Addressing the hesitation of the purist, is the HIKMICRO Alpex finally the scope for those unwilling to swap the simplicity of a standard optic for the complexity of a digital sight?
There's a certain reluctance among traditional stalkers when it comes to digital optics. Years of muscle memory built around a good piece of glass, the familiar weight and balance of a well-set-up rifle, the simplicity of knowing exactly what you're looking at without menus or batteries or firmware updates to worry about. The HIKMICRO Alpex understands this hesitation, and goes some way to addressing it.
Physically, it's a scope. That sounds obvious, but it matters. The 30mm tube mounts with whatever rings you already own, sits at the height you're used to, and doesn't turn your rifle into something that looks like it belongs on a drone. First impressions count, and the Alpex makes a good one. Pick up a rifle wearing one and it shoulders naturally, the eye finds the display without hunting for it, and nothing about the handling suggests you've bolted several hundred pounds worth of electronics where your Swarovski used to live.
Through the eyepiece you get a full-colour image during the day that rivals decent glass, then a twilight mode as the light drops that pushes usable colour vision well beyond what your eyes can manage alone. This is where the Alpex starts to justify itself. That difficult period when the light meter says you're legal, but your eyes aren't quite sure what they're looking at becomes considerably less stressful. The display produces a brighter, cleaner image than the ambient conditions suggest, and deer that would be shapes in the murk through conventional glass become positively identifiable. When darkness properly sets in, switch to black-and-white and you're into true night vision territory. We had no trouble identifying quarry at 500 metres on a clear night, though in truth most shooting happens at a fraction of that distance. What matters more is the image quality when the light gets difficult, and here the Alpex genuinely excels. That last half hour of legal light suddenly feels a lot longer.
Battery life used to be the weakness of this type of optic. Too many promising evening sits have been cut short by a dying power source at precisely the wrong moment. The Alpex runs a dual system with an internal rechargeable and a slot for a CR123A cell, drawing from the external battery first so you can swap without losing power. Keep a couple of spares in your pocket and you'll never be caught out. Twelve hours is the claim, and we've no reason to doubt it. Even on the longest winter nights that's more than enough, and the power-off countdown when things do get low gives you time to react rather than simply blacking out at the crucial moment.
Zeroing feels alien at first. No turrets, no clicks, no satisfying mechanical adjustments. Fire a shot, freeze the screen, drag your reticle onto the point of impact through the menu. Strange, undeniably, but effective once you've done it a couple of times, and you'll burn far less ammunition getting it right than with the traditional method. Five profiles across five groups means room for multiple rifles and loads, handy if the Alpex is going to live on more than one gun or if you're running different ammunition for different quarry.
The recoil-activated recording is worth mentioning too. Set it up and the scope captures the seconds before and after each shot automatically, storing everything to sixty-four gigabytes of internal memory. It's useful for reviewing what actually happened rather than what you thought happened, and rather satisfying to watch back a successful outing. The HIKMICRO Sight app handles transfers to your phone easily enough, though you can also plug directly into a computer if you'd rather.
It's heavier than glass. That's the trade, and there's no getting around it. On a light hill rifle you'll notice the difference, though shooting off sticks or a bipod largely negates the issue. Most of us will accept the extra weight for what you're gaining. The 2023 British Shooting Awards named it Best Night Vision Product, which tells you something about how far this technology has come.
For the stalker who wants the advantages of digital night vision without abandoning everything familiar about a properly set-up rifle, the Alpex makes a strong case. It won't replace good fieldcraft or an understanding of your ground, but it will extend your effective hours and remove some of the uncertainty from low-light shooting. Set aside an evening to learn the menu system, zero it properly, and you might find yourself wondering why you resisted for so long.
If you would like to get into deer stalking, then there’s no better place to start than with the Proficient Deer Stalker Level 1( PDS1): Proficient Deer Stalking Course - PDS1
