Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Headlamp Recommendation

Another vote for Fenix. I have 3 HL25 models that are worth their weight in gold.

The December issue of Outdoor Life reviewed 9 of them and their pick was the Black Diamond Storm. Cheaper was the great buy Cyclops HL210 in second place at less than 1/2 the cost of the Black Diamond Storm.

I'm assuming it's this one: https://www.costco.com/Coast-Head-Lamp-2-pack.product.100365511.html

I've had a 'no-name' LED headlamp for several years now.
The band only has 'LED' on it.
Rechargeable, 3 settings[hi, low, strobe] and the lens is adjustable from spot to flood.
4-5 years old now and works perfectly.
Son gave and said it was $19.....all I know.

Yes, they move stuff around so you'll have to ask or hunt them down. Sometimes by the batteries and tools, sometimes by the entrance.

I have been using the Coast headlamps; they are a very good value. They offer many models, I like the HL7 which operates on three AAA's. Battery pack located in the rear with a large slider to control brightness, you can adjust the angle of the beam by rotating the adjustment ring on the lense.
https://coastportland.com/product/hl7/

Good luck.

Eric

Yes, variable brightness.

My son has a top of the line Petzl, and my daughter got a pretty good Black Dimond. I've had Petzl headlamps for over 30 years. I'm not going to claim these headlamps are fully equal to those, but considering I can put one of these in every car, the boat and have one by the front door for the price of one mid range BD headlamp, it's a no brainer. A couple sets of batteries will last a winter of night time dog walks, so I'd say I'd say pretty good battery life.

I've had several of the cheap multi led headlamps that were mediocre, this things the real deal.

All of the Coasts including the HL7 use a emitter in the 5.2k-5.5k Kelvin, which is far too blue for me. Working from a 2.4v module format is the real problem, a 2x AA would significantly improve run time & driver voltage. Depending on use, for casual it's fine...for blood trailing or run time it's total chiit.

But it's priced accordingly.

Does the green light attract bugs?
Be nice to have color available, that doesn't.
Fenix Co. has stated: "We will not be bringing out, a yellow headlamp",
which indicates, that, yellow has been asked for.
PIA, sittng, trying to get a task done, with bugs buzzin around yer face.

Zebra, no comparison

I really like the PTec Remix lights. User friendly, and well engineered, except for the battery compartment latch. They break if dropped. And I just wore out my 3rd.

Broke the battery latch on my last one within a week. dropped it on the vinyl kitchen floor. from knee height.
Used it for 2 years with the battery door gorilla taped. The switch eventually wore out but I'll still call it a good light for the price. I think the remix may be the best I ever used.

Just got a nite-ize radiant 200 and it's a good lite. The switch is engineered a bit differently than the remix but still very good. Battery life may be an issue. I generally got a month out of a set of batteries on the remix. just changed batteries in the radiant 200 after 2 weeks. But that was with the batteries that came installed.
The swivel that brings the light focus down and in might be a little lighter duty than I like. time will tell. Price was very attractive on Battery Junction and I'll call it a very good light for the money.

my Black Diamond ReVolt rechargeable is a great light.

https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/headlamps-and-lanterns/revolt-BD620631DENMALL1.html

I should have added some details.

In addition to hunting and general purpose use, this application also includes occasional search and rescue volunteer work.

So, features that are important are the ability to change batteries quickly and easily, common used battery sizes, long run life, very durable, waterproof, dust proof, and drop/crush resistant.

Rechargeables and odd ball battery sizes are not good choices for this need.

Essentially need the equivalent of a Nightforce made flashlight.

4AA's is really hard to beat for this purpose.

It's all about burn time & lumens, along with dependability and waterproof ....and you getting none of that with most of the above choices.

You really need to check out the Fenix HP15.

Which one do you recommend?

The Lupine looks interesting. Are they more durable than the Icon?

The Black Diamond Icon has worked fine and held up well, but definitely open to trying something else.

I know there are plenty of flashlight enthusiasts so thought it worth asking.

How many lumens do you need? My Lupine is the Piko. Mine, an older version, has 900 lumens max and( not counting battery) doesn't weigh much more than most of the others mentioned in this thread? Not sure on the current MSRP, but is way below a grand?
You can get longer life batteries. My larger battery, a 5.6 Ah, gives me close to 20 hrs at 300 lumens-nothing to sneeze at.

Don’t need super bright from the headlight. The vast majority of time the Icon is in the mid-zone, which probably is low 100’s.

edited post asking about Lupine, only need mid-100’s, but upper 100’s should be more than adequate.

Durability, battery life and common batteries are important.

That's it. 3 brightness settings & bezel adjustment from flood to bullet. Red light if you want it. I bought a 2 pack this fall and have been very impressed so far. Hard to beat for the money.

I bought this to just see and was very impressed. It uses 18650 rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries. Here is an ebay package that includes a charger and battery. The lumens claim is not accurate but these are very bright and are adjustable.

Link to light.

Link to Batteries.

Link to batteries.

These are the same batteries that are used in laptops, when a laptop battery pack goes bad it is usually only one or two batteries that are bad and the rest are good. I tear them apart meter the batteries and save the good ones.

You'll want to buy a few batteries to start with and then just take bad battery packs apart to save up a good supply of batteries. Battery life is exceptional and they do not lose much sitting around not being used.

This thing is so bright if someone walks up on you in the dark they may have thunk they have accidentally came across the gates of hell.

You can also use 3AAA batteries if you have an triple AAA battery holder commonly found in small LED flashlights.