The Phantom Hill CTF2 is a modular laser aiming device for night vision shooting. Here are my thoughts on it.
Disclosures: No money exchanged hands for this review however I was provided the CTF2 by Phantom Hill for the purpose of review.
You can find this product on the Phantom Hill website: https://phantomhill.design/collections/ctf2
The Kiji IR Illuminator head was loaned by GP Armory for this review. https://gp-armory.com/
https://www.instagram.com/g_p_armory/ https://www.facebook.com/gparmoryllc
Check them out for great IN-STOCK night vision, thermal, and light products.
The SureFire head was loaned to me by a good friend. Check out his links below:
https://www.instagram.com/kcgewehr/ https://www.youtube.com/@GCMKC
Transcript
Please note this is an auto-generated transcript. There will be MANY errors. Thank you.
——-Start Transcript——
Hey everybody Brent with 30 magazine
clip here. Welcome to my basement. Today
we’re going to talk about this, the
Phantom Hill CTF2 laser aiming module.
Spoiler alert I like it.
[Music]
So first up let’s do the disclosures.
I did not buy this. This was provided by
Phantom Hill
for purpose of review
but with that being said I have been
waiting on this type of system for quite
a while now. So what exactly is it? You’re
looking right here at actually three
different products. You have the Phantom
Hill base unit the CTF2
and then you have a kiji, by b e Myers,
laser illuminator
for infrared and then we have a Surefire this is a
kx1a it’s kind of an older head but it
was one that I had a easy access to Via
friend so I will uh thanks to Jeff I
will link him down to the bottom all his
social media channels and the kiji was
actually provided by GP Armory uh
Garrett over there was kind enough to
send it over for the purpose of this
review because I didn’t have a kiji just
sitting around
if you are uh in the market for night
vision uh high-end thermal optics
other stuff like that especially if
you’re in the Kansas City area make sure
you give GP Armory a uh a check he’s uh
usually got really good stock
so like I said before this is a review
of the ctf2 not of the kiji and not of
the Surefire head there are many many
reviews out there of both of those units
so if you’re looking for a review on
those just keep searching on YouTube
we’re going to be talking about the
Phantom Hill ctf2 specifically
foreign
so what exactly is the ctf2 well as I
said before it’s a modular laser aiming
unit so included with it if you buy just
the base model is
the module itself
two channels to attach heads that are
not included with the base unit but what
is included is the civilian power laser
at first I thought that the module body
itself was cast aluminum but I should be
a little kind of ashamed of myself as a
3D printer I didn’t write off recognize
that it’s actually a 3D printed via
direct metal laser centering and the
body really looks outstanding
you can read the text really well
there’s a little diagram that shows you
which way the battery goes in it’s all
very visible no issues
the threading for the Caps is wonderful
which looks amazing as I said before the
amine laser is a civilian power at uh
let’s see there’s 0.7 milliwatts and the
850 nanometer range and it was designed
and assembled in the United States which
is always a very big plus for me so as
I’ve said before I’ve been waiting for a
system like this for a long time
something I I hate wires I don’t like
pressure pads or remote switches
anything like that if I don’t absolutely
have to have them and I’ve always wanted
something that fit my visible
illumination my IR illumination and my
IR aiming all in one package and here it
is
um it’s awesome well I know you’re going
to say like well the PEX 16 exists yes
but what I always say is no one likes
pick 16.
um it’s uh it lacks in almost the few
times I’ve used it I’ve never been
impressed but with this system you get
to put on whatever it is that you want
then you have the feature that I like
probably the most which is the fact that
the laser aiming
is directly over the bore let’s see if I
get that lined up
right like that so you don’t have offset
aiming like you do with nearly every
other laser on the market
um what I’ve always done in the past it
actually actually tripped me up at first
because I’m so used to the laser being
like 30 or 45 degrees off that I’ve
always actually cited in my rifle with
the laser with the rifle Cannon so that
the laser was shooting out directly over
the bore that way I’ve actually got
holds that I can do
the the issue with that though is that
when you’re canting the weapon and
you’ve got windage and elevation on the
laser but they’re now 30 degrees out of
phase or 45 degrees out of phase
depending on the laser that uh that
makes a a problem for you to when you’re
trying to sight it in it’s just
difficult because you’re trying to like
move it like this and not just up and
down left and right so where it actually
caused me a problem is because I have
thousands of rounds uh under night
vision shooting my rifle canted I would
always instinctively Camp the rifle to
shoot it when I when I would fire the
laser uh I had to break myself with that
habit to get uh those supremely accurate
shots so you just had to keep the rifle
straight up and down just like you would
normally shoot it so it uh it makes
sense but it’s not intuitive when you’ve
been doing this for thousands of rounds
now what I’m trying to get at here is
that by having the laser directly over
the bore instead of 30 45 degrees uh at
a phase here is
that it takes away a lot of the question
of do you want to have a converging zero
which is where if you have your Red Dot
and you have your laser if you have a
converging zero then at some distance
since they don’t emanate from the same
place they’re going to cross and that’s
the that’s the optimal place where
you’re going to shoot and hit what
you’re aiming at but
the further away you get from that they
diverge obviously the other option is to
have a parallel zero on your laser and
your Red Dot where they’re both shooting
out straight parallel to each other but
they’re always just off a little bit
that’s not a problem if it’s on if it’s
on 30 or 45 degrees if you’ve got it
rotated or canceled like this but in
this case as it’s firing
straight out the top
you only really have to account for that
vertical
offset that mechanical offset just as
you would with an optic the windage is
no longer a problem because it’s just
it’s the same as your Red Dot so
being that it only has an infrared laser
I at first thought that was going to
make it kind of hard to to sight in but
it’s uh it’s really not because normally
what you do is go out during the day
turn on your visible laser and if it’s
slave to your infrared laser you slide
in the visible laser your infrared side
in sighted in and ready for the night
but in this case
you only have an infrared laser but
since it’s centered directly over the
bore
all you have to do is line it up
vertically or well I’m sorry wind it up
horizontally with the Red Dot and then
just account for the same distance that
you have here and say this is what
I don’t know this is a tall Unity Mount
so say say you’ve got two engines here
between the Red Dot the center of the
tube and the dot with the dot and then
where the laser emits from the
front of the ctf2 just mimic that on the
target at whatever distance if you know
this is
1.8576 inches then just
when you’ve got it up here of course
you’re going to have to have night
vision on because that’s the only way
you’re going to see this laser I had it
lined up with just my left arm and then
I had my adjustment tool here and I
could see through the two through the
night vision 2 through this tube have my
DOT turned down really really low so
that I could actually see the laser then
activate the laser which you can you can
uh you can hold it on or you can make it
static on
and then at the Target I just made the
laser uh impact exactly the same as the
mechanical offset between the dot and
the laser I know that was a long
explanation
um hopefully it made sense here let me
try it all again
okay you have a certain amount of
distance between the dot in this in this
tube and the laser emitter here
let’s say it’s 1.5 inches then just make
the impact of the DOT which is not
actually on the target but where it
impacts the Target and then the laser
the exact same then you with as long as
you memorize the offset you still have
the same holds
so then there’s the form factor
that’s arguably the best thing about it
I don’t know why there’s so many lasers
on the market that the d-balls the
whatever which are great lasers but
they’re always these giant boxes on top
of the rail like something that’s
fairly done I’ve got longer fingers and
it’s something that can actually be very
difficult to get over on top even if
you’ve got that thumb over bore grip to
activate those lasers
foreign with the ctf2 which is in my
opinion the way all these systems should
be it really lowers that center of
gravity
puts the two pods on the side where you
can actually clearly even see over the
entire thing there’s no problem if you
wanted if you wanted backup iron sights
um
you’d obviously have to put it behind
the ctf2 because the laser is emitting
out of the front you block it if you put
it in front but it would be no problem
you’d be able to see over it no problem
and then there’s the button placement as
I said before I cannot stand having
wires and switches on my rifles
sometimes they’re absolutely necessary
but I avoid them at all cost with the
placement of these buttons
it it could not be better I can hit all
three for three different functions with
my thumb left hand or right hand no
problem they’re they’re absolutely
centered so I guess we should talk about
that real quick the uh the center button
is laser only
the right button is going to be
whatever’s on the right pod in this case
I have visible light and the IR laser I
know what you’re going to say what’s the
point of shooting IR laser if you’re
shooting visible light it’s just because
that it makes it more simple it doesn’t
matter what you put anywhere if you’re
shooting out visible light who cares if
you’re shooting out some infrared laser
who cares
so on this side I’ve got on this button
got the kiji here which is is it will
eliminate when I press this button and
the laser so you don’t ever have to push
two buttons at once so that I know that
that was a criticism a solid line or
questions I guess concerns but it’s not
the case it’s so you you have this
potted laser laser only this pot and
Laser the whole system arrives in a
legit Pelican case which I thought was
cool it’s a pelican 1050
and then it comes with this really
really nice uh uh adjustment tool made
in the USA even the adjustment tool
obviously
does your adjustment for windage and
elevation but it’s also the same tool
for the rail attachment
all right so no product can be like
absolutely perfect right there’s always
going to be some criticism then I have a
few but uh neither of them would prevent
me from buying uh uh this unit uh the
first is more IR head compatibility
as far as I understand it the the kiji
is the only uh only head that the
manufacturer suggests that you use the
IR
[Music]
kijis are very expensive
that some some say including myself that
they’re a little too expensive just as
just for an IR Eliminator but that’s up
to you we’ll talk about prices in a
minute but uh I never in any of my
reviews I’m never going to say this
product is worth it for the for the
money or not because that’s completely
up to you it depends on what what your
disposable income level is and it’s it’s
different than mine whether it’s higher
or lower so I’m going to give you what I
think about the product and then you can
decide if the money is uh is is
worth it okay second criticism
a visible laser would be nice
it’s just it just would be nice let’s
say you’re shooting with a pro mask or
something like that and you just like to
have that ability to shine a visible
laser uh it it would assuage some fears
that people have of not being able to
sight in during the day so if that would
be if that’s something that would be
possible uh I would love to see on the
next version
a slaved visible laser and the third uh
some type of mechanical hard shut off
for the pods would be cool as it stands
right now there is no way like if you
if you press the button you’re gonna
indeed a light uh whether that’s the IR
side or the visible side
um
I would imagine some heads out there are
going to have a Twist that are going to
be able to lock it out but it would be
really cool even if it was an add-on
purchase I think if these tail caps if
you could maybe buy upgraded Hill caps
that would have a click on and off that
would just just give you a safety off
okay like not not push to activate but
just to actually kill the circuit
um that would be that would be cool in
my book
while this didn’t pose a problem to me
at all I would really like to have seen
on the underside uh some type of a
recoil lug as I see it all you really
have is the bar that goes across to
provide the the lateral tension on the
1913 rail
um
I always like seeing a recoil on but
again like I said it didn’t cause any
problems I even took the I never lost a
zero I even took it off once and put it
back on and it did Return To Zero I
don’t know if that’s guaranteed or
anything but it did the one time I did
it
and lastly on the criticism list and
this isn’t even for me because as I said
before I don’t like wires and remote
switches
a lot of people I think will be more
comfortable with this if it did have the
option for remotes
um whether that’s on the tail cap here
again if you would need to buy like
maybe a
again another tail cap to upgrade it to
that or something uh I just think I’ll I
think
there’d be a lot more potential to
capture more Market if you had the
ability to uh to utilize industry
standard pressure switches
all right let’s let’s talk about the uh
the future I I had a few moments to talk
to via email the uh the owner of Phantom
Hill and the ctf3 which is going to be
available in I think you say Q2 2023
um it’s going to be a machine aluminum
uh body which is going to allow them for
anodized color or allow them to have
anodized color options which that
that’ll be great there’s also going to
be a longer list of approved IR heads uh
for the for The Eliminator so that takes
care of one of my criticisms right off
the bat
uh now for a little uh a bonus fact I
was curious what Phantom Hill uh meant
uh and as a as a small business owner
myself you know always wonder how white
people name things the way they did and
apparently a Phantom Hill is a place in
Blaine County Idaho where the owner
would go to watch the stars at night I
always think that’s really cool when
the company name means something it’s
not just like you know kill Force
tactical extreme or something you know
it’s it it means something uh to
somebody I think that’s kind of cool all
right guys well that’s it
um do I like it absolutely uh was it as
good as I thought yeah I’d say even
better it was uh the the the way that
the buttons work and everything uh I
always knew this design would be awesome
and it was just great that someone
finally did this specific thing and I
know what you’re asking like this
thing’s been out for a little while like
if I if I wanted it so bad why uh why
did I wait for someone to offer me one
to review why didn’t I buy one and the
reason is just you know I’ve got several
several weapons set up for night vision
and I’ve got a handful of different
lasers and you know sometimes when
you’re when you’re looking you’re safe
and you see
four different lasers uh
do you really want to buy one more you
know like and it turns out I it had this
had I known it was going to uh be
everything that I wanted I would have
bought it a lot sooner and I honestly I
can’t wait for the ctf3
um I’d love to do a review
so this actually will be
um this is going to be my my primary
laser aiming device on my primary weapon
what the the weapon I would grab in an
emergency I like it that much I actually
am going to have to take it off right
now because I got to send this kiji back
to GP Armory and I’ve I’ve gotta I’ve
got to get my own
but as soon as possible uh it’ll be back
on here and I’ll be I’ll be uh running
it on the regular so that’s it thanks
for watching uh this has been a 30
magazine clip 30mc for short review of
the phantomhill ctf2 uh don’t forget to
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thanks for watching have a good day
——-End Transcript———