Dipol D-143 NV sight

I purchased the D-143 NV sight for my air rifle after spending much time reading and researching about night vision rifle scopes. It is a Gen I device, so requires additional IR illumination when it is used in total darkness.

The reason I went for the D-143 is because it has two mounting options. Firstly it fits the weaver rail which is a common feature of NV scopes. It also comes in a dovetail mounted option, which means it can be fit directly to the air rifle without adaptors.

When I got the D-143 I was impressed how compact it was. It was shorter than my standard daytime scope, measuring only 24 cm in length. It fit comfortably onto the rifle.

Performance was good. I was looking to get a fairly cheap NV scope and it was £364. As stated, it does benefit from an additional IR illuminator. I had an extra 40mW illuminator and with this objects could be well illuminated and viewed upto about 30 metres. When used for hunting the IR bounces off the animals eyes, and looks like a pair of diamonds shining in the distance. Once you get to closer shooting ranges (30-40 metres), you can make out the shape of the target and place the pellet where you want on the target eg. headshot.

It has a 2x magnification which is good for giving you a wide field of view to spot the prey with. I would say maximum shooting range with my 40mW (fairly weak) IR illuminator is about 30 metres. If you get a more powerful IR illuminator then this could be extended as the target's outline can be seen better. This scope also has a proper crosshair for targeting, instead of inverted chevrons like some other scopes.

I would recommend if using this for hunting have a laser in addition to make rangefinding more accurate. Viewing throught the NV sight is quite different to daytime shooting, you have a green image for starters, and distance estimation is 2-3 times more difficult so requires practice.

There were no problems zeroing the scope and shooting accurately with this scope. I recommend it to anyone wanting a cheap Gen I NV device. But get a powerful IR illuminator, it will make the scope perform much better.