Deros Level Grouse
Review

 

After putting in a wanted ad for an anti-cant bubble level on the airgun forums, I was contacted by Mark Deros about an electronic level called the Deros Level Grouse. Mark offered to send me one for free to check out. Upon receiving it, I mounted it to my scope using a weaver mount I had. I lined it up with a combination of the existing bubble level I had on the gun, plus a reticle alignment tool and plumb bob. The device is really nice. You have two LED lights. Green on the left, and red on the right. Flip the switch up for full brightness and down for dim (better for night shooting). As you tilt the gun from a left tilt toward the right, the green light will go from solid to blinking. When the LED’s go out, you are centered and ready to shoot. Of course a red light means your too far to the right and you need to tilt back to the left. One thing nice about this anti-cant device over others I’ve seen is that this one does not fit over the eye piece of the scope causing you to lose some of your eye relief. You can mount it anywhere on the left side of the scope from far to near and still see it clearly without effort.

 After receiving the first one and finding it too sensitive for field target shooting, Mark sent me a demo unit 9X9.  A 9x9 means .09 (9 tenths) of one degree left and .09 right, total of "1 and 8/tenths"  between lights. This is two tenths shy of a total of 2 degrees between lights on red/green.  This was perfect. I decided to wait till the next big match where I could use it and see if I benefited from using an electronic level before writing a review.

July 7th, 2007 came around faster than I thought and it was time to test the level grouse shooting in our own KTAC Desert Heat match. I was shooting my trusty HW97 in .177 caliber in Piston Division according to AAFTA rules. Although I kept the bubble level on the gun, I used the DLG as my anti-cant device for the match.  Now, I had been practicing with it for a few weeks before the match, so I was already used to how it works, it wasn’t totally new to me. I find it very easy to use as my peripheral vision sees the level out of my left eye as I am using the right eye to sight in on the target with.  I just set the gun up on my knee and start range finding my target. Once I’m loaded and the safety is off, I focus my crosshairs on the killzone and at the same time am able to tilt the gun into a centered position where both the red & green LED’s are off and take the shot. The device was working wonderfully. The 9X9 demo unit proved to be the ticket for field target. Mark also makes units that are much more sensitive, but I find these better suited for benchrest shooting. Field target shooting involves using only your body as support and needs a broader range of degree in order to keep the lights out. Since airgun field target competition only shoots to 55 yards max, even the slight bit of degree off center will not throw your pellet off enough to miss the mark.

I shot very well during lanes 1-9 in an 11 lane match using the DLG, but at lane 10, the red light was not coming on or was too dim for me to see it. I’m not sure if it was the heat or not, it was around 98 degrees by then. I flipped my bubble level up and had to resort to using it while watching the DLG to see if I got the red light back on. Well, it turned out the battery was just weak from using it for a few weeks before the match. The nice thing about the DLG is that there is an extra set of batteries on the unit, you just need to swap them out. At the time, however, I didn’t put two and two together.  Did the device help? Definitely YES. I shot a 59 out of 66 targets in Piston Division. PCP shooters typically shoot much higher scores in a match over Piston shooters, yet I was only 3 points under the highest scoring PCP shooter. Was it all the level? Of course not, but canting an air rifle will throw your shots off left or right, especially on the longer shots and cause misses. Using the electronic level made it easier to hold the gun centered and level vs a standard bubble level. So I can say for a fact that my score was improved, and that it was easier to shoot without lifting my head constantly to see if I’m level before shooting, as I did before the DLG.  Do you recommend it for field target? YES! Get you one. You won’t regret it.

For more information: http://www.alamofourstar.com/buy.html

Reviewed by Robert Fischer (KTAC Chairman)