Gun Mounted Light for Predator Hunting

wilsoncs3980

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 28, 2009
Messages
3
Location
Dayton, Ohio
I thought buying a nice flashlight to mount on my AR-15 for varmint hunting would be pretty easy. There a couple lights manufactured for hunting but they go from a total piece of crap to a pricier 300.00 light that is only a little bit better. I was thinking a LED would be a good way to go for getting longer burn times.

There are so many lights out there I'm overwhelmed with info. I'm also very suprised about how much I don't know about lights.

I was looking at the DEFT or the Dereelight DBS V3. What about an Ultrafire?

You fellas got any suggestions? I want something with lots of throw, maybe 300 yards. I like to get a good 4 hours of burn time but if thats not feasible I can carry extra batteries.
 

SFG2Lman

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
658
my throw light is a solarforce L2 kit (it came with an 18650 battery and charger for about $40) and i dropped a dereelight 3SD with the SMO reflector into it and it throws pretty far, the dropin was the same as the whole light, and you end up with an extra R2 dropin but for $80 its a pretty good thrower, about 200 lumens for 2 hours or more.

I wish i could show you a beamshot but if you want a budget thrower this one is in the midrange and all parts have a good reputation here on CPF. There are lots of options out there, but this one IMHO makes a very nice thrower. It should fit in any standard 1 inch mounting bracket.
 

NE450No2

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
321
Location
Texas
For hunting I prefer an Incandescent. Better color rendition and depth perception.
Cheapest/highest quality choice IMHO, would be a SureFire G3, in a Viking Tactics mount or a 1" weaver ring.
 
Last edited:

angelofwar

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
3,336
Location
South Carolina
+1 on the G3...or you could build a cheaper SureFire M4 using a cheap(er) (Leef/etc.) 4 cell body (or a 3 cell body with a 1 cell extender) with a Surefire KT1/KT2 Turbohead, and an SF MN60 Lamp Assembly...not very many weapon mountable lights that can out-throw this, especially with the MN60's tightly focused beam. Only has 1 hour runtime (as with most SF low out-put L.A.'s). This is standard equipment with the Remington M24-SWS if that tells ya anything. BTW...:welcome:
 

spearfish

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
15
I went with the tiablo a9 and collimator/aspherical head.
I can spot up to 400m through my 14x power scope!

I'm now about to match it with an additional eagletac p20a2 for extra spread/additional throw.
 

Patriot

Flashaholic
Joined
Feb 13, 2007
Messages
11,254
Location
Arizona
If you're going with LED, which I think it a good choice, look as the best performing reflectored lights like the DBS, Tiablo A10, and Jetbeam Raptor. The aspherical lights (ones that use a shaped lens) have a very narrow beam and restrict searching or scanning. If you're target shooting or locating animals with a 2nd light, then you might be able to get away with an aspherical. For varmint hunting though, where you might know now from what direction and animal is going to show, or at what range, where a quick shot might have to be made, I'd really lean away from the aspheric. The best reflectored lights will still throw visible light 200-300 yards depending on the amount of ambient light. Hopefully there's not much of that where you're hunting though...lol.
 

Chrontius

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
Messages
2,150
Location
Orlando, FL
Predator hunting?

You'll need to get something that'll overload their cloaking device.

Someone had to say it. :nana:

The idea of a yellow G3+extender+turbohead M4gery appeals to me, for some reason...
 

Tatjanamagic

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
484
Location
Darkonia
If you're going with LED, which I think it a good choice, look as the best performing reflectored lights like the DBS, Tiablo A10, and Jetbeam Raptor. The aspherical lights (ones that use a shaped lens) have a very narrow beam and restrict searching or scanning. If you're target shooting or locating animals with a 2nd light, then you might be able to get away with an aspherical. For varmint hunting though, where you might know now from what direction and animal is going to show, or at what range, where a quick shot might have to be made, I'd really lean away from the aspheric. The best reflectored lights will still throw visible light 200-300 yards depending on the amount of ambient light. Hopefully there's not much of that where you're hunting though...lol.

I have aspherical Tiablo A9 and recently i killed a deer on cca 180 meters... It has enough spill on 100 meters (has square shaped spil 10 × 10 meters) and when U light away it is spreading so on 180 meters is cca 30 × 30 meters bright blue led. Light is still usable up to 250 meters while unuseable light goes up to cca 400 - 500 meters

The most important thing that deer like animals are not afraid of light coming from it...

My friend has Feniks Tk 40 (600 lm) and we had compared them but Tiablo A9 outthrows it...

Not to mention that Tiablo is much smaller and more practical...

So I would reccomend Tiablo A9 to deer hunters that shoots on long range up to 250 meters...

And if U need to shoot up to 100 meters just replace aspherical head with its original...

Every hunter that buys Tiablo will be impressed I guarantee that...
 
Top