Category: Head-to-Head

For half the price of a stock Marlin 1894 SBL and a third of the Mad Pig Customs Edition, the HugTek SXBSE delivers the centrefire cartridge, the side-eject action and the modern tactical feature spec. Honest Australian head-to-head on the two leading tactical lever-actions in 2026.

Pulsar is the badge a lot of hunters aspire to. So we put the Pixfra Pegasus Pro 2 LRF against the Pulsar Thermion 2 Pro — spec for spec, dollar for dollar — to see whether the premium name still earns its premium price. The answer surprised us.

This is the close fight. Nocpix turns up with real numbers — a closer rival than HikMicro, closer than Pulsar. So we put the Pixfra Pegasus Pro 2 LRF and the Ace side by side, spec for spec and dollar for dollar, and followed the decision all the way to the till.

Two respected thermal riflescopes, two very different price tags. Here is the honest hunter’s-eye breakdown of how the Pixfra Pegasus Pro 2 LRF stacks up against the HikMicro Stellar — on the sensor, on the rangefinder, and on the number that matters at the till.