DiRTY DOG
Well-known member
Originally Posted By: jwebster34I can't afford thermal, yet, so was just looking for a few opinions on the newer lights out on the market. I had wicked lights, but they were just okay. I'm looking at Night Eyes, Coyote Light, Sniper Hog, and Predator Tactics. Going to get new gun light and scan light/headlamp.
I stopped reading the Night Calling forum here a year or two ago, because the overwhelming majority of threads are about NV and thermal optics, which are really neat, but I'm not interested in using for hunting or not allowed by law. There's not much discussion here about use of lights anymore, and like you said, the NV and thermal guys overwhelm the light guys. Frankly it seems a lot of those guys use bigger and bigger cartridges to compensate for poor marksmanship with electronic optics, or wandering zeros, maybe from poorly executed tripod platforms or maybe they're more interested in spray n pray at fleeing animals and capturing the video for YouTube. The result is a lot of spinners and runners and misses. I prefer the challenge of calling them in and one shot one kill day or night. So I usually just skip this night forum completely.
I prefer to use a light, and I have owned or used most of the big names since LEDs became available. I still have my old XLR-100 and still use it occasionally as a backup or loaner light. I only use red LEDs because white and green seems to spook our predators in a way that red does not.
Wicked and Sniper Hog and their copies are ok but I was not impressed with the overall build quality, weight, and performance. I disliked the Wicked head lamp for those reasons, it was huge and heavy. I sold those off. I've seen a few cheap knockoffs of their designs and wasn't impressed.
Coyote Light reaches out there but is too much light sometimes. Mine broke and required repair on my dime. I don't use it anymore. They sure are expensive.
My Night Eyes lights are my favorites now and all I use. The 2-color headlamp works great and is small and light. Their gun lights are powerful enough to shoot as far as I need at night. They are well built.
As for distance, spotting eyes is easy. Sometimes shooting at distance is easy too. BUT ID'ing capability depends on the terrain, the ground cover, and the water/dust particulates in the air. I have several kills over 250 on freshly plowed flat farmland on clear nights. But other times, when it's hazy or foggy or smokey ur dusty, I can't ID for sure that far. In those conditions, I can see more clearly with red, because red reflects less of those particulates while white looks like driving in fog with high beams. Add in knee high weeds or thick mountain brush, and high moisture content in the air, with a set of eyes that peeks out and won't expose their body, and sometimes I pass on shots because I can't ID 100%. It depends on the conditions.
Shoot straight!
I stopped reading the Night Calling forum here a year or two ago, because the overwhelming majority of threads are about NV and thermal optics, which are really neat, but I'm not interested in using for hunting or not allowed by law. There's not much discussion here about use of lights anymore, and like you said, the NV and thermal guys overwhelm the light guys. Frankly it seems a lot of those guys use bigger and bigger cartridges to compensate for poor marksmanship with electronic optics, or wandering zeros, maybe from poorly executed tripod platforms or maybe they're more interested in spray n pray at fleeing animals and capturing the video for YouTube. The result is a lot of spinners and runners and misses. I prefer the challenge of calling them in and one shot one kill day or night. So I usually just skip this night forum completely.
I prefer to use a light, and I have owned or used most of the big names since LEDs became available. I still have my old XLR-100 and still use it occasionally as a backup or loaner light. I only use red LEDs because white and green seems to spook our predators in a way that red does not.
Wicked and Sniper Hog and their copies are ok but I was not impressed with the overall build quality, weight, and performance. I disliked the Wicked head lamp for those reasons, it was huge and heavy. I sold those off. I've seen a few cheap knockoffs of their designs and wasn't impressed.
Coyote Light reaches out there but is too much light sometimes. Mine broke and required repair on my dime. I don't use it anymore. They sure are expensive.
My Night Eyes lights are my favorites now and all I use. The 2-color headlamp works great and is small and light. Their gun lights are powerful enough to shoot as far as I need at night. They are well built.
As for distance, spotting eyes is easy. Sometimes shooting at distance is easy too. BUT ID'ing capability depends on the terrain, the ground cover, and the water/dust particulates in the air. I have several kills over 250 on freshly plowed flat farmland on clear nights. But other times, when it's hazy or foggy or smokey ur dusty, I can't ID for sure that far. In those conditions, I can see more clearly with red, because red reflects less of those particulates while white looks like driving in fog with high beams. Add in knee high weeds or thick mountain brush, and high moisture content in the air, with a set of eyes that peeks out and won't expose their body, and sometimes I pass on shots because I can't ID 100%. It depends on the conditions.
Shoot straight!
