More bucks for my bang!
Thermal technology, rangefinders and ballistic calculators are becoming almost essential equipment for pest controllers, says Mark Ripley
I cast an eye around with the thermal over the edge of the barley and across the grass strip at the edge of the field but there was still no sign of a fox. An hour or more had passed and the legs of my jeans, wet from the dew-soaked wheat tramline I’d walked along, clung irritatingly to my skin. It was a hot and clammy night and the air hung still around me.
I knew there was an earth somewhere near the corner of the sloping field in front of me, and the farmer had seen cubs a few days before, but tonight all was quiet. I casually peered around behind me to the steep bank some 400 yards away, spotting several hares. The grass on this bank was chest high in places yet, with the steep angle of the bank and the thermal spotter, I could still see them moving about. As I watched I noticed one, then two, of them suddenly sit up before darting down the bank a short distance.
Power shortage
Following their line of sight I spotted the reason for their concern — a fox was out hunting through the grass further along the slope. I had the HikMicro Habrok thermal binoculars with me this evening but had forgotten to replace the fairly depleted batteries on arrival. Although there was still enough power to spot with, there wasn’t enough left in them to take a range with the in-built laser rangefinder — commonly referred to as an LRF.
I knew the ground well and could tell it was a fair distance away. I was also using an InfiRay TH50 V2 riflescope, so I had a pretty good idea of distance based purely on the size of the fox in the scope on maximum magnification. I would have preferred to have closed the distance in situations like this, but as I was standing in the middle of a field of wheat with the tramlines running in the opposite direction to the fox, I would have had to walk a long way to get any closer, by which time the fox would probably have been gone.
Not only that, but being such a still and moonlit night, walking along the tramline brushing the crop would be noisy and far from inconspicuous. With no wind to factor into the shot and a good idea of the drop, I was confident enough and steady enough on the Rekon tripod to take a shot if I could get a clear line through the long grass. I watched the fox poking about for a while before it lingered long enough in a slightly more open area to offer a shot, and I gently took up the pressure on the trigger.
Retrieval
The report of the rifle was soon followed by the unmistakable sound of bullet on bone and the fox dropped into the grass with some brief flashes of movement confirming the bullet had found its mark and done its deed. I always try to retrieve every fox I shoot so, marking the area as best I could in the relatively plain landscape, I began my long trek around the field margin and back on myself before clambering up the steep hillside through waist-high grass.
By now I was seriously regretting wearing such casual light clothing, with my jeans completely soaked and my shoes full of water. Anyone who has ever had a cheap pair of walking shoes will know that, although they are often comfortable, they rarely live up to their ‘waterproof’ label.
After much searching around in the grass I eventually found a very dead dog fox. The bullet had struck it on the point of the chin and then destroyed everything thereafter, showing that I had allowed a tad too much holdover for a chest shot.
Thankfully, as the fox had been sitting facing me there had been a good margin for error with all its vitals essentially stacked one on top of the other. However the impact made me realise just how much I had become accustomed to relying on the rangefinder for accurate readings.
It seems that many more products are including LRF capabilities these days. This is a good thing as range estimation, particularly at night and over undulating ground, can be very difficult. But does this lead to us taking longer shots than we are comfortable with? Well, I’d have to say “No.” If you feel a shot seems too far or beyond your capabilities, then don’t take it. It’s as simple as that.
Firing solutions
What a range finder does allow you to do is to make a calculated correction for elevation based on a known distance rather than estimating. Many riflescopes, or at least night vision or thermal scopes, now incorporate LRF capabilities and some, such as the impressive HikMicro Alpex 4K LRF, also use ballistic calculators to generate accurate firing solutions.
I always feel an LRF is always most useful when housed in a spotting unit. That way, when wandering around you can spot, range and then decide if the target is close enough without unshouldering the rifle and getting set up for a shot first.
A couple of units that have really impressed me recently are the two new rangefinders from Element optics – the Titan 3K and the Helix 1500. These two units work from a ballistic mobile app, so you can easily enter information that is then bluetoothed to either unit where that information is then stored. From there it’s a simply a case of finding your target and ranging it. The unit then instantly gives you the correction needed displayed on the screen along with the range, making an extremely accurate system.
To practice with this clever system I set out a few targets and had first round hits out to some impressive ranges. Even my humble .22 LR was accurately getting hits out to several hundred metres.
If you’re looking to buy a rangefinder as a standalone unit, one thing to be aware of is that not all of them work as well as others. A rangefinder with longer distance capabilities — such as the Element Titan 3K, which can range out to 3000 metres or more — has a stronger laser, meaning that it’s likely to be able to obtain accurate measurements in poor conditions better than a shorter range model.
I actually found out this recently when trying to range target distances with my Leica Geovid binoculars. These will range out to around 1200 metres, yet with the early morning hill fog I struggled to pick up a range at half that distance while the Titan 3K had no problem getting an accurate reading. Although you might never intend to shoot out to these distances, it’s handy to know the distance to your quarry when stalking in, especially in vast areas such as the Scottish Highlands where deer may be spotted at considerable distances and a lot of planning might go into the stalk towards them.
If you’re buying something with a built-in ballistic calculator with the intention to take game at further distances, then be aware that you will only get correct data out of the unit if you put correct data into it. These units can be surprisingly accurate, but before being used for hunting they should always be tested in the field on targets to confirm drop data and, just as importantly, so that you can learn all about the effects of the wind — but that’s a whole other challenge.
So are there any downsides to having an LRF on a unit? Other than the initial cost of a unit with this feature, I would say there are very few. It will drain batteries on thermal or night vision units when used, especially if it has a scan mode where the rangefinder is constantly pinging the distance every few seconds and it is left on. They also won’t work (as effectively) in adverse weather, so any moisture in the air such as rain or fog can prevent the unit from giving any form of reading at all. It’s something to consider if your work is carried out on dreary autumn evenings.
All things considered, however, rangefinders are a great asset and a useful tool for foxers and deerstalkers alike — just as long as you remember to keep the batteries charged.
Kit to consider:
Element Titan 3K LRF rangefinder
Element Helix 1500 rangefinder
HikMicro Habrok thermal imaging binoculars
HikMicro Alpex 4K LRF day/night scope
