Deben DN1900

TheDeben DN1900 is a gen. 1 scope with 3 x 50 magnification with an illuminated mil dot recticle. It has a 25mw infra-red illuminator built in with windage, elevation and recticle brightness controls. It comes with wide mounts to accept a weaver rail, a carry bag and batteries are supplied, it take two AA's.

It costs £550 from Uttings and is sold as a Deben unit but Deben don't show it in their catalogue bizarrely enough. The optics are very clear with a main focusing ring near the eye piece and fine focusing ring at the objective lens at the front. The recticle goes from bright to completely off.

I bought extra Deben mounts to clear the mag on my Air Arms S410 but I had to put extra brass shims (very thin pieces of brass) in the mounts to raise the back up because it wouldn't shoot high enough. This is not a big deal and works perfectly. After this minor modification was made I zeroed the rifle (.177 calibre) within forty shots. After this zero session I had put a three shot group within the inner bull of a standard paper target card. This is about the size of a five pence piece, you'll just have to trust me on this one but this scope really is that accurate. This was done at twenty yards in the fading light of the day with the lens cap on the objective lens. It is a lot easier to do in the fading light as opposed to complete black. I spent the next hour plinking at metal targets with a lot of success.

The centre of the scope is approximately 2.75 inches from the bore of the barrel. A .177 running 11.5 ftlbs, zeroed at 20 yards will have a secondary zero of 38 yards. Between 20 and 38 yards there is a maximum rise of less than an inch. It will drop an inch at 15 and 43 yards. Anything closer than 15 yards is going to be very hard to judge so I would suggest backing off until you are nearer 20 yards.

Anyway, how does it perform. In a word, brilliantly. It is extremely clear when focused properly. I had it out on the golf course before it was attached to the rifle and on my local shoot I was able to spot rabbits clearly up to and over 100 yards. However for air rifle ranges definition of the target is very good and the illuminator is more than up to the job. I have an extra 100 mw illuminator but have not had to use it yet. The scope was used in conditions that were good for NV devices, i.e clear nights but it still works well in dark areas.

The funny thing about this scope is that is has an auto shut off facility which normally only comes on higher specced gen 2 units. It also has a feature that eliminates black spots on the screen, which is something I know other units suffer from. If you want more information then don't bother with Deben but go to this site I think you'll be impressed - www.binocularsmart.com - search for the NCS03 model for $389. It's looks the same as my unit but this one claims to be only 2.5 mag with a 57mm objective lens it also claim to be gen 1+. Anyway have a look and see what you think.

Even though I haven't used this unit in the field yet I know it will perform based on it's accuracy on the range and the detection tests carried out in the field.