The brighter, the better is a concept for many people choosing a flashlight when heading out into the woods at night. Not for hunters, though. From trekking out to a deer stand to searching for feral hogs, experienced hunters know that the right hunting light can make or break their hunt.
Like other essential hunting gear, there are different hunting torches and headlamps. When choosing a flashlight, the standard factors are size and weight, light output, beam, and battery life. However, with hunting lights, the different colours, such as green, red, and blue, are another important aspect to consider. How important are these, and how can you choose the correct light for your game?
Why Should You Use Lights for Hunting?
Since most targets—deer, pigs, and predators—come out at night, hunting is growing in popularity as a late-night activity. From dusk until dawn, hunters use lights to illuminate the game while tracking, spotting, and harvesting. Here are the key reasons to use user-friendly and portable hunting lights in the wild:
Find Your Post Easily
To get meat on your table, it’s important to choose a site close to the animal’s tracks or one that offers a vantage point. Why not find the ideal hunting post fast in the dark woods instead of stumbling upon it?
Read Your Hunting Map
Using a map of your hunting region can help determine the best spots to sit or stand at night. You need light to read in the dark, especially when you’re in the middle of the woods. If you don’t have proper visibility, how can you possibly decipher the map?
Track Animal Paths Easily
Following animal paths can be challenging even on the brightest days and nearly impossible in the dark of night. Thus, you need a light source for undercover animal tracking at night.
Let People Know You’re There
That’s particularly critical if you hunt in open spaces. Carrying a flashlight is a subtle way to show that you’re present and to ensure both your safety and the safety of others.
Safely Handle Your Weapon
Using a weapon is always dangerous, but extremely hazardous in the dark. If you have a light nearby, you can manage it properly and prevent accidents and property damage.
Field Dress Your Animal
Field dressing is essential if you hope to use the animal’s meat for sustenance after you have hunted it down, as it helps preserve the meat. Regardless of how dark it is, you should field dress the animal as quickly as possible to stop the formation of bacteria. With a hunting light in the hand or on your head, doing this operation fast and effectively is simple.
Take an Animal Out of the Woods
After a successful hunt, you should navigate wearing a heavy animal, as it isn’t difficult enough to move around without it in the dark woods. Lighting your path is an excellent way to move your animal without causing additional damage.
How Do You Choose the Right Hunting Light?
The qualities you’ll need in a hunting flashlight depend on the kind of game you’re hunting, when you’ll be in the field (day or night), and how long you plan to be there. It’s also worth considering the likelihood that, as the sun sets, you may require additional assistance in locating the injured game. Before you choose a flashlight for hunting, consider the following features:
Type
The most common hunting light types are handheld torches, headlamps, weapon light attachments, and feeder lights. Your hunting style, game and location can help you determine the correct type. Sometimes, you can use one as your main light device and another as a backup.
Light Output
Lumens are the unit of measurement for light intensity in flashlights. A candle’s worth of light is about equivalent to one lumen. In most hunting scenarios, 500 lumens is more than plenty. Although those high numbers are useful to illuminate large distances, over 1,000 is usually overkill.
Beam
Lumens are merely one component of the brightness formula. If a flashlight has a wide beam, its lumen count will decrease. Conversely, a narrow beam increases intensity. A maximum beam distance is typically listed on modern flashlights. In the brightest setting, this is the distance at which the torch will cast light.
Dimensions and Mass
Hunting flashlights need to be small and light, unlike emergency flashlights. Recall that you will be carrying yours through the forest. Most hunters prefer to carry lightweight and small flashlights. Flashlights that fit neatly into a daypack or pants pocket are the best.
Water-Resistant
If you hunt ducks, you need to have a light that can withstand being submerged in case it becomes wet while setting up decoys. You likely won’t need that much water resistance when hunting in desert areas. But a tightly constructed flashlight will help keep out dust and debris. Furthermore, plan for the worst-case situation when wandering off the beaten path.
Battery Life
Getting lost in the pitch-black forest miles away from camp without a flashlight isn’t a good idea for having fun. It’ll hurt your heart to hike with a light that gradually fades from running out of battery. A flashlight with a decent battery life can give you peace of mind and security, even if you almost always carry some extra just in case.
Brightness immensely impacts battery life. Since brighter flashlights tend to run out of batteries more quickly, most hunters would rather have some light than none. Moreover, easily rechargeable flashlight batteries might be a blessing, saving you money and time.
What Colour Light Is Best for Hunting?
Most entry-level hunters believe that light is light, and colour doesn’t matter if it’s visible to anyone. However, experienced hunters know that while the light is visible to humans and other mammals that aren’t blind, colour blindness is a real thing in the animal world.
Colour-blind people who can’t recognise colours, mostly red and green, make up 8% of the world’s population. But most animals are naturally colour-blinded, as they have two cones in their retina, compared to humans, who have three. That means animals don’t see colours the same as we do, and light colours aren’t an exception.
Although green or red will make the light appear considerably less powerful than white light, it won’t completely remove its visibility. The hunter can use these coloured lights to see the target without frightening the animal because they appear less harsh. Most game animals seem to respond better—or at least less intensely—to red light, while both colours function well.
