Vector Optics is a Chinese company specialising in the production of quality optical equipment for the hunter. Basically their motto is that they will show that a "Made In China" does not need to be synonymous with rubbish products. And they actually state this in their "About" page on their web site.
Certainly I've come across (and have been using for many years) camera equipment manufactured in China by Chinese companies, not western companies getting their production made in China; and the equipment is quite good and competitive in price and usually well appointed.
Ok so recently I bought a Bore sight aligning tool which was laser based and it is the "VIPERAY" manufactured by VECTOR OPTICS.
Essentially it is a device where one can perform a "pre-alignment" of their rifle scope on your own premises, indeed, indoors, prior to actual real sighting in during firing at the range.
The VIPERAY, What is it?
A small red (630-670nm) LASER diode housed within a big heat sink enclosure.
A large heatsink means the LASER can remain on and not overheat during the alignment steps. Having a decent sized heat sink is important as a LASER diode's performance will be markedly reduced and lifetime if left to overheat.
The laser has been aligned (instructions warn not to tamper with the alignment screws) within a cylindrical enclosure
made from Aluminium. By the use of plastic caliber adapters enabling a perfect fit from 0.22 to 0.270; 0.280-0.349; 0.350- 0.434; 0.435-0.50,
The above image shows from L to R 3 of the 4 calibre adapters included. The one on the right (0.50 cal) I have already inserted the screw.
The image below shows the 0.45 cal adapter (incorrectly threaded!) Take note of the correct way to insert the supplied screws!
The 2 images below shows the 0.22 Cal and 0.45 Cal adapters threaded onto the aluminium bore tool in the correct manner.
To see this device in action see this
The reason why they are threaded as such is because as one screws the adapter onto the tapered aluminium housing, this taper causes the adapter to spread out and fit the rifle bore precisely. This is a necessary step so that the LASER beam in centralised on the same axis of the centre of the bore.
Ok so I also found the customer service response time from outside of China in the Northern hemisphere to be within 2 working days. This is just fine as far as i'm concerned. Why did I have the need to contact customer service? Well, the instructions were missing in the box and customer service sent me a PDF of the instructions and some other text regarding the device and my query was dealt with.
I used the VIPERAY to pre-align a 3-9X40 rifle scope indoors at 8m (arbitrary distance), it took mere minutes. I found the centricity of the actual LASER beam to be more than accurate for such a task. But briefly, I rotated the device within the bore in several positions, this made no difference to the position of the LASER spot with respect to the actual scope reticle (I was using a Dead-Hold BDC reticle-although it doesn't really matter, as long as I could accurately position the the spot of the LASER.)
Final points upon construction and performance.
Pros: It appears to be well-made and durable enough
Cons: I would have liked to have seen a smaller spot size although this is not totally necessary as one will be using this device indoors to pre-align their scope and not outside at some great distance, because the bigger the distance to target, the bigger the spot will become and then one must judge by eye where the centre of that spot is to align the crosshairs upon.
Note there is no manual switch for this device, once the battery compartment is loaded, the LASER is activated.
Use common sense with all LASERS as they are ALL potentially hazardous even 5mW ones such as this, it is NOT A TOY!
You can also see the product here:
https://www.vectoroptics.com/products/view/id/LBC01.html
BCT
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