onelesscharlie Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 Took delivery of a Longbow from Starlight earlier this week and now have it nestling on top of my hmr. I had been going to wait until the weekend to try it out with 223 magic but 10 o clock arrived last night and I could wait no more. I had a short drive to a secluded dew pond which is usually well inhabited with mallard so I set up on a mound approx 120 yards above it and waited to see what arrived. I had taken my archer unit to use as a spotter and shortly after watching two particualrly attractive sheep for a few minutes I picked up on the unmistakeable glow of Mr Foxes eyes trotting towards the pond. I switched to following his approach through the longbow The noise escalated from the ducks as they warned of his impending approach and I followed him for a short distance, I can only say that the image quality compared to my B grade archer was more than impressive and at 100 yards or so I had no need for the IR. A short sqeak and he looked straight at me for a brief moment before he dropped. God im looking forward to some rabbiting and to the winter :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 Iam gutted that onelesscharlie (Colin) could not wait for me to come up to try out the Longbow, I hope he got soaking wet as it p----d down in Wales last night. Cant wait to come up on the weekend, Good on you Colin.................. 223Magic ( Mike )............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seth Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 Been using a b grade archer myself for a couple of years,out of intrest do the longbow tubes have spots on them like the archers,wish i had saved a bit more now and bought the longdow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybrock Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 Guys not being a Longbow or Archer owner myself I'm curious to know why the Longbow delivers better performance than say an Archer attached to a Leupold or any other scope? at £1300 just for the longbow day scope it seems to me it would be better to put the £1300 towards a higher grade Archer and attach to your normal day scope or is the Longbow worth the £1300 as a day scope? remembering at £1300 you are getting into Nightforce, Zeiss etc territory. I'm only asking as this may be the NV route I go down. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camo304 Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 Lets see some piccys with and without ir light please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onelesscharlie Posted July 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 Guys not being a Longbow or Archer owner myself I'm curious to know why the Longbow delivers better performance than say an Archer attached to a Leupold or any other scope? at £1300 just for the longbow day scope it seems to me it would be better to put the £1300 towards a higher grade Archer and attach to your normal day scope or is the Longbow worth the £1300 as a day scope? remembering at £1300 you are getting into Nightforce, Zeiss etc territory. I'm only asking as this may be the NV route I go down. Andy Hi Andy Rather than speculate as to the mechanical difference I will get the answer straight from the horses mouth when I ring Starlight on Monday. All I will say is that I currently use a B grade archer fitted to a Leupold vx111 4-14 x 50 and the Longbow image quality is probably at least 3 x better. I was taken on some superb ground last night by 223 magic, we were primarily looking for rabbits but Myxematosis had hammered the numbers. We moved on for a quick look around a poultry shed and soon spotted a vixen approx 80 yards away. Unfortunately we must have silhouetted ourselves against the blue light from the insectocuter because she soon trotted off into the distance. Mike was spotting with his archer and a 4 x 40 scope and indicated that there were another 2 foxes in the adjacent field, we positioned ourslves on a round bale and Mike sqeaked,unforunately it was over effective and they both flew in at pace to a range of about 5 yards. Unfortunately I was still scanning the field at a range of about 100 yards but after a few garbled instructions both were dropped. There was a further fox at 120 yards and this also suffered the same fate. I am rapidly becoming a fan of the .17hmr having shot four foxes with one this week...perhaps I should take mine out of the for sale section. While all these foxes could have been easily taken with my archer the longbow made it even more clinical even at 3.5 x mag. In conclusion.... if I could afford one I would get a longbow in a flash and im sure Mike would say the same, having said that Mike will probably get one anyway. Watch this space and thanks Mike it was a good evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrelsniffer Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Guys not being a Longbow or Archer owner myself I'm curious to know why the Longbow delivers better performance than say an Archer attached to a Leupold or any other scope? at £1300 just for the longbow day scope it seems to me it would be better to put the £1300 towards a higher grade Archer and attach to your normal day scope or is the Longbow worth the £1300 as a day scope? remembering at £1300 you are getting into Nightforce, Zeiss etc territory. I'm only asking as this may be the NV route I go down. Andy Hi Andy Im home in 2 weeks so will give you a shout..would you be able drive over to wrexham one of the days for a day/night out ?? will bring my NV so you can see what difference gen 2 and 3 UK and US is ..just in process of buying a PVS14 for 700 quid of a mate..good job he dont know how much they go for..lol Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Hi Andy my view after seeing the Lonbow in action is I would like to get one and feel that this is the next step for me after using the Archer with great success for many years. The image quality is 4 times better than the add on Archer, the scope gives good field of view and the image was very clear, looking at it I would say that it would be possible to head shoot a Fox at 200 yards plus with a good bipod. The units power pack looks bigger than the Archer, the scope eye relief is fine, with the Archer I need to use my stock extension. The main issue for me is I like to shoot in the evening then move on to night vision when dark, this is why the Archer works for me. With the Longbow this is entierly possible by fitting the day eye peace then fitting the NV later, so Iam happy with that. The scope seems good quality but is limited to 10 times mag only which is a bit of a downside for me when normal lamping, but Iam happy to live with this for the benefit of having the great NV view. Onelesscharle ( Colin ) shot three cubs quickley and cleanly as I would expect as he is an experienced and very capable shot. Just before we spotted the foxes I had a look through Longbow and reduced the mag to 3 times, he did not realise this but did not cause him a problem. What I did find good was when I was spotting with my Archer I could see the Longbow laser and as I had spotted the foxes I was then able to direct Colin onto them quite quickley. Good to chat again Mike...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrelsniffer Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Mike does a dedicated NV scope not float your boat so to speak ? as the price of longbow ie a UK scope is madness..cant you source someone who can get you US gen 3 in uk much cheaper and way better scopes...i also have a longbow type scope from US its 2.5/10/56 like you say x10 is workable but mine ive taken fox at 300 which is my max range with NV although detecting is a lot further easily with US kit. But my 760's are way better i would say.. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andybrock Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Hi Andy my view after seeing the Lonbow in action is I would like to get one and feel that this is the next step for me after using the Archer with great success for many years. The image quality is 4 times better than the add on Archer, the scope gives good field of view and the image was very clear, looking at it I would say that it would be possible to head shoot a Fox at 200 yards plus with a good bipod. The units power pack looks bigger than the Archer, the scope eye relief is fine, with the Archer I need to use my stock extension. The main issue for me is I like to shoot in the evening then move on to night vision when dark, this is why the Archer works for me. With the Longbow this is entierly possible by fitting the day eye peace then fitting the NV later, so Iam happy with that. The scope seems good quality but is limited to 10 times mag only which is a bit of a downside for me when normal lamping, but Iam happy to live with this for the benefit of having the great NV view. Onelesscharle ( Colin ) shot three cubs quickley and cleanly as I would expect as he is an experienced and very capable shot. Just before we spotted the foxes I had a look through Longbow and reduced the mag to 3 times, he did not realise this but did not cause him a problem. What I did find good was when I was spotting with my Archer I could see the Longbow laser and as I had spotted the foxes I was then able to direct Colin onto them quite quickley. Good to chat again Mike...... Thanks Mike, That's the dilemma I'll have when I decide which NV to choose, like you I'm often out waiting in the evenings and then move onto lamping when it's gone dark and also out early morning again waiting for a particular fox to turn up. So for the above reasons I'm swaying towards an "add on" of some descriptiion as I don't think a dedicated NV scope would suit my needs. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I should be out with Barrelsniffer as he has kindly invided me out to view his NV gear so I should get a better insight to NV then. Cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 see next Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Andy I hope you did not missunderstand me but the Longbow does the same job as the Archer, only £2500 better !!!!! it will do the evening shooting then swap lense for the NV unit. Mike... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
223magic Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Hi Mick the D760 does foat my boat, and from what I have read its better than the Longbow, but I have had top service from Julian at Starlight, and feel loyal to him, also as you know the Longbow is not just dedicated NV I can use the scope in the day then add on the NV unit for the dark. Thanks for the reply to my post, if you have any other options I would be happy to read your response. Cheers Mike... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camo304 Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 Why not use a camera filter (850nm) cover for dedicated scopes this will let you us it before the sun goes down, another plus buy a D760 manual gain job sorted turn the gain off then back on as it gets dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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