Nutty Electronic Scope Finally on its Feet

I finally got the .204 Ruger out again.

I got this rifle last year, hoping to use it on coyotes and coons. I bought an ATN X-Sight II 52-20X night scope, figuring I would eventually use the gun at night. I had trouble getting the scope working, and the first time I shot the gun, I only got 12 rounds off before the battery died.

After that, I got disgusted and ordered an external battery. Then I let things slide.

Today I got the external battery working, and I fired a few rounds to see if I could work with it or not. Here are the results.

The shot at the bottom was fired at 50 yards, to see if I was on the paper. The group to the left was fired from 50 yards with a rest. The other shots were fired from 100 yards.

I’m not sure what to think of the ATN scope. As night vision goes, it’s not far from the bottom of the barrel, but then I knew that when I got it for only $600. It’s basically a cell phone in a scope body. It has GPS and Wi-Fi, and it zooms to 20X electronically, not optically.

It shoots video if you want it to. You can program it to run constantly and to save recordings when you fire rounds. If you fire a shot, it saves a certain amount of video before and after the shot. Then you can upload it to your computer.

It’s a neat toy, and you really can hunt at night with it. On the other hand, it’s not as good as a quality thermal scope.

I feel like I got my money’s worth.

Today I shot as it was starting to get dim outside. When I moved back to 100 yards, the picture was very grainy. I could see where I was aiming, pretty much, but I could not tell where the shots were landing.

You can zero the scope, obviously, but you can only do that when you know where the bullets are landing, so I didn’t bother. That’s why I shot so high.

I like the gun a lot. It seems to be well-made, and the trigger is wonderful. The bolt is still a little tight. Maybe that will clear up once I’ve fired more than 50 rounds.

When I got this gun, people told me I would be able to shoot and see the bullets landing through the scope. They said the recoil was so light, it wouldn’t move me off the target. That’s not true at all. It moves a foot or two away from the point of aim. Maybe if I gripped it as hard as I could, it would stay put. I am no rifle expert, but that sounds like a good way to kill your accuracy.

I’m going to go out on a brighter day and try again, and I’ll zero the scope at 100 yards. Right now, it’s zeroed crudely at 50.

My neighbor told me something interesting. He’s a board member or something at Ducks Unlimited, and he went to a banquet. While he was there, he saw an electronic game call. This is a machine that plays sounds to lure animals. He said I could get one and use it to draw coyotes.

It sounded fishy to me, but I went to Youtube, and sure enough, people were using them successfully. They draw coons as well as coyotes. You can lure a number of different animals. It’s illegal to use electronic calls for some animals, but Florida wants to get rid of coyotes, so they allow electronic calls for that purpose.

Needless to say, I ordered a call. It should be here Monday.

Now I’m wondering whether I should ditch the night scope. I don’t think I’ll need it for coyotes, because they are active during the day, and it’s not as nice as a real scope. I could get a 14X or 20X optical scope. I could always use the electric scope when I wanted to hunt coons.

I learned about another good product for coyote hunters: bottled pee. You can buy coyote pee online. Don’t ask me where they get it. Coyotes supposedly love it. Filthy things. I managed to resist, but if the caller doesn’t turn their crank, I may very well make a pee investment.

The ATN scope is very heavy, and it’s a little buggy. ATN makes more-expensive products which are probably less trouble to use.

The battery pack is not a great investment. You can buy the same basic item for less, if you don’t mind a different name on it. It’s a brick-shaped thing that takes a USB cord. They attach it to the rifle with a little bag you strap to the gun’s butt. You can buy pretty much the same bag for less, without the ATN patch on it. I sort of think ATN’s engineers looked around for a battery pack online, ordered a bunch, looked for a buttstock bag, ordered a bunch, and then ordered some patches.

I’m not sure how this will pan out, but I’m going to get the .204 under control tomorrow or Monday, and when the call arrives, I’m going to give it a try. I’ll set my blind up and see what happens.

Coyotes are incredible pests, so I’ll be doing God’s work.

I hope I nail a few. Ought to be fun.