Zulus HD Digital Night Vision Scope with Laser Rangefinder and Ballistic Calculator

Excellent scope for the airgunners and subsonic/suppressed firearms hunters/pesters. If you shoot projectiles that have a rainbow trajectory (airgun pellets/slugs or heavy subsonic rounds), the on board ballistic calculator and laser range finder are game changers. No need to have separate range finder or doping charts. I wonder if it is possible to use this type of scope with crossbows and night time feral hog pesting.The small compact size is a huge plus. Compared to the bulky ATN X-Sight pro 4k and heavy Rix TourT20, this Zulus/DNT scope is tiny. I like how little real estate this scope takes up on my air rifles and AR-15's.I like that the buttons in the scope are separated by a little bit of space and not situated too close to each other. That way, I can easily know which button I am pressing (tactile memory) when I am sitting in a blind or tree stand in the dark. The ATN X-Sight also has widely spaced buttons. The RIx TourT20 buttons are too close to each other and somewhat cumbersome to futz around with in the dark.The 850nm IR illuminator does a nice job. However, I will be getting the 940 nm bulb (more discrete and less visible to the naked human, coyote, or hog eye). It is nice that all you need to do is unscrew the 850 nm bulb and replace it with a 940nm bulb. The button to turn on and adjust the intensity of the IR light is nice and quiet (unlike the Rix TourerT20 IR button). At 50 yards, the hogs will definitely hear the click of the Rix TourerT20 IR pushy-clicky button. It would be more ideal if DNT Optics offered a choice between the 850 versus 940 nm illuminators (or offer both).Battery life is short (maybe 3-4 hours tops) and will not last long enough for a nights pest control outing. I noticed that when using the scope with the illuminator, the power goes from full 4 bars to 3 bars in less than 5-10 minutes. For a night outing, I will forego the scope battery and connect the scope directly to battery pack (using USB-C cord). Not ideal because the cap that covers the SD card and USB-C connection needs to be removed and put away in safe spot. Not ideal to have these parts exposed to the elements.The battery can be recharged by connecting USB-C cord directly to the scope or by taking out the battery and recharging. Be careful when you screw on the battery cap. I can see myself stripping or cross threading the metal threads if I quickly try to screw on the cap. The rechargeable battery powers the entire unit (not just the IR illuminator).The instructions are helpful, but could be clearer. I had to reread the instruction charts a couple of times to figure out which buttons to long press or short press. I think the ATN X-Sight scope is more intuitive when it comes to navigating the buttons and on screen menu. Also, do note that you have to make sure that the ballistic profile matches the zeroing profile. The program doesn't automatically fuse the ballistic profile with the zeroing profile. That would be really nice. One could be using the ballistic profile for projectile A with the wrong or unintended zeroing profile. It was a little confusing for me at first. But, a quick phone call to the DNT Optics company was very helpful.I use this DNT Optics scope with a hand held thermal scope for night time hog and coyote pest control. The thermal hand held is for scanning and detection while the DNT riflescope is for species confirmation and shooting. Scanning with only the riflescope gets old real fast.DNT Optics has come out with 3 new rifle scopes that has thermal AND digital night vision with laser range finder and infrared illuminator (ThermNight TNC225R, TNC335R, and TNC635R). Pretty neat and at a more affordable price. DNT needs to show many more examples of what night critters look like under their scopes at varying distances.As for reliability of this unit, time will tell. I am hoping that this unit has better reliability than the ATN X-Sight units.

There is just one thing that bothers me about this scope. When sighting in a target that is in the shade and there is a lighted area adjacent or behind, the target gets lost in the shadows. I don't know a lot about how the electronics manage the contrast of the shaded areas when there is light in other places. Besides this issue, I like the scope a lot. It is lightweight, has sharp image quality, good image and sound on recording, good illuminator, battery life is good, and the ballistic calculator is amazing. After inputting your particular ballistic data, the scope does the calculating to put your shot on target. Push the laser rangefinder button to range the target, push again for the solution and the crosshairs adjust for elevation automatically. It is pretty damn close and my friends say I'm cheating. Worth every dollar. Would recommend.

This scope works farily well. I orginally purchased it to put onto my crossbow. I wanted to use the balasitic calculator to account for arrow drop over multiple distances. This works pretty well, although it does take a little trial and error for crossbow bolts. As this is really design for rifles.The location of the laser ranger finder is a little klunky, but it works. I wish it was in a different location or that there were as a bluetooth remote that could be used.The zoom feature is also a little odd with the small wheel. It's pretty difficult to use with gloves, but I don't really adjust it with the crossbolt.I also moved this a rifle and the "one" shot sight in process works pretty well. It's not perfect, but it does save on ammo.My biggest complain is the 5x zoom. It's a bit much for my hunting area. I really wish that I had picked up the 3x, but it was never in stock.Also, they released a new body design of the thermnight. I'm hoping that they use the same zoom lever and LRF button placement on their newer scopes.All in all, it's been really good. Battery life is decent and I carry a spare in my pocket. The bootup time is around 15-20 seconds, but you can just put it in standby and the wake up is less than 2 seconds.I'll probably pick up a 3x this year and leave it on the crossbow.