Best hunting weapon light

[stx.dead.I]

I'm looking for a rifle weapon light to use for hunting at night. I'd like the tightest longest throwing beam possible. I would like a green light. I'm looking at the tlr1 hp game spotter right now. Any other options out there?

[lobstradomus]

If your main criteria is longest throwing green light then you might want to look into the Night Master Green from OSTS (OneStopThrowShop.) While it doesn't come with a built in mount and is at least twice as heavy as the TLR-1 GS it does offer ~90,000 candela to the Streamlight's 31,000. If the Night Master is a bit too extreme then I know Armytek makes a green version of their Predator light but it is multimode if that happens to be a deal breaker.

[trinydex]

i have a white light tlr1 hp. I use it for spotting critters. it works really well, the throw is very useful. the thing is large and unwieldy though.

[Rascally]

For the money you could try this Cree light first. It's gotten good reviews from night time AR game hunters.

http://www.lightmalls.com/uniquefire-hs-802-cree-green-light-long-range-led-flashlight-1-18650

[nova3930]

I put a Streamlight Protac HL3 on the 6.8 I use to spot coyotes off the back deck. I can reach out 100+ with it reliably. It's not green but you could probably slap a filter on it...

[lobstradomus]

Most white LED's have a relatively poor spectral power distribution when it comes to certain filters - particularly red and, to a slightly lesser extent, green. For example, the cool white Cree XM-L2 found in many new lights (including Streamlight's HL3,) only has a relative radiant power of about 30-40% in the green wavelength interval. If you decide to go with a white LED based light and a green filter you should be prepared for a substantial decrease in output.

[nova3930]

Most white LED's have a relatively poor spectral power distribution when it comes to certain filters - particularly red and, to a slightly lesser extent, green. For example, the cool white Cree XM-L2 found in many new lights (including Streamlight's HL3,) only has a relative radiant power of about 30-40% in the green wavelength interval. If you decide to go with a white LED based light and a green filter you should be prepared for a substantial decrease in output.

That's interesting and something I did not know. Guess I'll get a good hands on comparison since this thread and the fact they were only $5 inspired me to order a red filter today.

[stx.dead.I]

That's interesting and something I did not know. Guess I'll get a good hands on comparison since this thread and the fact they were only $5 inspired me to order a red filter today.
Yaya, it's pretty wicked how much output they lose

[lobstradomus]

That's interesting and something I did not know. Guess I'll get a good hands on comparison since this thread and the fact they were only $5 inspired me to order a red filter today.

Total losses in output depends on both the LED and the filter. Here is the XM-L2 spectral distribution graph I referenced before along with a visible light spectrum added at the bottom, most lights will be using the 5000K-83000K CCT (aka Cool White) LED's:

http://i.imgur.com/IfLXoba.jpg
Green light is generally around 510-560 nanometers in wavelength, red runs from around 640nm to about 700nm.

Unfortunately most filters will not allow the entire range to pass through -in fact, even at it's peak designed wavelength most decent filters only let through about 85% of the light IIRC. The only saving grace for using a filter on something like the XM-L2 is its frankly beastly luminous flux; of course then you run into the issues of surface brightness and viewing angle which are working against you when trying to collimate that light into a reasonably tight beam for spotting/hunting.

[Hot Holster]

I use the VRL-1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E63M7I0/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=4162681282&ref=pd_sl_8nrkeefl2n_e

[nova3930]

Total losses in output depends on both the LED and the filter. Here is the XM-L2 spectral distribution graph I referenced before along with a visible light spectrum added at the bottom, most lights will be using the 5000K-83000K CCT (aka Cool White) LED's:

http://i.imgur.com/IfLXoba.jpg
Green light is generally around 510-560 nanometers in wavelength, red runs from around 640nm to about 700nm.

Unfortunately most filters will not allow the entire range to pass through -in fact, even at it's peak designed wavelength most decent filters only let through about 85% of the light IIRC. The only saving grace for using a filter on something like the XM-L2 is its frankly beastly luminous flux; of course then you run into the issues of surface brightness and viewing angle which are working against you when trying to collimate that light into a reasonably tight beam for spotting/hunting.

The physics of it makes perfect sense now that I think about it. It's facially obvious really that the most efficient way to get red light is just to use a red led to start. Any other way you're using a lot of power generating light you're stripping out.

[lobstradomus]

I use the VRL-1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E63M7I0/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=4162681282&ref=pd_sl_8nrkeefl2n_e

Interesting, it looks like they took the standard Uniquefire/Singfire/Orion/etc. clone and gave it a bit of quality control with better o-rings and included a whole lot of accessories. I would be careful with the battery charger though, the Trustfire/Cytac/etc. units seem to have a history of issues with not actually terminating the charge and could damage the batteries.


Another option for the OP would be a custom modded setup like this one: http://www.customlites.com/Solarforce-M3-with-Red-or-Green-XPE2-SOL-M3-COLOR.htm plus a host body and mount.

[BJV]

As an alternative to white light, has anyone tried hunting with a laser designator like the Laser Genetics ND5?

http://www.lasergenetics.com/nd5_mini.aspx