Estimated read time: 9 min.
Every year, new members join the Pulsar family – a term that naturally describes the community of hunters who support Pulsar with their ideas, feedback, stories, and friendship. This spring, the family welcomes eight new individuals who will use their insights and experience to help us create even more efficient products adapted to various needs of the users.
The circle of Pulsar brand ambassadors now expands to Sweden, Italy, Germany, Scotland, Austria, and France. They include hunting educators and gear testers as well as anti-poaching operators, storytellers, podcasters, and photographers.
We asked several newcomers to share their stories and the main motive for why they’re choosing to be part of Pulsar.
First non-hunter in the hunters’ family
The Swede Magnus Winbjörk is a professional photographer and experienced guide based in the Northernmost part of Sweden. His great passion is to convey all the beauty that exists up there, in the North. He feels privileged to be able to photograph wild animals in their natural habitat, surrounded by the beauty of raw landscapes.
Magnus is also the first non-hunter to join the Pulsar family. And he’s already been actively using Pulsar products on his guided and personal expeditions.
Magnus Winbjörk
“As I exclusively photograph wild animals in their natural environment, one of the biggest challenges for me is locating them. I invest immense amounts of time in searching. One must learn to understand the animals, how they think, their behavior, when they are active, etc. In my search, thermal equipment is something that greatly facilitates. It’s a fantastic tool that opens up entirely new possibilities for me,” tells Magnus.
He adds that the decision to join the Pulsar team was a clear choice for him: “Pulsar offers products in their range that will become a natural part of my daily life and from now on will constitute an important and highly significant part of my work.”
Cutting through “whiteouts”
So far, Pulsar devices have helped Magnus to detect animals in adverse winter weather.
He points to a natural phenomenon that occurs in the north during poor weather conditions, the so-called “whiteout”. When everything on the ground is white, the sky is overcast, and snow reduces visibility, without trees, rocks, or similar objects nearby, everything appears white, making it difficult to orient oneself. It even becomes challenging to discern up from down, and in harsh winters, visibility is often limited to just a few meters ahead.
“In such weather, the Pulsar Telos LRF XP50 works excellently. I can effortlessly spot a reindeer in a snowstorm from considerable distances. Reindeer in snowstorms are so beautiful to photograph, but it’s challenging to locate them in such conditions,” notes the photographer. “Also, Merger LRF XL50 binoculars are immensely useful even when the weather is perfect. When venturing out early winter mornings to search for moose, lynx, or wolverines, which are very shy creatures, thermal binoculars prove invaluable. They allow you to scan large mountain slopes in open terrain.
In the morning, before the sun warms the rocks and cliffs, you can easily find an animal nestled next to a stone, a task that’s often very difficult with the naked eye or even with an excellent traditional binocular. Therefore, Pulsar’s equipment is highly useful and significantly enhances my chances of finding animals.”
A luxury of local food
Although photography occupies all of his time, Magnus possesses a hunting license too. He wishes there were more time for hunting, as it’s something close to his heart. Maybe one day!
Magnus Winbjörk
“Hunting is a natural part of life for many who live up here in the North. It’s a huge interest, and besides being a hobby, it’s also a good and genuine way to provide sustenance. Moose hunting is what I miss most, but luckily, I have some close hunter-friends to fill my freezer for the winter months,” says Magnus.
“Personally, I truly support hunting where the primary purpose is to cover the household’s food needs. Being able to fill the freezer with locally sourced moose or reindeer meat in the fall, along with fish, berries, mushrooms, and potatoes, all of which are local, is a true luxury for me, and something that I feel is much better than going to the store and buying meat or poultry, which unfortunately is often raised in poor conditions.”
Strengthening family bonds by hunting together
It was Freya Askjaer’s husband Claus, a member of the Pulsar family for more than a year now, who encouraged her to try her luck in the new ambassadors program. So, she did, and the two became the first husband and wife duo on the team.
The two Danes, who have lived in Sicily, Italy for more than 2,5 years, have always loved the outdoors. The couple decided to take the hunting course and get their licenses after spending a couple of summers and traveling wild Arizona, USA.
Freya Askjaer with Claus S. Andersen
“Staying in the wilderness for many days gives you a certain way of looking at how to find food. Hunting was a natural choice. None of us come from hunting families, so it was a new and exciting challenge for both of us, and it has been a joint journey into the world of hunting,” tells Freya. “We hunt together most of the time and found that even though we sit there just beside each other, we see and experience different things. We are a team when we’re out there. Like we were the many summers in the desert of Arizona. Learning new skills, supporting, and helping each other to get better at what we do.”
As Freya notes, a common hobby has absolutely strengthened their bonds. Talking about hunting, the outdoors and the gear they use, discussing all the articles Freya writes as a freelance journalist, makes the couple’s bonds even deeper. She feels her husband Claus has become her “rock, sparring partner, and non-judging critic”. While hunting and the outdoors have definitely become a huge part of their personal lives, a lifestyle that they discovered together and made them grow side by side.
From field to table
Freya says she’s always been a tomboy, crawling trees, playing in the woods and by the streams. When the teenage years hit, she kind of grew out of it. But at some point, Freya found her way back into falling in love with nature again. She rediscovered the tranquility and inner peace that only nature can provide.
“So, taking a hunting license was just a natural part of the nature mindset. From field to table – a natural and much more humane way of being a meat eater,” she says, “The whole ideology about eating what you hunt, using nature as a pantry, and eating sustainable and clean food is totally in line with my values of life.” She admits she cannot wait to test more Pulsar devices to allow nature to unfold right before her eyes.
Freya Askjaer
And there couldn’t be a better place to explore the unfolding nature than on the remote island of Sicily. Freya enjoys the warm climate this place is blessed with.
“In Denmark I was out on my hunting grounds several times a week, just walking around, checking for changes in the area, looking for tracks and signs of deer. Here, in Sicily, we don’t have our own hunting area. So, I spend a lot of time out in nature with my husband Claus, and our dog Rusty. I also spend many hours at a shooting range, both with a pistol and very soon with a new rifle too. I am a bit of a nerd, so when I find something interesting, I usually do a lot of research and testing trying to become good at what I’m doing,” says Freya.
Apart from being out in nature, she admits loving cooking and baking sourdough bread. She can even get pretty nerdy at this, too! The benefit of being a freelancer in Sicily is obvious: Freya gets much more time to bury herself in exciting things she enjoys doing.
Tactical Gentleman with a camera
Matthias Schultner from Austria is also known as Tactical Gentleman. So first, let’s decode the nickname!
“Tactical is for me to plan things but also to quickly adapt when things change. And that is required almost every day. Both in private life, hunting or at work. While Gentleman stands for the values (sometimes old ones), character and always trying to be helpful and accommodating,” explains Matthias aka Tactical Gentleman.
Matthias Schultner
Before joining the Pulsar family, he already was familiar with the brand and its products that his hunter friends used. After trying some of them himself and being assured by their high-quality standards, and after getting to know some of the people behind the Pulsar brand while visiting Lithuania as a cameraman, Matthias decided to give it a try.
Ever since he was accepted as part of the team, he can’t wait to get his hands on the new Pulsar devices, to expand the possibilities of ethical hunting, and to capture some great pictures during his hunting adventures.
High quality content is one of Matthias’ goals since he runs an advertising company and understands the value of engaging stories and images. Therefore, the camera is always with him. “In general, I focus a lot on really living life. I try to be out in this world, to give back and to be open-minded with a lot of focus on personal growth,” explains Matthias.
From vegetarian to passionate hunter
What’s really interesting is that the Austrian hunter used to be a vegetarian for some years. He still avoids industrial meat, but never refuses a game meat meal.
“After being a vegetarian for over six years, you certainly educate yourself about food. Hunting has always been present in my life. Since I’m not only a sports shooter but also do videos and photography, some of my shooting buddies invited me to film a hunt. After that, I realized that hunting isn’t only about shooting – it is so much more. That’s when I got my hunting license in Austria.
Ever since then, Pulsar devices have become his hunting companions. He got himself a Krypton 2 FXG50 clip-on, tested Merger LRF XP50 thermal binoculars, and the Digex C50 digital riflescope. Matthias is eager to get his hands on the new Merger Duo NXP50 multispectral binoculars and some of the great Pulsar range of thermal riflescopes.
Matthias Schultner
Shooting range meditation
When he’s not hunting, you would probably spot Matthias at a shooting range practicing his accuracy. “Sports shooting brings total silence to my head. In a world that sometimes is driven by stress and where thousands of things need to be done, shooting at a range is almost like meditation,” Matthias tells. “You are in the moment, and there is no space for other things. Focus is the only thing that is allowed. You focus on your breathing, the target, the perfect settings, and trigger pull. And that’s it.”
Before purchasing any night or thermal vision device, please make sure you adhere to the local legislation and only use it when it is allowed. Our ambassadors come from various countries and travel a lot, which allows them to test different devices. We do not encourage or support the illegal use of our devices in any events. If you wish to learn more about export and sales restriction policy, please visit the following link: Export and Sales Restriction Policy.