NG-20 or DGJ-20 Spotter review

Hey guys, 

I recently purchased a Ebay NG-20 spotting scope and figured I would give you my first impressions.  


First off, my history.  I shoot bullseye and this year I started competing at a new range, and started having difficulty with my spotting scope on the 25 yard range with the limited light of a waning summer shooting the last line of the evening.  

My old spotter was a Champions Choice 23 power x 50 that was marketed by Champions choice in the last century.  Christopher Columbus probably used this exact scope in the bullseye range down in the bilge of the Mayflower as he headed over to America to get all the rum out of the Caribbean.  Anyways, this spotter was not cutting it, either with the 23 power eyepiece or the 45 power eyepiece, not enough light, cannot see the 22 caliber bullet holes at 25 yards.  Need a new one.  

In the intrim, I grab my rifle spotter, a Kowa 601 with 25 power eyepiece, 65 mm objective, I also have the 15x45 eyepiece, this sucker works great.   I can see bullet holes in the black at midnight during a new moon with this baby.  Problem is this thing does not fit in my pistol box.  

Looked at the new champion choice pistol box spotters for about 120 bucks.  Lots of my friends have them, they are ok but not that good (especially when compaired to the Kowa 601).  I also own a ancient Kowa 501, currently available at the CMP for about 300 bucks.  In my humble opinion, the new Champion Choice is a better buy, but I have not been able to do a complete analysis of the new Champions Choice spotter.  I do remember a eye relief issue with the new champion choice spotter but will report on that later.  


Anyways, I got a new NG-20 spotter from the ebay seller in Canada.  He gets them every so often and they cost around $260.00 american.  I originally questioned if the eyepiece rotated and the seller was top notch, posted another picture on the ebay site demonstrating that the eyepiece rotates for us pistol shooters.  Cool. 

When I received this scope, my first thought was that this is the coolest little scope I have ever seen!  It is a lot smaller then i pictured and the quality is top notch.  Peering through the eyepiece displayed an optical quality that I would have been pleased with had I spent $500.00 for this spotter.  It is amazing how small this thing is and it is also amazing at how good it is.  

I set up a couple of targets at 25 and 50 yards behind my apartment (already shot with bullet holes, out of respect for my neighbors), and observed them throughout the dusk hours.  I was able to discern bullet holes well past the light that would be available for most regularly scheduled bullseye matches.  

Went to my buddy's apartment which faces the other way and did the same thing.  This is a pretty awesome scope.  

The only issue is the eye relief.  If you are wearing corrective lenses or safety glasses, you will not be able to get a image through the eyepiece of this scope.  Personally, my eyelashes are brushing the eyepiece as I peer through this scope.  

Since every match I have been to requires safety glasses, I cannot recommend this scope for bullseye shooters.  You have to remove your safety glasses to look through the scope and to me that is unacceptable.  My Kowa TS 601 with the 25 power Extended Eye Relief performs so good maybe this is a unfair evaluation but this scope is not suitable for low light bullseye competitions.  

For what it is worth, this is such a awesome spotter, I am going to keep it and use it as my carryalong optical spotter for travel and vacations, It is that cute and it performs that well.  The problem is that it is totally unusable with eyeglasses.  

Regards, 
Crankster

CrankyThunder wrote:The only issue is the eye relief.  If you are wearing corrective lenses or safety glasses, you will not be able to get a image through the eyepiece of this scope.  Personally, my eyelashes are brushing the eyepiece as I peer through this scope.

Fun review

Regarding eye relief, I'll suggest that you really don't need to get that close to it! I'm able to peer through it from maybe 6" away - for example when using it indoors at 50', the black is fully visible. I find I only have to get a little bit closer outdoors. The optical quality is literally that good.

It actually makes the scope even more convenient, for me. I'm fairly tall and can position it at or even above eye level, and just kind of turn my head and adjust one way or the other to see the shot, without breaking my stance or bending over etc. Very nice to avoid distraction and get back to the next shot.

I don't have any problems seeing the target through my NG20 with glasses on. I'd prefer a little more eye relief, but I can always see the full black with glasses on. Sometimes I need to press in closer, or move my eye around to find shots out in the white, but it works. I agree with the image quality. It is amazing compared to any of the cheaper scopes out there.

I am quite nearsighted and since I don't keep them all in the view, the NG didn't work with my glasses so I sold it.   Older Bushnell Sentry is much easier to use with glasses.

I wear glasses and am completely satisfied with my NG-20. If someone has one they don;t want let me know, I might like a second one.

CrankyThunder wrote:For what it is worth, this is such a awesome spotter, I am going to keep it and use it as my carryalong optical spotter for travel and vacations, It is that cute and it performs that well.  The problem is that it is totally unusable with eyeglasses.  

Regards, 
Crankster

George,
Will you accept $5 for it since it doesn't work for you old guys with glasses? Ok, $10... since it has a cuteness factor....but not more!
Regards,
Tony

Aprilian wrote:I am quite nearsighted.

That might be the difference. I am farsighted.

I have had my ng20 for about 3 or 4 years now. I love it for its compact weight and size. Made a big difference in the wight of the box from my Burris Landmark. But I have a hard time seeing 22 holes even at 25 through it. I do not wear any glasses. The clarity on mine is very poor. But I concider the weight savings to be more important for me.

I do not have much issue using this with glasses on either.  This is the case with standard lenses (no correction) as well as my shooting glasses which have a front sight distance correction (weak reading prescription).  I see my target as Steve does where I see the entire black but will move my eye around to see the full target if necessary.

I would suppose everyone's eyes are a bit different.  If you haven't done so yet, try the scope at the range just to see how it would do under real life conditions vs testing in you home.  Light and distance might make a bit of difference for you.

Good luck.
John

Hi Guys:   

Just got in the Hotel and wifey is down investing in the one armed bandits, figured I would pull the NG out and peer out across Traverse Bay.....

This is one cute little compact scope.  very well made, quality oozes out of its pores.  the Image quality is very very good, not quite as good as my Kowa TS 601 or my Althon Corunus.  But what do you expect for a $250.00 scope placed next to a couple of scopes that cost $1,000.00 that are three times as big and four times as heavy.  

And if you do not need to wear glasses this would be the perfect scope for me to mount in my pistol box.  Nice clear image, bright, little color shift.  

Oh If I told you that there was some substantial color fringing around the edges of the image you would notice that, but only after I told you what you need to look for to identify color fringing.  Realistically, for a shooter that needs a 20 power scope this is a pretty darn good one.   

But the eye relief.  It has no impact on me when I am looking through it normally, but my eyeball is right on top of the eyepiece and my eyelashes are brushing the dust off the eyeglass everytime I blink.  It is that close to my face and I find myself grabbing the scope to hold on target and resting my face against my hand to maintain proper eye distance.  And that really is not a issue if you do not need to wear eye protection or corrective lenses.  Maybe some of your scopes are different but I pull my eyeball back a quarter inch and there is no available image at all.  Probably with the small lenses that the tolerance is that tight and long eye relief is just not available.  Plus, I am putting it up against a Kowa TS 601 with a 25x LER eyepiece that for a bullseye scope is OMG amazing.  

Frankly, this little scope is cool in its own Sean Connery 007 sort of way.  Decent optics, bulletproof construction, perfect for travel, I am going to keep it in my optics stable.  


With that being said, I never should have pulled out the Kowa for the bullseye box in the first place.  

Regards, 
Crankster