Best light for snake hunting at night

I go out west every year to field obsereve specimens in the deserts and mountains in Calif. To find the target species I am looking for I walk at night so I need a light with great spill for 15-20 feet in front of me. Anything further and I won't be able to see the snake anyway. I will be walking among rocks and crevices in rocky hillsides and dry washes at night so I don't need a spot, just a very bright spill.

I have some good lights (Ledbeam 3c, SL pp 4 Lux ect) but I was wondering if a modded 3d of some sort would be best for my purposes.

http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/standard?pictid={D23D20A6-A3EF-4A52-9790-29604553DE0C}&exp=f&moddt=38671.0016978125&ssdyn=1

This is the one I would use if I was looking for snakes. It has pretty good spill.

ROFL

Do the snakes have lots of colors? You may want to first figure out if you want to go with incan. or LED. I know that LEDs can sometimes make things stand out... i.e. we're getting ready to do some digging at our house, so we had the power folks out to mark the power lines. The paint that they used is flourescent - and shows up well under an unmodded G2 (incan) - but it really jumps out when using a slightly blue HDS (LED).

I was thinking something attached to a 12 gauge shotgun, but this would be much more effective.

Id recommend a U2. Good flood, and dialed down to about 1/2 halfway is still enough light for looking for snakes and will give you a pretty good runtime.

I'd take a headlamp, not a flashlight. My current favorites are the BD IQ hybrids (incan/LED, regulated on both modes).

Recent experience 3 weeks ago tells me that a nuwai Q3 on the bill of my ball cap is great in locating Rattle Snakes. Killed 13 from under my house. 26 total for December through January. Led's really light up their eyes. (Spiders too)

Thurmond

nc987 said:

Id recommend a U2. Good flood, and dialed down to about 1/2 halfway is still enough light for looking for snakes and will give you a pretty good runtime.

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Run-Away time is high on my list of priorities ! U go looking for them ? When I lived in Albq, they seemed to come looking for me everytime I went out.

Alan

As already mentioned, get a headlamp and how about a HID say from AE PowerLight? If in the 3D cell sized form factor, then maybe the Maglite with a DB-3W LED drop-in from LED-Replacement.

Hope you find what you're looking for and Happy Snake Hunting!

SureFire L2 is a two level wall of light- plenty of flood. One of the Alephs/McLux would be a great choice too. One of each to be safe.

I definitely wouldn't trust a cheapie. Once you find one rattlesnake they're probably all around you...

I would stay away from a modded Mag because they tend to have ringy beams. I would think you want a very smooth beam to look for something by noticing small features.

I also thing a SureFire L2 is a good choice. You can go all night on a set of batteries on low, and the high beam is there when you need it.

Probably a good thing to think about is how the snakes get recognized. If you are seeing them by eye reflections, then a headlamp would be best.

Tritium,

Good Lord! 13 snakes from UNDER YOUR HOUSE?!?!?! I am clicking the heels of my rubber boots together furiously right now, eyes closed saying, "There's no place like western Washington, there's no place like western Washington. . ."

Scott

I just finished putting together a multi Aleph project for myself, and if you want an LED, there's one combination I think might work really well for you. You'd have to spend some money, but if you think of it as a dedicated snake light, with years of future service, it might be worth it.

Anyhow, one of the things I discovered in my little project was that the lower die LuxV is perfectly focused in a McR-27, an Aleph 1 in other words. By perfectly focused I mean that there's no donut hole as there usually is with LuxVs in a reflector primarily meant for the LuxIII.

It makes a center focused flood I think you could call it. With a LDF lens you can kill some of the spot and add a little to the spill, but with a clear lens it still has a bright spill and a diffuse enough spot not to be spotty at all.

PhotonFanatic has some WWOS for sale that I believe are the lower die.

One nice thing is that with the resistored low, you could experiment and get just the right light for your needs - low = snake beam and high is high. With something like a DB500 on two or three 123s, you'd have decent runtime and an easily pocketable light.

The McR-19 is another option, but it's almost a pure flood. The problem with pure floods is that they spread the light so evenly, it appears to the eye that they're putting out less light than they really are. It makes a beautiful beam though, very smooth, almost creamy, with a LuxV.

Hey, I even have a few 3 and 4 cell tubes I'd sell you for a good price

You might also want to think about carrying a UV light to find scorpions (or to avoid them).

beezaur said:

I would stay away from a modded Mag because they tend to have ringy beams.

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Interesting. . .What rings? I don't see rings on mine. Smoothie beam all the way from my vantage point!

Enjoy!

Easy on them snattlerakes, guys. We need 'em and most of them aren't hurting a thing, just consuming rodents and otherwise taking up just the right amount of space in the web of life.

Besides, some of my best friends are snakes.:twothumbs

CHC said:

Interesting. . .What rings? I don't see rings on mine. Smoothie beam all the way from my vantage point!

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Well, maybe most are ok. I only have two. One is a lot better than a stock Mag, but it does have the stock reflector, and is not as smooth as any of my lights that have bumpy reflectors. The beam is ok, just not great -- a little ringy but not bad. The other is just as bad as the stock bulb. Its beam is so-so. Both are Lux III LEDs.

My impression, which may well be completely wrong, is that modded mags just don't do floody beams well.

A lot of the multi-LED headlamps put out a nice flood. Anything that will take a SureFire Beamshaper will do a nice flood too.

Has anyone tried frosting a glass lens? That might be a good way to get a good flood on a modded mag.

Scott

How much of a flood are you talking about?
lux 5 like a sf L4?
Mag with a LDF lens?
or the best flood would be to get a mag modded to a lux3 or lux5 and take the head off, so that way you have the complete 120(?) degree flood of light directly from the emiter.

"Good Lord! 13 snakes from UNDER YOUR HOUSE?!?!?! I am clicking the heels of my rubber boots together furiously right now, eyes closed saying, "There's no place like western Washington, there's no place like western Washington. . ."

Scott"
___

My wife had the same thoughts as we lived in Puyallup and Marysville for several years. I do miss water from the sky and trees.

Thurmond



Leef stated:

Easy on them snattlerakes, guys. We need 'em and most of them aren't hurting a thing, just consuming rodents and otherwise taking up just the right amount of space in the web of life.

Besides, some of my best friends are snakes."



I have 2400 acres and the snakes and rodents are welcomed to any of it but the 2 acres I live on (they are actually good for Ranch Tourism). Trespass on my 2 acre home site is a death for them if caught. My Bobcats (wild) enjoyed the free feed as they love a good snake.

Thurmond

Something with a red lens. Will preserve your night vision and probably not scare off the snake.