Originally Posted by Alsatian

To state the obvious first. We don't hunt at night. For most big game animals -- if not all -- hunting at night (30 minutes after sundown to 30 minutes before sunup, to share one definition of this excluded hunting time) is against the law. No one else addressed this point, probably because they figured you already knew this. It is kind of taken for granted that we don't hunt at night. Since this is your first post, I thought I would state the obvious.

The preceeding posts are pretty consistent in their advice (1) a headlamp is important to leave your hands free, for example to gut an animal and cut it up when you may have shot the animal at 20 minutes after sundown and (2) back-up flashlights and backup batteries are prudent. The headlamps are also important when walking to your hunting spot in the dark in the morning -- so you can have your hands free to aid your balance or hold your firearm. LED type flashlights are good because they are efficient and do not use up batteries as fast as older technology flashlights based on incandescent bulbs.

Having said these things, I don't know that there is a lot more to say on the subject. As far as I know, most flashlights do their job reliably. There isn't a Mercedes versus Chevrolet quality difference among flashlights that I'm aware of.