I purchased on of these units back in June and have been doing a fair bit of testing with it since then. They are at good price point here in Australia at around $AUS800 complete with an illuminator. I originally mounted it on a Tikka T3x Lite in .243 and intended it to be my night time pig hunting rifle. The rifle previously had a Leupold VX2 3-9x40 mounted with a red LED torch (Acebeam from memory) mounted on top of the scope in an adjustable mount. I have taken a lot of pigs with that set up and when I saw the ATN I thought that if red LED was good then IR would have to be better.
Scope was great in all respects except for the most important one - it would not hold zero. Thinking it may be the cheap mounts I remounted with Nightforce rings and tried again - still would not hold zero for more than a few shots. I moved it over to my CZ455 .22lr (very accurate little rifle with RWS Subsonic HPs) with the intention of seeing if recoil may have been the issue (although rated to 308 Win anyway) and if it would hold zero on the rimfire I would just keep it as my rabbit and hare night hunting rifle. Unfortunately it wouldn't hold zero on the rimfire either.
On both rifles it would zero fine and then hold zero for about half a dozen shots. Then it would start throwing shots all over the place. On the .22lr (which is a 1/4" gun at 25 yards with its normal scope) it would start off shooting 1/2" groups with the ATN. I could live with that as I only hunt with subsonic ammo out to 50 yards). After a few rounds it would then randomly throw shots into what was about a 3" group (at 25 yards) and to make things worse it would not even centre the very large group on the POA. No good to me at all.
I'm planning on returning the scope as ATN has a 2 year warranty but I'll have to nominate either a refund or a replacement. I like the scope apart from the fact it won't hold zero. Picture quality is good, menu is easy to navigate etc. I could take a risk on a replacement but it gets expensive here shipping scope around the country.
So.....I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has the same scope and if so what kind of experience have you had? I'm really hoping that my experience is an anomaly and that other users have had success with theirs. If bad experiences are more common though I'll take a refund and go back to red LED hunting torches as they certainly work well for the type of hunting I do which is alone and generally at night.
Any input greatly appreciated.
Scope was great in all respects except for the most important one - it would not hold zero. Thinking it may be the cheap mounts I remounted with Nightforce rings and tried again - still would not hold zero for more than a few shots. I moved it over to my CZ455 .22lr (very accurate little rifle with RWS Subsonic HPs) with the intention of seeing if recoil may have been the issue (although rated to 308 Win anyway) and if it would hold zero on the rimfire I would just keep it as my rabbit and hare night hunting rifle. Unfortunately it wouldn't hold zero on the rimfire either.
On both rifles it would zero fine and then hold zero for about half a dozen shots. Then it would start throwing shots all over the place. On the .22lr (which is a 1/4" gun at 25 yards with its normal scope) it would start off shooting 1/2" groups with the ATN. I could live with that as I only hunt with subsonic ammo out to 50 yards). After a few rounds it would then randomly throw shots into what was about a 3" group (at 25 yards) and to make things worse it would not even centre the very large group on the POA. No good to me at all.
I'm planning on returning the scope as ATN has a 2 year warranty but I'll have to nominate either a refund or a replacement. I like the scope apart from the fact it won't hold zero. Picture quality is good, menu is easy to navigate etc. I could take a risk on a replacement but it gets expensive here shipping scope around the country.
So.....I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has the same scope and if so what kind of experience have you had? I'm really hoping that my experience is an anomaly and that other users have had success with theirs. If bad experiences are more common though I'll take a refund and go back to red LED hunting torches as they certainly work well for the type of hunting I do which is alone and generally at night.
Any input greatly appreciated.
