As I said, we will just have to disagree… I know what works in the field.
I do not have time to “dial in the zoom” during my hunts and spill (with a white light) doesn’t matter pig hunting- it helps greatly to find the NEXT pig actually. When you turn on the light, you shoot the first pig (at 50 or 250 yards) within 2-3 seconds, then track one or two more as they scatter. I explained also that you can NOT hit a running animal zoomed in. You have to see them when running like hell— and see in front of them to place the lead on the shot.
I think you are also missing the larger point I am making: Thermal is thousands of dollars and bulky. It’s a tool for the rich to do what I have done for 40 years with one light (used to be the lights of the jeep or a hand held spot light until these LED lights got good).
So for hunting… with enough spill AND throw you see the field WIDE and DEEP. And that does the job better than something I have to think about (and adjust).
Zooming lights have a place, and as I agreed… coyote hunting at long distances they are great. As this isn’t a hunting forum I’ll stop there and just say that in any scenario what will “prevail” is what does the job well and I have explained why I would not use a zoom light (or other higher dollar thermal, IR, etc.) for pig hunting.
There is a place for the mass slaughter of pigs when they just get too thick on the land. I said I don’t hunt them for sport and part of that reason is because the lands I do hunt have them under control. In other places, if a rancher asked for help with a “big pig” problem, I will kill more then I can eat. But I still try to get the meat to a source that can use it.
15 years ago when we dropped about 15 pigs in a night on a ranch in S. Texas (for a week), I called the neighbors and invited them to come over with a “sharp” knife. We got a lot of the meat to people who could use it. Waste not, want not.
Also, if you have a pig problem, the BEST way to do it IS USE night vision— go in with plenty of fire power (for mama pig) and take out the litter when they are young and still in the brood. Just find the eyes and use a shot gun with #1 Heavy Shot (special tungsten shot).
I once got a letter from the state of New Mexico Dept. of Wildlife allowing me to “eradicate” any and all pigs I find in the BLM and Forest Service managed lands— that was 22 years ago and I still have that letter. I did see sign a few times, but never found one when deer, oryx, or elk hunting there (which I try to do often ;).
Yes I agree for thermals. You don’t really need that for successful hunting. But modern digital night vision devices(around 500:money_mouth_face: are well worth the money. Cost much less than premium classic glass riflescopes (Zeiss, Swarovski etc…) and you have all in one rig for day/night shooting - recording everything you do(sometimes this is good cause you see why you missed something.
Now about this: “with enough spill AND throw you see the field WIDE and DEEP”.
Hmm… :face_with_monocle: I have a whole lot of 200 - 350 KCD 1x18650 tube modded reflector lights at home and mine experiences are following:
When you turn on reflector LED light, our(human) adaptive night vision is instantly killed by spill light that is reflecting from grass, ground, and other objects like barrel, car hood etc.
Our pupil of the eye narrows and we see less. The brighter the environment is, the narrower is the pupil of the eye, so there’s a reduction in light that hits the fundus.
Aspherical type of beam has sharp borders, so there is better contrast between illuminated area and dark area. The enhanced contrast lets us to perceive objects/persons/things better. 300 kcd reflector vs 300kcd Aspheric. There is no doubt at all that you see further in a night with aspheric because everything mentioned.
USEFUL SIDE SPILL IN REFLECTOR FLASHLIGHTS (spill imho is just halo effect from reflector light) So what do we have with that Halo effect of reflector light beam?
- Spill/reflector halo effect messes with our adaptive night vision. Our pupil of the eye narrows and wee see less.
- We are spooking and give away our position to anyone around such light(yourself, other people, animals)
- In summer days we are attracting more bugs to your position
There is no possibility of beam adjustment so it has too much light and to narrow beam on short distances (when used with super thrower emitters with intensity of lets say 200-400 and more KCD).
Why you are explaining that we can’t hit running animal once when zoomed in? That is not true! True is that you got to speak for yourself so… You can’t hit it! :laughing: But I know that is not the true :innocent: since you can hit it but “you can’t” since you did not even try it. :laughing: And you know 350kcd zoomie throws 1 mile and it can be set to throw up to 250 meters with 5-10x hotspot size than reflector…
But ok I see you are old school hunter. Why change something that works? But you will eventually. You’ll see… Just a matter of time. :+1:
These large diameter ultra narrow TIR might be a good compromise between both hunting styles.
I agree often spill is as bad as it is good. On a white “bay” boat in fog before sunrise spill absolutely made it painful with reflections from deck. This boat hull is at or below water line so i am not tall enough to escape spill. Maybe from higher vantage point it would be minimal problem but as is that was a poor example to show off my awesome lights. Lol
Except a little problem… It does not have 1” body… Yes I know it can be fitted with some 30mm non adjustable, non magnetic mounts, but standard for hunting light is 1” tube because of various types of mounting system for them. So dear China sellers you are just driving me mad when you make good looking light and you actually declare it as hunting light like this one above but you don’t think on elementary thing and standards now-days… OK. They don’t hunt (well some of them probably hunt some small beasts like rats and bats). Same goes for Simon Convoy zoomie… I don’t want them even for free until they switch to 1” tube.
After reading what everyone thinks of Skywolfeye in this (BLF) thread, I don't know if I want to order this el cheapo flashlight.
By the way, the flashlight is available from other sellers on AliExpress and eBay, but the AE link I provided is the cheapest I can find, and that store on AE doesn't have very good feedback, but that doesn't bother me too much.
I am worried, however, about the build quality of the Skywolfeye E527.
(Apparently they don't make flashlights very well.)
I got a couple similar cheapo zoomies, but 18650 tube size. There was one cheapo, think the model name was ZB-006, I liked to mod. Expect no shelf - I made one out of copper, then used a de-domed XP-G2 at the time:
Expect very thin alum housing, rough sharp threads, a cheap press-fit button. This is all stuff par for the course. It is really cheap - $2.63 shipped.
Similar to the light we called the slim AA zoomie:
18650 tail clicky, Laserspeed IS1000T. I don’t know what makes lasers faster than flashlights…maybe they are more stramlined so when you throw one it flies faster.