Night eyes

Guess no one wants to touch this since it's been hashed before and there is no set color for any given animals eyes when reflecting a clear light.
I will share with you a rule of thumb I've always used.
Deer--Most of the time blue-bluish color would be deer but not always, most on the side of the road seem to be bright -clear!!
Bobcat--Most always a bright white clear reflection, again not always.
Coyote-- Mostly a yellowish to clear bright white, but other colors do exist..
Fox-Grey--Usually a red -clear-white-yellow.Make sense?
Mountian Lion--Don't know for sure but if its possible for them to have large red eyes, then I 've seen one and didn't know what it was. Saw eyes only and didn't shoot!
Jagerunda(sp)(Black cat with long tail) The only one i've seen at night had the largest yellowish eyes I've seen at night. Beautiful animal!!
Racoon--Mostly bright white clear, again not always but closer together than a Bobcat..
Now then. That said, Do not shoot anything just because you think it is identifiable by its eyes or if eyes are all you can see. THATS A BIG NO NO in my book.. Make positive I.D. before shooting at night. Unless of course you own the property and are absolutly positive anything you see should be shot.. Your call on that one..
Best bet is use a red lens, they will all be red then
Observe the motion of the animal as it comes to you. That can tell you more about what it is than the color of it's eyes, or at least it will help.
This is my opinion of the question asked. Sorry to be so vague.
 
Every set of eyes I have lit up with a red light has been red. Coyote and deer are the only confirmed different animals whose eyes lit up red...
 
Last edited:
I second famed fisherman, Every pair of eyes under a red light will shine back red, becuase the only color of light you are sending out is red. However, in a "white" light, the animal can shine back any color, becuase you are sending out every color in the visible light spectrum. As far as what animal shines what color...no damn clue! We just hold off until we see a body.
 
There is no way to tell what an animal is from eye shine. It is a huge mistake to think you can. There are tendancies, but animals may have cataracs, or the angle of the light, the age , etc. can all effect shine. Do not rely on color at all.
 
However, I have yet to see any animal have the unmistakable eyes that look like 2 huge flashlights shining back at you that a Bobcat has...
 
Hello Mr. Buker, I read your article on hunting the red fox and I just wanted to ask what mouth call would you suggest. I am new so I think I will wait a bit to buy an electronic call. I put my money into a lite force and I ordered the decoy that you suggested. Great article Thankyou, Mark
 
Hi Mark,

One thing you'll find is that any and every call will work. Don't get too hung up on the sounds you make but rather work on your set ups, wind, etc. I personally like open reed calls because they make all kinds of sounds and they don't freeze in cold weather. You don't say where you are from but if it's cold where you hunt, I'd get an open reed call and practice with it.

My two favorites are crit'r call and Sceery. But, I have a custom call by Tony Tebbe and one by Tommy Johnson both here from PM that I really like too.

Welcome to Predator Masters

Randy
 
I have to agree with Elks 100% on this. You play this game long enough and you start to think you can tell what kind of animal it is by the way it behaves in the light. However, I've had rabbits behave like pychotic coyotes - charging straight into the light and towards the tower. I've also had deer behave like curious fox - hanging around about 200 yards out there, moving back and forth. If you aren't 100% sure of what you see in the light, please save yourself a lot of anguish and either call it in closer or keep your finger off the trigger. I'm not trying to be Mr. Know-it-all on this subject - I'm speaking from experience. Just a couple weeks ago I had a good friend and his nephew out here night hunting with me and we called a doe into our setup. She behaved like a fox, that's for sure. There was no snow on the ground and she "hung up" about 200 yards away - we couldn't tell the distance between her eyes and the ground so for all we knew she was a fox. My buddy was wondering if we should take the shot and I snapped at him "what do you plan on shooting?!" He replied "that fox". Man, I gave him the what-for. We put the white light on the animal and, sure enough, it was a doe. It's just not worth it, folks - always identify that target and be certain of what you're shooting.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top