New hunting spotlight

[colnago57]

I live in Australia and most of my hunting is done from a 4X4 with
a 12v 100w halogen spotlight connected to the 4X4 battery.The light
works fairly well and gives adequate hunting visability to about 700-800
feet.My light uses an Osram halogen photo optic xenephot globe 12v
100w.I dont know what opyions are out there as here in Aus all spotlights
are 12v 100w.
What else can be used from the 4X4?
Do they throw more light?
How much light is my light putting out?
Thanks for youre patience

 

[LukeA]

Something HID. If you could get a US member to buy a POB HID from the Sam's Club auction website and ship it to you (probably about $100 total w/shiipping, and there are a number of members who you can set this up with), then I think you will be very pleased.

 

[That_Guy]

What spotlight are you using? Is it the 240mm Lightforce Blitz? Are you after a greater quantity of light (more lumens) or do you want to light things up at greater distances (more throw)?

 

[colnago57]

I have a 185 powa-beam and a 170 lightforce
used several different globes,osram seems best.
Would like light to go further out.During the day
we are effective at 350-400m.At night we dont have
light power to see that well.
thanks

 

[lightforce2]

My light uses an Osram halogen photo optic xenephot globe 12v 100w.I dont know what opyions are out there as here in Aus all spotlights are 12v 100w.

No, there are many 2 pin globes available for spotlights ie; 20w, 30w, 50w, 75w etc. After 100w xenophot you need to look at the high performance HID's of a minimum 35w, but be aware high quality = high $$

I do a lot fox/rabbit control for farmers plus work with a pro-shooter on some govt authorised culling of deer. However we find that with any nocturnal animal that is nervous in the light, it will stay further away with the brighter lights thus defeating the purpose of the stronger light. Most of our shots are under 100m (except for an extremely shy fox). Our priority is accuracy & humaneness, if we don't nail them on a particular night we're happy to let them walk as there's always another night

I own a few Lightforce spotlights but dont use them any more, we are finding that we are getting very close with lights based on a Cree XRE-Q5 led with an amber camera lens used as a filter (not red) & driven by an 18650 battery for long runtime.

Also welcome to the CPF. These days there are a lot of options that many are not aware of, however the best place to find this wealth of knowlege is right here on this forum.

Dereelight DBS V2 & Wolf Eyes 10w/24w HID

Deerelight mounted via a quick detach mount

 

[Patriot]

Any 35W HID light should give you the increased range that you're looking for. I've done a couple of target shooting sessions at 585 yards with a single Sam's Club POB HID.


The ACRO RL-11 is a nice light too and probably more widely available than some other types. http://magnalight.com/pc-316-30-rechargeable-hid-handheld-light--rl-11.aspx


I'm not sure what kind of limitations you have over there with regards to acquiring certain lights but if you have some off-roading shops over there, they might be able to help you with a 35W off-road driving light of some type that could be made into a spot light.

 

[M@elstrom]

I live in Australia and most of my hunting is done from a 4X4 with a 12v 100w halogen spotlight connected to the 4X4 battery.The light works fairly well and gives adequate hunting viability to about 700-800
feet. My light uses an Osram halogen photo optic Xenephot globe 12v
100w. I don't know what opinions are out there as here in Aus all spotlights
are 12v 100w.

Welcome to CPF colnago57! :thumbsup:

We used to use 130w H3 spotlights (and still do occasionally) and found them pretty good, however because you are using a Night Stalker/Lightforce focusable spotlight (or similar) which utilizes a bi-pin globe design, you'll find it difficult sourcing higher wattage globes here :shakehead

The Osram 100w Bi-pin globe puts out around 2800~3000 Lumen (providing your supplying sufficient voltage), this output ramps up as you increase the supply of voltage and/or improve the quality of cabling (to a point)

As already suggested a HID upgrade/replacement would give you a dramatic performance improvement providing at least double the 'light throw' of your existing equipment, for example i found this hand held 35w HID spotlight (see below) perfect for hunting etc. on 'eBay' so they'd have to be available in your regular hunting supply/4x4 stores (though at a higher price)

 

[That_Guy]

Lightforce and PowaBeam make the best halogen spotlights in the world so it is difficult to get anything much better without spending lots of money on something exotic like the $2000 Maxabeam.

When it comes to maximizing range the two most important things are the size of the reflector and the lamp. Both Lightforce and PowaBeam make spotlights with larger reflectors so you are in luck.

Lightforce's biggest light is the 240mm Blitz and PowaBeam make a similar light with a 245mm reflector. The PowaBeam is meant to be higher quality but is also heavier. Both of these lights should be around twice as bright as your current lights. However due to the inverse square law they will not double the range, they will only increase it by sqrt(2), or around 40%. PowaBeam also make a light with an even larger 265mm reflector which should give you an extra 50% brightness on top of the 240/245mm lights, but it is very big and heavy.

The other important thing when it comes to maximizing range is the bulb. You want it to burn as hot (white) as possible, the wattage doesn't matter. The trade-off is that the hotter the lamp is the shorter the life and the more prone it is to randomly flashing if, say, there is a voltage spike. Lightforce uses a thin cord to reduce the voltage to the bulb in order to extend the life, but this also makes it much dimmer. If you replace this cord with something thicker you can increase the brightness by up to 50% but you will also decrease the life and increase the risk of flashing the bulb.

Osram makes the best lamps as you have discovered. www.lamps.com.au sell a wide range of Osram bulbs. The most commonly used 100W Osram bulb is the 62138. Osram also make another 100W bulb which burns even hotter called the 64625. The trade-off is that it uses a horizontal filament which results in an uglier oval-shaped beam pattern. I have a Lightforce Blitz with an Osram 64625 bulb driven as hot as possible using a regulator and li-ion battery and it lights things up at 300m like daylight and can put a decent amount of light on targets at up to 700m.

 

[M@elstrom]

Lightforce and PowaBeam make the best halogen spotlights in the world so it is difficult to get anything much better without spending lots of money on something exotic like the $2000 Maxabeam.

We use a Lightforce 75w spotlight at work which is powered directly off the battery (via heavy cables) and not with the vehicles cigarette lighter socket... even adjusted to maximum tight focus my HID out throws it by a massive margin

 

[That_Guy]

We use a Lightforce 75w spotlight at work which is powered directly off the battery (via heavy cables) and not with the vehicles cigarette lighter socket... even adjusted to maximum tight focus my HID out throws it by a massive margin

The 75W bulb isn't as good as the 100W. What size reflector is your Lightforce? Is this compared to your 55W HID mod? At 1mcp the Blitz and 245mm PowaBeam out-throw all commercial HID spotlights, the two closest contenders being the Costco HID and Barnburner. The Barnburner puts up a good fight due to its overdriven DL50, but in the end its reflector just isn't big enough. The Costco HID should easily beat the Blitz/PowaBeam, but is let down by its poor quality reflector and lamp, although some of the better units probably have a slight edge.

The only possible exception is that light you found on eBay. I have never seen it before, and I'm surprised to see an unknown HID light being sold in Aus. I can't see how big the reflector is from the picture, but assuming it is at least 8 inches and isn't crap quality it shouldn't have any problems out-throwing the Blitz/PowaBeam.