I review the Phantom Hill CTF2 Laser Aiming Module

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———

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