Thread: I've Experienced the Advantage of Hunting with Thermal and Night Vision

Thanks Marty.... hadn't thought of using rubber and fastening it to the trigger guard. I've got some heavy duty rubber bands that are used for training trees, I should see what I can do with those. Heh... also appreciated your 'grammatical imprecision' note.

On Monday night I went out and shot a hare in a big paddock using a .223 fitted with a Pulsar NV scope. The scope is a good one, but it doesn't have a rangefinder. I looked for a long time, but didn't find that hare. That really bugged me. So I went to the same place yesterday evening before dark, carrying my Ruger .22 fitted with the Sytong HT 60 rangefinder model (which is now working well with a software update). I zig-zagged back and forth across the paddock and eventually found the hare. It was maybe forty metres further down the slope than I'd thought. All that was left was a pair of ears, four paws and some fairly clean-picked bones. I'm guessing the hawks had a feed. If I'd had a rangefinder (and had 'ranged' before I took the shot), I could have ranged from the paddock back to my shooting position to help me find the right general area. With the .223 being zeroed for maybe 170 metres, I can pretty much point and shoot up to 200 metres - and I'm likely to be able to decide if something is closer than 200 metres. So a rangefinder isn't so critical for deciding whether to shoot and where to hold for the .223 rig. I measured the range with the Sytong for interest's sake, and found that it was 97 metres.

After dark I walked across the rest of the farm. I spotted a young hare, and pressed the rangefinder button. 70 metres. I'd created a bit of a chart based on the rifle being zeroed for 50 metres, so I knew to hold 5 cm high. My shot was successful, and I was very pleased. I then spotted a big possum in a nearby tree, so I climbed the hill to make a safe shot, and I got the possum as well. It took more than one shot as sometimes is the case with possums.

Shooting at hares and rabbits with a .22 at long distances is something that makes my ethics indicator wave its needle. However, when it is important to protect crops etc and the use of a big rifle isn't the wisest choice, then it can be worth the gamble. Having a rangefinder makes it easier for me to decide whether to take the shot and, if so, where to aim.