IF THERE'S a style of shooting that's uniquely Australian, it's spotlighting.
Whereas so much of Europe, the US and other places are too densely populated and shy of uncrowded space as to see the practice banned, we've endless plains where one will ne'r see another set of headlights.
And targets - rabbits, hares, foxes, cats and pigs.
Commercial roo shooters have refined spotlight shooting to a precise art.
They work at night from specially rigged vehicles.
Our creation of water and feed resources sees more kangaroos than ever out on the flat lands. Hills too, especially those bordering on cultivated agriculture.
Professional shooters carry out important work controlling numbers and work within a tight government quota system and even stricter health and hygiene regime.
Shooting is the most humane and discriminating way to cull free-range animals.
The roo pros do their bit by targeting the bucks; the males have the biggest meat yield.
They are instantly dispatched with head shots.
The .223 is the calibre of choice, through some have gotten by for years with the venerable .222, which hasn't quite the same legs.
Sporting shooters generally spotlight in three-person units.
In most cases these are experienced folk. But if they do not know each other, newcomers are certainly watched and advised on safety issues.
Vehicle-mounted and hand-held spotlights locate stationary targets like squatting rabbits and/or pick up movement.
Foxes and cats, related by the way, aren't located by body mass but eyeshine.
Both have a reflective membrane at the rear of their eye structure.
Light passes twice through receptors, hence the superlative nocturnal vision of these vicious predators wiping out so much of our precious small marsupial fauna.
The first thing newcomers identify is the difference in the eyeshine of bona fide targets from bovines such as cattle and sheep.
A task somewhat akin to the difference between an Alpha Centauri and some star in the Andromeda galaxy.
Pigs are a real challenge.
Coupla reasons.
They've a reddish eye reflection the light doesn't always pick up. Neither are they an animal that likes being dazzled.
They'll usually move rather than be mesmerised by the beam.
Those with Berkshire genes use their natural black ninja colour to blend into the darkness.
Spotlighting sharpens shooting skills. There's a need to quickly acquire a target picture.
It can be a big ask for old eyes to make out a rabbit hunkered down in shin-high grass.
It won't be there all night.
Moving targets call for more in the way of instinctive snap shots than bench-rest precision.
The ever-present dilemma is whether to wait till it pauses - and there are no guarantees - or squeeze off a shot that might later be worthy of a skite.
It's fitting, given our limitless scope for spotlight shooting and high participation, that an Australian company is at the world technology and equipment forefront.
The name's appropriate. Lightforce. More power to them.
