Thread: Night vision vs hunting torch update.

Well things seem to have gone a little quiet here on this subject which used to be one of the most commented on. Phil and his input on this is sorely missed, at least by me. A lot of really good prior post content was also lost when the Admin in their supreme wisdom deleted it due to some misguided idea that there was some sort of potentially damaging content, damaging to who or what we will probably never know. Phil also appears to have been collateral damage and regretfully is no longer on this forum.
Anyway I have decided to post this update on my findings so far. It has been a long time coming because since August I have not been able to get to my hunting block due to Covid restrictions. However we finally got there just before Christmas. I have been fizzing to try out a new piece of gear, The Convoy L21B red torch, I also needed to make a final decision what to do about my PARD 007 Clip on.
So the block we hunt has quite a good population of Fallow deer, it is reasonably open farmland which goes into bush gullies and regenerating scrub at the back. So a high percentage of our shots are at mid to longer ranges. Over the last year or so, prior to the most recent lockdown I have played with the Pard 007, a white bean Maxtoch torch, the Convoy C8 red torch and now the L21B red torch. I have shot animals with all these choices.
This time around I started off with the Pard 007. I use this on a Tikka T3x with a Swarovski 3.5-18 x 44. I also add an external IR laser iluminator. This gives much better clarity even ad mid ranges. The first deer I shot was with this setup, a good Fallow buck at about 150m. I do find the Pard a little fiddly to use at night, I guess because the button layout on the back is not second nature to me. At one point while getting set up to shoot I wondered why the Buck and the 3 other animals with him were all looking in my direction. Oooops I had managed to press the button which activated the little red laser light. So after quickly turning that off the deer were still there and I managed to line up on and shoot a really decent white stag.
I then pulled the 007 off and put the L21B red torch on. The first animal I shot with this setup was a Fallow spiker at only about 40m. Yes when I illuminated the spiker he was definitely aware that something was going on, however at those ranges the time taken to first light up the animal and then shoot would be less than 5 seconds. The next spiker was at about 100m, when I turned on the torch he just stood and looked at me, it took about 20 seconds to get the shot off due to a pretty uncomfortable shooting position. This spiker did not seem overly upset about being lit up.
Later on that night I got a good Boar, He was lit up and shot at about 170m. When I put the red torch on him he stopped digging in the ground and lifted his head but did not seem overly alarmed. Resolution at that range was good enough to stick a 129 grain pill below his ear. I had a good rest over a large fallen tree.
I should also point out that I use a Thermal monocular for finding animals. This is a game changer I would never go without this piece gear, nothing else comes close. Currently I am preferring the red torch vs the night vision because of the simplicity of this system. I am yet to loose an animal because it has run off after being lit up. Although I would also say that the PARD 007 just on dusk is friggin awesome. Without the IR iluminator it can be almost dark but seems like daylight through the PARD.
The L21B torch compared to the Convoy C8 red torch. Well the L21B has a tighter beam and a much longer range. I was lighting up a hillside 400m away to a point where any animal on that hillside would be shootable. However I am a little more conservative at night. I need a good positive ID on my target. With this in mind I was limiting my shots taken with the C8 Convoy to about 230m and now with the new L21B that would be about 300m.
Another interesting point worth noting, and something which we learned through making the mistake. with either system, night vision/IR iluminator or hunting torch you need to be setup in such a way as to avoid blowback of light reflection from the ground or grass/scrub immediately in from of you. So for example it can be difficult to setup prone because the torch/IR will reflect back light from the grass in front of you, to point that the scope will completely white out with the glare. The same thing when you have trees close in front of you. This does make some longer range shots quite challenging.
Anyway you will now see I have put the PADR 007 and the IR iluminator in the for sale section. Maybe I will regret this but for now I had to make a choice and I am going with the red torch.
Hopefully this post will rejuvenate discussion on this most interesting subject, it would be great to get some posts on other peoples first hand experiences.