fact or fiction?

Coyotes see in shades of grey, they are color blind at best.

There have been many debates here about "color of lights". You can search and find about any info you want.

Here is a reply that I sent to a recent email:

We are "infamous" for our use of white lights. I grew up using red, as did all of us. Everybody said "coyotes cant see red". Myself, and I think the rest of the country took that as gospel. It was actually Skeet Jones that introduced us to the "white side" years ago. The whole "coyotes cant see red" doesnt hold water when you are basically blinding them with the light as they come in. If they couldnt see red they would see right through it, and see you. We use a dimmer to bring the intensity of the light down, or use a light thats not as bright. This is actually all a red filter does, it brings the intensity down. Predators see in shades of grey, they are color blind at best. It does not matter what color you use, or if you use one at all if the intensity of the light is the same. If you bring the intensity of a white light down, say to about how bright a red is, then you can see better and you still dont spook critters. Red is not the majic bullet, good common sense and woodsmanship will kill you way more critters than a red filter.

I can picture some redneck 50 years ago holding a million candle power light and trying to find something to make it "dimmer", cause he couldnt afford to go buy a new one. He probably grabbed a old broken brake light and created the first red filter. Everybody always talked about how "old redneck" kills alot of coyotes and he uses a red light. It must be the "red" that does it, cause they aint killin nothing. Somebody marketed red filters, and probably made millions selling them, while all anybody had to do was go down to the hardware store and buy the cheaper, dimmer light.

This of course is all our personal opinion, and many do not agree with us. Of course after 4 videos, and now a season of TV we dont hear much negativity about it. We flew to Africa and did not take a red filter. We had a great trip and killed over 20 Jackals, and a Caracal. Half way around the world it works too! If we didnt fully believe in our methods we would have packed a filter. I cant see needing any more proof than that.

To answer your question. Yes, white will work on cats as well, man you need to check out our videos! LOL To bring the intensity down further you can also bring the light up and hold them in the "halo" of the light. But as you can see we "burn" everything and I can count on one hand how many coyotes we spook with the light each year. In heavily called areas any light will spook critters. Ive actually spooked way more with red just by making rookie mistakes and not staying calm and quite.

Take care,

Todd Woodall
Predator Pursuit
 
I disagree....slightly.

Here in Scotland we lamp for foxes (I guess they are close to Coyotes) and most people who lamp occaisionally use a Lightforce or similar lamp which emits "white" light.

This results in "lamp shy" foxes, and the normal way round about this is to use a red filter, as its commonly assumed as the foxes are used to white lamps, a red filtered lamp would mean that the fox is less likely to be scared off and run from the lamp.

This has worked on some occaisions.

I have seen out checking sheep and new born lambs in a friends fields, looking through the Yukon Ranger Night Vision monocular , seeing a fox, which was well out of range (400meters away) literally running towards us as i leaned across the roof of the vehicle scanning the field with the NV monocular.

I was planning on waiting on the fox coming into range to see if he was bothering the lambs, so tapped the roof to notify the driver to get ready to power up the lamp, but being overly keen he switched on the roof mounted Go Light with red filter, and zoomed in on Charlie. (Charlie is the scottish nickname for the common fox)

As soon as the light crossed his path, he turned and hot footed it away in the opposite direction.

So from my experience foxes CAN see red light, they are just less used to it compared to white light when people regularly lamp the ground.

Hope this helps

Paul

www.scottcountry.co.uk

 
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I have flashed red directly into the eyes of Foxes and Coyotes without them spooking (Coons too). I have seen them spook when flashed white (meaning unfiltered light). They also react when I have used the amber light, more of an annoyance than fear. I'll start filming some of my night calling this coming season for a more objective assessment afterward.
 
I used to think it was just that "filtered" light or colored light was easier on their eyes as opposed to white light, which might be the case. But, before I changed over to night vision I had a LightForce and the areas where we used red filters and the foxes eventually got shy of them would tolerate a green filter a little more. Not sure if they could tell a difference but it kind of seemed so. Now when I move to a setup I use blue filters on my walking light to aviod spooking anything that may be close. Bottom line is that as above, I have shined animals with white light and they stand there looking stupid probably because this was the first time anyone shined them like that. Even red or green filtered light turned down so they barely glow will spook them if they have seen it and been shot at. Passive nightvision is truly the answer to this problem. Expensive way to fix things!!!
 
The rational that coyotes or cats can't see any "shade" of light because of the filter color is flawed.

No matter what the color of the light is, it's still a LIGHTSOURCE. Every animal can distinguish light from dark.
So, if you shine a green, blue, red, or white light at an animal, it can "see it"....
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I hunted with white light forever & had no trouble with killing them with white light. I can see better with white light, and therefore may be able to hit the animal better or further out because of that. Using even a thin film of red dims my light to the point that I probably miss out on more animals by not being able to see, or positively identify them.

I personally believe that the trick to hunting with white light is to learn how to use that halo by not shining directly on the animal until you are ready to shoot.

Lots of opinions on this subject.

Barry
 
Originally Posted By: BoomyEver seen a dog stare at a laser dot on the floor, or watched a cat chase it?

Good point.

Regards,
hm
 
Use whatever color lens you feel comfortable using. I guarantee you that you will be able to identify animals better, and your shooting will improve by using a white light. Especially if you are just starting out. If you have doubts that a white light will work, just get one of our videos. We literally have hundreds of kills with a white light. Good Luck.
 
We use the white lights too and as far as we have seen they work great and a must for filming. I look at it this way you may spook less coyotes with a red lens. But you will miss more with it too just for the lack of the amount of light put out their you will most likely just see eyes in your cross hairs witch can make things harder to identfy. Now with the white light with a dimmer you will most likely be able to make out their whole body and eyes and see your target much clearer in your scope. So the way I see it is either way it evens it self out if you call in 10 coyotes with the white light you may spook 2 out of 10 and if you use a red light you will most likely miss 3 out of 10 with it if not more. Hope this helps Good Hunting and God Bless Skinner

P.S dont just take are word for it give it a try and you may be surprised.
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Originally Posted By: Jeff ThomasonUse whatever color lens you feel comfortable using. I guarantee you that you will be able to identify animals better, and your shooting will improve by using a white light. Especially if you are just starting out. If you have doubts that a white light will work, just get one of our videos. We literally have hundreds of kills with a white light. Good Luck.

I dont have nor intent to have your video, or anyone elses video for that matter, but do have a question!!!! How many of these kills on your video is in the eastern US in areas that get coyote hunted and spotlighted by folks looking at deer at night?? Is these films that you guys make and sell filmed on public ground?? Any of it on private ground that is huge with very limited access??? In my experiance, and I hunt ALL types of ground, in the joe smoe real world of hunting in the eastern US, without a red lense, you wont pull the trigger much, or have much footage
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That is a great point Kino. These coyotes that we are shooting know that they are on private ground, just like yours know they are on public.....Our animals get shined all of the time by deer hunters, Jackrabbit hunters, and other predator hunters, so another invalid point. Yes, we do have a bigger coyote population and that does help us. But dont mistake that for a coyote being able to "see" or not see a red lens. Alot of guys, including yourself, cant wrap their minds around the fact that a dim white light is the same intensity as a bright red light. Try and get around what people have been telling you about "red" being the magic color. Just dim the intensity down a bit, and you will be fine.
 
This is a very old question. Most people belive the old story that they can't see color. Which is not true they see two of the colors where we see all three. As far as the color of the light red has been the go to color for years. Because of what hunter belive in using. The main thing in the light is not to have it too bright. With the red filer on the light brightness is reduced and as long as you can keep the coyote thinking he is hidden you will do better.
May be this will help.

http://www.predatorxtreme-digital.com/predatorxtreme/200810#pg83

http://www.predatorxtreme-digital.com/predatorxtreme/200812#pg65

http://www.predatorxtreme-digital.com/predatorxtreme/200902#pg89

Clint
 
Originally Posted By: Jeff ThomasonThat is a great point Kino. These coyotes that we are shooting know that they are on private ground, just like yours know they are on public.....Our animals get shined all of the time by deer hunters, Jackrabbit hunters, and other predator hunters, so another invalid point. Yes, we do have a bigger coyote population and that does help us. But dont mistake that for a coyote being able to "see" or not see a red lens. Alot of guys, including yourself, cant wrap their minds around the fact that a dim white light is the same intensity as a bright red light. Try and get around what people have been telling you about "red" being the magic color. Just dim the intensity down a bit, and you will be fine.

Not sure if I am understanding what you are saying here.... Are you saying that there is not a difference in public vs. private ground??? Do you feel that animals that get shined, for whatever reason, is "invalid" and will respond thet same as animals that have not been shined? In my experiance dating back to the late 70's, these are both VERY valid points. You also never stated as to where your films are "made" at (public or private)).
I NEVER said that I believe that predators CANT see colored light.....not once. In fact, I believe from my experiance that they can see light, and not only colors, but have depth perception as well. The REASON I use and recommend a red lens is to "shade" the light and dim it. For the record, I have tried a white light and have had TERRIBLE luck with it. I go back to red and start killing again. I have tried dimming the intensity like you mentioned as well. I want you to know that I DO wish I could get by with a white light as the advantages to see better are much better to our eyes! I don't "have my mind wrapped around the fact", I just fail to see and experiance YOUR "facts".
 
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O yeah I almost forgot to ask. What the heck is a lamp? Wez from Texas and the only lamp Ive ever heard of is plugged into the wall in my liv'n room!
 
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Rockinbbar pretty well summed it up, a light source is a light source. Dogs see differently than humans their rainbow is not the same as ours they see dark blue, light blue,gray,light yellow, dark yellow, and dark gray. Something we see as green they would see as blue or light blue something we see as red they would probably see as yellow or dark yellow. No matter the color they still see it as a bright lightsource. The real advantage to using red light is that it lets our eyes adjust back to darkness faster because our pupils do not dilate.
 
No matter what color of light you use the man running the light, and shining quickly and getting on the animle with the light and knowing where to hold it and when to burn them is more important and will get more animles killed than what color lense you use. Try it, all works but I'd rather shoot under white light.
 
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