I have been looking around and some spotlights that mount to your scope so you can turn it on to look for yotes at night. I currently just have a hand held spot light that has three interchangeable lenses from blue to red to orange. Most of the scope mounted lights are red. my question to you all is, is a scope mounted light really nessiciary or will my hand held do just fine? also what do you recomend for a scope mounted light and how well does it work
Spotlight for hunting coyote
- Thread starter hawkeyeshoooer
- Start date
I do a heavy amount of spotlighting here in Australia. I have a Nightforce 140 mounted on a Ruger 220 Swift that I never use due to it being unwieldy. I'm not a big advocate for mounting anything more than you need on a gun used for pest destruction. Too many things to get hooked up on and in the way. All of our shooting is done from a vehicle here as we cover a large amount of land.
I have a Fyrlyt and Nightforce 240 Blitz spotlights that can be remote mounted in whichever configuration I require. Either on the roof or in the door frame of the ute. If I was calling up game with a light rifle at night, I would most likely look at an LED Lenser set up for a rifle as shots would be under 100 yards.
I have a Fyrlyt and Nightforce 240 Blitz spotlights that can be remote mounted in whichever configuration I require. Either on the roof or in the door frame of the ute. If I was calling up game with a light rifle at night, I would most likely look at an LED Lenser set up for a rifle as shots would be under 100 yards.
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Of you hunt in states where night vision is legal skip the lights and have a dedicated night hunting gun with a photon RT or pulsar thermal.
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
Coyote Light is the clear front runner in this game, with wicked a fairly distant second.
There is simply no substitute for a Coyote Light.
I have hunted behind quite a few quality NV/thermal rigs and they’re kinda cool but being married to that device really sucks.... well that and spending thousands and thousands of dollars to do a $400 job....
There may or may not be a difference in red and white light. The most important factors are a high quality optic (and I mean truly high quality not “good enough”) and a rheostat so that you can dim the light. Less is always more when hunting with artificial light.
There is simply no substitute for a Coyote Light.
I have hunted behind quite a few quality NV/thermal rigs and they’re kinda cool but being married to that device really sucks.... well that and spending thousands and thousands of dollars to do a $400 job....
There may or may not be a difference in red and white light. The most important factors are a high quality optic (and I mean truly high quality not “good enough”) and a rheostat so that you can dim the light. Less is always more when hunting with artificial light.
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
More about the optic... sometimes brand loyalty and daytime clarity will influence people’s choices. I tried to sell a Zeiss Conquest DL on here for months at a very reasonable price and nobody wanted it, probably because it wasn’t a “Leupold.”
I really like the German made Conquest and Victory lines for night hunting. I guess people look at all conquests the same, but they’re definitely not equal.
50-56 mm Nightforce scopes are good, and the high end HD Leupolds are as well.
You probably knew that, just trying to be thorough in helping you develop your system.
I really like the German made Conquest and Victory lines for night hunting. I guess people look at all conquests the same, but they’re definitely not equal.
50-56 mm Nightforce scopes are good, and the high end HD Leupolds are as well.
You probably knew that, just trying to be thorough in helping you develop your system.
"Spotlighting" is big here in New Zealand. Traditionally, most people used the Aussie-made Lightforce lamps- I still have the 140mm version and it's OK as long as you are prepared to cart round an SLA battery..
In the last 4-5years, there's been a major move to LED torches powered by 18650 lithiums. The current preferred item is a Chinese made (but NZ designed) torch:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MAX...c9d1a6f&transAbTest=ae803_2&priceBeautifyAB=0
I have one of these plus its slightly bigger brother the 2X. Believe me- you haven't seen decent torch til you've used one of these. The dedomed M24 make deer look like full daylight at 300yds and it easily rifle-mounted. Even at full throttle, a pair of 3400mAHr Panasonics last a solid hour.
The saying here now is "Wires are dead". With self-contained torches like these, why would you bother with carting round a separate battery? There are plenty of mounting options to allow fixing and quick removal from rifles
In the last 4-5years, there's been a major move to LED torches powered by 18650 lithiums. The current preferred item is a Chinese made (but NZ designed) torch:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/MAX...c9d1a6f&transAbTest=ae803_2&priceBeautifyAB=0
I have one of these plus its slightly bigger brother the 2X. Believe me- you haven't seen decent torch til you've used one of these. The dedomed M24 make deer look like full daylight at 300yds and it easily rifle-mounted. Even at full throttle, a pair of 3400mAHr Panasonics last a solid hour.
The saying here now is "Wires are dead". With self-contained torches like these, why would you bother with carting round a separate battery? There are plenty of mounting options to allow fixing and quick removal from rifles
they definitely shy from white light. green a little bit, red not much. UNTIL you start shooting with red light, any coyote that has seen it will take off.
i shoot off of bait in the winter at night. the first few kills are easy, then the ones that watched their buddy get shot are not so tolerant of red light.
i shoot off of bait in the winter at night. the first few kills are easy, then the ones that watched their buddy get shot are not so tolerant of red light.
If you are going to hunt at night with lights you will want to get a scan lite and a kill lite. I used a handheld scan lite for a few years but have switched to a headlamp. The headlite will free up your hands. If you go over to Predator Masters and look under nite hunting you can learn a lot. There are lots of good lights out there, some are $500.00 but a 75.00 lite will work. Look at Night Eyes for some good information. Most will agree, red for fox and coyote, green for hogs.
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
You will never know what’s out there if you don’t experiment....
I’ll leave the name out of this one, but there’s a certain light that comes in about 5 colors that gets touted heavily all across the web as being that best “middle ground” light..... no it’s not wicked they’re pretty good.
Anyway, I had the owner of the company send me one in Amber at a discounted price. I fully charged the batteries, created a makeshift halo shield (which should come standard) and used it for about 5 nights stands.... I now have a $180 amber flashlight in my work bag.... useless as a hunting light.
Buy a coyote light, or a coyote light CL-1.
If you just can’t swing that investment, then buy a wicked, which is the next best thing.
I’ll leave the name out of this one, but there’s a certain light that comes in about 5 colors that gets touted heavily all across the web as being that best “middle ground” light..... no it’s not wicked they’re pretty good.
Anyway, I had the owner of the company send me one in Amber at a discounted price. I fully charged the batteries, created a makeshift halo shield (which should come standard) and used it for about 5 nights stands.... I now have a $180 amber flashlight in my work bag.... useless as a hunting light.
Buy a coyote light, or a coyote light CL-1.
If you just can’t swing that investment, then buy a wicked, which is the next best thing.
LOL, the light I used was like $20, and worked very well. Made a halo for it outta a toilet paper roll & some gorilla tape...
For another $10, got a 1" pic rail clamp, to QD mount on tripod gun cradle.
Can pan & scan with fluid head while seated, with rifle across my lap. When I see 'eyes', set into rifle in cradle, make positive ID & shoot...
18650 batteries lasted 60-90 minutes, so I carried an extra few in an inside pocket, to keep em warm. Anything inside of 200yds was a fairly easy ID & shoot...
Last season got a Pulsar Trail thermal, which comparatively, is like CHEATING!
For another $10, got a 1" pic rail clamp, to QD mount on tripod gun cradle.
Can pan & scan with fluid head while seated, with rifle across my lap. When I see 'eyes', set into rifle in cradle, make positive ID & shoot...
18650 batteries lasted 60-90 minutes, so I carried an extra few in an inside pocket, to keep em warm. Anything inside of 200yds was a fairly easy ID & shoot...
Last season got a Pulsar Trail thermal, which comparatively, is like CHEATING!
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
Distance at night, as a topic, is widely misunderstood. I have had people offer their best guess on predators at night, only to show them that it was 1/3 of that distance in reality.
This was shown to me many years ago, and it’s quite valuable. I shot way over a coyote at night, and the next morning the rancher showed me that it was all of about 70 yards.
Most of the time, when a person says it was 100 yards, they’ll trip over the animal when they go to retrieve it.
I’m not saying anyone in this thread is that way, but I can tell you that true 200 yard varmint lights are scarce as hens teeth, and the best handheld, self contained units won’t stretch much beyond 300 in average conditions.
We have a very large sample size to work with here. You can go out and off 10-20 coyotes in a night and not break a sweat. I’ve got friends that can kill 30 with regularity. Heck, they shot 63 one night last year under white lights.
Experience is the best teacher, and I’m going to stand by the fact that you should spend some hard earned cash and buy the best light you can afford, whatever that maybe be.
This was shown to me many years ago, and it’s quite valuable. I shot way over a coyote at night, and the next morning the rancher showed me that it was all of about 70 yards.
Most of the time, when a person says it was 100 yards, they’ll trip over the animal when they go to retrieve it.
I’m not saying anyone in this thread is that way, but I can tell you that true 200 yard varmint lights are scarce as hens teeth, and the best handheld, self contained units won’t stretch much beyond 300 in average conditions.
We have a very large sample size to work with here. You can go out and off 10-20 coyotes in a night and not break a sweat. I’ve got friends that can kill 30 with regularity. Heck, they shot 63 one night last year under white lights.
Experience is the best teacher, and I’m going to stand by the fact that you should spend some hard earned cash and buy the best light you can afford, whatever that maybe be.
Clancy
Silver $$ Contributor
For clarification for the skimmers, you can buy flashlights, even inexpensive ones, that will light up an animal at HUNDREDS of yards. We used to use an “O” to get a shot at the ones that circled us.
Having a dimmer and focus on hand in the same package that is highly “mountable” is a rare bird indeed.
But, I think that’s about all I have to say on this topic....
Having a dimmer and focus on hand in the same package that is highly “mountable” is a rare bird indeed.
But, I think that’s about all I have to say on this topic....
I can agree with that.
I'm blessed, in that, I get to predator hunt over the same fields that I shoot woodchucks on all summer, and white tails over, in the fall. So, being able to call distance at night has never been a problem, as I know the terrain I'm calling like the back of my hand...
For someone who's just driving ranch roads in total darkness, it'd be all too easy to misjudge range with barely sufficient illumination...
Beyond that, a 30gr @4100fps takes alll the guesswork outta range guesstimating a tweener '
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