NIGHT STALKER

When the weather cooperates, shooting at night in the winter can be very productive. Hordes of scavenging rats come in from the exposed countryside to seek shelter around farms and those grass-gobbling rabbits still have to venture out of their burrows to feed.

Of course, shooting in the dark requires night vision optics. Lamping still works, but in my opinion it doesn’t hold a candle (pun intended) to infrared (IR) and thermal technology.

There are plenty of products to choose from and fortunately varying budgets are increasingly catered for.

There are three basic categories of night vision optic – infrared (IR) scopes, thermal scopes and add-ons – either IR or thermal – that are attached to a regular day scope.

We’ll be taking a look at all three over the next few issues. Starting with IR scopes, we have five of the most popular on sale right now. Sportsman Gun Centre has sent us a Pard NV008P, which carries a retail price of £646.

Thanks to Scott Country International, we have a Sightmark Wraith 4K Max (£949.99), and RUAG Ammotec loaned us an ATN X-Sight LTV 3-9x (£715).