Need a bright red LED flashlight for night time hunting

mdnbdhd

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Nov 4, 2017
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This is for hunting feral hogs and the occasional coyote, and the red light seems to spook them less than white. I care mostly about throw, to make their eyes shine... but some beam width would also be helpful when searching around. Basically just the brighter the better. (For context, I currently use a Lumintop SD75. It's great at lighting up a hillside at 200 yards, but it's white light.)

it would also be great if it had the option to run off of either batteries or directly from a car's 12 volt cigarette lighter, but that's a secondary concern.

Budget is... flexible.
 

Lumen83

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Sep 21, 2017
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the red light seems to spook them less than white. I care mostly about throw, to make their eyes shine...

Are you sure that red light will have the same effect to make their eyes shine? I'm not sure, but it may not. I'll try it on my dog tonight. But, it may only be white light that has that effect. I could be wrong. If someone else knows, please correct me. But, its something you want to figure out before you purchase a red light for that intended purpose.
 

Lumen83

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Last night i tried to see if i could illuminate my dogs eyes with red light and was unable to. My red led flashlights are not that bright, however. So it may just be that they aren't bright enough. Although, something tells me that red will not illuminate animals eyes the way White does. Maybe someone knows better than i do.
 

CarpentryHero

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I would suggest getting a dropin from Vinhnyugen or Nailbender, that way it's a reflectored led with multiple brightness modes.

the xpg sized reds don't go much over 100 Lumens, but they could whip up to something as crazy as a red Sst90.

I have a Sunwayman c21c that has a flood red off the side of the light but I don't believe that would reach far enough out even with night adjusted eyes
 

ZMZ67

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A red lens cover for your light might be your best option. I doubt there is anything even close in output and throw in a red LED that would fit your needs.
 

bigburly912

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Old trick from an old hunter. Go buy Red cellophane wrap and put a "lens" over your light with a rubber band.

To the guy that said the Red light didn't make your dogs eyes shine.... are you sure you hit it's eyes? Haha even off of just a red back up light on my fenix h60 makes them shine like crazy
 

gravelrash

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Sep 21, 2011
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I was looking for a Halloween light last year, and stumbled on red led dropins on ebay. I bought a couple not expecting much and was astounded at how bright it was. I was even more astounded when I went wall hunting side-by-side with my hyper-red HDS: both lights appeared to these old eyes as the same color. The dropin had a smaller and brighter hotspot. I put it in a Solarforce host. At around $8 it may be worth a try. Searching for 'red flashlight bulb' will bring them up. YMMV.
 

Stigand

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May 20, 2014
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Light Force do all colours of cover lens for their big 240mm and smaller. I shoot commercially and the light colour makes zero difference to deer, pigs, bunnys, possums and wallabys reaction time. What the coloured lens do however is drastically reduce the lights throw...........and yes at the reduced range all colours still illuminate eyes.
Although we tend to use thermal for finding animals rapid shooting at longer [200m+] really requires white light as the refresh rate on night gear is a bit slow on moving animals.
 

defloyd77

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Do hogs even have the tapetum lucidum? I have done a bit of research and have contradicting information. Some say they do, some say they do not. Different animals however reflect different colors from their eyes, so I wonder if the animal reflects say green light and red light shines into them, will red light reflect back?
 

Stigand

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Yes, pigs eyes glow light green like rabbits. Possum are bright red as are other marsupials to varying degrees. Cats and sheep are yellowish/green. What really distinguishes them is the eye placement with front facing carnivores like cats being bright and in pairs etc.............you get very good at determining them even at long range and really there is no excuse for errors.
 

DMS1970

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Aug 25, 2011
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Armytek makes the predator light with a red only led. Mine works well. For more distance or volume, check out sniperhawglights they have a model showing 700 yards 100k candela. No personal experience with them.
 
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