Mike Powell recalls one of his favourite foxing units, the Pulsar Trail XQ50 thermal rifle scope, and still finds it to be a market-leading device with plenty of after-dark appeal

It’s amazing how quickly things change in the shooting world, and nowhere can this be seen more than in the night-shooting environment. Twenty years ago most night shooters were still using lamps, and the thought of shooting without artificial light was still in its very early stages.

Today, of course, for many the lamp is fast becoming a thing of the past where actual shooting is concerned, though it will always have a place, particularly when costs dictate what one can afford. The lamp has been, and will continue to be, an option for many as there is no doubt that in the right hands and with knowledge of fieldcraft it does the job perfectly well.

Then along came night vision. Not only was this an efficient method of shooting in darkness, it was also very interesting, opening up a world that hitherto was a complete mystery. After the first tubed night vision appeared it wasn’t long before the real game-changer, thermal, arrived, and took night shooting to a new level. There were, however, certain limitations where thermal was concerned, mainly difficulty in accurately identifying the object you spotted.

Unlike conventional night vision where you actually see the quarry, thermal picks up the heat signature the body produces – which, particularly at ranges over 100 yards, can only be described as blurred.