# Best option for spotlighting deer



## Daravon (Jul 21, 2009)

Seriously. My father is in a position where he gets to spotlight deer legally in a pest-control capacity. He needs to light them up well enough to shoot through a good rifle scope out as far as possible really, but at least 150 yards or more.

Traditionally he's employed one of those giant plastic spotlights that runs on a SLA battery. It's battery is dead though and it was always too heavy to be convenient not to mention it had poor runtime and slow trickle charging.

I'm sure there are super-torches out there ready-built, but I'll never convince him to spend over $75 or so it takes to buy another spotlight. I've seen some insane things on this website, but many of them fall into the realm of "doing it for the lulz" and might not be practical for hard use. 

I'm not "up" on the state of flashlights but I think that there are hotwire Mag mods that could give a dedicated spotlight a run for its money, and maybe one of the 4-die LEDS in a maglight mod might even be good. This would be much more convenient than the big spotlight. 

I think he should look into modding the spotlight to run off a car battery since he often is close to car, but not always.


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## lolzertank (Jul 21, 2009)

You could try making the spotlight a hotwire; it'd throw way better than making a Mag a hotwire.


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## kramer5150 (Jul 22, 2009)

stay away from the 4 die emitter designs they cant out throw a high BIN XR-E in a deep reflector.

The farthest thrower I have ever used (with still some dim flood out to the side) is bigchellis' tiablo A10. Only his high $$$ custom built aspherics could out throw it. Its an amazing thrower, we were spotting dear at 150 yards with it. Others will recommend an aspheric, but for spotting game in the foliage I don't know how practical that abrupt square kind of beam would be. If you're off by a few feet, the animal is completely in the dark.


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## DM51 (Jul 22, 2009)

150 yds is quite a long way to light something enough to shoot accurately. He'll need a powerful light. 

I'm moving the thread to the Spotlights & HID section.


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## Patriot (Jul 22, 2009)

Difficult to nail down because he's might have to shoot from inside or outside of the vehicle it sounds. 

For most places in the US, the simple act of spotlighting isn't illegal in itself. For example even during hunting season here in AZ, we're allowed to spotlight as long as we don't have a gun or bow in the vehicle. I find that spotlighting is very effective for scouting for the following morning's hunt so my friends and I tend to do a lot if it. Traditionally I always used incan, but then about 3 or so years ago I switched over to HID because the lumen output and throw was much improved. 

I really like a pistol grip style light while spotting from the vehicle just because it's ergonomic. Here is one that I was thinking about picking up just for that purpose. 

https://www.magnalight.com/pc-1908-...d--3200-lumens--spot-flood-combo--5-lens.aspx

I've been using an X990 but both batteries have since died and it now only works from a 12V lighter socket. I own many other HID's so I decided against purchasing new batteries for it. 
https://www.magnalight.com/pc-97-44...ens--focusable-beam-pattern-to-3000-feet.aspx


In my opinion, a person should really have two lights for this task, an in vehicle light and an out of vehicle light. Since you can easily spent hours spotlighting the in vehicle light should be as lightweight as possible. heavy lights fatigue hand and forearm after only 15 minutes, especially when it's cold or you're wearing gloves. Since the lightest spotlights don't also have on board batteries they're restricted to how far the coil cord from the lighter socket will reach. That's where the second, portable light comes in.

Is someone holding the light for your father when he's doing the shooting?


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## alpg88 (Jul 22, 2009)

depends on how much you willing to spend.
you can get hid (there are many different on the market.
or you can use a nvg or even night vision scope, gen 2+ should give you pretty clear pic from 150-200 yards away, not sure about legality of using nv during hunt thou.


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## Patriot (Jul 22, 2009)

alpg88 makes a good point. If he can afford it, a light amplified scope would be far superior. The D300/M is a Gen2+ and at 32lm/mm min. can distinguish between an antlered or antlerless deer at 100+ yards. ATN makes a few high end Gen1 models for less but frankly I don't recommend ATN products out of bias.


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## KarlH (Jul 22, 2009)

DM51 said:


> 150 yds is quite a long way to light something enough to shoot accurately. He'll need a powerful light.
> 
> I'm moving the thread to the Spotlights & HID section.


 

Not true at all DM51. My Tiablo A9 would allow me if legal to shoot deer cleanly at 200 yards with several of my scopes. With the aspheric even further. Two decades ago when I lived in Virginia, I shot well over a thousand deer on damage permits, most during daylight hours, but well over 100 at night. In an open field with good optics, an old off the shelf maglight 4D did me fine at nearly 100 yards on moonless nights, and anything at half a moon or better I simply could not shoot as far with no extra light as I could cleanly take deer. The lenslight mini I just got from a member here I know lights up deer just fine at 150 yards in the horse pasture, and if I get out to the hunt club this weekend I'll see for amusement sake just how far it is good when focused tight with my 56mm Zeiss VM/V's and Swarovski PH's. There are lot's of flashlights these days that would be good to 200+ yards, but probably not in the original posters price range, but not significantly higher either.


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## Daravon (Jul 23, 2009)

I bought my dad a 2xCR123 Romisen LED light from Dealextreme, and even that can be used to_ locate_ deer out to several hundred yards. It's very dark out in the country and your eyes really adjust to it. It's not bright enough to be optimum for through-the-scope shooting.

I also have a 4D maglight I'm direct-driving an old Cree with, and that is more than adequate even for shooting out to 150 yards. I know there are far superior mag mods than this old Edison LED, so I figured an advanced LED (I assumed 4-die) on a real heatsink driven by good batteries might be a very versatile light for what he needs to do. The problem with mine is it throws well, but not a lot of spill. It's nothing like the dedicated spotlights. I also know that there are incandescent mag mods that are even more-insane than the Cree mods. I'm not up on LED or battery technology though.


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## Patriot (Jul 23, 2009)

If you guys are using a 2x123 Romie to "locate" deer out to "several hundred yards" I'm sorry to say that you've missed the boat...big time. I'm not sure what tactics you guys are forced to employ but in my own experience more animals are spotted from the vehicle with powerful lights than on foot. The animals aren't as frighttened of cars as they are people walking and you can cover far more ground by cruising as 10-15mph while sweeping for eye reflection. In the case of most full size trucks you're veiwing from a higher point of view which helps too. Since every vehicle has 12V power there's really no reason to use a weaker, battery powered light. For this reason I always suggest lights that run off vehicle power. For vehicle use a HID spotlight or Blitz 240 Incan will perform the best by far.

As for the portable lights you asked which options are "*Best*" (bold emphasis mine) for spotlighting deer. Typically, the more light downrange the more favorable for the observer thus throw pro's like DM51 rightly suggested the more is better approach. 

Now, if you, or perhaps I should say, your father, do just fine with the minimalist approch from a portable standpoint then any of the any of the single die LED throw lights such as the DereelightDBS, TiabloA10, or JetbeamRaptor will be a big improvement upon the LEDs you've mentioned. If you want even more spill and fill light, any of the multi-die LED lights such as the JetbeamM1X, EagleTacM2X, OlightM30, FenixTK40, TiabloACE, Wof Eyes Explorer & Pilot Whale will all work outstandingly well. Please search them or browse the reviews section as it's full of multi-die light reviews. 

If you're favoring the idea of moded incan flashlights, then visit the incan section and have a quick peak at Lux Luthor's most powerful incan list. Personally, I think the Mag85 would be huge upgrade, but even a simple ROP would more than suffice if you're looking for an easy mod.


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