Green LED's for Hunting Applications

[Lane]

After looking through 3 pages of search menu on the topic I could not finding anything on green LED's for hunting applications.:huh:

I've seen many advertisements and some forum threads where manufactures claim that green led lights won't spook game. That's not my experience...on more than one occasion. My experience is limited to only deer and turkey hunting in the south east. Turkeys don't like any light flashing around anywhere close, especially while on roost. They will fly away but depending on how love sick they are they can be called back and can forget about the light that spooked them.

Deer seem to spoke as well but often can and will return to the area after things calm down. One game animal can alert others and the others don't know what set off the entire herd...a chain reaction so to speak.

I'm not product bashing just giving my two cents on that particular claim.

What has been your experience with green LED's in the hunting' woods?

 

[Marduke]

Red is the hunting color IIRC, not green. YMMV

 

[dano]

Marketing hype...Green lights have no impact on the animal's ability to see.

-dan

 

[Lane]

Red is the hunting color IIRC, not green. YMMV

Are you saying that red won't spoke game? Or are you talking about blood trailing with red?

This is what I was talking about...3rd bullet point from the bottom.

http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=102

 

[Marduke]

I think they are talking about using VERY small amounts of it. Also, turkey's are one of the few animals which have color vision. Most furry 4-legged ones can only see a few colors, and see mainly in B&W.

Blue is used for blood tracking, and red has traditionally been used for spotting animals at night without spooking them as much, particularly for coon hunting.

 

[greenLED]

After looking through 3 pages of search menu on the topic I could not finding anything on green LED's for hunting applications.:huh:

Maybe that's 'cuz I don't hunt? :nana:

 

[Lane]

I think they are talking about using VERY small amounts of it.

I was using a Streamlight Stylus...I didn't know you could get smaller amounts than that.

I'll just chalk it up as misleading info from the manufacturer.

Maybe that's 'cuz I don't hunt? :nana:

Awesome!:thumbsup:

 

[defloyd77]

The theory is that deer (and dogs) have dichromatic vision and cannot see red and green. I've made a post in the past about this theory, but it got no comments. I'll just copy that post instead of linking it.

"For hunting, people suggest using red or green lights because deer can't see them right? Well, after doing research, yes deer cannot see green and red as we do and can also see a little bit of UV light. Dogs also have dichromatic vision and they too don't see red and green as we do. Ever shine a red or green light in front of a dog? My dogs go crazy and attack the light. This confuses me. What exactly do they see red and green light as and can people be sure that deer can't see what the dogs do?"

I'd also like to add that deer seem to not get spooked when I shine a light at them, they just stare at it...

 

[darknessemitter]

The theory is that deer (and dogs) have dichromatic vision and cannot see red and green. I've made a post in the past about this theory, but it got no comments. I'll just copy that post instead of linking it.

"For hunting, people suggest using red or green lights because deer can't see them right? Well, after doing research, yes deer cannot see green and red as we do and can also see a little bit of UV light. Dogs also have dichromatic vision and they too don't see red and green as we do. Ever shine a red or green light in front of a dog? My dogs go crazy and attack the light. This confuses me. What exactly do they see red and green light as and can people be sure that deer can't see what the dogs do?"

I'd also like to add that deer seem to not get spooked when I shine a light at them, they just stare at it...

If you look at a graph of deer color sensitivity, they are less sensitive to red than we are. In theory red should be somewhat less noticable to them, but they will probably still see it if you shine it in their face at night. They appear to be highly sensitive to green, so green is probably not a good idea.

It's true that they can't see much difference between red and green; both will appear yellow to them. However, red will appear as dim yellow while green will appear as bright yellow.

Oh, and dog vision might be fairly different from deer vision, since dogs are descended from predators, and deer are primarily prey.

 

[alibaba]

Most game animals are going to be FAR more spooked by your sounds, smells and movement then by any sort of light. I'd just use a white light with adjustable output (Nitecore D10 is superb) so you can have dim light for walking around, looking at maps/watches or other close up tasks and still have bright light for tracking or emergencies. Blue light can help with blood trails but, IMO, a good bright white light is much better. White LED's are actually blue chips anyways and so have a strong blue component. Good luck and eat what you kill!

 

[ag94whoop]

Green is good for cutting through smoke
however, being that most animals, including humans shift from photopic to scotopic vision in darkness, green remains in range of peak sensititivty....

red however, especially a deep red like 630-650 nm, slides to the outer edges of sensitivity....

 

[Lane]

I feel an experiment coming on for me in this upcoming deer season. At dusk or dawn conditions (or in the dark) I will turn on my green LED SL Stylus while sitting still and shine it at the deer. I'll wait until I know I've got a deer within 20 yards and turn on the light to see what happens. I'll also do this from the tree stand so as to have my scent as high up as possible and no movement or very little movement since I'll be seated in the stand.

I'll let you know what happens!

All other green led experiments have failed but I've been at ground level. Could they have heard me or smelled me and that's what spooked them...dunno? I doubt it though, but I'll try and rule those other factors out when I'm able to experiment this season.

Experiment is canceled if it's an eight point or better that walks up and there's still legal shooting light!:thinking:

Note to self...put light in pocket. Pick up bow.

 

[d1dd1]

( http://www.kirchner-raddestorf.de/jagd/tipps.htm#_Toc128036850 :thinking

 

[darknessemitter]

Green is good for cutting through smoke
however, being that most animals, including humans shift from photopic to scotopic vision in darkness, green remains in range of peak sensititivty....

red however, especially a deep red like 630-650 nm, slides to the outer edges of sensitivity....

Well, keep in mind that anything more than dim ambient light in any color other than red will quickly degrade your scotoscopic vision. They generally don't make flashlights that dim (even a Photon on Minimum might be too bright). If you actually see it as the color green and not just a colorless gray then you're seeing mostly with your cone cells, while the pigment in the rod cells is quickly being depleted.

That's the reason for using red: red light allows you to see with your cone cells without totally sabotaging your rod cells.

Deer rod cells are as insensitive to red as our own, and since their cone cells aren't very sensitive to red either, that makes it one wavelength that we can see but they are less likely to notice.

 

[yellow]

red/green, or whatever color else, makes no difference, imho
even if they can just see b/w, they will notice the light - if they react on it is another story.

expecially the "green" thing is totally crap, imho. Using camo might make a difference to us, but in the woods almost everything is green.
I d say: because of this, deer are so good in recognizeing different kinds of green, that camo has no effect at all
(proof: those bright red safety jackets seen to do nothing at hunts)


PS: all my dogs, generally viewed as having a "bad sight" (compared to what??) definitly see better than we humans. In the night it is brutally obvious.

 

[Marduke]

red/green, or whatever color else, makes no difference, imho
even if they can just see b/w, they will notice the light - if they react on it is another story.

expecially the "green" thing is totally crap, imho. Using camo might make a difference to us, but in the woods almost everything is green.
I d say: because of this, deer are so good in recognizeing different kinds of green, that camo has no effect at all
(proof: those bright red safety jackets seen to do nothing at hunts)


PS: all my dogs, generally viewed as having a "bad sight" (compared to what??) definitly see better than we humans. In the night it is brutally obvious.

The color of the camo has no affect on deer, it's the pattern. You could use blaze orange camo, and it would work just as well. There are two reasons why camo hunting outfits are sold in realisitic colors however.

1) We (consumers) think it works better
2) For certain animals who have full color vision, it does (like turkey)

BTW, dogs (and many other mammals) have less cones, more rods, hence the crap color vision.

 

[RebelRAM]

Deer notice movement more than anything else.

Camo patterns are made to attract hunters not deer. The best any hunter can hope for is that their camo pattern will breakup their outline. Large patterns seem to work best for this.

As to what light I use, I use red or green. Doesn't really seem to make a difference to the deer. I just want a light that has enough output so that I can see where I am going and not trip over stuff in the woods.

 

[MrGman]

I have seen the green lights for hunting advertisements as well, and don't believe it. they may not recognize its green but they see the light. You really need a dim red light. Inova makes the X5with red LEDs, it s a good soft flood light that would get you to your tree stand pretty unobtrusively.


I have seen the advertisements saying that the blue LEDs are good for blood tracking and thats a bunch of hooey as well. Especially against green foliage in the woods. Pure blue light won't help you to see blood as it will be mostly black under a blue light.

UV light doesn't light it up either. Need to spray it with that lumasol (proper name???) chemical that makes it light up under UV light that the real crime lab guys use.

So beware marketing hype on such things.

 

[Lane]

red/green, or whatever color else, makes no difference, imho
even if they can just see b/w, they will notice the light - if they react on it is another story.
expecially the "green" thing is totally crap, imho.

Agreed! :thumbsup:

I have seen the green lights for hunting advertisements as well, and don't believe it. they may not recognize its green but they see the light.

Agreed! :thumbsup:

 

[ConfederateScott]

Blue light makes blood tracking harder not easier. It makes blood appear as black so unless the blood is on a light colored background it makes it difficult to see. Most blood trails are on dirt, leaves, pine needles, etc. This false information was more marketing bullcrap and then repeated by people who never actually tried it themselves. Thats how old wives tales are born.