Lets see your Guns.

[openspaceman]

@Johnsond did you find the story behind the double wasp engine you recovered off the south coast?

[roys]

6 hours ago, openspaceman said:

@Johnsond did you find the story behind the double wasp engine you recovered off the south coast?

Wasp as in a helicopter?

[openspaceman]

35 minutes ago, roys said:

Wasp as in a helicopter?

no, the radial engine used in flying fortresses, and a number of american fighters, after 1943 it became more significant for the war effort than the iconic merlin

 

[Johnsond]

On 19/05/2024 at 15:11, roys said:

Wasp as in a helicopter?

No sadly we never heard anything more. Interesting finds tend to go to museums or archeological societies. We move onto the next project and very rarely any updates 🤷‍♂️

Regarding the brownings it would be great to get a serial number and identify the aircraft. 
Some of the guys are on the nearshore intertidal clearance at the moment. Nothing interesting so far but defo a novel way to get over the mudflats 👍

Edited May 22, 2024 by Johnsond

[GarethM]

Does anyone have any real world experience of the cheap thermal monoculars on small targets?.

 

I do a lot of squirrel control, obviously this time of year makes it harder to see upto about 80 yards

[peds]

14 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Does anyone have any real world experience of the cheap thermal monoculars on small targets?.

 

I do a lot of squirrel control, obviously this time of year makes it harder to see upto about 80 yards

We have one on the mountain rescue team. Amazing bit of kit. Monocular, not scope, obviously. 

 

Don't know how cheap it is relatively, but it was about 1400 euro. Don't know how good it would be on squirrel sized targets at any great range, but it can spot sheep and people through fog and light foliage fairly well.

 

Edit to add some numbers: people/sheep sized targets through swirling cloud at 800m easily, I'd never played with this sort of kit before and I was blown away by it. There was the same kind of device with a laser range finder for another 400e, and HD lens for another grand, so I guess ours is relatively cheap. If you find one cheaper, I'd love to hear about it because we'd like one for our other van too. 

Edited May 26, 2024 by peds

[GarethM]

Had been looking at the £300 ones, more for seeing where the little buggers are hiding in the tops of canopy.

 

Granted I'll probably just wait until it warms up and a calm evening, then just follow the noise of the falling nuts and seeds.

[peds]

At that price point, do you know what kind of distance or definition you would be looking at? Have you compared a 300 quid device to a 1300 one? 

Like I say, we'd like another one, but if multiple cheaper units would work better for us than a single pricey one, I'd lean that way. 

 

It's got things like WiFi connectivity and camera too, which is useful, but not essential. 

 

I'll go squirrel spotting the next time we are playing with our device 👍

[woody paul]

Just bought a Pulsar quantum xq50 off a mate how has upgraded, complete game changer when deer stalking on edge of woodland, the big problem is squirrels in most of woodland were we stalk, you can watch them though pulsar but you can't see them without. 

But they don't see though wood. 

[GarethM]

HIK LC06 seems to be the cheapest at around £350, not spending more for squirrels.

 

It was more for locating & identifying them hidden in the tops of the trees, rifle scope is more than sufficient after that and I can get closer but 20-50 yards is the average.

 

What with the rain and woodland management, encouraging the birds of prey it's probably been a poor year for the squirrels.

 

Just like to think, creating an absence draws then in from further afield and the cycle repeats helping the reds elsewhere.