SPORTING ANSWERS

Sold on thermal spotters

PEST CONTROL

Q Lots of airgun shooters seem to be using thermal spotters for after-dark pest control and I am tempted to try one for my own rat and rabbit shooting. Do they really make a difference to results or are they simply an expensive gimmick?

A Thermal spotters are quite expensive, but they most certainly are not a gimmick. I was initially sceptical about them, but they have made a significant difference to my results over the past year or so. Being able to see your quarry’s heat signature makes it so much harder for them to evade detection, even when partially obscured by undergrowth.

My usual approach is to pair my airgun with an infrared gunsight set on 6-10x zoom for precise shooting. Then I use a thermal spotter on really low magnification, usually 1x, so I have a very wide field of view.

Apart from being highly effective for revealing quarry, using a thermal spotter in this way doesn’t give you the giddy feeling of motion sickness that constant scanning through a night-vision scope can sometimes trigger. MM

GUN CASE LABEL OF THE WEEK

WEBLEY & SCOTT

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