Canadian Airgun Forum

Not sure if this is the right section to post, so move if needed..

Picked up this Trail NP for shooting with my kids as well as elimination of some big rats which we
started seeing randomly in the yard this past summer. So with the scope I want to add some unique
lighting for night shooting

I added a raised rail with a 250mW 650nm red laser in which the focus can be set from a thin line
and dot up to a large round spot 20ft in diameter if need be. The idea is to use the larger spot size
to illuminate an area as one would do with a flashlight. The difference is this is far more discrete and
with a circuit to adjust the brightness, it can be set just bright enough to cover the target area and in
red light so it does not mess up your eyes readjusting to dark.

The brightness adjustment control will be a sliding potentiometer tucked in between the rail and the
scope above. The power supply is an 18350 li-ion cell that fits perfectly in the base of the stock noted
in the below pic. The silver dot is the area I have to trim some plastic to make a path for the power wire.

Cant wait to get this setup and get to trying it out

By by rats. Looks like a great setup.

Yep, I can't wait to see how it does! Keep us posted.

_________________
Mike

FX Streamline .22 - Optisan Mamba Lite 4-16X44
Hammerli Pneuma Elite 10 .22 - Bushnell Elite 4200 4-12X40
Custom Crosman 2240 w/ LW barrel - Vortex Strikefire
Remington AirMaster 77 PAL rated - CenterPoint 3-9X40

I would give anything to go on a ratting safari. Watching all those YT vids just doesn't quite cut it.

_________________
The flaw with experience is, it causes us to forget what we were like when we didn't have any.

Thanks, near the end of the summer I went to light my BBQ and a rat jumped out of the lava rocks! There seems to be
a recent flood of these diseased creatures getting a little too close for comfort so this is a long overdue build.



Worked on it some last night, gonna finish it tonight, or at least the mock up and get to some
indoor testing.




The damn things are everywhere, just bait them out in your yard and patiently wait & snipe the little bastards

For anyone interested in the termination of certain unwanted rodents, the latest edition of Airheads starts off with just that; night vision ratting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21xHI7CsiUA

So got this together and just checking it out indoors at about 20ft. In dark conditions, I only need about 10mW of output
to illuminate an approx 2ft dia spot. I can maintain this spot size further than the gun can shoot given the nature
of low diverging laser.

The optics on the laser need a cleaning and you can see some fine dust etc distorting the dot. Im thinking
of changing out the lens for one that produces rings and better distribution of light for a more solid circle.
Also noticed the stock scope mount is slightly off to the right, or my laser mount is.. not sure which one,
but you can see the shadow of the barrel at the bottom of the dot and its off center..

I went with an old re-purposed CD player volume potentiometer over a slide control for the brightness adjust.
Less chance of hitting this one or overshooting accidentally.

Having a scope mounted that high is a negative, and at close ranges it's much worse. Something to think about before you spend too much time on it.

Appreciate the input, hadnt realized nor thought of that The mount for the laser was an old part I
have had kicking around for some time. I had to raise the scope to accommodate the height.

Ive been playing around with the lenses, guess I will also work on a way to drop the scope back down
to the stock mount. Gonna need a way to mount the laser with the minimal clearance under the front of
the scope. It seems the key to this setup is having the laser between the barrel and scope, centered. Placing it
elsewhere offsets the comfy center im seeing with this arrangement. I had something similar on my old 2240
with the laser mounted to the upper left of the scope and it made for some ugly angles..

The only issue I see with mounting it closer to the body is as you increase the spot size, the shadow
of the barrel invades the large dot. Will have to play with the lower profile setup though im sure a
2ft dot at greater distance should be fine for shooting. After all im looking for a low flash signature
unlike what you get with a flashlight, but enough to cover the target area well.

Its all quick connect with jst connectors, so it wont be bad making any changes. This was just a mock
up, and nothing so far is permanent aside from the charging port on the underside of the stock. But
so far its all worth the effort

What kind of range are u shooting at maybe a small red dot would be better if it's fairly close shooting and they can usually be sighted very well at all different heights

Well right now im just shooting in the basement, but am putting my house up for sale in the spring and getting some
property in the country. So for now 20-25ft at the max but when I move, I will have a couple of acres to play with

Cant wait to be honest, just been holding out while property values continue to increase in my area...

The problem is the pellet and scope each go in straight lines, so to be on target as say 3M the scope is pointing down to intersect, and the higher the scope the more angle it needs. If the target is 5M then it'll be off, and the higher the scope the more off it'll be. So the higher the scope the bigger the problem, and the closer you sight it in at the bigger the problem. This is one reason why I mount the scope so it's almost kissing the gun, but I'm also shooting further out. For really close ranges it's better to use open sights which are even closer to the barrel. I put glow paint on the sights, three little dabs so it's like the glow inserts. Then from there I use moonlight or a flashlight. I've used a scope at night too, but rather than adj the scope to the close range I aim high, which you can do too but it still helps to have the scope as low as possible.
If you want you can try the free program Chairgun and plug in your range and vary the scope height to see. It's a really cool program for sighting in a gun so I'd check it out either way.

Makes sense.. Actually I thought up a laser target system based on what you just outlined, which makes it all the more
comical to me that I missed such an issue lol Can you tell I am new to this?

At least when I bought the scope and rings, I got good advice on getting the lower profile ones. Here I can just
remove that rail I added for lift, just have to figure the mount for the laser which in turn will limit my spot size in
relation to divergence, but thats not a biggie.

I've seen laser mounts that clamp to the scope and hang off to the side. Not ideal tho, more of a toy imo. Also ones that clamp to the barrel which would be much better, like mount under the barrel maybe mid way. There are also very low profile lasers in a flat square body meant to mount under a pistol barrel, so I was thinking mount it on the barrel block where the rear open sight normally goes and it should be low enough. $20 on ebay. Another thought if you want to get crazy is to put the laser or whatever light source thru the back of the scope to project a beam. I suppose with a reticle on the front it would project that too. I did similar as a kid before laser sights were available to the public, I used an LED to make my scope into a hillbilly laser sight. It wasn't bright but it worked well enough for close range night shooting. Just some thoughts....

Reminds me when I was a kid, I saw the movie Real Genius and became fascinated with lasers. My first attempt
was a red LED shone through an old telescope. It worked but had terrible divergence (go figure)..

The idea here is to keep the illuminated dot as close to center of the field of view through the scope. The concept
I want to stick with is to have very low level lighting similar to NV but within the visible spectrum. Also to work with
a regular run of the mill scope..

Placing the laser right on the tip of the barrel would be ideal, but the rifle is a break barrel. This means more wire
being run the length and in the open in close proximity of pinch points and moving parts.