Hands up if you used a Nite Site years ago. Simply shove a rubber tube on the back of your glass scope, then ram a camera in the back of that. Then snap a clip on the middle of your scope and screw in the combined screen and IR beamer. Then plug all the wires in. And don’t forget the battery. Velcro that in place and poke another cable into the camera. Switch it on, wiggle it about to get a usable picture and off you go.
OK, you had to shoot heads up with the rifle butt in the middle of your chest to see the screen, but weren’t they good? We marvelled at how much better the Nite Site was compared to a lamp. So much so in fact that we didn’t mind stumping up £500 or more for one a decade ago.
To be fair, a Nite Site system was essential kit for the airgunner who wanted to shoot at night. Now though, we have so much more choice when it comes to night vision.
The Pard Night Stalker Mini is a great example of just how far things have come in less than ten years. Retailing at just £339, this digital day/night IR scope delivers decent performance at a comparatively cheap price.
Below: The Pard Night Stalker Mini delivers a lot of performance for a cheap night vision scope.
At just 293mm long not including the screw in rubber eyecup, it’s compact and, thanks to the use of aluminium alloy, it’s light too at 458g. It even looks like a conventional scope, albeit the 35mm objective lens is a little smaller than what we are used to.
It’s fair to say the Pard Night Stalker Mini lacks some of the features we’ve come to expect from more expensive NV optics – there’s no laser rangefinder or ballistic calculator for example. Nor is there an integrated IR illuminator – an additional purchase if you don’t already have one and intend to shoot at night.
But to dwell on what it doesn’t have is to miss the point. The Pard Night Stalker Mini is one of the first dedicated day/night IR scopes to be designed specifically for airgun use. In fact, I’d go further and say it is aimed squarely at sub-12ft/lb airgun shooters.
Laser rangefinders and ballistic calculators are great to have, but if shooting rats around the farmyard, or rabbits over ground you are familiar with, they are by no means vital. If that sounds like you and you’re looking for a dedicated day/night optic, the Night Stalker Mini could well be what you’ve been waiting for.
Now’s that’s the $64 million question, isn’t it? Or rather the £339 question because, let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how affordable something is if its rubbish.
Fortunately, and given it comes from a company like Pard, unsurprisingly the Night Stalker Mini is not rubbish. Far from it in fact.
Yes, it’s lacking in a couple areas, but Pard has not simply cut everything to the bone to make it cheap. The 2560x1440 CMOS sensor combines with a round 800x800 IPS display to provide a sharp daytime image that’s plenty clear enough to target airgun quarry species at sub-12ft/lb ranges.
Adding to the value is a decent set of 30mm Picatinny mounts that include an additional top ring to accept a torch mount. They are quite high and, given the slim proportions of the Night Stalker Mini, a lower set of rings will get you much closer to the barrel on most rifles to reduce hold off requirements and problems with cant. You also get a screw-in rubber eye cup, a battery charger and a neoprene cover.
Eye relief is set at 100mm, although the dioptre adjustment to ensure the screen display and reticle are sharp can reduce that by nearly half. Target focus down to just five metres – achieved via a turret on the left of the scope – means it’s spot on for close-range ratting.
The opposite turret is in fact a dummy and unscrewing the cap simply reveals a cavity to take the provided 18650 re-chargeable battery which gives plenty of run time – remember there’s no IR torch or laser rangefinder to power.
Below: The Pard Night Stalker Mini is powered by a replaceable rechargeable battery which can be swapped out to increase run time.
A short press on the top turret calls up an abbreviated menu for functions including zeroing, default colour and display brightness. A long press gives access to a menu of 21 operations including a 2x picture-in-picture mode, which incorporates a mini-reticle, gyroscope and wifi.
Rotating the turret without pressing it scrolls though the 3x base magnification that is augmented by 2x digital zoom for a 3-6x total range in 3x, 3.8x, 4.5x, 5.2x and 6x increments. That might not sound like much but, once again, for sub-12ft/lb airgun use, it is ample and ensures good field of view.
The Night Stalker Mini doesn’t stint on reticle options either, with six styles in four colours available. And with five profiles, there’s plenty of scope – pun intended – for different pellet, zero and reticle combinations.
Forward of the ocular lens, a raised button array hosts two elongated controls. A short press on the left side of the top one toggles between daytime colour and nighttime monochrome modes. The right side takes photos or video with short and long presses respectively with footage recorded in 1440x1080 resolution in .jpg for photos and .mp4 for video onto a micro-SD card that you will have to purchase separately.
The left side of the bottom button hints at a range finding function. Pressing it does nothing though, so I assume there’s either the possibility of a bolt on rangefinder at some point in the future, or Pard is using up parts from another product. Pressing the right side activates the wifi function so you can connect to the PardVision 2 app. Other controls to mention are the on/off button on the left, which powers up the Night Stalker Mini in four seconds and activates an instant wake up standby function, and ports for a micro-SD card and USB C-type charging cable on the right.
Below: The Pard Night Stalker Mini has intuitive controls operated via the top turret and a set of buttons.
Attached to my .177 Daystate Blackwolf, zeroing the Night Stalker Mini took just a few minutes as the zero menu is refreshingly simple. All that is required is to shoot a test group and move a central cross to the point of impact using the x and y values. Keeping the centre of the reticle on the aimpoint, the image freezes as soon as you make the first adjustment. A long press saves the new setting.
I planned on taking take the Blackwolf/Night Stalker Mini on a nighttime ratting trip, so I zeroed at 20 metres and spent an enjoyable hour or two plinking at different distances to familiarise myself with the hold off requirements.
Then plans changed when I was asked to put a .22 Kral Shadow through its paces. Another trip back to the range and I had everything saved to a different profile.
Later that evening and laid down in one of my paddock permissions waiting for the rabbits to appear, I had plenty of time to gawp about in daylight. The image through the Night Stalker Mini was plenty sharp enough and I was able to kill a bit of time watching half a dozen rabbits that inevitably chose to run around in the next field 130 metres away.
Eventually though, a rabbit popped out of the hedgerow 20 metres in front of me and with a bit of hold under applied, the Night Stalker Mini helped the Kral Shadow place the pellet in exactly the right spot.
That turned out to be my only daytime opportunity but when the sun went down, I strapped on a cheap IR torch I’d bought off eBay.
The night vision IR mode was crisp out to 20 metres, and I was able to bag another bunny at that distance. However, much beyond that I struggled to get a clear enough picture on a couple of chances I’d lasered with my thermal spotter at 30 metres.
I felt sure the issue was the cheap IR torch, so I went to my chicken farm permission the following night, this time with a much better torch. It turned out I was right as I was able to see rats clearly out to 80 metres.
Below top: A rabbit viewed in the Pard Night Stalker Mini's full colour day mode.
Below bottom: Add an infrared torch and the Pard Night Stalker Mini can be used for hunting in total darkness.
At sensible sub-12ft/lb distances, the Pard Night Stalker Mini proved to be every bit as effective as I hoped it would be. The image quality was fine despite me failing to properly centre the IR beam, and I took care of more than a dozen of the furry pests.
Those trips, plus several more since, have reinforced my view that the Pard Night Stalker Mini is the perfect affordable day/night IR optic for close range pest control. The prospect of a full nighttime hunting setup costing under £1,000 and performing almost as well as gear costing an awful lot more is now possible.
MAKER: Pard
MODEL: Night Stalker Mini
AVAILABLE FROM: Scott Country International
RRP: £339
WEIGHT: 458g
LENGTH: 293mm
FEATURES: 2560x1440 CMOS sensor, 30mm tube, 458g, 293mm, focus down to 5m, six reticles in four colours, five zero profiles, IP67 water resistance rating, 3-6x mag (2x base, 3x digital zoom), 1440x1080 video (mp4) and photos (.jpg), gyroscope, wifi.
SUPPLIED WITH: Picatinny mounts, rechargeable 18650 battery and charger, neoprene cover, screw on rubber eyecup
Article first published 9th June 2025
