LED head lamps

Hotburn76 · 11-06-2005, 08:50 PM

All, last fall I seen a show on that talked all about going to and from your stand in the dark. On of the main topics was using colored led head lamps and they did a study of which one was the least disturbing to the deer. They actually showed the hunters walkingwithin twenty yards of the deer with one particular color, were as the oher ones did make the deer a little more nervious or spoked. Since then I have forgoton the one that was the best and the show has not been on since. I think the colors they showed were red, blue and green, and I think red was the best but not sure? Any one else use colored leds with sucess? Thanks!

PSEsilverhawk55 · 11-06-2005, 09:10 PM

from what ive heard red and green are best for goin to stand in the mornin cause deer can see it,,but they can see blue fairly good,,dont quote me cause i could be very well wrong, as for the red not spokin deer i was walkin to stand one mornin last year and got about 25yrds from a deer bedded down in the grass before she took off and it scared the crap out of me

Hotburn76 · 11-06-2005, 09:16 PM

you did not say exactly, but were you using red then?

blkhwk67t · 11-07-2005, 08:36 AM

I use a green light & when I go to my stand I walk a creek bed to get there. Last week, I crested the creek bank and took two steps and looked to my right and saw a family of skunks within 10 ft of me. They never spooked (thank god for that, even though i wouldnt have to worry about applying anymore cover scents) & I was able to slide back into the creek and come up a little far down. So, I dont know ifgreen light wont spook deer but I know that it wont spook skunks.

ottertailcountyhunter · 11-09-2005, 10:13 PM

Pretty sure the red light is the best I've snuck by a few deer this year in the dark while heading to stand.

Elsie · 11-13-2005, 03:08 AM

There has been lots of research on the eyesight of the whitetail deer over the past 50 years. One result of this research is the use of hunter orange for our safety in the hunting woods. Evidently the eye structure of the deer cannot send signals to the deer's brainwhen he sees certain colors. There are several animals like this also. Dogs are one, too.

Deer can see redsand oranges but it looks like a very dim grey to them. Most other colors are brighter shades of grey to them. Therefore the red light from our flashlights seem to get lost in all the other grey shades that they see. No mater how bright our red flashlight is they can barely make it out. Green light is also good but the deer can see this light in a little bit brighter shade of grey.

My son-in-law is an ophthalmologist and we have discussed this for several years now. Since he is a hunter he was particularly interested in the sight ofanimals while he was in school. Pretty interesting stuff. Another benefit to the red color is that the human eye can see it but it does not cause "light blindness" like white or some other colors can. I was a pilot in the Navy in Viet Nam and was stationed on an aircraft carrier. We always used very deep red lights in our flight-prep room, our bunk room, and in the aircraft. This was done to reducepossibility of reducing the opening in our pupils and messing up our night vision. Something about visual purple and the cones on our retina.

I have narrowed my use of LEDs in the woods down to the Rayovac three LED light with one incandescent light on it. They're $12 at WallyWorld. The reason I zeroed in on this particular light is that it is tiny, light weight, comes with an elastic headband, and has a convenient rotary switch. The first switch position is two red LEDs. The second click is one white LED. And the third is the regular flashlight. I have one that I painted olive green (they come in silver and black) and I keep it in my hunting stuff all the time. I have another one that I keep in my pick-up all the time. Pretty nice light - and cheap.