Pulsar Digisight N355 Ultra Review

Pulsar Digisight N355 Ultra Review

Courtesy of Thomas Jacks Ltd, over the last month or so I have been testing the new Digisight from Pulsar, The N355 Ultra.

I have had a lot of fun with this and a bit of a story to tell in regards to this unit, but before I do I will get the Geeky stuff out of the way.

RRP. Around £1200

Digisight Ultra N355:

• Magnification: 3.5-14.0x
• Horizontal Field of View: 6°
• Detection Range: 500m
• Thermal Sensor: 752×582 ½ CCD

In brief the Digisight Ultra Series Features:

• Enhanced Night-Time Sensitivity
• Black & White at night
• Variable Magnification
• Stadiametric Rangefinder
• ‘Display Off’ Function
• -25°C to +50°C Operating Temperature
• Fully Waterproof (IPX7)
• Internal Focusing
• Compact & Lightweight Bodyshell
• MicroUSB Port
• Smooth Digital Zoom
• Frost-Resistant HD Display
• User-Friendly
• Wireless Control
• Built-in Video Recording
• Quick-Change B-Pack Power Unit
• Multiple Selectable Reticles
• High Shock-Resistance
• 3 Zeroing Profiles/ 15 Distances
• Built-In Accelerometer/ Gyroscope
• Auto-Record when taking a shot
• Flip-Up Lens Cap
• 67mm Eye Relief

The Digisight Ultra is the new instalment from the well-established Digisight range of Night Vision scopes from Pulsar.

I have been testing this for around a month and really enjoyed working with it.

One of the problems I have with testing Night vision mid-summer is the lack of darkness we have at this time of year. On average the Highlands in mid-June to Mid-July has around one to two hours of actual darkness if there is no moon, darkness usually comes in around 0100 hrs and stays dark to around 0300 hrs meaning there is not a lot of test time for this kind of product but I managed very well.

When this unit arrived I was actually in hospital recovering from an operation that put me out of action for a couple of weeks, so, when I got home whether I was fit or not I took the opportunity to get out and play with the Ultra, there was no excuse needed.

The day after I got home from hospital I took the advantage of some chill time and fitted and bore sighted the scope to the rifle and started playing with all the bits and bobs involved.

The N355 (like most other Digisights) come as standard with a weaver mounting system which fitted nicely to the split rail on my Browning Abolt 2 .243 and the Apex rail of my CZ455. Fitting was quick and easy with no issues.

I decided to fit it primarily to the .243 as rabbit at this time of year is a bit of a nightmare before the grass is cut for harvest so no point in fitting it to the CZ455 for hunting purposes.

I boresight at 26yards (like I do with all my rifles initially) from my kitchen table to a white sticker I have set on the pole of a sign just outside my garden. Two things I noticed that made this easy to boresight were,

1. The clarity of the picture during the day was very good, although black and white, I had no issues seeing what I needed to see and sometimes this is a real issue for other Nightvision rifle scopes.
2. Pulsar have decided to use the zero assist crosshairs like on some of their other products, this really does help a lot.

Another feature I noticed is that you can set up multiple zero ranges which is a very useful tool specifically if you are swapping between two rifle set ups.

After bore sighting I made my way to the little 100m range that I use to sight it in.

Zeroing

By the time I got to the range the sun was high in the sky, it was a very bright day with no clouds and the temperature was around 25°C and it was very very humid (phone said 92%).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Usually when the sun is bright like that I avoid zeroing the NV stuff, mainly because it usually is awkward and frustrating which is generally not fun, but, this was a needs must moment so I carried on regardless.

I have to say I had no issues with the zero, once I made sure it was on paper fine tweaking was easy enough even in the bright sun.

Field Test

Now the Browning .243 was zeroed it was ready for its first night out on foxes, which I was very excited about.

I got to the first property quite early but a HAR (apparently it is a mist from the sea but seems to be the word of the summer up here) was starting to come down, I found a spot to sit up close to an area I kind of knew there would be a possible sighting of a fox or at least one final cub I was after.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lying there in the serenity of last light, the mystique of the Highland countryside as the birds chirp loudly through the falling mist is always a pleasure to bare witness too. The heat of the day was starting to fade but not by much. Droplets of perspiration were still haunting my forehead just under what is left of my fringe and my face mask was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. The night was starting to come properly alive and this years lambs were all calling for the comfort of their mothers.

I shoot foxes all year round as lambing time is a tricky time up here and on many occasions waiting for lambing to come is a little late in the game. This particular farm had not lost any lambs now for two years and even though lambing was over and the lambs are a little too old now to have a problem from fox any dens I have missed were now releasing their cubs.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lying there taking in the whole atmosphere I almost forgot what I was there to do, darkness had fallen now but the mist had too and there was definite movement at the bottom of the field I was hiding in. I turned on the N355 Ultra and had a look and I could see what was definitely a fox and clarity was very good. I had about 300yrds of visibility with the lamp but I could see a lot further with the N355 unit and this fox was not far from the boundary of the capabilities of my lamp in the misty conditions lying just above the ground.

I lay there waiting for the perfect shot then remembered I had record function on the N355, so turned on the record and at the same time turned on the IR, now even with the “HAR” (or mist or fog whatever you wanna call it) there was still a good bit of ambient light allowing me to see for a good 100yrds without need of a lamp, through the scope the eyes of the fox flooded out and were like two flashlights shining at me.

I knew this field well and had missed a couple of shots in the past at the exact spot that fox was sitting due to long grass and misjudging the distance and had learned from my mistakes of years ago (it is one of those fields that look a lot shorter than what it really was). The distance to the fox was around 240yrds and was a gradual downhill slope leading into a deep valley and river, I knew the back stops well and had spent a lot of time learning this property over the years.

I had reticle 2 selected on the N355. I knew my hold over at full zoom was the first dash on the crosshair, aiming right between the eyes that were now looking straight at me I gently squeezed the trigger and heard that familiar thump of bullet on bone and the fox was down.

(I was really disappointed with this footage as it really does not reflect what I was able to see)

As I lay still, still looking at the fox lying motionless on the ground I saw another set of eyes coming into the picture, I gave squeak from the back of my hand and immediately it started running towards me, this was unusual behaviour for adult foxes in my area so I knew straight away it was a cub. It ran to within around 100yrds from me and stopped. I again put on the IR which gave me clearer indication of where the cub was sitting in the long grass. I aimed the crosshairs on its chest and squeezed the trigger and again I heard positive contact.

As I went to collect them both I had another scan around for any other eyes but there were none seen. I collected the closest one and inspected it and was not surprised to see it was the cub I had been after, I then trotted off to get the first fox I shot forgetting how far it really was, but my dog went straight to it. As I expected the fox was in fact just behind the long reedy grass that I had lost foxes in, before but more to my surprise it was a vixen. The reason for my surprise was that I thought I had got the feeding vixen a couple of weeks before then most of her cubs not long after. Anyways brilliant result either way.

I had only been out an hour or so and I had already saw the advantage of the Ultra N355, although when I looked back at the footage the recording really did not do it any justice. I obviously had to do more messing about with settings to get it right I think.

The Ultra N355 had already proved itself in the field both daytime and night time use and although I was a little miffed at the recording of the two foxes being shot being flooded out by the IR I was still very impressed. I did however have to work out the settings so I could get better recordings.

The rest of the night did not show too much of fox activity and in fact for the rest of the time I had the unit I never even saw another fox which was disappointing, however I did see a lot of deer and got to test the unit and get some footage watching some of my Roe Does at night although I never shot any.

I soon learned why the footage was so bad of the foxes being shot when I experimented on recording some of my deer.  The N355 is fitted with a very sensitive 752×582 ½” CCD sensor and a 640×480 “Amoled HD” frost-proof display. Making it more reactive to ambient light reducing the need for the IR on many occasions. So with the amount of light that was already around me coupling the fact that the mist was hanging over the ground the IR was probably doing more harm than good, to be honest before I turned the IR on I could see the foxes I shot easy except when they were in very long grass the IR helped to flash their eyes allowing for me to see their location.

This system also helps with the smooth use of the zoom function in which I found very handy and comfortable to use, even at full zoom the picture was very clear.

The Digisight Ultra now includes a popular feature from Pulsar’s thermal range, the picture-in-picture functionality sometimes known as PiP. Which personally I think is a great little function allowing you to have a wider field of view while still being zoomed in at your target, very useful when you are tracking an animals’ movement and ensuring you still have adequate back stop. I have illustrated this in some of the footage of deer I was able to get.

One of the things I like about the new system of products is that they are designed lighter with better battery set up reducing a lot of weight. The battery lasts a lot longer than AA set ups and is easy to charge either plugging the unit in or removing the battery and using the supplied charger.

My Thoughts

It is not hard to see that I really rate the Ultra N355, and I think Pulsar putting almost the same facilities into their NV scopes that they have in their more premium thermal units is a very good idea, this is not just to future proof their scopes but to also educate the users so when they do want to invest in their Thermal weapon scopes they can transition straight into the technology.

Some of the things I like are present in most of the Pulsar ranges now such as using the STREAM app record function and zero assist crosshairs for zeroing, genuinely these are functions that have really improved the functionality throughout the ranges.

What I like most of all on the N355 though is the sensitivity of the unit and how well it performs without IR, granted in extremely dark nights where there is no ambient light you do have to rely on an IR unit and the standard built in IR is only really good out to around 150yrds so a good IR unit will complement the N355, Thomas Jacks recommend the Laserluchs 5000 but others are available see my other reviews, but most nights have some sort of ambient light allowing you to work a lot longer without the addition of the IR.

There is a problem with how sensitive the unit is to light though and that is IF your IR is too bright it will end up flooding out and that is what happened with the fox kills on the first night so finding that balance is gonna be key with this unit so a little bit of experimenting with external IR’s or running the on board one might be an option.

The N355 is retailing at around £1200 so it is definitely not a budget Nightvision unit but it is by far the best around this price range. Over the years I have tested some High quality and low quality NV units and I do have to say that this is definitely high quality. One thing though is get to know the unit and experiment with settings that suit you but that really does go for all NV stuff, once you get used to it the units will work for you but getting balance between NV unit and IR is the key so if your unit has low sensitivity then you need a stronger IR and vice versa.

The PiP function brought from Pulsars Thermal units is a great feature, as you will see in one of my deer videos you are able to get a good clear look at the targets surrounding as well as a zoomed in to the target and if chosen the shot. In fact I have to think and be honest this function is far better on the nightvision unit than what it is in the thermal. I have my reasons, in which the main one is target identity, and as you see from the footage on the deer that is not an issue.

The Ultra is so far the best Pulsar Digisight they have made and is a definite upgrade to its predecessors and although it is demanding a higher price you are getting more for your money, what I would like for to see in the future is the unit incorporating the Laser Range Finder and an upgraded IR function reducing the need completely of using an external IR.

As a reviewer it is not always my job to point out the good bits or what needs to be added to make it better but it is also to advise whether the end user is getting value for money or not and here I do believe that you are getting value for your money although I do see the only way to improve this unit is a better internal IR and a LRF feature. I test what I have in my hand and although I know that someone buying this will also end up buying an IR unit to compliment it I do believe that you shouldn’t have to and that this unit is amazing without an IR.

Over all The N355 was no disappointment, very easy to use as well as to set up and would be a very good investment for those night shooters that do like clarity in what they are shooting. I recommend the N355 for the shooter who likes to get close to what they are shooting. If you purchase one I am sure you will really be delighted with the N355.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review on the Pulsar Ultra N355 and I hope you enjoyed the accompanying footage.

Next review will be on the Zeiss Conquest V6 5-30×50 .

Don’t forget to check out Fieldsports Scotland on Youtube.