African Predator

“When you start using it, you will wonder how the heck you hunted jackal and cats for years without it!” G Laubscher

Here is what you can buy to get the advantage over other hunters still using red lights etc, to own the night means to kill far more jackals / cats, and nobody will even know you are around. Using sounds nobody has and no lights kills jackal!

These two jackals approached my Scorpion electronic caller, they came in at past dusk, I watched them with night vision, and we killed these two using no lights at all.

Scenario – read this, and then you will see exactly what you are missing out! You go call, you are waiting at your spot, it gets darker and when dark you start calling – NOW lets say you have done this 40 times in your career, my question to you is ; HOW MANY jackals and cats have you not seen while waiting for nightfall, how many of them saw you sitting like kippie and you never knew they spotted you? I can promise you that it has happened a few times, more than you will ever know!

So, now ENTER NIGHT VISION – I sit at my spot, its dusk and just after when I can’t see well anymore with human vision, I switch on my Meteor and scan away, nothing within 250m of me will pass me without me seeing it – I just kiss with my lips to get any animals to look my way while scanning. I own that area at night and I tell you this I have killed quite a few predators, I spotted without them knowing I was watching them, one jackal passed my windmill stand at 30m, we could have thrown a rock at him he was so close, he never knew we sat above him, and a 22 Hornet ended his lamb killing days, again no lights were used.

Night vision can be bought at many places, from cheaper MONO visions (single tube) to BINOCULARS with double tubes, my advise is buy a BINOCULARS, your eyes strain far less than if you use a single MONO vision, for quality, buy NIGHT OWL products or better buy a Cobra Meteor Pro, they are very good, I had a model Night Owl N0XB5 as shown below, it gave me years of great fun, I then upgraded to the new unit mentioned below.

As one of Night Owl's premier models, the Explorer Pro Binocular delivers portability and premium performance in an attractive body encased in a rubberized finish for robust, extra-comfortable handling. The compact shell houses two high performing intensifier tubes cradled inside Night Owl Optic's unique steel stringer system, adding precision and control.

Additionally, integrated with each unit is a refined and powerful infrared illuminator, which provides clear and bright viewing in complete darkness. The NOXB5 gives users a new level or operational reliability with such innovations as a low battery indicator and extended infrared operation when the battery is losing its power.

SPECIFICATIONS
Infrared Illuminator : Yes
Magnification : 5x
Intensifier Tube : Gen 1
Range of View : 217m
Lens System : F1:1.7, F80mm
Field of View @ 1000m : 160m
Diopter Adjustment : +/- 5
Resolution : 24 lp/mm

Power Supply : 3v Lithium Battery
Range of Focus : 3m to infinity
Dimensions : 195mm x 153mm x 66mm
Weight : 1.2Kg

The powerful Marine Pro is the ultimate, premium performing monocular that combines the top class exceptional engineering advancements of a 100% waterproof body structure with features such as an 80mm high grade camera quality lens with 5x magnification. The solid construction and rubber-coated night blue finish combined with ergonomic soft-touch control buttons and indicator lights make the NOCX5M a top performer. WATERPROOF!

SPECIFICATIONS
Infrared Illuminator : Yes
Magnification : 5x
Intensifier Tube : Gen 1
Range of View : 200m
Lens System : F1:1.7, F80mm
Field of View @ 1000m : 160m
Diopter Adjustment : +/- 4
Resolution : 24 lp/mm
Power Supply : 3V Lithium Battery
Range of Focus : 3m to Infinity
Dimensions : 202mm x 61mm x 81mm
Weight : 680g

I now own this unit, it is a standard COBRA METEOR, on a dark night without any moon I can see 150m at night easily, and the built in IR (infra red) assists you with lighting up things at night. This Meteor PRO is a good quality unit and I will now strongly recommend it. When I put on the IR I can see 145m, but when I put on the extra light I fitted above, a Sure-fire G2 with an infra red lens I can see a jackal at 200m easily. This unit is now passed 2nd GENERATION optics by far. This photo shows the unit without an IR lens, I can see a predator’s eye at 400m easily and see the actual jackal at 200m. If the caller is playing and he comes towards me I will pick up his eyes coming from far far away, and at 200m identification is easy.

BUT I have a secret, I use a Sure-fire torch, either a 9P or a G2 model, and I fit a small photographic infra red lens that is paper thin to the front, then I purchased a tactical bracket off E BAY at $3 and it fits the Sure-fire and rests just above the units original IR. Now when I switch on, my Meteor is now on par or even better than a 2^nd generation unit, I can see everything I need to see no problem at all.

These units are great for observation and you are on even ground as an animals eyes light up when they look your way in the night, just like a red light, so when he gets to lets say 100m if for some reason you cant see him, his eyes will look like robots in your binoculars.

Standard procedure when putting them on the first time is to set each tube for clear vision, left and right, then you are ready to rumble, I WILL SAY THIS, this Meteor is so clear at night when I have set the settings I can see just as clearly on an object as I would with a normal pair of binoculars in the day, the quality is amazing. So, what I mean is looking at an object at 140 m with this night vision at night is 80% as close to what it would be in the day with normal binos!

The first night I tested the new METEOR unit, I set it and it was a quarter moon above us, the waters edge on a dark beach was 150m away, I showed her to look in the direction I pointed to, you could see a man urinating in the water while standing at the waters edge. (150m away). She looked through the binocular and she said “Man, that’s incredible” that’s it, simple, it was so clear and you could see him as clear as day! I just asked her again now and she laughed, saying you could see him so clearly it’s amazing.

Some things that are interesting is that; after you have switched on the unit, give it a minute to reach full power, then switch it off to save the battery, it still stays on and you can still see fine for at least another 3 -4 minutes, you save battery power this way, and another point is if you have a moon night, depending on how much moon you may not even need to use a built in or extra Infra red, as you have a lot of natural light to help the binoculars, from half a moon you will not really need the IR at all. This also saves a battery even more. A small LED lights up to tell you the unit is either on or off, so you don’t have to guess at all.

To watch incoming predators at night without red lights gives a hunter the edge, and you kill far more slim jackals this way. You will be able to see what animals are near you and people also, once I even helped with a night out watching for poachers! Night vision offers you so much, when you start using it, you will wonder how the heck you hunted for years without it!

INFRA RED filters are expensive, so if you don’t have one, use a few small tiny red lenses in its place, it helps a lot to give you more light. If you use one in the Sure-fire it’s too bright, put at least 4 little red lenses in it, then you have soft comfortable light and you will be amazed at the quality of your night vision.

When you are sitting on your chair at night and have been scanning for a while, if you are scared you may have missed an incoming animal, every now and again just scan around you on a very low red dimmed beam with your normal hunting torch.

GENERAL HUNTING ROUTENE

Here is an idea of what I do at a hunting spot, I scan around till I want to start calling, then I start calling softly and slowly up the volume, Then I have a red light on my chair that I have on a very low dimmed setting, it is OFF. After I spot the jackal approaching, I watch him all the way in, and when I am happy he is close enough, I put on the dimmed light and shoot him, then start calling and scanning all over again.

At first if to expensive just buy a standard unit; you can always get the extras at a later stage. R15, 000 is an example, I know guys who can sell them at R12, 500 new.

This is a company I can refer to you that can offer you fantastic equipment and advice, contact Mike directly for Night Owl products and also LUNER OPTICS and he will assist you. He offers the best advice on night vision I have found so far and has friendliness to back it up! Good service is hard to find in South Africa but this guy has what it takes. I buy all my night vision equipment here; his knowledge is honest and not biased at all.