Scope mounted lights?

"JDShapp"Not sure if this belongs here but I'm hoping somebody will have some experience using red or green scope mounted lights for night shooting. If so, how effective are they and are they worth buying rather than investing in a night vision setup?

Click to expand...

I have pondered this question multiple times and have done a large amount of research. This is what I have found out. 
1. Whether you use red or green lights, there are a certain set of animals which see these lights clearly and get spooked by it. Some see the green light and some see the red. Unless you hunt only 1 kind of animal it becomes difficult to decide which one to pick. While these lights come in far cheaper than night vision, their usability depends on the type of quary you are hunting. 

2. Night vision on the other hand is expensive but worth the investment. Most night vision scopes are expensive but you do get cheaper alternatives. The photon night vision scope is a relatively lower cost night vision scope. It comes with an infra red light built in which gives clear viability to about 50 yards. If Coupled with a large infra red light is extremely effective for night time shooting. The infrared is not visible to humans or most animals and therefore don't get the animal spooked. 

While deciding either option, you also need to keep the weight in mind. Most hunting situations don't allow the time to unfold your bipod or shooting sticks, set them up and then fire. In such situations, manueverability and weight become important. Mounting a light on to your daytime scope will make the gun heavier for use at night. As compared to a night vision scope which can shoot both during the day and after hours without the added weight. 

'JDS' your question sounds to be about what we call 'Lamping' here in the UK.

As a night shooting technique it is successful but rather limited in 'application'. It tends to work well with a Single or lone quarry species, not so good with animals that prefer to group together in any way. Any animal not actually shot but witnessing in some way the result quickly learns to take evasive action at first sight and/or raise the alarm to its friends. It oftimes depends on the animal never having seen a bright light (like that) before - wild animals are quick learners!

So, it can be good (combined with good fieldcraft) for single animals like Foxes (predators) but rubbish for Rabbits & Rats.

Its said that a red filter on the lamp causes less disturbance to the quarry.

Do search for "low cost night vision" on the interwebs. I have seen videos explain how they mounted a second hand camera (with infrared mode) in front of their scope and an IR laser with a battery pack. Worked great and much cheaper than any separate NV scope or IR scope with IR lamp. 

ive come across this myself and I bought a red and green light that I mount with a pressure switch and really 50 yards is out there unless you get a really good light so you might want to try doing a night vision monocular setup
its a little heavy but a buddy of mine tried it he set up and he like it and it roughly cost him 250 bucks witch isn't bad as he can remove he monocular and use the scope regular at any time

Green seems to be very popular these days, but it seems to spook game worse than red. Green is easier to see and does the best job of illuminating your target and giving a good sight picture, but red is less visible to game and has less chance of spooking. Green was ok for raccoon, but seemed to really spook coyotes. I much prefer the benefits of green lights, but game seems to prefer red, so thats what I use. Whether it was a scope mounted light or handheld, I used to make the mistake of putting the beam directly on the animal. Took me awhile to figure out why I was spooking off so many critters. Learning to use the lower portion of the light beam and not the whole beam fixed my problem.

I use a light similar to the Primos Nightblaster Max 350. My light is old and don't even remember what brand it is, but its very similar. The light itself is lightweight, but the 6volt battery you have to carry isn't. Though carrying around a battery can suck, the amount of light it puts out is worth it. For coyote hunting, it works for both scanning and as a kill light. Even though I really like the XLR250, it requires me to carry a handheld spotlight for scanning fields and such. It just doesn't put out enough light for such a task. But, for around the house you can't beat how compact the XLR or a similar setup is compared to something like a Nightblaster.

check out rolaids bench on youtube.

He explains how to take small CCTV cameras and modify them to mount as a "scopeless" setup and also how to mount onto your current scope. I have a scopeless version 3.0 and have been very happy with performance.

Some Sony camcorders have the 'unintentional' IR sensitivity (for a short time, & a few years ago the models in question were actually very good for NV). Sadly there was a hoo-ha about "X-Ray" vision photography of women so Sony did all they could to limit the effect. They now tend to fit IR Cut filters into the lens system. At that time people started removing the CCD and experimenting with other lenses etc - which was pretty much the start of consumer digital NV.

Whatever model you have you'll find it needs a pretty powerful IR source to see beyond 30/40 yards. IR 'torches' come in 2 flavours (I'm in the UK!) LED or Laser, and they do offer a large degree of Covert Use (not spooking the quarry). They are expensive and in some states illegal (lasers/ California).

If you can find a traditional light with both a red/green filter AND adjustable brightness (which can also be gun mounted) you'll have a good basic Lamping rig (but as others have mentioned the batteries and wires can be a PITA). The full NV route is expensive, the 'rolaid' approach is just about usable but depends on your DIY skills (+ its not very covert!).

I use the assassinator led red light .Have used on a hmr 17 and now on a fx royal 500 .Led bulb gives long battery life .range up to 75 yards .Kit comes with mounting kit and attaches on top of the scope .The is a well made lighting system and will give years of service .For a 125 bucks a good form of night vision .It is capable of providing an inexpensive way of night shooting .Stan