'' DVR and screen.



With regards to recoil, I have used my 1.0 version home-made unit on the .17 Remington just because I wanted to try that cartridge and to hunt some with it. It has performed very well. I also used it on a 22 magnum and a 218 Bee, but according to one response I read, someone used it on a 30-06 without any problems. I'm not sure what the threshold is, but personally I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a 243 or even larger. Cameras are about $100 and monitors around $25, so even if by chance it did destroy one, you wouldn't be out a huge amount of money and wouldn't take much to replace it. That's another good thing about the home-made units, it's not having to worrry about using a dedicated (expensive) NV scope on a larger caliber. The home-made unit is pretty darn cheap to assemble.

The thing I like about using the unit on the 17 Remington is that I can see my shot on videdo since the recoil is low. The 17 Rem is like a lightening strike too and just puts them down.

 
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