Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Throwing a spotlight on the very best
A quality torch, especially one with mounts for a gun, is an essential accessory once the clocks change, says Barry Stoffell
As the nights draw in and the evenings lengthen, many of us will find ourselves operating under cover of
Streamlight Wedge RRP: £125 streamlightpro.com This is a neat little unit from a well-known manufacturer that makes some of the best lights around. Extremely compact and weighing in at just 90g, the Wedge fits easily and unobtrusively into a pocket. The flattened, slimline design is tactile and sits nicely in the hand, operating via a forward switch that you toggle with your thumb — apart from simply ‘on’ and ‘off’, if you push the switch further forwards you get a brighter beam, although the switch doesn’t lock in this position, which is a bit annoying.
The beam is wide, giving good, even illumination out to about 60m, which is darkness. Whether you’re chasing Charlie, checking up on livestock or bagging a brace of bunnies for the pot, a good light is a vital piece of kit as we perfect for finding your way around. It’s a tough little cookie, too — the matt-black casing is anodised aluminium, and it is rated to IPX7, meaning that it can be safely dropped into water.
The internal battery provides around three hours of light at the regular setting of 300 lumens, and is topped up via a USB-C charger. The charging port at the back is open but fully waterproofed, although this won’t prevent it filling up with crud from your pocket or glovebox, and a charge port cover might have been a good idea.
Although I liked this torch, I felt it lacked a bit of purpose for the price tag. Undoubtedly it would be handy as a backup light in the glovebox or tucked into head into winter, so I was delighted to get a chance to put a handful of the best torches for the jobs described through their paces this month. your pocket for the walk home from the pub. But there are plenty of lights that will perform that role just as capably for half the price that these go for.
Overall:
Fenix TK20R V2.0 RRP: £139.95 myfenix.co.uk Having heard good things, I was keen to try the Fenix. Initial impressions were excellent — I lit her up in daylight, at maximum brightness, and almost gave myself a suntan. There are five brightness settings (ranging from ‘Eco’ to the aptly named ‘Turbo’), all accessed via a selector on the rear of the unit. It’s powered by an impressive 5,000mah 21700-series battery that carries significantly more charge than the 18650s that have become standard for high-output torches.
The TK20R is a compact unit weighing in at just over 200g, with a rugged metal casing that feels bombproof. This is borne out by the specs — a rating of IP68 makes
Wülf Shadowlux IR Illuminator RRP: £149.95 opticswarehouse.co.uk I was mightily impressed with the Shadowlux from Wülf. This versatile unit comes in a hard case that contains everything you need to get hunting right away — a basic Picatinny mount and a dimmable tailmounted switch are included, as is a single rechargeable 18650 (3,400 mah) battery and charger.
Solidly constructed in matt black anodised aluminium, the Shadowlux is rated to IP6 for the wet stuff, which covers you for everything short of dropping it in a ditch. This unit offers not only ‘traditional’ white light but both 850nm and 940nm
IR, all via the twist of a switch. At the front it the most waterproof of the units tested.
Rather than a standard charger, the Fenix connects via a USB-C port at the front end, meaning one less piece of electronics to lose and making charging from a standard USB port in a vehicle simple.
Optics technology is always advancing, but I was taken aback by how bright this was. On the ‘Turbo’ setting it puts out a whopping 3,000 lumens, producing a beam that reaches nearly 500m.
Although not produced specifically as a hunting light, a tail switch and mounting system are available and, given how impressed I was end, the 53mm flat polycarbonate lens is focused with a twist, while at the rear, a thumb-dial rheostat controls the brightness. A green operating light lets you know when the lamp is active and stops you leaving the IR on by accident.
First impressions are good — the torch feels quite solid and isn’t too heavy. There was a slight rocking on the forward focus, but nonetheless it moved smoothly. The beam selector also has some play in the ring switch that rotates the internal LED pills, but did its job just fine, albeit with a by the lamp, I was curious how it would be on the gun. Heading out for a few evening bunnies with the
.17 HMR, I popped the Fenix and a simple scope clamp in my back pocket and once darkness caught up with me, I gave it a go. Although the unit is not focusable, it produces a two-part beam with a good tight cone in the centre and I had no trouble using it lamping to 100m before slipping the whole array back in my pocket and heading home.
In conclusion, there was little not to like about this one and I shall be sorry to send it back.
Overall: fairly pronounced click as it arrived at each setting.
Twinned with a PARD NV unit, the torch performed excellently, easily showing quarry to 250m and, at shootable ranges, provided good illumination for a crisp image. Overall, I liked it.
I’ve never needed to use ‘covert’ 940nm IR, but I know chaps with spooky foxes who swear by it, and the Shadowlux offers a complete nighthunting solution at a competitive price. The build quality doesn’t rival higher-end units, but for most of us this will do everything you need.
Overall:
Night Master NM1 SL
RRP: £159.95 nightmaster.co.uk
Next up was the NM1 SL light from Night Master, the middle child of the three lights in the NM series (CL, SL and XL) that all operate from the same modular ‘chassis’.
Out of the box it’s obvious that this is high-end kit. The all-metal, chequered casing is tough and there’s a real solidity to the unit, which weighs in at just over 250g. The design of the NM series differs from many hunting lamps in that everything operates from the back; the brightness switch is housed at the rear, and it is the back rather than the front of the lamp that twists to focus the beam. Once you start twisting, the quality of the unit asserts itself again — it’s noticeably more precisely engineered than the Wülf, with a smooth, positive action and no rocking or play. As with the Wülf, the power is provided by a removable 18650 battery that gives just under three hours of continuous use at maximum power.
Tightly focused
In this case, I scope-mounted the lamp via the Night Master QMD (Quick, Multi-directional) system (rail mounts are also available). Critically, this allows for easy zeroing of a tightly focused beam, essential for longer-range work.
As you’d expect from a high-end hunting lamp, various LED pills are available, including red, green, amber and both IR wavelengths, and the lamp is covered by Night Master’s (limited) lifetime warranty.
I took the NM1 SL out a couple of times, once for bunnies and once in search of Charlie, and it’s hard to find fault with it. The beam easily picks up eye-shine beyond 500m and the unit is flawless in use.
Although the Night Master has the highest price tag of the units here, in this case I can confirm that you really do get what you pay for. Alongside that, the neat modular system of the Night Master range gives you the chance to modify or expand your set-up without investing in a whole new lamp.
Overall:
People often ask me when a young person might reasonably be introduced to the proper use of guns and my answer is that it depends on the kid; and on the kid’s parents; and on the kid’s household up to and including the budgie and the family cat. I know some fantastically concerned parents who took every precaution they could conceive of to protect their little one from the horrors of firearms and almost the first words their offspring uttered were, “Pee-ow! Pee-ow!”
And if you think that guns might not be attractively packaged for the young in these enlightened and sensitivity-aware days, then you should check out the Super Soaker 600 water pistol or immerse yourself in the world of Nerf.
One thing that I have long felt is that there are certain things in life which are best avoided by parents altogether. Sport is a reasonable example. I don’t think that parents should try to teach their children sports. Either they expect too much, far too soon: “Come on, come on! I said a googly, for heaven’s sake, not a long hop! Why don’t you listen?” Or they are too sympathetic: “Of course it doesn’t matter if you can’t kick it, sweetheart. No one scores the first time, do they?”
Both these adult attitudes are, of course, misguided and will leave the unfortunate child confused, resentful or ultimately damaged. Where to begin is perhaps a better question than when. The first lethal weapon I handled was at prep school. It was an elastic band, which we flicked at bluebottle flies as they buzzed against the windows.
Childish inventiveness soon kicked in, though, and by the weekend we were using projectiles of folded paper covered in sticky tape. And by the end of term, all our crossbows had been confiscated after Matron had to remove a pencil from someone’s leg. That’s progress for you.
How many of us began with a .177 air rifle? And who among us didn’t do something stupid with it? Some of us were caught and some of us weren’t, and some of us probably still wake up in the dead of the night wondering if we really got away with it or whether there might still be a price to be paid.
Nonetheless, an air rifle is still one of the best introductions to responsible gun handling and the associated lecture should, in my view, be undertaken by someone other than a parent. In the absence of a fearsome family gamekeeper, this is a role where uncles, aunts and godparents can contribute. If they arrive with a gun for occasional use, under careful supervision, all sorts of behavioural adjustments may be negotiated for another go next time.
How many tins of 250 pellets did we get through? And how many innocent tin cans were reduced to shreds before we were adjudged safe to move on? But not, please, to a .410. Certainly they are lethal in the right hands — as they are surely dangerous in the wrong ones — and, yes, stalking quarry to within a few yards is a valuable skill but, oh mercy, the frustration of phutting away without tangible — or edible — results.
A sporting chance
If the kid is ready, issue them with a 28-bore and sign them up for a series of lessons with an instructor who knows proper behaviour as well as accuracy and a deal of practice besides, and then let them get after it with a sporting chance of success. With a strong emphasis on the sporting. It is by attitude, rather than age, that we should calibrate a youngster’s readiness to be unleashed on any targets, whether static or moving, inert or, ultimately, live.
I’ll lay odds we all know someone who could bear a spot of polishing in both the accuracy and the ethical department, and we’re ancient, after all.
“It is by attitude, rather than age, that we should calibrate a youngster’s readiness”
Do you agree with Giles? Let us know via Stletters@futurenet.com
Giles Catchpole is a freelance journalist as well as a keen Shot and angler, and he has written several humorous sporting books