Hunting in the dark - 08/04/16
Hi guys, on another thread there was a discussion of lighted nocks and night hunting came up. I hunt so much at night that there are weeks of sleeping during the day and hunting 3rd shift for us. Hunting at night has a level of peculiar effects and exciting characteristics that is a bit addictive.
In Africa we can hunt any big game 24 hours a day. So it is an exciting way to hunt for people that come from a place where you cannot hunt in the dark. The ability to judge distance is very different in the dark, things seem closer then they are, much like the difficulty judging distance across a lake. There is an erie sense of paranoia at times walking through the bush where large predators live too.
So how do you hunt in the darkest blackest night? What gear do you need? Most people would instantly default to 3rd Gen night vision or thermal imaging. That could be many thousands of dollars in equipment. An unrealistic expense when you can do this just as well or, ...actually better with a couple hundred bucks in gear.
I'm not sure I care to advertise for the folks making this equipment, so I will tell you what it is and you can find it on line from one of the several makers of the gear.
Lets assume for the conversation your hunting hogs, or any other night creature that is attracted to a bait. There are motion sensing lights that either hang from a tree branch, attach with magnets, or mount exactly like a trail camera. These are placed in a location you expect animals to arrive. Like a food source or a water hole. Possibly even used on game trails.
These lights have a green beam that is,... or depending upon the Mfg could very powerful. However it's absolutely invisible to animals. Everything you see in the dark has a greenish hue, much like night vision has. The better designs have a sensitive motion trigger with a very dim light that increases in intensity over 60 seconds until its fully bright.
From a tree stand with archery gear your target is illuminated as clear as daytime. You needed lighted sight pins with a dimmer switch. You cannot see the animal if the pin brightness is to much. Just enough power to see the tip of the pin.
There are Phosphorescent Peep sights to allow you to charge them before the shot and see through the glowing peep perfectly. Ive found that with practice and good form you will be looking through the standard peep anyway just fine. There is also the option of using the Sight with the lighted "no peep" in the housing. Then when you see the black spot in the green background your perfect! This is my choice for night hunting. The same dimmer is used for the sight pins and the no peep.
With a firearm it's much easier. From 200 yards away you can see the crosshairs perfectly looking into the green haze illuminating the animal. Additionally you can buy crazy powerful green beam light for your scope or piccatiny rail. Predator calling is amazing with this system. It's easily better then night vision, the quality of the image is as good as your scope is. I have a powerful light that screws into my stabilizer hole on my bow. It uses a pressure switch on the grip to turn it on. With this light alone I can shoot accurately to 30-50 yards on rabbit sized targets! While in total darkness. I draw the bow and point above the target, slowly lowering the dim outer circle of the ultra bright green light onto the animal. The animal is already in the green glow of the motion sensing light, so this bright light is not even noticed. Once the beam is full on the animal with the lighted pin, its as easy as shooting on a bright sunshiny day.
It's quite a new experience for those how have not done this to sit in a tree stand past midnight in the dark hearing the owls, and leaves rustling, etc. Then while in the black dark state, you see the faint haze of green on...... something is coming towards the spot. As you stare into the dark the form of a bobcat, wild pig, bear, jackal, hyena, or any species of deer of African game. Something is coming walking through the area. It then is there standing in plain sight either from your tree stand or from a distance through your rifle scope. They simply have no idea that light is on, it 100% invisible to them.
Some animals react more or less to red or green, I've found green works by far better then Red, but coyotes( canines) seem to be more easily tricked with red.
It's quite a rush to be sitting in total darkness for a couple hours and then see that faint green haze of light on. You know something it looming in the shadows just out of sight.
In Africa we can hunt any big game 24 hours a day. So it is an exciting way to hunt for people that come from a place where you cannot hunt in the dark. The ability to judge distance is very different in the dark, things seem closer then they are, much like the difficulty judging distance across a lake. There is an erie sense of paranoia at times walking through the bush where large predators live too.
So how do you hunt in the darkest blackest night? What gear do you need? Most people would instantly default to 3rd Gen night vision or thermal imaging. That could be many thousands of dollars in equipment. An unrealistic expense when you can do this just as well or, ...actually better with a couple hundred bucks in gear.
I'm not sure I care to advertise for the folks making this equipment, so I will tell you what it is and you can find it on line from one of the several makers of the gear.
Lets assume for the conversation your hunting hogs, or any other night creature that is attracted to a bait. There are motion sensing lights that either hang from a tree branch, attach with magnets, or mount exactly like a trail camera. These are placed in a location you expect animals to arrive. Like a food source or a water hole. Possibly even used on game trails.
These lights have a green beam that is,... or depending upon the Mfg could very powerful. However it's absolutely invisible to animals. Everything you see in the dark has a greenish hue, much like night vision has. The better designs have a sensitive motion trigger with a very dim light that increases in intensity over 60 seconds until its fully bright.
From a tree stand with archery gear your target is illuminated as clear as daytime. You needed lighted sight pins with a dimmer switch. You cannot see the animal if the pin brightness is to much. Just enough power to see the tip of the pin.
There are Phosphorescent Peep sights to allow you to charge them before the shot and see through the glowing peep perfectly. Ive found that with practice and good form you will be looking through the standard peep anyway just fine. There is also the option of using the Sight with the lighted "no peep" in the housing. Then when you see the black spot in the green background your perfect! This is my choice for night hunting. The same dimmer is used for the sight pins and the no peep.
With a firearm it's much easier. From 200 yards away you can see the crosshairs perfectly looking into the green haze illuminating the animal. Additionally you can buy crazy powerful green beam light for your scope or piccatiny rail. Predator calling is amazing with this system. It's easily better then night vision, the quality of the image is as good as your scope is. I have a powerful light that screws into my stabilizer hole on my bow. It uses a pressure switch on the grip to turn it on. With this light alone I can shoot accurately to 30-50 yards on rabbit sized targets! While in total darkness. I draw the bow and point above the target, slowly lowering the dim outer circle of the ultra bright green light onto the animal. The animal is already in the green glow of the motion sensing light, so this bright light is not even noticed. Once the beam is full on the animal with the lighted pin, its as easy as shooting on a bright sunshiny day.
It's quite a new experience for those how have not done this to sit in a tree stand past midnight in the dark hearing the owls, and leaves rustling, etc. Then while in the black dark state, you see the faint haze of green on...... something is coming towards the spot. As you stare into the dark the form of a bobcat, wild pig, bear, jackal, hyena, or any species of deer of African game. Something is coming walking through the area. It then is there standing in plain sight either from your tree stand or from a distance through your rifle scope. They simply have no idea that light is on, it 100% invisible to them.
Some animals react more or less to red or green, I've found green works by far better then Red, but coyotes( canines) seem to be more easily tricked with red.
It's quite a rush to be sitting in total darkness for a couple hours and then see that faint green haze of light on. You know something it looming in the shadows just out of sight.