Night hunting tips?

[wiseshanks]

I've seen some posts lately about night hunting and headlamps and such and was wondering if you guys could shoot me some tips on night hunting. Types of lights you guys use, methods of hunting gravel bars in the dark, etc. Do you have to tote along a lot of batteries and backup lights? It's getting annoying getting dark so early so I think I'm gonna try to invest in some good lighting so I don't have to stop when the sun goes down. Thanks in advance.

[Trask]

I love hunting at night

Always been a bit of a Night Owl Anyways...

A couple of General principles..Sounds stupid but you can become VERY disoriented at night VERY quickly even in an area you know well. Fog can really be frustrating. Just be well aware of where you are...I'm good with direction and can't count how many times I've been spun around on foggy nights less than a 1/4 mile from the truck.
I always have a back-up light ( actually have 2 mounted on my pack )that takes the same batteries as my primary light...and seriously..I can change batteries in both blindfolded...I once crawled ( literally) out of the woods due to a light faliure.

For me it's important that the light be waterproof and take regular batteries that can be changed in the field...Different conditions seem to favor different types of light and it becomes even more subjective from person to person with regard to the color and intensity preferences. I personally like White Light and Lots of it concentrated..It seems to eliminate shadowing and give me better definition. My brother in law seems to do better with more floody beams and likes yellowish halogens.

I'd just try lots of types..
My Fav for everything is the Fenix hp11http://www.batteryjunction.com/fenix-hp11.html

I've had the HP10 for about 6 months and it has been able to take anything I could do to it.

Last thing about night hunting...It LOOKS suspicious..Especially with a 200+Lumen beam of light that can be seen from miles if you swing it around...Be aware that you should Expect attention if your anywhere near public eyes or doing anything even kinda questionable..Letting property owners/adjacent owners ect know what your up to in advance can save some explaining

[neralich]

I use small handheld flashlights (relatively cheap ones). It's all about preference really,, The ones I use didn't cost over 5$ and require two double AA batteries. Using lithium batteries is worth the extra $$ They last much longer. If I plan on being out awhile, I'll bring extra flashlight and batteries, just in case I'm in a hot spot and my light begins to die. I occasionally will use a headlamp but prefer the flashlight because I like to be able to turn my light off on a dime in case I happen up on some weirdos or somethin' lol,, I pretty much have my thumb on the button at all times!

[Trask]

For the Wackos you might meet:
My headlamp has a 277 Lumen "turbo" and/or strobe function...I honestly don't think you could look at it if you wanted to..

You do bring up a feature that I like in lights..The ability to turn it off simply and quickly without scrolling though "other functions".

[arrow719]

The best tip I could give you is don't step on any snakes, they are out feeding at night. Unless of course it's cold and they are hibernating.

[karatekid069]

Last thing about night hunting...It LOOKS suspicious..Especially with a 200+Lumen beam of light that can be seen from miles if you swing it around

Snoot it! Take a piece of opaque flexible plastic or cardboard and roll it around the head of the flashlight. google "light snoot" to get the idea.

Other than that, my best tip would be the three p's (like they said on another post) patientce+persistence=points!

[joshuaream]

I agree with everything Trask wrote.

I also enjoy hunting at night, mainly because it can be 120 degrees during the day on my favorite paleo sites. Also, it allows me to maximize my hunting time when I'm on sites.

The good thing is that you can absolutely focus on a small area, the bad thing is that people can see you and you can't see them as easily. Nothing quite like hearing a strange voice from just behind you and being completely startled. I take one of the workers from the ranch when I go out into the desert, and they usually just hang out off the site and whistle if I need to shut off my light. (The rifle next to them is also comforting.)

It's also cool because scorpions, tarantulas and snakes are everywhere. A quick broad sweep can show some odd eye glows in the distance.

I also use an Arachnid UV light, some of my sites are so covered with spalls and chips that it doesn't work, but I've got some sites where almost every piece of flint is something. It doesn't always work, but when it does you almost can't miss the artifacts (and scorpions friggin glow.)

[Trask]

I'd like to know more about the UV light..how does it work for stone?

And Ben The "Snoot" is an awesome idea..Thanks

[Cluton]

Yes how does it work? The UV light? And yes, I love hunting at night, and snake boots always are on my feet!!

[joshuaream]

I probably do 10% of my night hunting with UV/blacklights, the rest is with regular lamps. Actually, I find myself flipping between them trying to see what works best. I bought a little UV desk lamp like they use at bars and stores for checking IDs and money to use on points to check for rechips, restoration, etc. and I noticed how some materials just lit up like neon and I figured it was worth a shot.

The problem is that those mini lamps are close to Short Wave UV, which only works when it’s a couple inches from the piece. They will give you a tan, kill microbes and burn your retinas and get super hot and use a lot of juice. They do make portable short wave lights but none of the cheap led lights will do it in spite of what the ads claim. The cool thing is that some rocks will glow and stay glowing for a while after the light is off when hit by a decent charge of UV radiation. Amber miners and fossil miners use them in the mines to look for edges which they then carefully dig, but given the mine safety record in 3rd world countries I doubt they are worried about skin cancer.

I currently have three lights I use. I’d recommend getting the last one first to see if it works on your materials, if it doesn’t it is still a fun flashlight for a flashlight addict. They are cool when fishing (fishing line glows), hiking, camping, walking with the kids on Halloween, etc.

My old faithful was just a basic cheapo blacklight bulb fit in a regular flashlight. It provides great contrast and doesn’t affect your pupil dilation as much as a regular light, so when you shut it off you aren’t night blind. One of my sites has dark beige lithics and light brown sand, and I can see small edges better at night with this than I can squinting during the day with regular sunlight because of the increased contrast. The ultra bright LED lights are almost too bright to use because they can wash the colors out. It’s basically the same as the LED blacklight, but not quite as bright.

My most powerful option is not the safest option since it has a mix of shortwave and longwave UV. There is a lot of oil production where I hunt, and one of my buddies who works for an oil service company hooked me up with a UV light they use for detecting leaks. It’s similar to what forensic teams use but has better range. It’s significantly stronger than tanning bed lights which some other people use. It only lasts an hour or so on two of the big 6v spring top batteries (I think that’s 64 AA batteries) and gets really hot (it’s got a little cooling fan in it like a laptop), but it really illuminates certain minerals. The bulbs are about $50 for the set, and they last 500 hours (which is a lot of hunting.) Agates glow bright green, some cherts glow orange, the dirt on some of the old playas glows red from the salt content, some minerals glow yellow, some pigments on painted pottery glow, etc. I use UV glasses and pants when I’m using it, I never look into the light, and already have an insane amount of sun block on. I have to hunch over a bit to use it closer to the ground and go slow, but it’s cool even when you don’t find relics because a random pebble can glow pink and a similar pebble might glow neon green. Don’t use it in a hotel room, you’ll sleep better if you don’t see the stains. My next time hunting will be in April or so, I’ll try to take a video showing it in action.

My latest toy is an Arachnid LED UV flashlight used by scorpion hunters (it's still basically a blacklight, but has more powerful wavelength than a toy blacklight.) I think it has 50 some 'bulbs' and was around $40 from Amazon. It’s nice because I can flip off the head lamp and flip on this one and alternate pretty quickly. It said it would illuminate up to 30 feet away, but my experience has been that it works up to about 10 feet in front of me on a really dark night and is worthless on a night with a lot of moonlight. (It says it even works on the darkest nights, it really works on the darkest nights.) For some reason it works better right after dark with the surface is still holding heat from the sunlight, before dawn it's not as useful and any dew on the rocks will mute any contrast. When the conditions are right, some of my lithic materials reflect bluish-green, and oddly enough my most common lithic turns jet black (about 100 times blacker than the surrounding surface) which makes it quite easy to spot pieces. It's fun little toy any way, scorpions do just glow neon with it and you can see them from a decent distance. I never realized how common they are on some of my sites, but they are everywhere. There is a single fence post near where I park on one site, and it's the only thing more than 10 inches off the ground for miles. It has a light glow but I figured I've peed on it a couple hundred times and every animal that has walked by has lifted its leg as well.

The other good thing is that you can't see the lights from more than about 50 feet away, so it's easier to stay incognito vs an insanely bright led light that can be seen for miles in a dark desert.