Night hunting lights

[Couzer]

So these lights have been a work in progress for 2-3 years. I had bought all the parts and I am just now putting them together. It's a 2 light setup up, a amber light and a aircraft spot burn light. If any one here was at the seminar and has built them as well, could you post some pics to make sure I'm getting it right. I heard they have been using this same set up in Nevada and California for years and they work very well. This is going to be the year I'm going to try to hit it hard.

 

Also not sure what type of 12 volt battery I'm going to need? I know I would like a dry/gel battery so I don't have to worrie about the acid leaking. Needs to be portable as well.

 

What is every one else using?

 

[Edge]

Use a pair of 6 volt batteries and get a lot more amp hours instead of a 12v.

[Couzer]

Use a pair of 6 volt batteries and get a lot more amp hours instead of a 12v.

Ok thanks edge! Here is a picture of the final demo unit.

 

 

[Edge]

Awesome

[Couzer]

Well no lion tonight but these lights work awesome!!! I kinda messed up on my first stand, I had placed the fox pro 50' in front of me. I remembered that in the seminar they said to make sure you put the caller right next to you that way when the animals look for the caller they are looking right at the light making their eyes light up! Second stand we were way to noisy getting out of the car :-( last stand we had a lot of vehicle traffic coming by! I can't believe how hard it is holding up a light, working the fox pro and having your firearm by your side. An AR-15 and shotgun is seems like it would be perfect for night stands.

 

Here is a pic of the second light I finished building. I can't wait till coyotes are in season for night hunting!

[Edge]

Sounds like fun. See any crawly things?

I'm thinking the battery didn't last long? Try this with two 6 Volts, just duct tape them together after connecting them in a series..

[Couzer]

Batteries lasted really good, I picked some up over at batteries plus, they are rechargeable 12 volt dry/gel batteries

[Edge]

Wish there was a Battery Plus near us. I go thru those pretty fast on the fence chargers, the heat kills them.

When does coyote open there?

[Couzer]

So I was chatting with another member on another form and he posted this, not remembering where he got it, but very good info. I strongly believe if coyotes will come in, the lions will follow if not come in first.

 

 

Night Hunting Coyotes



There is an unbelievable lack of knowledge about how to conduct a proper stand at night. Questions such as when do I turn on the light, and for how long? What am I looking for, what do I do once I locate an animal. How to identify what you are looking at.

Basic lighting technique starts with the stand selection. You have to be very careful in selecting a stand, taking wind direction into consideration. You should not have any large objects near you, boulders, trees, a hillside in the immediate foreground; anything that would cause shadows beyond the object. The reason is that any animal that is otherwise out in the open, but is in shadow because of a tree in the foreground, you can't identify in the scope. There is only enough diffused light to see the eyes, but the animal is in darkness, and your light is reflecting off the object. A bad situation, unless you can get him to move to the side. So, the answer is to get those terrain features as far away from you as possible; especially downwind.

If you think coyotes have a tendency to circle downwind on a day stand, wait until you try your hand at night hunting. It's almost automatic, if you let it happen. Make sure you have an unobstructed shot downwind, if at all possible. In fact, if the wind is blowing toward one of those near trees, you might have to select a better spot now, rather than let it become a factor in letting an animal get away from you. Under the best circumstances, night hunting is difficult, you need to set up for success. This should be easy, as it doesn't take many mistakes to improve your stand selection process.

Ideally, I like to have an unobstructed view in a fifty yard radius, but rather than search all night for the perfect spot, you need to learn to make the most of what you have. If you are in heavy cover, this calls for a subdued spotlight. As mentioned, you get too much bounce back, from the brush, and it spooks the animals if you are using too much wattage, regardless of the tint.

Open country, you need a little more light, but that's the key, a little more light goes a long way, when scanning with the hunting light. One of the biggest mistakes people make is using too much light, even if they know proper light technique. The second biggest mistake is the way they mover the light, there shouldn't be any sudden Jedi Knight type slashes and irregular movement. You want a steady, level sweep of ten to twelve seconds to make a complete 360º circle. Put the light out on the distant horizon and avoid illuminating the immediate foreground. This is very important.

Starting your stand.

Bring the light around behind your back, in your right hand, before you turn it on. Turn the light on, pointing it to the rear and slowly move in a counterclockwise direction, until you are twisting your body and pointing the light behind you. You must make complete circles, beginners almost always cheat, and don't go all the way around before the start back, clockwise. This is also a mistake, easily avoided. Always make your stands exactly the same way, right to left, and return with another 360 in the opposite direction. Begin and end every sweep directly to your rear. And, at this point, don't ask; "how come?" just do it.

If for any reason, you want to turn the light off, do it behind your back, on the right side. Keep it pointed behind you until the light is actually completely dark, sometimes there is a glow that will illuminate you or your partner, accidentally. Another mistake.

Let's say that you are hand calling, and you need to retrieve another call, dress the light cord, pick up something, or any number of valid reasons? If you have a stationary animal, and you must turn the light off, you always want to aim the light directly away from the animal, before you turn it off. When you turn it on, do so 180º from his direction, and slowly sweep it around to where you expect him to be. Actually, you should never take the light off a set of eyes, for any reason, but in an emergency, this is how you should do it. Never switch the light off and on where the animal can see you do it. Never point the light to the ground, in front of an animal. Never point the light straight up in the air. All of these actions will spook an animal. If you are dealing with a cat, you can get away with a lot of poor techniques, but if you know better, why do it?

As I said above, once you start your stand, you should plan on leaving it on until you break off the stand, if at all possible. Two reasons. First, a coyote can rush in and back out while you are blowing your nose, and you never even saw him. Secondly, flipping the light on and off will spook some animals, so every time you do it, you are taking a calculated risk. If you turn the light off when working a bobcat, he may never look your way again. Happens all the time. So, you need to keep those eyes in the halo, never lose them. It takes all your concentration to follow an animal moving through cover, but you must not lose him. If he is moving in a certain direction and you lose him, you need to watch the direction he was moving, and the last place you saw him, and do it very carefully. Many times he has entered a fold in the terrain, and other times, he hasn't moved, he is still where you last saw him, but his eyes are averted. They do that just to make it interesting, once in a while.

But, starting from the top, when you first turn on the light, you need to make two complete 360º sweeps with lip squeaks. This is because you may have an animal very close, and you don't want to start a loud series, or turn on a machine at high volume when you don't know what you have before you. This is left to right and right to left, which is one cycle, and then you should do it again, to make absolutely sure that the area is clear. At this time you can turn off the light, optional, before you start your first series, or continue with the slow sweeps while you begin with your selected sound.

Depending on the terrain, you can keep the volume to about twenty-five percent, in heavier cover, and in open areas, go ahead and turn it up, as far as you like. You have already determined that you don't have eyes in the immediate vicinity, so this is actually the beginning of your stand, everything else being preliminary.

The length of the stand will depend on a couple of things. First, in open country, I make stands of no more that twelve minutes. When you have a lot of brush, you can extend the stand beyond fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. And that's the other consideration. You go with your instinct. Some stands just look better than others, good line of sight, no obstructions. Others, you might just be going through the motions. In other words, it can be a lot like daylights. Routinely, night stands are shorter, because you can see eyes, and you know when you have no takers before you arrive at that conclusion, were you on a day stand, even in the same location.

Animals generally respond just as eagerly at night, but they circle downwind on you more often. Your job is to prevent it. If you don't jiggle the light or make any noise or movement, you have a good chance of a direct approach. However, expect him to flare off at any time, the shortest direction to downwind. That's another thing. Above, I said that if you lose the eyes, you need to watch two places; where he was and the direction he was moving. Consider this, they almost never go the long way around to get your scent. If it's a tossup, he will most likely travel counterclockwise to get there.

As soon as you pick up a set of eyes, you need to hold the light very steady, maybe use both hands? Kick or tap your partner on the shoulder, he needs as much warning as you can give him. He will help with the tracking, as sometimes the eyes reflect to one side a little better than the other, depending on exactly where the animal is going. In other words, you may not see both eyes, and he may be looking at an angle. This means that you might see flashes, here and there, and you would be surprised that the man on the gun can sometimes pick up a flash where the light man didn't. Not often, but it definitely helps to have two sets of eyes following the animal, whenever possible.

From the beginning, the shooter needs to be ready. You cannot predict when you will see an animal, but especially when you do have one approaching, the shooter should be tracking him wherever possible. If it looks like the shooter doesn't know where the animal is, gently pull him around, and help him out, it is important that you both know the situation. Remember that the man with the light is the actual hunter, and he should be making all decisions. It's like playing a bass, you don't hand off the rod, or you don't pay much attention to what the other guy thinks you should do. The light man is working the animal and he has the best idea of what's going on. When you reach a point where a shot is possible, the light man should make that known to the shooter by crowding in closer to him, and making absolutely positive that he sees the animal, has him located in the scope, and understands that this is the best position. At this point, the shooter should assure the light man that he sees the animal, and has him lined up, or will, as soon as the animal stops.

At this point, the light man should lip squeak the animal for the shot. When the animal stops, the shooter takes charge for the first time and commands his partner by whispering "burn him." Now, as soon as the animal is lit up, the shooter must identify the animal, and shoot, before the animal moves. He will typically have about five seconds to do all of this, and he can't make any mistakes. At the shot, the light man has full control and will concentrate all of his attention on exactly where the animal was when he dropped out of sight. They will drop out of sight, count on it. Both team members need to agree on the exact spot, and make a mental note of the distance. Both should look for visual clues to help them fix the location. This can be as simple as a rock directly in front of them, or beside a certain bush, whatever it is, it needs to be something specific. And, keep the light on the spot until you have it bracketed as well as can be done. You would be surprised at the number of animals that are never recovered because of poor spotting. Not only that, but it wastes time better spent on another stand.

Once he is hit, there is usually a distinctive "whop" like a broken watermelon hitting the ground. This sound is a lot easier to pick up at night than daylight, and is a good reason to keep looking, if you didn't get a good location, and can't find him right away.

Never move, once you have an animal down. This is the easiest way to lose him. One guy should retrieve, and the other direct him. Two guys wandering around doesn't save any time, and in the process, you might lose the location, or get confused.

Okay, let's say you didn't see anything, and after a reasonable length of time, you are ready to move on. What is the procedure? The light man will decide when the stand has played out. He will terminate his last sweep with the subdued light, and turn on the burn light, and make four complete circles, right to left, left to right and then do it again, all the time lip squeaking. Never break off a stand without doing this. The number of animals that you pick up, that have previously avoided detection is a low percentage, but never assume that you got them all. If it happens that you pick up a flash when burning and lip squeaking, raise the light and keep him just in the halo, do not go back to the lower hunting intensity. If you have any chance at this animal, you need to work him with the same light that lit him up, but you need to be very careful. If it's a coyote, chances are, he won't get any closer, so as long as he is steady and looking at you, get on him with the gun, and bring the light down on him when the shooter calls for the burn. This will put a lot of coyotes in the truck, if you play your cards right.

So, that is about all there is to conducting a successful night stand, like an expert. These are proven techniques, developed (literally) over decades in the field, by hundreds of skilled night hunters.

[CatfishKev]

On 9/1/2014 at 1:49 PM, Vowell said:

So these lights have been a work in progress for 2-3 years. I had bought all the parts and I am just now putting them together. It's a 2 light setup up, a amber light and a aircraft spot burn light. If any one here was at the seminar and has built them as well, could you post some pics to make sure I'm getting it right. I heard they have been using this same set up in Nevada and California for years and they work very well. This is going to be the year I'm going to try to hit it hard.

 

Also not sure what type of 12 volt battery I'm going to need? I know I would like a dry/gel battery so I don't have to worrie about the acid leaking. Needs to be portable as well.

 

What is every one else using?

 

Wow! Lights have come a long way since this post. Ive been in this rabbit hole for a few days diving deep into predator lights. A lot of what I've read suggests that although red and green are the most popular it really doesn't matter.  I find it odd that this set up used amber along with white.  I've seen snippets of your last post here and there in the comments sections of several youtube videos, now I know where they came from.

A couple questions..

Did you go out pretty often with this set up and how did it work?

Did animals seem much more willing to come in at night?

Out of  that long last post do you now still agree with it all or would you do something different?

I'm about to start calling in areas that I think have had little to no pressure in regards to predator hunting.  Wouldn't be wiser to day call to maybe get rid of the easier coyotes? I'm wondering if I do it at night will more then one come in at once and I end up inadvertently teaching one that I don't catch.  

Open to any info you have to offer

[Couzer]

Honestly I have not gone out a lot at night. One huge thing that I would recommend to any night hunter is to prescout your stands, it’s a different calling game at night. One thing is to make sure you are not close to any occupied buildings. Make sure you understand where your shooting lanes are and don’t get scared 😱. Lots of critters like to move around at night, and bring a buddy. 

 

[105Coues]

I have never done this but any thoughts on the red lights?

[oz31p]

36 minutes ago, 105Coues said:

I have never done this but any thoughts on the red lights?

I’ve had pretty good luck with this one in red for coyotes fox and a few very lucky bobcats. No luck with lions before they closed all that. 

 

https://elusivewildlife.com/shop/hunting-lights/tactical-lights-91/kill-lightr-xlr-500hd-zoom-focus-hunting-light-package.html

[105Coues]

I thought it was always just  yotes?  Been wanting to try it for years. Just never had an open unit close.