ATN MK 410-B Spartan - ATN night vision

Illuminated reticles
are most useful
on dark, big-game
animals, such as
this truly black,
black bear, taken in
Alaska.

Bushnell offers a phosphorenhanced,
plex-type reticle called the
Firefly on some of its Elite 3200 scopes.
When the Firefly is "charged" with a
flashlight, the edges of the reticle glow
for at least a couple of hours; and,
since the reticle itself is pretty heavy, it
works very well for dim-light aiming.
My wife Eileen used a 3-9X 3200 with
the Firefly on a last-light black bear a
few years ago, and the reticle helped a
lot. .
Actually
also come
black black bears (they
in colors from blond to
brown, even brick-red) are one of the
toughest targets for a conventional
reticle, because the center of the
reticle is often lost against the bear,
especially in dim light. The same thing
happens with dark pigs, the reason
many European scopes come with
electronically illuminated reticles.
Illuminated reticles have recently
become more popular in North
America, both for'pigs and quasi-night
whitetail shooting, but some of the
first electronic reticles in "American"
scopes didn't have any means of finely
controlling the intensity of the lighted
aiming point. These days almost all
are almost infinitely adjustable for
brightness, helping enormously as light
conditions change. A really-brightly-lit
aiming point is handy in typical forest
cover, especially on a cloudy day, but
the same intensity overwhelms the
sight picture when aiming in neardarkness.
Many of the early scopes also had
problems with battery life, partly
because the intensity couldn't be
controlled. Better batteries have helped
enormously, and many newer scopes'
also shut off automatically after
several hours. I recently used a Zeiss
Victory Diavari 2.5-IOX on a pig hunt
in Texas and left the reticle turned on
much of the time for three days, and
still didn't come close to using up the
battery. I've also used several other
electronic reticle scopes, mostly for pig
hunting. They help enormously in any
really dim light, but can even help in
dim woods, where a fine point can help
when trying to precisely put a bullet
between twigs.
A few brands offer an entirely
illuminated reticle. For a while I
owned a 5.5-22X Nightforce with a
multi-point reticle that lit up like a
burning bush. These reticles obviously
require more battery power, and also
really aren't all that useful in hunting,
since it's rare to shoot at an animal at
ranges where an illuminated "ballistic"
reticle might be useful. You just can't
see animals that far away at night, even
in a very big, bright scope.
When shooting in real darkness,
however, a true night-vision scope
beats any illuminated-reticle scope.
They're only legal in a few places, but
when night-vision can be used it makes
a real difference.
The night-vision optics available
to the civilian market are normally
described as Generation 1, 2 or 3­
or more popularly as Gen 1, 2 or 3.
The numbers indicate a rough level of
performance and cost. A typical Gen
1 scope enhances the available light
. about 1,000 times, Gen 2 about 20,000
times and Gen 3 up to 50,000 times.
(There are night-vision optics beyond
Gen 3, but right now they're almost
entirely military.)
The differences in view aren't just
in brightness, but sharpness. A Gen
1 scope, like the ATN MK 410 5X
Spartan I've been testing for a while,
definitely allows shooting in much
dimmer light than any conventional
scope. One of my first tests was on
a starlit night, with a cardboard pig
silhouette placed 100 yards out in a
field. It was impossible to aim at this pig
with even the brightest conventional
scopes in my collection, including
$1,000+ models from Leica, Leupold,
Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski and
Zeiss. But with the $600 Spartan the
fake pig could not only be seen, but
also shot accurately.
I don't night-hunt enough to justify
buying something like the $4,000-plus
Night Optics USA D-740-3AG 4x82
scope that Bill Wilson has on one of his
AR-15s for hunting pigs on his Texas
ranch. But Bill is Wilson Combat, and
justifies the cost both because of the
research he has to keep up with trends
in combat firearms, and because he
loves to hunt pigs.
I spent a few days with Bill in the
winter of 2010, "field-testing" some of
hiS' ARs in 6.8 SPC not only on pigs,
but one coyote. The hunting took place
at all times of the day, from stands and
on the ground. On the second evening
Bill picked me up from a stand an hour
or so after sunset, and asked if I'd like
to do some "real night hunting."
"Sure," 1said, assuming that meant
spotlighting. Instead it meant real
night vision.
We drove to a wide valley along a
tributary of the Sulphur River, then
got out and started toward the creek.

The sky was partly cloudy but enough
stars peeked out to allow us to walk
without tripping. Bill also had along
his Night Optics binocular, and a
few hundred yards from the truck we
stopped while he scanned the cattle
pastures that sloped gently down
toward the creek. "There are some
cows," he whispered, "and some deer."
Then he suddenly stopped scanning.
"And there are some pigs."
He handed me the binocular and
the view was astonishing. I've been
around night optics since the first
crude monoculars. went on the market
in the I990s. The first ones weren't
quite capable of differentiating a deer
and a benchrest at 100 yards, but
through Bill's binocular w~ could tell
the difference between cows and pigs
at half a mile or more.
A light breeze came from the wrong
direction for a direct stalk, so we made
a big circle, eventually moving very
slowly and silently up a slight rise to
where we'd seen the pigs. As we crested
the rise Bill stopped frequently to scan
the ground ahead, then leaned close
and whispered, "There they are." I set
up the AR-15 on a pair of shooting
sticks and pressed my right eyebrow
into the collapsible-rubber eyepiece of
the scope, activating the night vision.
About 100 yards away a blackand-white
boar fed on the lush grass,
so precisely visible that I could not
only see his spots, but his ears. He was
angling away, not providing any S9rt
of broadside shot, so-r- aimed under
the near ear and pulled the trigger.
The suppressed rifle made a little
whonk and clatter, and the other pigs
in the vicinity immediately ran into the
nearby brush, but the boar dropped
straight down and never moved again.
Night-vision scopes may not be legal
for German boars, but they sure work
in Texas. G!13
ATN CORP.
1341 SAN MATEO AVE.
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94080
(800) 910-2862
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/ATN
BUSHNELL CORPORATION
9200 CODY, OVERLAND PARK, KS 66214
(800) 423-3537
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/BUSHNELL
NIGHT OPTICS USA, INC.
15182 TRITON LN., SUITE 101
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA 92649
(800) 306-4448
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM/N IGHT-OPTI CS
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~ ..,.
RETICLE 44
ILLUMINATED
Most hunting reticles light up in the center,
rather than illuminating the entire reticle.
TRIJICON
49835 SHAFER AVE.
P.O. BOX 930059
WIXOM, MI 48393
(800) 338-0563
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COMITR
CARL ZEISS, INC.
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