Green Flash light ? does it work ?

[soundwaves]

been seeing alot of videos and talk about green flashlights. so if l was waiting over bait and some hogs came in to feed, wouldnt the hogs spook when l turned on a green flashlight ? lm verry interested in this topic

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Green light is not invisible to hogs. Red light is not invisible to hogs. They may be red/green colorblind, but the light is not invisible to them.

Will they spook? Depends. They seem to spook much less using a red light or green light than using a white light in my experience of years ago, but you still need to use some light management to help assure that they are not spooked. Most people use successfully and repeatedly use lights are either very fast on the trigger or the will turn on the light and slowly lower it down unto the hogs and try to illuminate them with the splash for shooting instead of the core of the beam. When you have lit up and then shot at hogs with a given color, they will learn to associate the experiences and it becomes tougher to successfully hunt with the light.

True experience: I went from white and colored lights to hunting with digital night vision. Hogs and people definitely cannot see the shine of the IR lights (800-850 nm). However, after shooting at the same sounder multiple times, hogs did come to associated the red glow of the IR light with impending death. If they looked up and saw the glow of the light, they would take off running. For that reason, many folks went to the higher 900-920 nm lights that emit no glow, but found some digital NV could not see them. For the units of digital nv and traditional nv that could see the higher nm lights, users found the range or throw of the lights was greatly reduced as compared to using 800-850 nm lights.

Laser Genetics has/had their green light that early on they showed a variety of videos showing animals not reacting to the light as if the animals can't see it. There was a guy on Texas Boars who sold his special red lights where he showed hogs not reacting to red lights and even claimed it was because the hogs could not 'see' the red flood lights he had around the feeder. That is all a bunch of garbage. I can show you video of hogs not reacting to white light, but that doesn't mean they can't see it.

My hunting partner purchased a Laser Genetics ND3 green light. As he pointed out, sometimes when he turned it on, the hogs did not react. Sometimes, they took off running before he got the safety disengaged.

Bottom line, you can make it work, but don't be fooled into believing the hype.

 

[keithcandler]

Nocturnal animals that are color blind can see the color Green, they proved this a LONG time ago. Red, they can not see. There are shades of Red, and depending on how intense your light is, they may see it or the shadows it throws.

I can not verify this, but I have read that hogs are not color blind like deer.

 

[338 dude]

Green light is not invisible to hogs. Red light is not invisible to hogs. They may be red/green colorblind, but the light is not invisible to them.

Will they spook? Depends. They seem to spook much less using a red light or green light than using a white light in my experience of years ago, but you still need to use some light management to help assure that they are not spooked. Most people use successfully and repeatedly use lights are either very fast on the trigger or the will turn on the light and slowly lower it down unto the hogs and try to illuminate them with the splash for shooting instead of the core of the beam. When you have lit up and then shot at hogs with a given color, they will learn to associate the experiences and it becomes tougher to successfully hunt with the light.

True experience: I went from white and colored lights to hunting with digital night vision. Hogs and people definitely cannot see the shine of the IR lights (800-850 nm). However, after shooting at the same sounder multiple times, hogs did come to associated the red glow of the IR light with impending death. If they looked up and saw the glow of the light, they would take off running. For that reason, many folks went to the higher 900-920 nm lights that emit no glow, but found some digital NV could not see them. For the units of digital nv and traditional nv that could see the higher nm lights, users found the range or throw of the lights was greatly reduced as compared to using 800-850 nm lights.

Laser Genetics has/had their green light that early on they showed a variety of videos showing animals not reacting to the light as if the animals can't see it. There was a guy on Texas Boars who sold his special red lights where he showed hogs not reacting to red lights and even claimed it was because the hogs could not 'see' the red flood lights he had around the feeder. That is all a bunch of garbage. I can show you video of hogs not reacting to white light, but that doesn't mean they can't see it.

My hunting partner purchased a Laser Genetics ND3 green light. As he pointed out, sometimes when he turned it on, the hogs did not react. Sometimes, they took off running before he got the safety disengaged.

Bottom line, you can make it work, but don't be fooled into believing the hype.

I have the laser genetics light it works very well one trick when They become wise is turn on the light off of the animal and slowly bring them into the Edge they get spooked when all of a sudden they are lit up no matter what Color

 

[keithcandler]

If they are reacting to red, you have one of three possible problems:

A. light leakage somewhere on the light

B. light is too strong, too much candle power

c. Red lens is too light in color

Bill, I agree, you should scan in the bottom halo of the light, bring down full beam when you are ready to shoot

 

[Frog4aday]

Not 'extensive' or 'scientific' observations but when hunting hogs over feeders at night (totally NORMAL and LEGAL here in Texas) the feeder was illuminated by green LEDs. They were on all the time, so if the hogs saw the light or didn't, they didn't care. But I do believe they "see" light in the blue/green spectrum, so I wouldn't trust it to be invisible to them in a "turn on the light and shoot them" situation.

But the RED LIGHT I had on top of my scope did not spook deer or hogs. Now turkeys on the other hand...they freaked out! So, deer and hogs could NOT see my red light. I think @keithcandler put it best, there are different spectrums of red (visible range of "red" is from 625 nanometers [nm] to 740 nm) so not all 'red' is equal. And not all lights 'seal' the white out totally. Any white light leaking around the edges of a red filter and it is game over.

The other thing that is really hard to control is the "click" of the on/off switch. You THINK you are being super quiet, but when the animal reacts anyway, is it the light or the sound made turning the light on? Their ears are sensitive.

EDIT: Doing research, there seems to be 'something' to the green light and using it for hog hunting. Perhaps they use green LEDs on the feeders because the hogs don't "see" it? Curious now! Looking to learn more. (My red light still did NOT alert the hogs. That's all I know for certain at this point.)

 

[Junkysavage]

I hunted pigs with green light for years. Did t spook them too bad. Red light was good but my eyes don't see red, as well as green, so it cut down my range. Fox and coyotes hated the green, btw

 

[CaptnC]

Light intensity has caused me the most problem regardless the color.

What I've had good luck doing (before I bought DNV) was to open the beam to its maximum width. I used low end Athlon scopes and you could see great through the scope, but anything past 30 yards was tough to see with the naked eye.

I'm sure if they look at you while the light is on, im sure they can see it. But I not not had them react to the light.

I had two solar powered spot lights on my feeder and the animals didn't pay any attention to it until the acorns fell...after the acorns dropped pretty much everything quit visiting the feeder, so I turned them off. They have been on the feeder for three years. After the first week of November it was a whole different tory.

So to summarize my thoughts, what ever color or way you use the light they may or may not react and they may not react the same everytime. Just be ready to take the shot the chance you can once the light is on!

 

[dwightb]

You need to ask someone who is color blind about all this red and green! Daytime animals like us should have two types of cells in the eye rods and cones. Rods see light, cones see color. Night time animals have mostly rods so they can see in lower light conditions, plus having a special lining to reflect light. That why their eyes reflect back at you! Pigs are really day time animals that's why they don't reflect back at you. They don't see really well at night like us. Put a red or green light in a color blind person's face and they will tell you, not so kindly point it some where else! Same with pigs! White is the presents of all colors, black is the absence of all colors. When you see colors, it is what is not absorbed and is reflected back to you eye. A colored lenses absorbs all the colors except its color, it is still LIGHT that activates the rods or if they have them cones! IR does not activate much in the eye. Can a pig see red or green light? Yes they see it as light(a shade of gray). Associate it with danger and they are out of here! It is really hard to see a black pig at any distance with a red light and green is not much better, unless they are very bright. My lights come on at dusk and go off at dawn. I have tried red, green, and white. Does not matter when they are on all the time. With a flash light, management is the key.

 

[S96743]

I've used "kill lights" for feeders with decent success. I liked them because they would gradually come on to full intensity. As far as flash lights go it was a bust for me unless you're elevated. This was with red and green LEDs bow hunting.

I seem to think it was more of them seeing the flashlight at eye level and the instant on that spooked them. Hence light from above was more productive.

 

[Frog4aday]

Had some time so did some more 'poking' around on hogs and color vision. I found this information from a college (.edu) website talking about the comparative anatomy of hog's eyes vs. humans:

ARCHIVE - Pigs - Comparative Physiology of Vision

archives.evergreen.edu

Color Vision
Two classes of cones have been observed in swine eyes via examination with an electroretinogram (ERG). Ideal average maximum photoreceptor response was shown to be lightwaves between 439 nm and 556 nm.[3] This indicates color vision receptor response peaking at light blue and yellowish green.

I clicked on the [3] footnote to see where the info came and got sent to this website:

Spectral sensitivity of cones in an ungulate | Visual Neuroscience | Cambridge Core

Spectral sensitivity of cones in an ungulate - Volume 2 Issue 2

www.cambridge.org

Humans have THREE color vision receptors (cones) that correlate with RED, GREEN, and BLUE. with those three receptors working properly, we can see all the colors of a rainbow (i.e., all the colors in WHITE LIGHT.) Hogs have two color vision receptors (cones) which are apparently sensitive to the GREEN and BLUE wavelengths of light. This would tend to support the 'theory' that they are 'blind' to the red colored light in the sense that they can't detect that wavelength.

But they can see LIGHT (i.e., their rods - which are the nighttime receptors that don't see color) can 'perceive' stimulation even if they can't identify the wavelength spectrum (e.g., color) of it. So any light that 'stimulates' their retina is going to be noticed by them to a degree. That means the BRIGHTER the light, the more likely to get noticed by them. Any 'stray' light that is getting past/around the red filter being used, is going to be noticed by them. Long way of saying - the farther you are, the dimmer your light, and using something in the RED spectrum will minimize you alerting the hogs. But that means it is making it harder for you to 'light them up' and see them, too!

Part of the issue is not so much the COLOR as it is the perception of light (of some kind) itself, and the movement or 'sudden' appearance of that light. This excerpt from this website explains it better than I could:

Green Hunting Lights - Understanding The Need/Application of Night Hunting Lights - Hog Blog | HOGMAN

Rifle mounted or hand held lights should be used sparingly when night hunting; you don't want to over shine an area creating unnecessary shadows; alarming game in the feed area.

www.hogmanoutdoors.com

Poor night vision causes hogs to be hyper sensitive to shadows cast by passing light or objects other hogs moving in a fixed light.

Knowing this, it is understandable that a fixed light (feeder light) and the constant motion of other hogs, results in a sounder becoming very skittish when feeding in this environment. It also understandable that constant scanning with a rifle mounted or hand held light may throw excessive shadows creating the same skittishness. Both of these night hunting methods will limit your night hunting success.

Rifle mounted or hand held lights should be used sparingly when night hunting; you don't want to over shine an area creating unnecessary shadows; alarming game in the feed area; or worse yet, scaring other game away before their presence is even detected.
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I definitely don't claim to have all the answers to this. There are places selling green lights specifically for hog hunting. If the hogs can see green, this seems counter-productive, but if it is working, then there must be something to it that isn't explainable by our knowledge of hog retinal anatomy and color perception.

I like @CaptnC take on this - perhaps it is less about color and more about type of light and 'use' of that light. If a hog gets hit with a green light for the first time, they don't necessarily sense 'danger' since it is a new sensation. But if you then shoot them, the one you lit up is down and out (yay!) but the others have now learned to associate that stimulus (green light) with danger. So the next time you go to use that green light, the 'seasoned' hogs freak out while those that weren't around for the previous encounter are none the wiser, but will still react to their friends and family going nuts. This is why I think green light CAN work, but not for long and not on the same hogs again and again.

I think RED light is less noticeable to them since they don't have a CONE receptor sensitive to it, so the only thing that would 'sense' the light would be their ROD receptors, and they don't see color at all - they just 'sense' the presence of light. Over time, the hogs will eventually figure out that ANY 'stimulus' of the retina is 'danger', but it will take longer with the RED lights. Why? Because the green (or blue) lights stimulate TWO retinal receptors (CONES and RODS) while the red lights will only stimulate the ROD receptors (which can't detect what color the light is.)

Just speculating. I don't think any light is "invisible" to hogs. But they can actually SEE the color green and the color blue, so those lights will be more likely to 'educate' the hogs faster to danger. The red light will cause them to 'sense something' but not the intensity (since only one type of photo receptor is being stimulated) nor the color (since ROD receptors don't 'see' color) of what they are sensing.

If it were me, I'd get a red light, of lower 'lumen' rating (i.e., not too bright), that I'd tape around the edges to be sure there was no white light leakage occurring.

Let's face it - eventually they'll "catch on", but it will take longer with a dimmer red light than any other color. This means you'll want a scope that really(!) transmits light well (92% or higher transmission rate) so you can see enough through it to identify your target and make the shot.

Or...just get a NIGHT VISTION or THERMAL-imaging-technology scope and forget about "lighting 'em up" at all?

 

[CaptnC]

Nice bit of research Frog!

That explains the success I've had with the red lights (2) I have. When the beam is wide open, the light is so dispersed they don't notice it at 100yds. I'm sure if they looked directly at the light, they would see something. But I'm not sure if they would think it's a distance "bogger" light or if they would pickup on it being a light directedat them...

When using those two light it's hard to see the light at any distance but it shows up plenty good enough to shoot hogs under a feeder or baited area.

 

[keithcandler]

Use the halo on the light, not the center spot(shooting only).

 

[azarcher10x]

Not 'extensive' or 'scientific' observations but when hunting hogs over feeders at night (totally NORMAL and LEGAL here in Texas) the feeder was illuminated by green LEDs. They were on all the time, so if the hogs saw the light or didn't, they didn't care. But I do believe they "see" light in the blue/green spectrum, so I wouldn't trust it to be invisible to them in a "turn on the light and shoot them" situation.

But the RED LIGHT I had on top of my scope did not spook deer or hogs. Now turkeys on the other hand...they freaked out! So, deer and hogs could NOT see my red light. I think @keithcandler put it best, there are different spectrums of red (visible range of "red" is from 625 nanometers [nm] to 740 nm) so not all 'red' is equal. And not all lights 'seal' the white out totally. Any white light leaking around the edges of a red filter and it is game over.

The other thing that is really hard to control is the "click" of the on/off switch. You THINK you are being super quiet, but when the animal reacts anyway, is it the light or the sound made turning the light on? Their ears are sensitive.

EDIT: Doing research, there seems to be 'something' to the green light and using it for hog hunting. Perhaps they use green LEDs on the feeders because the hogs don't "see" it? Curious now! Looking to learn more. (My red light still did NOT alert the hogs. That's all I know for certain at this point.)

Just curious. How are you going about hunting turkeys at night? LOL