Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints White or Red light???

I'm looking at buyin a new critter light so I thought I'd get some feedback from other predator hunters. I know for years and years that "Red" lights have been preached. I bought a new DVD where they use all white lights. What's everybody's views and opinions?

White light with a dimmer is the way to go....

Thanks Dogshooter. I'm thinkin about buyin a Wicked light. What's your suggestion?

AP Jones put a lot of thought into the Wicked Lights. It has an excellent set of features not generally found in many other flashlights. The accessories are pretty darned good too. He backs everything with the APC brand. It's fairly priced.

On red or white: Either will work, but it takes some technique to hunt with any spotlight/flashlight. The hunt guy needs to use just enough light to get a reflection from the eyes of an approaching animal and to rob the critter of some of its night vision. But, too much of any color light and it temporarily blinds the animal or spooks them. The best hunt light is probably a dim red for the approach backed by a bright white for ID and gunfire, but you could argue for other colors easily. It's just easier to shoot with a white light on full burn, that is for sure. White light lets you see everything in full technicolor, while the red and green let you see the view in shades of gray.

A Wicked Light with the white LED will run about 4 hours on a single charge. The red LED in the same flashlight runs a little more than 2 hours. The green is somewhere in between. The LEDs use different volatages, hence the different run times. The lights are all easy to charge at home or on the road.

There's a post on mounting a Wicked to a gun at PHF. If you call APC, Eric is very helpful. Or you can post a question here.

Thanks Gary. Have you watched any of the Carnivore Night Crew? They use a TON of white light. I swear if they used anymore they wouldn't be able to sell the hides because they'd prolly burn off all the critters hair!!!!!

Have you tried the Laser Genetics 532 nm collimators. I had the ND-3 subzero for a year maybe. It had no spill. It wasn't that bright either. But it would focus down and put a spot on the hill 500 yards away. After I got the Wicked Lights, I sold the laser. At regular gun ranges the laser just wasn't that good. A good flashlight ought to light an animal up enough that you can ID it out to 260 yards or so and have enough spill that it lights up the area around you 50-100 yards out so you can see runners in the field of fire.

There are a lot of ways to run a spotlight. I hunt alone most of the time, but always try to take a partner at night. There are just too many things to hold and too many things that go wrong at night.

Color spectrum:

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo

Violet

Nocturnal animals can not see light in the Red end of the spectrum.

If you want an advantage, use Red.

Keith

red for predators and green for hogs

It isn't that easy. There are no absolutes in predator hunting.

You got that right Gary!!!!

Yeah -

My brother helped them out quite a bit back in the day. He said their rig looked like a freakin runway it was so bright. I could say more but I won't. Gary Roberson is a good guy though as is his son Clint.

Lights at night are all about intensity. White is the only way to go for shooting which the "Foxpro predator hunters" (the guys who sit a hill and blast "Lightning Jack" on full volume) are just "learning" since red used to be the only way to fly since it didn't scare animals away.

We've been using white a good bit of time, even when folks thought we were "Scaring" the critters away...

I have always used red and had good luck with it.

Yearlings are not as educated on the white lite, once they see their buddies get shot or themselves shot at and missed, they have a WHOLE new attitude when it comes to light.

Also, halo from the light lights up everything around you, do you really think that does not matter to a smart coyote?