FEELING THE HEAT ON A THERMAL RAT ROUNDUP

Mat Manning gears up with the HikMicro Lynx 2.0 Thermal Monocular as he targets garden-raiding rats under the cover of darkness.

HIKMICRO LYNX LH25 2.0

£1,149.99

hikmicrotech.com

Length: 170mm

Weight: 300g

Magnification: 2.4-19.2x

Detection range: 1,200m

Features: Sub-20 mK NETD detector, 25mm F1.0 lens, video and audio recording, wifi connectivity, four colour palettes, hot tracking, supplied with batteries and charger.

It wasn’t so long ago that I considered thermal spotters to be an expensive luxury and far from essential. Over the past couple of years, though, they have become a regular part of my everyday shooting kit and I would now feel at a serious disadvantage if I didn’t have one stashed in my jacket pocket when heading out on my nocturnal pest control rounds — and I must confess that they are becoming an increasingly regular part of my daytime shooting kit, too.

My change of opinion can be attributed to several factors that have made these optics more attractive and more accessible. There is no denying that being able to spot your quarry’s heat signature — even when it is partially obscured by cover — is a huge advantage, but the real game changer for me is the fact that they have become much easier to use and way more affordable. All of those important elements are exemplified by the HikMicro Lynx 2.0 Thermal Monocular.

I have spent the past couple of months getting to grips with the LH25 variant of the Lynx 2.0. This model’s £1,149.99 RRP still represents a significant outlay but that compares very favourably with its rivals, and you get a lot of performance for your money. This little thermal monocular has been built to stand up to proper field use and boasts a highly sensitive sub-20 mK NETD thermal detector, which makes for remarkably clear, layered viewing with plenty of detail of the landscape around your target —very important when working out safe shots.

The Lynx weighs about 300g, is less than 17cm long and has been designed to sit very comfortably in the palm of your hand. Those proportions also mean that it can easily be carried in a coat pocket.

The LH25 has a 25mm F1.0 lens and a detection range of up to 1,200m. Magnification shifts from 2.4 to 19.2x at the press of a button. That gives you the option of zooming right in for extra detail, though I tend to use spotters on their lowest magnification to achieve the widest possible field of view.

Battery life is also an important consideration, and the Lynx 2.0 has a stated continuous runtime of 6.5 hours — although that will diminish if you use its more advanced features such as WiFi connectivity. Runtime is improved by a very clever auto screen-off feature activated by a sensor that detects the angle of the Lynx — or you can put it into sleep mode manually.

Either way, it kicks back into action in less than three seconds so it’s always ready for rapid deployment. The power source is a replaceable rechargeable 18650 battery, which can easily be swapped out in the field. There are two batteries supplied, and you can either charge them on board or with the supplied charger.

This thermal spotter’s many features include cool and warm tone adjustment, Picture in Picture and Hot Tracking modes. It has a 0.39in OLED display and gives you a choice of White Hot, Black Hot, Red Hot and Fusion colour palettes. It can record photo and video directly to its 16GB integral memory and also has wireless connectivity to your personal smartphone or tablet, so you can use the HikMicro Sight app for watching back and sharing captured footage and also for quick, easy firmware updates.

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOE BRANSTON

Having that array of clever whistles and bells is all very well, but the only way to find out if all those features actually make a real difference to your results is to get out and put them to the test. My opportunity to do this came in the shape of an unwelcome influx of rats in a friend’s garden. With the rodents offering a comparatively small target, and often hiding amongst cover, some after-dark ratting seemed a great way to get the measure of the Lynx 2.0’s potential.

Snooping around my friend’s garden just as dusk was setting in, I saw several ratty excavations and some busy-looking runs passing through the flower beds. Expecting the rats to be reluctant to venture too far from cover, I placed small heaps of fine white breadcrumbs along the more exposed sections of the routes they were using in the hope of persuading them to pause and feed in places where I could get clear shots at them.

The rodents appeared to be most active in two main areas and I was able to cover one from the shelter of a log store and the other from an old stone shed. With light showers forecast throughout the evening, I was glad to be able to shoot from sheltered spots and began by setting up my stool and tripod in the log store before loading up the magazine of my .177 calibre FX Dreamline Classic in readiness for the arrival of the rats.

My very first look through the Lynx 2.0 revealed two rats scuttling around amongst the cover of a large flowerbed. Even with vegetation in the way, the White Hot colour palette gave me a remarkably clear view of them and a quick turn of the front focusing dial brought the rodents into sharp relief.

Rather than risking a miss by attempting to take a shot at a partially obscured target, I sat tight and waited for the rats to gain confidence. Sure enough, the lure of the breadcrumbs soon proved too great resist and the view through the Lynx revealed a greedy rodent munching on one of my bait spots.

I tucked the Lynx 2.0 back into my pocket and lined up through my Alpex LRF 4K digital gunsight. At 15 metres this shot was a mere formality, and the first rat of the night fell to a shot that caught it solidly in the head.

Fiddly controls can be a nightmare in the dark, but I found the Lynx 2.0’s buttons very easy to operate — even when wearing gloves. The device comes supplied with a wrist strap, but I have to say that I would have preferred a neck strap to save me from having to keep slipping it in and out of my pocket. That small niggle aside, I found it to be an excellent spotter, and it certainly enabled me to clock rats that I would never have noticed through my infrared night vision riflescope.

The garden didn’t appear to be as overrun as I had expected, and my night concluded with a tally of six rats. I am in no doubt that the Lynx 2.0 played a big part in helping me to spot the skittish rodents. By enabling me to see the heat signatures of dead rats several hours after shooting them, it also proved a great help when clearing up at the end of the session.

I have since paid another visit to my friend’s garden — during which I managed to mop up a further four rats — and have also used the Lynx 2.0 for rabbit and grey squirrel control. I don’t do any deer shooting but the device also made easy work of spotting these secretive animals hiding amongst the undergrowth while I was out searching for squirrels, and I am sure that it would be equally good for betraying the presence of wily foxes. This versatile and extremely effective thermal monocular worked brilliantly at night, and also by day when I have known devices in the same price bracket to struggle with lower heat differential between quarry species and their surroundings. If you’re looking for a compact thermal spotter, this is well worth a look.